Arizona republican., 1899-02-05


 feated ones who look with despair
 upon
 Vows and promises unkept, And reap from days of strife
 Nothing but leaves.
 The shores of February are piled ! mountains high with the wrecks Of | January's broken vows, yet every re- | turning New Years day saints and sin
 hers together launch their little ba ks 1 Of resolution upOn the stormy sea of | tine only to be dashed in pieces by
 waves of fOrgetfulness CT temptation ! or utter inability.
 There are few things more pitifUlly 1 IUdicrOus in ali the effSrt of mankind
 to achive its own moral regeneration | than the persistence with which, year after year, men and women brace 1 themselves for a new struggle with | sins petty or gigantic-armed' like the 1 kings jester, with the lath sword of ! good resolutions; or like so many Lame Paring6cls, mop in hand, defy ing the Atlantic And when the fra gile sword i8 broken or the incoming tide proves itself too much for mop and dignified rCnI0nsTance, there canes the perennial surprise and dis appointment, as keen and real in each case as though the same thing had nCt occurred times without number from
 the year l to 1899.
 If only matters Of trifing import arce were involved we might look up-
 On this ss simply an 0ft-repeated and somewhat tiresone comedy or farce. But in view of the deep ea~Destness of the actors often, and the vital Clturc Of the struggle in which many of them are engaged. it becomes a real tragedy. n .i,I nh happiness often hang upon the issue of the struggle, that the kes-iug Of these vows means freedom and their break inG means slavery to human souls. that every lapse means not merely temporary disappointment and veXa- tion, but real loss of powe" and cour- age fer future struggle against the ty- rant sin; then the matter $ plainly serious to the last degree. It demands earnest thought and most sober treat Elent.
 Why is it that the vast majority of New Years S resolutions are sooner or later broken. however carefully and PT2yeTfully made and however manful- + kept at the first? Why is it that the most vital and unseifsh vows share the same fate as the most trifing and childish? Why is iC that the vow it. self often seems to be the chief source of temptation for it's own breaking that the very fact cf determining not to do q thing fills Us with increased de- sire to do 1t? Or that the determina- tion to dO seems to make the doing doubly difficult?
 The reason is found in the very na- ture Cf the system itself. Views and resolutions of the kind we are c0nsid- ering are utterly opposed to the spirit .1-71 T -EC VOWS is no part of the gospel scheme. l Jesus preached the salvation which is | bJ faith. And the two methods are as 1 far apart as the poles. You cannot i'm l agine Jesus Christ making good Tesc- l iutlonS. The mere suggestion is ab- ' suTd. St. Paul made some resolutions | at enc time. and, like the rest of men, he broke them. You renembe- what | he says about it: ''The good which i would l do net; but the evil which I | would not, that I do." And in his de spair he cries, 70 w1ctched man that I . am, who shall deliver me out Of the ! body of this death" But having found better means for achieving the conquest Cf evil. he exclaims joyfully: T thank God through Jesus Christ, our LOrdi'
 Here, then, we have a c0ntrast-tho [ religion of self and the religion Of Christ, the religion of vows and the re- li8iCn of faith. the religion of rcs0lu- ton and the reiigiCn of cOnsec. .atiOn. The pith of the whole matter lies n the contrast between these two words resolution and consecrati3n.
 Resolution is for the most part neg atIVe. Conservation is always posi- l. tive. If we could gather up the myri- ads of good resolutions that have been l. -.l,- should have two very unequal lists. First. there would be a very long cat3- lcgue Of negative resolutions. Thou sands upon thousands resolved January l. to abstain during the year from sonc l. UnWise or sinful indulgence; or deter mined to overcome some evil habit, or tG remove some hiudTancc from inc r. pathway Of their lives. They had but one thOUght-tC get rid of something, t0 cast out some evil On the othe- hand. we should find 2 small number Of positive resolutions. They arc l. few who resolved to do something. Only about one in a hun dred perhaps included among his res clutions any plan for definite and woT- thy achievement during the year At least ten mon have framed fer them selves q whole decaiCEue Of ''I will i. nCJS' for one who has whispered in hi. |, inmost soul "l will"
 Now. this negative form of most resolutions is the fast element of their VI veakncss. A negative resolution is not seaWOrthy. It will go to the bol- tom in the first storm. One cannot conquer sin, still less attain to holi- ness, by the methods of shalt nor" or will not Who strives simply to ex- pei some evil from his life, and to keep t ont without filling it's place with an =quiydlent good, Is attempting the 1m-