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THE YEARS

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 10, 1878

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 51, No. 2.

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THE YEARS.

By Joseph Clarke

NEARLY six thousand new years have become old years, and still the world moves on. But as the history of the years advances to completion, each New Year’s day brings with it so much of evil and of disaster, that many forget that the occasion of the New Year’s day is a joyful one. One is full of care; another is in trouble, in sickness, or in pain; another is so ambitious in the pursuits of the world that the passage of months and years is to him a matter of indifference, until he sees the mark they have made upon his person. When the hair is gray, and the hands are tremulous, and the eyes dim, then the passage of years is marked.
The merchant only marks the course of time by the dates of his ledger, and the foundation of his regard for the new year is that it affects his notes and accounts. The farmer reckons from the standpoint of his yearly sowings and harvests, and the clerk counts from the date of his yearly salary, while the school-boy counts from his vacations and the commencement of school terms.
Few take the trouble to become historians of their own years, and the most important events of life’s history are forgotten. The business and the pleasures, the cares and the perplexities of life, often become a whirlpool of vexation and strife in which are buried all that is good, and true, and beautiful. The result is forgetfulness of the past, indifference to the lapse of time, and a recklessness of the future except as it may afford a prospect of selfish gain.
To check this onward flow of care and pleasure, it is well to pause at the beginning of each year, and ponder upon the past, and cast a look into the future. A retrospect of the past year, a look backward over the events which have taken place, and a careful investigation of one’s own life and acts and doings, are of the utmost importance to one who would make the most of the few fleeting years allotted to man below. JOSEPH CLARKE.