Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1916 — A New Year Message [ARTICLE]

A New Year Message

By William S. Jerome

PERHAPS no better motto! for the new year can be found than that which Longfellow prefixed to his popular work, “Hyperl&n.' ,, He /*ays he found a’’tablet in the church•yard of St. Gllgen, in the Tyrol, bearing this singular inscription: “Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear, and with a manly heart.” Here we have a motto and message for the three divisions of time which mark the New Year. ,•

The Past—lt is natural to look "mournfully into the past." The look backward recalls so 'many mistakes and failures that the result is always depressing. What we have accomplished seems small in proportion to what was desired and attempted. This perspective of time enables us to judge more accurately our life than we could at the time. It is not a bad idea at the New Year to “take account of stock,” review the past, and seek to learn its lessons. Yet there may be too much introspection and retrospection. We should not neglect the past or fail to learn from it, and there is a profound philosophy in the apostle’s injunction to “forget the things that are behind.” Whether they are evil or good, the advice is wise. If the review of an evil past leads us to discouragement and depression, the thought of a good past may lead to self-satisfaction and content, and thus prove an obstacle to further progress. We can make no real advancement - if we “drag at each remorse a lengthening chain,” even if that chain be of roses, and the remembrance of happy days and good deeds. Cultivate, therefore, a good “forgettery.” Do not let the failures and mistakes of the days gone by prove stumbling blocks In the future pathway. Do not let past good deeds prevent yet nobler efforts and grander achievements. Whatever the past, it has goqe forever. Neither prayer nor tears can bring it back. Let it go, therefore; unload its memories, that we may better run the race that is still set before us.

The Future.—The “shadowy future,” our motto calls it. The word is well chosen, for a veil lies over the days to come, which is not. lifted till we reach them. We naturally shrink from the unknown, and not knowing what may be on the morrow, we therefore fear the morrow. But fear is not the same as wise forethought. Because we do not know what the morrow will bring forth we ar§ not to boast ourselves of tomorrow or recklessly waste the days granted us. But fear of the future weakens us for life’s struggles, and is unworthy of one who believes that —

“God’s in his heaven; all’s right with the world.” The true attitude toward the future is that of encouragement and faith. The fearless, “manly heart” does not mean rashness or bravado, or insensibility to life's seriousness and meaning. It means the triumph of faith over fear, of courage over cowardice. It expresses exactly the right spirit in which to face the unknown. “Trust no future, howe’er pleasant;” fear no future, no matter how dark and mysterious. For the future is made up of just such days as we 1 have already had. The Present. —This la thine. Therefore it Is to be wisely improved. It Is literally and really all we have —the present moment —“the Inch before the saw.” Yesterday, like last year, is gone forever. Tomorrow may never come.

How urgent the call of the New Year, to spend no time In vain regrets or future forebodings, but to give ourselves diligently to the work of the day! At this season we often say, “A new year has dawned.” But, really, only one more day has come. We have 1915, but 1916 is not yet here, and when it, too, Is gone It will be too late to do anything in It. TKeYecur-

rence of New Year’s day does not really alter the ordinary conditions of life'. We are prone to think that, with the new date and new year, things will be in some way different —duty will be easier and less distasteful. One who has wasted the past year is very apt to think that, by some ‘magical influence the pew year will bring new and more favorable condition* But to think so is to deceive ourselves. Whatever new Experiences may come to u>, we know very well that the ordinary laws of morals or mathematics will not be changed tar the change of date. In 1916, as in the past, two And two will make soul 1 ; the law of gravity will operate irrevocably and certainly; and "whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” Now is the time, therefore, says Norman Hapgood, “to pitch in anjd achieve —now, now! Remember, my friends, the present is the future from which you hoped so much." Unless we "wisely improve the present” we shall find ourselves, at the end of the year, regretting our past, Just as today we are mourning over mistakes and resolving to do better in the days to come. So the modern Journalist puts into homelier phrase the teachings of Longfellow’s famous motto: Yesterday is dead; forget it. Tomorrow isn’t here; don’t worry. Today is here; use it. And the New England poet adds W* word of encouragement-and cheer:? ' Life is a leaf of paper white. Whereon each one of us may write His word or two—and then comes night. But for a line. But that sublime! Not failure, but low aim is crime! —Detroit Free Press.