Montgomery County sentinel., 1891-01-23
New Year Resolutions.
[From The Wacerly Progress, by j. L.
LODGE, D. D., Editor.

[From The Wacerly Progress, by j. L.
LODGE, D. D., Edltor.l
1t is essential to honest criticism that botl
sides of question receive equally just at
tention. In this spirit, it must be admitted
that, spite of the ridicule heaped upon it
while there are sound arguments against
there are some considerations which favor
periodic resolves to change the principles OF
better the conduct. If it were perfectly Ger.
tain that the VOW registered would be sa-
credly kept, question would be substituted
by commentator unqualified; but it is pre-
cisely the element of doubt which justifies
and demands EXTREMIST caution and reserve.
Every such promise should be regarded as
partaking essentially of the nature of an
oath. There can be no question that the
holy Being to whom the pledge is offered
regards 1t as truly such, or that secretly the
human subject comedies the fact. Default,
then, will have at least tive evil conse-
quences: The man will lose confidence in
himself, and grow more and more physi
cal and moral coward. Temptation, at each
renewal, will find him weaker and an easier
prey. Exasperated by conviction of degra-
dation, but distrustful of ordinary expedi.
ents, the slave OF the cup goes before JUS
tice of the peace and swears to drink no
more. He believes his public commitment
of himself will prop his crumbling courage,
and help him to escape the destroyer's snare.
1t is a vain illusion, a false refuge, as has
been demonstrated thousand times. Per-
| jury has been added to drunkenness; the
man hates himself now equally with his
tempters; seven worse spirits come to abide
in the heart supposed to have been swept,
and the last state of that man is worse than
the first. Outside of himself much damage
has been done. The faithful, prompt, and
exact keeping of promises is the first condi-
ton to confidence and success. Let it once
become known that man is slack concern
ing his promises, and prudent men will OBJ
serve his actions with distrust and appre-
hension which amount almost to an indct-
ment, and respect, which ever introduces To
regard, is an impossibility. He thus becomes
| the organizer of an infidel force against
what truth and honesty actually exist; men
making his case and each exemplary addi-
ton the basis of their estimate of aggregate
character, and their guide in their inter
course and transactions with their fellow
men. For, as Thackeray truely observes, a
man having been cheated "is apt to estab-
lish sort of account current with human
| ity." 1t is positively certain that if man
will not keep his bare word he will violate
his oath if he may do so with immunity
from legal penalties. In other ways it may
be proper and useful, but as means of
procuring truth telling legal swearing is the
veriest farce. We can see, then, that If the
the wrong was to be committed, or the evil
course continued, it had better been with
out a promise to reform.
| An clement of weakness in this habit of
resolution making is its origin in remorse.
1t is the outward expression of inward ex-
perience bitter and condemnatory. Why
is it that young children feel no necessity
for reviewing the past and laying plans for
beLterment in the future? Why is it that
! they make no note OF the flight OF time, or its
arbitrary division into months and years,
but glide upon the surface of Its unceasing
| flow, full of joy at the present, forecasting
no trouble for the morrow? Because they
are guiltless and mex perienced. Their elders
are mortified at the apparitions memory calls
from the ghostly past. Reflection institutes
court, seats conscience as judge, and ranges
witnesses whose every word of testimony
pierces like cold steel the vitals of the ac-
cused. Convicted and anguished, tempo
rary relief is sought in promises OF amend
ment January seems the most natural and
suitable season for making these solemn
pledges. 1t is startling to realize that an
other year is gone-that it leaves one year
less of life TO us-just as the striking OF a
clock at midnight breaking in upon our
solitude is apt TO rouse serious reflection.
But these New Year resolutions are apt TO
have the same fate as those formed in the
presence of the dead. 1t is awful to think
that this schoolmate, whose feet kept even
pace with ours, who shared our studies, our
diversions, our plans, our business, and
whose prospect OF long life was Us reason
able as ours, is lost to us, gone from the
earth, never more to be counted among the
living. That newspaper notice shocked us
which told how a friend OF earlier days had
fallen in the way, warning US that time with
as rapidly nears its sum. And we resolve
Alas, to how little purposel Repentance
differs from remorse in that it inaugurates
purposeful and earnest action, not satisfied
to compound with conscience in profigacy
OF promises Remorse is likely to be mere
chagrin over failures personal; grief over dis.
appointments which take the zest out of life
and all essentially selfish. Repentance sor-
rows over wrong doing where right was
possible and binding; it does not Waste itsell
in words, but expresses itself in appreciabe
deeds.
| These resolutions may be turned to profit
where they relate to actions entirely under
the control OF the personal will. Thus
abuse OF the body, in any one OF its thou
sand forms, may be stopped. The sluggard
the gluttou, the avaricious, may learn to live
less like beast and more like a man. A
wicked waste of time may be replaced by a
| judicious and conscientious use of that most
precious gift. He who has been too well
contented with his ignorance, under the lash
Of u strong will may bring his torpid mental
faculties into toerable activity, and acquire,
if not distinction, at least portion of knowl'
edge and measure of usefulness. The loafer
may rouse himself to the dignity of earning
an honest living, and SO remove carbuncle
on creation. A youth may resolve and carry
out the resolution 10 separate himself from
disspated or otherwise dangerous associates
and so save his soul alive. But in any ol
these attempts there must be no halfway
| work; no partial performance with post
ponement of the completion to another
cycle; no looping from the tree of evil 8
branch here and another there, from whose
wounds q thousand vigorous shoots shal
come; the ak must be laid at the root of the
tree; the thing must be done which it il
proposed to do. Any one presuming upor
the facility with which such vlrtuous re
solve may be carried out will be terribly de
ceived. lie miscalculates the bitterness and
violence of the struggle between his worse
and better nature. Whoever tries TO be bet
ter will, at times, appear to himself, and
perhaps to others, To be worse. The stronger
the clutch upon the serpent the more des
peratc its writings The struggle OF thu
spirit To be free involves mental, not infre
quently physical, suffering; and in very
desperation he who is seeking to reform hi
character may leave unguarded some en-
trance hitherto deemed secure, and all, fol
time, appear 10 be lost. But this sicknes
is not unto death
Before the curing of strong disease,
Even in the instant of repair and health
The fit is strongest; evils that take leave
On their departure mos: of all show evil
When the devils, or demoniacal spirits, wen
out of the man they tore him, bm they aoen
Outi
Mortifying failure frequently results from