[From the Morning Press, Santa Barbara, California]

Just what is a year, anyway? You say it is a period of time. But what is time? Webster defines it as: "That in which events are distinguished with reference to before and after, beginning and end. ... The measurable aspect of duration."

But if you stop and analyze it, time is just an arbitrary fourth dimension that mankind has set up. This concept of time bids us hurry, hurry, hurry! It tells us to rise when the hands of the clock reach a certain point, eat at other points, start and stop working at other points, go to bed at another point. It tells us we must dash from hither to yon, wearing us out in pointless gyrations. It even tells us that we age, impairs our mental and physical faculties and, finally, tells us to die. In short, time is the most ruthless and exacting taskmaster to which human beings have ever submitted.

Why? Simply because we have arbitrarily made it so. The limitation of our mortal mentality does not permit us to compass the vastness, the indivisibility of infinity. We can conceive of nothing without a "beginning and end."

Yet many of our foremost scientists are discovering the artificiality of time. And Sir James Jeans, the British savant who now occupies a foremost place in the scientific world, tells us that he is beginning to believe the material universe is only what we conceive it to be; that all cause and effect is purely mental.

The New Year we are observing, ... then, is merely a man-made terminal point on the calendar.

[From the Egyptian Gazette, Cairo, Egypt]

What are we to make of life? What is its purpose? We may increase our capacity for living, or we may lose its zest and power. Ever since men began to interpret their experience they have commented on its brevity, the stern terms on which we share it, the pitiless way in which it deals with our hopes, its contempt of our fears, and its liability to a sudden ending. But these comments fail for the most part to take account of what life and its purpose are. They deal with it only in its contact with the world of time and sense and do not recognize that it transcends all that is temporal. Human life has that in it which finds its full activity only as it makes use of its supernatural powers and is at home in a world which takes no thought of time.

Probably the most common reflection in men's minds at this season of the year is the thought of life's transitoriness, and as we grow older the change of date seems to occur with ever-increasing rapidity till it becomes almost an imminent threat. But life transcends time. To measure it only by years is a convention. Its worth is not reckoned in that way. Moreover, if we think of life only in terms of our dealings with our fellow men, we find it little else than a desperate venture in which we sooner or later forget its purpose.

Life has higher ranges of service and achievement in a world of spiritual realities whose existence is assured by the experience of all those who have trusted themselves to it. The full use of life is impossible to any man whose thoughts, aims, aspirations, and endeavors are confined to things temporal. ...

The lament of life's brevity is the materialist's unconscious confession of disillusion as he feels the warm energies of youth gradually sink to the chill gloom of old age. The years for him measure the time he takes to die.

This life is not measured by time. Its worth is not tested by the number of years we spend in this world, but by the strength and vigor which we acquire for service. It is confident even in the darkest hour and knows that in the apparent confusion of the world the purpose of God is being surely fulfilled.

Most men make themselves miserable by the anticipation of calamities that never happen to them, and which they can neither prevent nor delay. They are the victims of their own fears, and not seldom become unable to enjoy present happiness in dread of future misfortune. And if trouble does come upon them they regard themselves as the victims of cruel chance or the sport of pitiless destiny. Those, however, who understand how life is ever a fresh beginning, always a new life, in the continuous yet ever fresh operation of the divine Spirit, find new strength for every duty and comfort in every trial.

[From the News, Greenville, Michigan]

We do not know who wrote this, nor where it was printed, but it seems rather appropriate for the beginning of a new year: With the setting sun, your hopes of yesterday died out. All right. That was yesterday. Things didn't materialize the way you dreamed they would. All right again. Now—the present hour—is today. Yesterday bears no relation to it, except, perhaps, the relation that a nightmare bears to the morning after. Forget all about yesterday ... it is dead and buried in the cemetery of time.

Today is alive. Are you? Well, then, get busy! Fling from your shoulders the depressing weight of those hopes that haven't come true. Stand erect. Man, the world is yours! You have just as much claim on its good things—on the things you've longed for and prayed for and worked for—as the other fellow has.

This hour has been handed to you as a gift from the overflowing storehouse of eternity. What are you doing with it? Answer that. Moping? Growling? Despairing? For shame!

God has favored you with another chance to make good. He has given you today. Prove your appreciation by making it a steppingstone to happier, worthier tomorrows!

[From the Kidderminster Shuttle, England]

The year that is past is like a book with many blotted pages. Few of us can view with unsullied pleasure the writing that we have done on the pages. Failures and discords, where there should have been fulfillment of promises, mar our memories of tasks and experiences. We all desire and hope that in the New Year experiences will be sweeter and purer, and all work better and more successfully done. The question arises—how can we do better?

Almost everything depends upon our attitude towards life. If we are going to get the best out of life we must prepare ourselves for the task. Attention must be given to our thought world. Specters of doubt and fear that lurk within will play havoc with the health of body and spirit. Faith in life is worth while, and in ourselves, as workers who are called upon to do something that needs to be done, is essential.

Here we may learn something from those who have made life a thing beloved and honored, because greatly and cheerily lived. In a brief biography of the late Lady Henry Somerset we are told how on a June day in 1885, when nearly overwhelmed with grief, she sat under an elm tree on the lawn at Reigate Priory. She set herself to think about her life, and about her faith or lack of it. She had a naturally adventurous and analytic mind, and had read widely on the subject of religion; but her hold upon the faith in which she was reared was feeble. She wondered if there was a God, such a God as is revealed in the teaching and life of Jesus Christ. She told how a voice seemed to speak to her in the depth of her soul, and it said, "My child, act as if I were, and thou shalt know that I am." She determined to do this, and that night, the first time for many weeks, she enjoyed an unbroken period of restful and refreshing sleep.

That was the beginning of a life of wonderful health and great service. ...

Most people know that the great factor in work is a cheerful mind. ... A cheerful spirit is a wholesome and curative influence on all who come near it. Laughter is a great tonic. The New Year will be joyous for us if we begin, continue, and end it with truly healthy souls, do nothing that will hurt the souls of others or destroy their faith in goodness, and do all in our power to give joy and promote the health of others in body and in mind.

[Editorial in the Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada]

In this life service counts more than anything else. In the true spirit of service we are following in the steps of the Master, who gave to the world that memorable saying, "I am among you as he that serveth." How much is there in Christianity which we fail to recognize, and thereby lose its beauty? There is far more in it than mere outward formal observances.

The Christianity which is genuine is the Christianity which in its practice is seen not so much by men as by God, bringing to those who so regard it that reward, heard by the ears of conscience in that voice which says, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

[Editorial in the Mountain Advocate, Barbourville, Kentucky]

The desire for something better is one of the most natural traits of the human heart. Communities further education, build churches, establish public service facilities because of the natural desire for something better.

In the Proverbs of Solomon we find this truth, never yet successfully challenged, "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger." Yet, in our constant desire for something better we fail to do the very things which are certain to produce better conditions. What more desirable than to turn away wrath or to prevent the occurrence of anger? ...

Shall we not, each day of the year, give the gift of kindness, patience, love, tolerance, forgiveness, truthfulness, honesty, friendliness, gentleness, courtesy?

For these are the gifts which are self-compensating. When offered in the true spirit of Christ, they bring far greater satisfaction to the giver than to the one who receives them, however much he appreciates these pearls of great price.

[Dr. H. L. Herberts, as quoted in the Los Angeles Times, California]

The truth never hurt anyone. Today we have a chance to rethink our position in life and start life anew. If we would all become searchers after truth, instead of being prejudiced, this would be a wonderful world.