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THE MORNING WATCH.
By Maud L. Mcrrimon.
The morning wakens and the day is here;
My soul, seek yet again the place of prayer!
See. from the eastern gate the dawn's faint grayHas
blossomed into richest hues of golden day.
So thou, my soul, receive the morning light
Into thine inner chamber. Let thy yearning sight
Behold the Sun of righteousness appear,
And flood and fill thine heart as he draws near.
Speak thou his praise who kept thee through the
night;
Deplore thy sins, put wand'ring thoughts to flight;
Forget the past, its failure and defeat;
Look out across the day for service sweet.
Keep thou thy tryst in silence and alone;
See thou the risen Christ?roll back the stone.
Implore his help for greater good to do;
Bring him thy earnest prayer to keep thee true.
Set to thy seal anew that God is thine;
Claim all his promises, his love divine;
Trust him to guide and guard thee through the day.
Then rise and go rejoicing on thy way!
NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS.
BY REV. Q. B. F. HALLOCK, D. D.
The purpose or this article is to conuneuu to
our readers the good old-fashioned practice
of making good resolutions?New Year resolutions.
Of course, we all know that good
resolutions are easier made than kept. Nevertheless,
to resolve wisely and candidly is a
good thing to do. Some thoughtless people decry
the making of resolutions because, as they
say, so many fail to keep them. But remember
this, that to fail to resolve is the worst of all
failures. Not to resolve is simply to give up
trying to do the right. There is a lot of cheap
fun poked at making New Year resolutions.
They are sometimes compared to pie-crust, so
easily broken. It has been wittily said that
most of them hardly live long enough for those
who make them to become acquainted with
them?that the vast majority scarcely survive
their birth. Others say they do not make them
because they cannot keep them. But a very
little sober reflection will show what fearful
implications are involved in such declarations
as these, and in such an attitude. First, it
is point blank confession of lamentable weakness.
It is saying, I have no control over myself?I
am at the mercy of impulse?and desire,
and whim?I am a slave to caprice?I am a
machine; acting only as I am acted upon. 1
am not a man or woman; I am a thing! What
that answer or attitude means is simply this:
"I have no will." But what is an object or
being without a will? Even the ox or mule,
driven here or there by his master, is better endowed
than that, for he has a will. Yet this
poor human being who will not make any resolutions
to be better and to do better, says, "I
have no will." "Oh, no, I do not mean that,"
you may say, "I only mean that my will is
not strong enough, or that I am subject to
temptation, so wayward, that it is no use to
make resolutions." But wherein ia thnt rliffer.
ent, or how much better is it than saying, "I
have no will?" Shakespeare well says, ''He
wants wit who wants resolved will," and there
is an excellent Chinese proverb which says,
"Great souls hove wills; feehle one have only
wishes."
But a second difficulty with this attitude is
that as sure as the sun shines refusing to make
resolutions to do better is making provision
beforehand not to do better things. As long
as I am not willing, for instance, to resolve to
quit drinking, or to quit swearing, or to quit
gambling, I am giving myself license to drink
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PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S <
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or swear or gamble whenever 1 feel like it. As
long as 1 am not willing to resolve to quit
anything I am giving myself license to do that
very thing whenever I feel lik*> it.
Not only so, but as long as I hold this opinion
of myself I am degrading myself. I am lowering
myself in my own estimation. To be always
thinking of ourselves, "I cannot be true to my
word; I cannot be true to my vows; I cannot
Ar\ mw " ? '
? uuij, 10 lu say max, we are untrustworthy,
and not to be depended upon. This is
certainly very degrading.
But, furthermore, the thing is not true. It
is not true; for we can if we will, God being
our helper. God made us with the power of
will?with the power of self-determination, and
until we are actually de-humanized, if that were
possible, by long self-abuse and persistence in
evil habits and evil practices we may and can,
by God's grace, be men and women and serve
him faithfully. Yes, with the help of the Lord,
we can?we can be sober and true and virtuous
and full of faith and love. Paul said, "I can
do Jill t ll in rro r?V? OV...:*.* ?1.:-1- -X XI
? ? ? ....ivsugu which sireiigmeneth
me." And you can say that, too.
Yes, it is better to make good resolutions, even
if we do sometimes through inadvertance or
through temptation break them, than not to
make them at all. It has a better effect on our
characters. If our wills are weak, as we say,
the way to strengthen them is not to let them
lie dormant, if that were possible, but to use
them?to give them good lusty exercise in the
right direction.
