Editorial January 3, 1901 Issue

The Future

Editor

Christmas-time has come and gone and the New Year and the New Century have dawned. Anno Domini, 1901, has put in its appearance and we know of no good reason why this calendar year should not receive a hearty welcome at the hands of all. It is, no doubt, destined to be a momentous year; a year full of prophecy for the century which it inaugurates; an introductory to the great volume which is to be written during the twentieth century.

To attempt a forecast of that volume were vain. If it were possible to gauge it by that which has been written since the dawn of the nineteenth century, some dim prognostications might be made; but there is no method of calculation to fix upon. Materially speaking, we are at a loss for a rule whereby to estimate. Spiritually considered, the only rule whereon to hang a hope of certainty is, that God's promises have in the past been measurably fulfilled with mathematical certainty; and we know that future fulfilment is not less certain than past fulfilment; but the time and manner thereof we can only hope and trust for.

That the future holds unfathomable reservoirs of spiritual blessings we know. How rapidly those blessings will unfold themselves to mortals depends on the earnestness and sincerity with which they are sought. Before spiritual growth comes in its best measure there must be a fitness for it. That fitness is not attained without honest effort and single-hearted striving. This striving must be according to the pattern shewed to us in the mount, whereby, during the unfolding future, we may obtain a more excellent ministry, and become the mediators of a better covenant, established upon better promises. For had our fulfilment of the first covenant been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. In other words, in so far as our first steps toward spiritual development have been rightly taken, there is no need of our retracing and retaking them; but in so far as they have been mistaken, they must, by the necessity of true growth, be taken over again until rectitude is reached.

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