The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-02
NEW YEAR is SERIOUS.
We Are Too Apt to Joke and TrifIs about
Serious Subjecfs Saws Or. futile.

Rev. John E. futile preached a New
church, his topic being The Old Year
/ and the New" He said, in part: 1T is
the trouble with most of the people of
the present day that they are inclined
to take serious matters too lightly. 1t
is true, to be sure, that there are others
who go about with glIm faces who are
at the other extreme and look upon the
events of everyday life too seriously.
But they are in the minority. Most peo-
pie are apt TO joke and trife about Sc
rious subjects They hate to think of
any gloomy subject such as death, and
take pains to avoid any subject that is
not manifestly cheerful.
SO it is with the new year. 1t is made
subject of jokes and laughter rather
than of serious reflection. Tonight we
ought to approach the new year in a re-
Elective spirit and consider the lessons
TO be taught by fact that we are about
| to enter a new fragment of eternity.
The new year is serious. \ new day is
! part of God. 1t comes out of God.
What is time? It is life, wealth, oppor-
tunity. 1t is like a stream Of water
pouring out of a spout upon hard mar
BILE. Most people are as unmoved by
the pouring out of time as is the mar
bic by the pouring Of the water.
A day is like the clay in a potter's
hands. We can make out of it what
we will. Or it resemble a clean white
sheet of paper which we are at liberty
| to cover either with high and noble
writing or with the basest and lowest
ideas. Time is a chip of eternity. Let
US make it for eternity, so that when
the two fragments of the infinite are
united they will be alike.
But life is not a mere possibility, it is
pilgrimage, journey to the sure
end. We are like ships at sea all bound
to some haven. Every ship on the
ocean is going somewhere. Each is
moved by either winds, waves or cur
rents. 1t is impossible to stand still. So
it is with us. If we are not learning, we
are forgetting, if we are not breaking
bad habits, we are forming them. If
We are not growing nearer to God, we
are drifting away
Let us ask ourselves at the first of
This year whether we are drifting with
the currents or steering f1xedly with
chart and compass. Also let us see to
it that the port we have selected is the
best
Some one has said that pleasure
fame, wealth and usefulness are the
for the noblest of the four. 1t is not
wrong, though, to strive for either of
the first three if that is not done to the
exclusion of all else. 1t is not wrong
to tell boy to strive to be rich, only
he should be taught how to employ his
wealth for the best ends
In looking forward to the new year
man should be always mindful of the
possibility of death. The remembrance
of death should not bring gloom but
make the thinker all the happier and
better for it. We do not think the stu
dent foolish because he looks forward
to the day when he will graduate and
pass out of his school days forever The
clerk who anticipates the time when he
will pass to higher sphere of useful
ness and perhaps be admitted partner
in the firm, is doing a wise thing. So
should everybody look forward to the
day when he will be through with life
and enter into higher life