The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-30
AT TRINITY METHODIST.
EXCELLENT NEW YEARS SERMON BY THE PASTOR, REV. DR. RALL.

hx A E At A< DAss Ap~A AS~~ "The Living Christ and the New Year."
 the Theme Discourse Was Attentiveiy
 Listened to by a Large Congrcgation-
 Special Music.
 At the Trinity Methodist church yes terday morning the pastor, Rev. pr. Rall. preached his New Years sermon on the theme "The Living Christ and the New Year" An especially good musical programme was also rendered by the choir of the church. The preach er's text was taken from Luke, twenty fourth chapter and the fifth verse, ana he spoke in part as follows;
 It was a turning point in the lives ot the disciples. Three years of precious fellowship, three years of joy and of hope were past. One awful day had changed all to bewilderment and con fusion and helpless despair only the memory was left, but they were going to prove true to that, and the Sappath morning sees them by the tomb or the Master. There the angel call came to them, summons away from the toHp and away from the dead past. Not Tn these was the living Lord but ln the future of privilege and service to Whlch He called them.
 We. too, stand at turning point. Men laugh at New Years thoughts ana resolutions. But life never moves fof- ward on a steady plane. It is always by periods--it always has it's momeh- tous points, its crises We stand to-day at the tomb of past year, while new year stretches before us Is there not in the words that the disciples heard a message for us also?
 For us, as for the disciples, the past may be the time of joyful memory, tne time of rich experience, the time or fruitful training and lessons. It may be for us, too, the empty tomb when keeps us from the new life and the grander life of the living present. These are days of retrospect, and it is right that we should thus look back and take account of the past year. what Varleo experiences have filled our lives! For some of us it has been perhaps year of discouragements, of failures; Tor some year of triumphs, of steady progress, We have filled another page in the book of life. There are dark spots. there are lines blurred with tears, there are glorious, illumined places? What shall we do with it? The call of the living Christ is to make the past, not the tomb at which we wor- ship, but the stepping-stone from which we rise to higher things. Forget the things that are behind, Let the dead bury it's dead; come and follow me. Re- ioioe in the triumphs of the old year, sorrow over It's sins and failures cher ish its blessed memories; but remember that the living Lord is in the present, that the way of duty, of larger truth, or fuller life, of richer service, stretches forward, not back
 The first call, then, is to emancipate ourselves from the past. On how many is there laid to-day the dead hand of the past! It may be the dead past of discouragement under which some of us rest. We entered the new year full of hope. We end 1t in despair. How many blighted hopes there were that morning at the tomb near Jerusalem! And how much of failure in their own life they had to mourn, most Of all as the disciples thought of how they had fled their Master in those last hours, and one had denied Him! But one thing they did not realize They saw the past and the failures and the dis appointed hopes. They did not know of the living Lord. It was the vision of Him, as they finally attained 1t. that gave them the courage for new effort and for a victorious life. The voice calls you, discouraged one, to turn away from the tomb where the dead hopes lie buried, to realize that the Lord still lives and rules His world, that He calls you to the new year and new life, and that with the call comes the assurance of His fellowship and His strength.
 Sometimes it is sorrow that keeps us with the dead hand of the past at the tomb. The Scriptures are full of prom ise to the afflicted, and our Saviour had His special beatitude for them. Chris tianity does not tell us not to mourn, but 1t is not Christian to bury all of life with some loved one in the tomb Many lose the blessing of mourning in the bit +erness of rebellion. The dark hour ought CO 1Ildhe IiiOlC piCoioo3 oiAN, -
 to US the assurance of our faith in the Lord of life. We ought to emerge from its trial, not with dimmed vision. but with a clearer insight into the things of the spirit the love of God and the love of dear ones and the life of faith and trust from which no death can work separation. Our hearts may still he sad. but our Christian faith ought to take us away from the tomb with calm and peace in our hearts, ready to fol-. low the Lord of Life into the new du- ties and relations of the living present,
 Still another shadow cast by the past keeps the lives of some in darkness. Nothing will more surely embtter life make 1t morose and unhappy and narrow. suck out of it the marrow Of ioy and sweetness, than the memory of past injuries or sights carefully cher ished and nurtured. Forgiveness is not only duty to others--it is spiritual necessity for ourselves. No life can be true or wholesome or happy that let's the poison of resentment remain in the soul From such past as this our Lord calls us. And by His grace He ran deliver us too, for the evil spirit can be exercised if we but open our hearts to His spirit and give ourselves to fellowship with Him.
 And who of us, as we look back over the past year, does not feel one other nou,er that seeks to hold us, the power