p. 1 | A Happy New Year

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 7, 1913

A Happy New Year

LOGICALLY, the years of each of us begin with our birthday and its anniversaries; but to us all together, the civil year marks a common beginning, a new point of time from which we all reckon. It is a time of stock-taking in many institutions, of balancing of books, of ascertaining just how the ledger stands in its debit and credit accounts.

TO many individuals, it is the same. The very thought of the passing of the Old Year brings reflection, oftentimes regret, sometimes deep sorrow and repentance, because of mistakes, and blunders, and misspent time, and wasted opportunities, and moral weaknesses, and neglected duties, and wrongs to our fellows, and sins against the great, good God who has preserved us and given us every good thing we enjoy. The evil, the curses, are the perversions of His blessings. Few there are who will find in their stock-taking much or anything to bring satisfaction, especially with the divine search-light shining God’s perfect standards upon the soul. There may be great rejoicings because of His mercies and blessings; there can be no self-gratification because of our self-righteousness in His sight. Rather the conscientious soul will feel—

“What saith the past to thee?—Weep; Truth is departed, Beauty hath died like the dream of a sleep, Love is faint-hearted. Trifles of sense, the unholy, unreal, Scare from our spirits God’s holy ideal. So, as a funeral bell, slowly and deep, So tolls the past to thee, Weep.”

YET the brave, hopeful soul will not dwell in the Valley of Defeat nor sit disconsolate in the Caves of Discouragement. There is death in despair. There is life in action. “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” And God is a “present help.” Jesus the Christ is a present Saviour. He does not reject you for your failures—He pleads with you still. He sternly speaks, “If any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.” He sends by His earthly messengers, who have proved Him, lest we should be overpowered at His presence. “Jehovah taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His loving-kindness;” “He delighteth in mercy.” Take home the message to your heart with joy, dear soul. He will cast all your sins behind His back; He will bury them in the depths of the sea.

THEN in this new year of 1913, fraught, as it promises to be, with such trials and conflicts as earth never before saw, take new hold of God. Make new acquaintance with Him. Let every day bring to you fresh manna from above, new drafts from the deep welling fountain of His infinite fulness of life and love. “Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,” “press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” In Christ Jesus, live the new life in the new year, and so, whatever may be without, make it the truest, most useful, happiest year of all of your life.

“What saith the present hour?—Act. Walk, upward glancing; So shall thy footsteps in glory be traced, Slow, but advancing. Scorn not the smallness of daily endeavor, Let the great meaning ennoble it ever, Droop not o’er efforts expended in vain, Work as believing that labor is gain.

“What doth the Future say?—Hope. Turn thy face sunward, Look where light fringes the far-rising slope, Day cometh onward.”

In a little while, the King will come. The glad New Year of heaven’s unending cycles will break refulgent and clear over a world in the murk of sin and death. May our readers forever enjoy those eternal years of gladness.