Signs of the Times
The New Year
From an editorial in the Argonaut San Francisco, California
For the thoughtful, there is good reason for rejoicing. A beginning implies not only new hope, but fresh opportunity, a chance to make the past, with its lessons, serve the future, with its boundless possibilities. This chance constitutes a sort of dedication, which gives an undertone of solemnity to all we think and do at this time. ...
We begin the New Year, then, with praise and prayer, both specific and general. Our praise is for whatever we can recall of worth-while accomplishment and its present result and for spiritual growth; in the words of a familiar hymn,
"For all of good the past hath had
Remains to make our own time glad."
Our prayer is for the increase of these things in the future.
The man of sincere heart will quickly find that he cannot pray for himself alone. It is natural that he should desire the New Year to bring him added happiness and prosperity, but he will realize, in the light of past experience, that he cannot long enjoy these things unless other people are also happy and secure. This realization, often vouchsafed to individuals, is beginning at last to shape the consciousness of nations. The United States of America, the first essay of practical democracy in the modern world, was permitted, until the last generation, to pursue its great experiment alone. The privileges of its success are greater freedom and abundance than many other nations yet enjoy; the responsibilities, by recent crises made apparent, are the sharing, not only of these things themselves, but of the methods by which they have been evolved and established.
The bells of Christmas, with their tender, ancient story, have scarcely ceased to sound. The bells of the New Year, sonorous with portent, are already ringing in the future. ... The United Nations will doubtless survive errors and adjustments, not because it is a perfect human instrument, but because each one who sincerely sponsors it can also humbly say, "And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee."
From an editorial in the Oregon Journal Portland, Oregon
Before one can say "Happy New Year" effectively, one has to realize that happiness is not an external thing dependent upon material conditions or material security. If it were, nobody could honestly wish anyone a Happy New Year this season, in the face of the specters of hate, want, war, and fear that seem to bestride the world.
It might be a good idea to sit down and look within and ask: "Do I hug any hate in my bosom? Do I want to fight anyone? Am I afraid of anyone? Am I really in want?"
The balance of the chance, if you are honest with yourself, leans toward your answering to all of these questions, "No!"
And, having swept aside those handicaps to the season's realization, you may look deeper and probably will find that you still have faith and hope and love in ample supply. And reaching deep into this exhaustless supply, you can take up a heartful of these treasures and offer them to every fellow man you meet and with the offering can say, in words that ring wholly true, "Happy New Year!"
"J.J.B.L." in the Burton Daily Mail Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England
"Thou wilt shew me the path of life"— life so full, so free, so bounteous. If a traveler in a strange land needs a guide, a locomotive engine a driver, a ship sails, compass, and helm, how much more a human life, with such gifts and faculties! So the Divine Himself is our guide and help. We cannot go one way in conduct and another in character. Each of us is weaving his destiny. We have a choice; what we do belongs to what we are. "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
The Rev. Seth A. Davey in an article in the Alma Record, Michigan
From the roseate hues of the Genesis Eden to the closing Amen of Revelation, the Bible record shows that when man obeyed God, there always was the help of the Almighty, for every circumstance. Isn't God the same today?
God, who delivered Israel, can handle all of our atomic fears. He who stilled the sea can surely calm our soul. The feeder of ravens will provide a harvest, according to promise. His matchless love still prevails.
So, here we stand looking into the highways of the future. Which way shall we take? In faith and trust, let's take God's way. It will, as always, see us through and some day lead us to a glorious heavenly reward. Down through the ages still echo the stirring words in Joshua (1:9 ), "Be strong and of a good courage; be not ... dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee."
