“Such is the frame of mind which befits the end of the year;
and such the frame of mind which comes alike on good and bad at the end of
life. The days have come in which they have no pleasure; yet they would hardly
be young again, could they be so by wishing it. Life is well enough in its way;
but it does not satisfy. Thus the soul is cast forward upon the future, and in
proportion as its conscience is clear and its perception keen and true, does it
rejoice solemnly that “the night is far spent, the day is at hand,” that there
are “new heavens and a new earth” to come, though the former are failing; nay,
rather that, because they are failing, it will “soon see the King in His
beauty,” and “behold the land which is very far off.” These are feelings for
holy men in winter and in age, waiting, in some dejection perhaps, but with
comfort on the whole, and calmly though earnestly, for the Advent of Christ.”
J. H. Newman, quoted in Will Brown’s “The Deterioration ofNature: On the Running Out of Time.” Covenant. 24 Nov. 2015
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