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11 mHB I VOL. LXXXV. EICHMON1 ?@? Cbttt \ tEW YEAR will soon be here. Before the 1^ Old Year is gone it will be well for each of us to spend a little time in earnest, honest thought. During these last days merchants and other business men all over the country will be taking inventories. They want to sec wherein they have succeeded and wherein they have failed, and they want to know what they have on hand that will be available for the future. This is just what every individual ought to do in regard to matters of far more importance than material affairs. He should take an inventory of his life. Looking back over life during the year now closing, wherein have you succeeded in accomplishing those things which have come to you as duties to be performed ? Be perfectly candid with yourself. It is only by knowing-what you have done that you can judge of what you can do. Be just as candid in seeing whore you have failed. By studying VA111? -Po A 1 1 * '1 ..Hunts jfuu icuru u> avoid maxing mem in the future. Comparing losses with gains, failures with successes, see what the year has brought to you, and see whether you are better equipped for life than at the beginning of the year. If you are, put your equipment to work. If you are not, do your best with what you have. In either case try to fit yourself better for doing the work in the world which God has given you. + + + THE CHURCH ought to enter upon another year resolved that by God's grace it shall ho a better year than the past There is so much for the Church to do, and, by comparison, she has done so little. But before anything can he done it is necessary for the Church to realize that it is made up of individual members. It is necessary for each member to realize that the success of the Church depends on each one doing his part Therefore, the most important work that the Church can do is to put its mem bers in the best possible condition. + + 4* HAPPY NEW YEAR! How familiar will be the sound of those words for the next few days. It is a fine wish. Does it not really include all that we can wish ? To be really happy one must have a reasonable amount of worldly goods to supply bodily wants. He must have health and strength of body, which will enable him to perform comfortably the work to which ho is called, and to engage in legitimate pleasnres. Ho must have a cheerful disposition that will enable him to look upon the brighter side of I things, no matter in "what circumstances he may I be placed. He must have the love and fellowship of loved ones and friends. Abo^ e all, c must have the abiding presence of the Saviour in his abounding and pardoning grace and in his comforting and sustaining care. But how can all these great blessings be brought id one in this world? Is not the wish that we ma e rt'ally a prayer, or ought it not to he a praj er to the Giver of every good and perfect gift, that every neede4 blessing may be bestowed up D, NEW ORLEANS, ATLANTA, DEORjuirtal jgoteg anb Com on him for whom the wish is expressed ? But every sincere prayer carries with it the obliga non to do all in our power to secure its answer ourselves. Let us follow our wish by faithful effort to give happiness. To do this we must begin by cultivating happiness in our own lives. We cannot give to others what we do not possess ourselves. We are always giving to those about us. Let us see to it that wo do not give trouble or sorrow, but that we constantly add brightness and cheer and the joys of salvation to those about us. + + + >lti anb JZeto Ring out. wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty night; The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die, Ring out the old, ring in the new. ? Ring, happy bells, across the snow; The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the trne. Ring out the grief that saps the mind. For those that here we see no more; Ring out the feud of rich and poor; Ring in redress'to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause. And ancient forms of patty strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life; With swdeter manners, purer laws. Ring out false pride in place and blood. The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right. Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old. Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring in the valiant man and free. The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be. JL T T T RESOLUTIONS are often made on New Year's Day, which promise improvement in life in some particular. Such resolutions are right and they are valuable, if they are made seriously after careful thought. It does not make any difference on what day of thev year this is done, if the resolution is put into practice. The trouble with so many resolutions is that they are carelessly made; sometimes without finv renl ronvirtirm ought to bo kept, or that it will be wrong not to keep them; sometimes without stopping to consider one's ability to keep them. In either case they will not be kept. A resolution made and not kept is a great injury, because a broken resolution makes it harder to keep another. New Year's Day is a good time to make goo<J resolutions, and the other 304 days in the year are good times to keep them. To keep them will require more than human strength. All strength abides in God and we may have all we need for the asking. ^ EMIAW WESTERNPfPESBYTERlAtA \AL PRESBYTERIAN 6 hiern Presbyter/an '1 n6' -1n N?*501 \ \ ment THE FEDERAL COUNCIL of the Churches of Christ in America, at its recent meeting in St. Louis, received from our Church its nrntftat flCsiimt wlinf it CAiiaiflnMii r ' ?0~ " *v vv?umv*vu improper encroachment upon the sphere of the State by the Council's officers, and its objection to the Council's dealing \?ith "matters that are wholly extraneous to the recognized mission of the Church on earth." The reference was specially to requests to the government for action leading to enforcement of peace among the nations, and for the adoption of a prohibition amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Certain phases of social work and country church work are also referred to in the protest. In answer the Council replied that it was its purpose to maintain the principle of the separation of Church and State. It said, also, that the recommendations of its committees and commissions were not binding upon any denomination, until they had been adopted by it. The Council appointed a representative to present its position to our next General Assembly. + + + GERMANY has asked this and other neutral countries to send a message to the allies that she is ready to consider terms of peace, but gives no intimation as to what terms she will consider. Judging from newspaper reports from the countries of the allies they are not ready to treat with Germany on the subject, until she is ready to propose something definite. The whole world is longing for peace and it is hoDed that ere lone the fearful war will be brought to an end on such basis that there may never be another. + + + OTJR READERS have already expressed many good wishes for us for the coming year. We would like to make some suggestions as to how they may help to make the good wishes come true. At least we are going to take the privilege of telling you of some of the things that we want to receive, and which will go very far towards making the New Year a happy one for us. We want first of all your prayers. We feel that the publishing of a Church paper is one of the most important parts of the work of the Church. To do this as it should be done we need help. We have the promise that where God's people are agreed in what they ask it shall be done for them. If all our readers will unite in this prayer through the year, what a volume of prayer will go up to the throne of grace! In material matters we need to have our readers to pay up their subscriptions as promptly as they can. It does not add to our happiness at all to have to send out statements of account, when the label shows when the subscription is due. One more source of happiness may be added. If those who *?n. joy the paper themselves will each make an effort to induce someone else to subscribe for it, our happiness woxiJd be greatly increased, and we would be enabled to do our work much better than we otherwise could.