The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-01-07
A MARKING OF TIME.
The Beginning of IA New Year Ia q Time
of sober Thought.

The Beginning of IA New Year Ia a Time
of sober Thought.
Does this phrase, new year, desig-
nate any thing more than device by
which we deceive ourselves? 1t is in
disputable that our present division OF
time is purely an arbitrary arrange
ment The Jewish year does not coin
eide with the Christian. The Christian
year would be as much year If 1T be-
gan in midsummer, instead OF midwin-
ter. The seasons are fixed, natural
order; the calendar is an artificial, ar
bitrary arrangement In one sense, a
new year begins every day. Every
moment is a point of departure. If you
are pleased to regard it so.
None the less, tho construction of a
common calendar is inevitable; and as
wise as necessary. Man is a son OF
Time. The conception of time as sub
ject to division, and of his own share OF
time as matter of limitation, may be
called birth-marks of his mind.
Similarly, the sense of time as pref
atory to an immeasurable future, is in
woven with the very constitution OF the
human spirit The vague approximations
of "fallings from us, vanishings," re-
solved by poet and philosopher into an
evidence of pre-existence, are not uni
versal, necessary and well-defined ele-
ments of mans conscious life as are his
aspirations toward an endless future, and
his anticipations Of its solemn realities.
The former shade off into an obscure
and uncertain region where no light
falls upon them from Divine revela-
ton; the latter grow with our growth
strengthen themselves amid the disap-
pointments of our present experience,
and are certified by His word who
drought life and Immortality to light
through the Gospel"
They, then, to whom the beginning
of new year is time of self-searching
and sober Thought are wise according
to the wisdom Of God. $50 teach us to
number our days that we may apply
our hearts unto WISDOM" was the
prayer of man already partaker
of the boon he craved. 1t is a
prayer that God still delights to an
swer. He who arranged the division of
light from darkness into day and night;
He who set the seasons for signs is
woll pleased in those who miss no OPP
portunitv to impress upon themselves
the transiency Of human life, and It's
solemnity, as the prelude to the life be-
You'd death. "The life indeed" is more
firmly grasped and more richly realized
0y him, to whom the close of one year
and the opening of another is a season
of serious thought, than by Him to
whom all seasons come alike, so indif.
ferent is0e to their order, or their
change.
Nor is there any arrangement that
carries with it more practical imparta.
ton of Gods mercy to man than his
sense of time and the necessity for its no.
tation. The emphasis thus put upon the
possibility of new start is most gra-
cious token of Divine love and good.
ness. To be permitted to 'forget the
things that are behind" as behind is
one Of the most helpful incentives to
''reach forth unto the things that are
before" The very fact that our sense
OF the year is inevitable, proclaims our
Father as 'the God of Hope" to whom
it is pleasure to have His children
hopeful. The coming of the New Year
is thus the assurance that within and
behind it is the love of Him who in.
habiteth eternity. The dawning of its
first day is the expression Of His desire
that all our years may be both new and
blessed, christian INQUIRER.