The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-01-07
Bishop Cheshire's Able Sermon
Sunday Morning.
GOOD SHEPHERD CHURCH
Submission to the Will of God in
Temporal Affairs.
BEGINNING OF THE NEW YEAR
We are What the Past has Made us and
Confront the Future Burdened
With the Past--Our Hope
for the Future.

Go to now, We t. at say to-day or to-mol
row we Will go into such city, and cor
time there a year, and buy and sell, anC
get gain: whei cas- We know not what shall
be on the morrow
For what is your life? 1t is even vapoI
that appearetn for little time, and then
vanishing.
For that ye ought to say. If the Lord will
we s all live ana do thiS, or that. st. James
Nv. Is, Ia, To-
Human life, though continuous, is
broken up into innumerable periods
more or less completed circles of effort
or experience, which, when finished
thrust us out, and force us to begin
afresh. One day is separated from an
other by the silence and rest of the
night; each week has its period of re-
pose which emphasizes the renewed
opening of toll and business; the end
of the month closes some transactions
and puts us upon a new basis with
reference to many parts of our practi-
cal life. And then comes the midnight
stroke of the dying year, arousing us
from our slumbers, and bidding us
remember how great a part of our life
is finished and laid up for lis against
us in the great book of final account.
But solemn as such thoughts are,
they are not the most important or
useful. They have only an indirect
value. We cannot altogether rid our
selves of the past. We are what the
past has made us, and we confront the
future burdened with many results of
that past. But the significance and
the value of these periods in our life
lie in the fact that they enable us to a
,fsssx - ~,
They present MS future with which
we must carry something of the past,
but out of which we may find upward
issues to raise us above the past, and
to deliver MS from those burdens of
past failures or of past errors which
now cumber our movements and dark
en- our sky. The beginning of every
day, of every week, of every month, of
every year-just in SO far as it marks
the closing of any work or engage
ment-presents to us possibilities of
improvement, and lays upon us anew
the responsibilities involved in the
choice of the paths that lie before us.
In every one of these familiar periods
God comes to us and offers us a new
opportunities itwere to present before
us all the dark, seamy, faulty, sinful
side of our life, with it's failures, and
notifications and sins and remorse.
and while we look upon it, He shows
us how those failures may beretrieved,
those notifications healed, the sins
pardoned, and remorse exchanged for
peace and JOY. The pitiless power Of
unchanging law stands behind us
closing the door OF the past, and warns
us how impossible it is for us to escape
from ourselves; the infinite mercy and
love of God stands before us ready to
help us make the future such as we
need not wish to escape from.
One of the most notable and signifi-
cant of these recurring periods, which
bring such thoughts to our minds, and
lay upon us such responsibilities, is
the beginning of the New Year. Janu-
airy LIST, as the first day of the year, is
purely secular holiday. True, the
day is also in the Church Calendar the
feast of the circumcision OF Christ, but
that is simply because it is the eighth
day after Christmas. There is no
reference in the church services for
that feast, to the opening OF the New
Year. This is SO because the church
services were all adopted long before
the year among Christians began jan
uary 1st. Until 1852, the year among
all our race of English speaking people
began March 25th, the feast of the An
nunciation of the blessed Virgin, COM
monty called Lady Day. In the Cal
endar of heather Rome the year began
January 1st, and in modern times the
civilized world has come back to this
old Roman use, as being on many ac~
counts the most convenient for the
ordinary purposes of life. The day has
therefore no specially Christian assoc
citations. 1t is a secular holiday, assoc
ciated with the affairs of business life.
Now men close up their old accounts
and open new ones. They enter upon
new undertakings, and form new COM
binations. The look is forward. Year
by year business becomes more ex-
acting mistress and demands the more
undivided attention of her followers.
This year the man of affairs will be
more prompt and more vigorous than
eyer-there is such and such result
to be accomplished-he is determined
not to be counting to himself, or to
fail when the crisis comes. / have
chosen my text with reference to this
necessary condition of things at this
season. The business world has its
Christian aspect and obligations as
well as every other part of mans life.
St. James speaks to the men of the
world that which their peculiar sitn-
alton makes most important for them.
go TO now, We that say, to-day or
tomorrow we will go into such a city,
and continue there year, and buy and
sell, and get gain: Whereas We know
not what shall be on the morrow. For
what is your life? 1t is even vapour
that appeareth for n little time, and
then vanisheth away. For that ye
ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall
live, and do this or that"
What lesson shall we learn from the
text for this opening year? Does ii
forbid us to lay plans, and to devise
how we may best carry on our worldly
business? Does the holy apostle de-
sire that we should be unsuccessful in
our enterprises; and that we should
not look about us, and sec where best
we may hope to buy and sell and get
gain? In other words does the text in
tend to condemn and discourage in-
fq1ligax4aa and .apfayr,4tfGa and thrift 2