Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-01-22
Turning from a SOiled Page,

We have turned leaf The torn and
soiled leaf of last year has been turned back,
and one, new and clean, lies before us.
When men begin TO write on clean page,
they usually hold the pen rehectively, think,
hesitate, start to put it down on the paper,
and then lift it up again, because they do
not like to put down what they will have to
cross out or altogether erase, or spoil the
page. Would it not be a becoming exercise,
before committing ourselves to the first page
of this new year, TO call for life-explana-
ton, for hesitancy and caution God has
given us book of three hundred and sixty
five pages, and said Z" Son of man, write
therein the record of thy lfe." What shall
we write
We begin carefully the first day. We
make much of New Years day. We are
solemn and reflective. We sigh over what
has been undone in the past. We wonder
what this year will be to us, or if we will
get through it. The influence of this first
page, on which we write half sorrowful re-
Elections, will last probably over the first
Sabbath. We consider at first what we
write, but by the time ten pages are written
we are back in our old ways of writing and
crossing, interlining and erasing; so that
the tenth page shows no improvement over
the three hundred and sixty-third of the old
ledger, henceforth to be sealed and to lie in
the darkness of the fire-proof We are often
told, i'll times Of high excitement over great
issues, as they are being settled, Let us act
wisely, for we are making history"
This is true of everyday life. We are
making and recording history to be read
after us, and, what is still more important
we shall spend some portion of our other
Iifa IL, raaIinrr - In ~ t4in ha fnun1 b
issues of our lives, happy or miserable A
medical friend showed us contrivance the
other day for marking the action and mus
cuar strength of the heart. 1t was fastened
to the pulse at the wrist, and each throl
pressed up a plunger, and that carried an
index along steel surface covered with a
coating of smoke or some other black ma
terial, through which the tracing was dis
tinct. 1t made us faint to look at it. We
saw too much of the heart-its weakness
irregularities and eccentricities. The COURSE
was that of worm fence; with sharp angle:
well defined in those of sound hearts Others
| slurred around the corners, and that heart
was considered bad, feeble, unable and un
willing to hold up to its load or do its duty
So will we write on the clean pages OF
this year as they are turned over to us day
by day. There is in every life lar more OF
heart than handwriting, and the former i:
most prolific of lasting consequences. There
is terrible immortality in heart-wrting
Mans grandest thoughts perish or lie a,
iron-flings in the dust of daily travel. But
heart-writings are impershable, and mer
and women read them with an unconquera
BILE greed. Novels are heart-writings, anc
the best and worst of the hearts production
are sought and consumed as eagerly as iles
seek the sweets of poisoned papers.
We are afraid of this heart-writing. Ther'
is no place to hide, suppress, or bury it, i
it is even doubtful in the eyes of the divin,
standard. Darkness will not quench it.
will stand out in burning characters on
dead mans brow, as if written with phos
phorescent ink. How pertinent the wis
mans admonition-" Keep thine heart witt
all diligence, for out of it are the issues o
life." Aud he might have added death
as well.
One of the remarkable things about tn
heart-indicator was the crooked course tn
soundest heart made. 1t seemed as if it wa
prone TO go from rectitude, and we coul
but think of a snatch of a hymn which ou
mother sung to still the restlessness of on
childhood, and which we have sung in pen
tence as marking the spiritual alteration O
manhood