Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1874-01-03
NEW YEAR.

Another year, with swift but silent
step, has passed by US. and is buried In
the fathomless obscurity of the past
But noiseless as was its tread, how
many lives and hearts and hopes have
been crushed beneath it The sun
/. which heralded the dawn OF the past
year, doubtless looked down upon
thousands ofhonest resolves, to aband-
on vicious habits, to achieve prosperl-
ty, to win good names and deserve
happiness; but the rays of its last
sunset cleaned amid the wreck OF
broken VOWS, ruined fortunes, blasted
fame and disappointed hopes. Shall
the same programme adopt itself to
the beginning and ending of the new
wear? The vices and crimes of the
age appeal, for redress, to all that Is
good and true and noble in human ma
ture. If each individual would firmly
resolve upon self-reform; go honestly
into analysis of his, or her character,
and, with firm purpose and sklltul
hand, uproot evil passions and cast on
evil habits. ere the close of the year,
our moral vineyard would wear an as
pect that would cheer the hearts OF
Christian philosophers and patriot
statesmen. We have asylums for the
insane, hospitals for the sick, homes
for the INDECENT and reformatory instl-
buttons for the wicked and we may add,
innumerable churches designed to be
cities of refuge for all who would flee
from the assaults of temptation and
shun the evils that lie in wait tor the
weak and the needless. Still, bodily
infirmities multiply, moral ulcers
make unclean the body social, whilst
too many of those who seek the sane
tuaries of the cities of refuge carry
into them, the moral eOntagion-the
petty vices that should have been sha-
ken off at the threshold. Since, then,
the world grows daily more corrupt, IN
spite of public charities and organized
benevolencies, we see no other hope
for its moral improvement than is to
be found In individual self-reform, and
that education of the head and heart,
conformity, which should be systema-
tized in every school, high or low. But
TO reap the full benefit of this sort of
education, the family circle must be
made an auxiliary school, where pure
morality is taught by precept and ex-
ample, and to complete the system of
moral training, the Churches should
erect higher standard for member
ship, exercise greater vigilance to keep
out the unworthy, and closer scrutiny
into the department of those already
within them. 1t is not the size Of the
congregation, but christian purity OF
its individual members, that commend
its doctrines, and invite sinners to en-
ter therin, as a safe refuge from the al
lurements of temptation and the dang
crs of evil associations.
Will the new born year live, to wit
ness earnest efforts to inaugurate such
work of reform? Will the Churches,
he schools and the home circles, COM
The to inaugurate it? Will the young
and the old, of both sexes, begin the
task of self-examination, with firm
resolve that the next new year shall
find them freed from the bondage of
evil passions and vicious habits?
Judging the future by the past, there
is little ground to hope for an affirma-
tive answer to the foregoing questions.
Buff one, only, in each family, will
cultivate an earnest conviction that
.uch reform has become a necessity,
will foster an honest desire to par
ticipate i'm the good work, there is no
calculating the amount of good that
lay be accomplished before We again
nave an OPPORTUNITY to wish our pa
irons happy new year!