A man or woman does not build a character
haphazard. That must first have its period of
plan-making and cost-estimate and contract.
One thing you may be sure, you will never get
good accidentally. There is no danger that you
will waken up some fine morning and hardly
know yourself because you have suddenly become
so good. We must resolve and resolve and resolve
again. And we must also try and try and
try again. We must resolve on the mountaintop
and try in the valley. Good resolutions are
made in moments of exaltation that are forgotten
when the feelings and impressions that gave rise
to them have subsided. It is just at such a time
that resolutions are needed. They are not needed
at the moment we make them. The fact is
that good resolutions are made for weak hours.
Good resolutions are for the moment of trial,
or the hour of service, or the time when some
overwhelming temptation comes upon us suddenly.
Then we need some fixed principle to fall
back UDOn. Then we are saver! hv fVia npevimio.
ly made resolution, which serves as an armor
of defence when the enemy springs upon us.
Many a soul has been saved in the midst of
a terrible and sudden onslaught of temptation?
just by some fixed resolution that was formed
in an hour of calm or of spiritual exaltation
People do talk jestingly of making new resolutions
of crood at the beerinnincr of the ve?r Rnt.
they jest with a sacred thing?a great pledged
privilege which is in the very constitution of
the year God has vouchsafed his children. For
the very New Year Day is a token and covenant
of the right of the foolish man, the mistake-making
man, the sinning man, to cast the past behind
his back and take the future for all that he may
be without prejudice from what he has been.
Surely it is a poor cheap soul who can see in
that privilege nothing to prize?nothing to accept
with solemn joy.
5 U T H [January 10, 1912
"Every day us a fresh beginning,
Every morn is the world made new;
Ye who are weary of sorrow and sinning,
Here is a beautiful hope for you?
A hope for me and a hope for you."
This is a beautiful creed of hope. Applied to
the New Year lying before us it makes room for
a fresh start in life when yesterday's failures
had well nigh overwhelmed us.
Even our last year's failures may be turned
to good account if we will regard them rightly.
Some famous enarino huildprs in thic imnnti..!
a ? ?" wuu" J
were once asked if they had an explosion of one
of their engines. They replied, "No, we have
not. We wish we could, if no one were hurt.
For we should like to know where the weakest
part is." In great chain factories power machines
are especially designed to make chains
fail, so that the makers may know how and why
and where the chain's weakest portions are. It
is sometimes in the Christian life a distinct advantage
to have learned by a failure. At least
we may learn new year's wisdom from old year
failures; we may get new year help from old
year mistakes.
Hut that only emphasizes again the necessity
for resolution. Good resolutions are absolutely
necessary to moral and spiritual advancement.
No bad habit can be broken unless we first resolve
to break it. And no advancement can be made
iu the spiritual life without our determining
that we shall advance. When Thorwaldsen was
ased, "Which is your greatest statue?" he replied,
"The next one." "If I cease to become
better," Cromwell is said to have written in his
Bible, "I shall cease to be good." Even the
best may be bettered. Indeed, it must be bettered
if it is not to grow worse. We are meant
to advance always upon our past. All that we
gain each year is meant to be, not a level on
(Which we will stop, but a place from which we
will ascend. This means that we must plan and
purpose to go on to better things?that good
resolutions are necessary to moral and spiritual
advancement. For this reason, if for no other,
good resolutions are a duty.
But good resolutions are a duty also because
God requires them of us. God believes in good
resolutions, even if some men do make light of
them. The Bible is full of instances where God
calls upon men to make good resolutions and sets
it before them as duty. This is a duty that
should be pressed home upon us especially at
this time of the year. Let us make a resolution
in favor of Christ.
Resolutions based on human strength are frail
indeed, but resolutions based on divine strength
are impregnable. "My grace is sufficient for
thee," says Christ. Accept the promise, resolve
for him, and in his strength, and then you too
may say, "I can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth me." Such a resolve will
make the coming year the happiest of all the
years for you.?Christian Intelligencer.
A fence on the edge of a precipice is better
than a hospital at the bottom of it.?Gypsy
Smith.
Iceland has no jail, no penitentiary, there is
no court qnd only one policeman. Not a drop
of alcoholic liquor is made on the island, and
its 8,800 people are total abstainers, since they
will not permit any liquor to be imported.
There is not an illiterate person on the island,
not a child ten years old unable to read, the
system of public schools bfcing practically perfect.
There are special seminaries and colleges,
several good newspapers and a printing
establishment.?Canadian CongregationaList.
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