Waterbury Democrat., 1901-12-31
GOOD RESOLUTIONS.
Some Thoughts For Those Beginning
 On New Leaf. M

Time expires look him in the face and ask him to tell you what you did With the gift he brought to you. The dylng tell no lies.
 Thousands of golden hours fresh from the Creators hand he brought you: hours weighed on the celestial scales and charged against you to the Hast atom. How have you used them. How many or them have you gwen back unalloyed to the recording angel! Only those thus returned Will counI for you and be on the credit side or the last reckoning.
 How can you know whether you have used them all well or not! Tn this way. Those hours were given Dy jfod to be used for your benefit and His honor Were they so used! We're there some of them in which you took Gods name in vain? If so, surely you will not say that they were we'll used. On the round yellow coin, given to you unstamped that you might pIint God $ image on it with the diamond paints of duty and adoration, you have in- scribed the image of the Prince of Darkness. Othe3 hours you have bat tered and defaced with various other sins: with injustice and lies; with un- clean thoughts, unclean words, or un- clean deeds; with bad example given to the little innocent ones whom the Redeemer loves so dearly; with anger and coyetouSneSS ana pride; with over eating anu the soaking of yodr brains in alcohol; with impudence to your parents and superiors; with harsh and cruel and bitter words, that Stung the soul Of wife or child like blows from a AAnout; with bacK-biting, and sly whispering of secrets that grow no less in your telling.
 ..Stopl Stop!' you shout; "I have not been guilty of all the sins i'll the catalogue"
 No. not all, of course; but the list is heightened that you may see the names of your own transgressions. Don't wince or cry out, or squirm. Face the facts; acknowledge the wrong, and see if you cannot do better in the coming year.
 It is by self-condemnation, healed by hope and cont1ition, that we im- prove. .se must see ourselves as God sees us and strive for the object for which He created us, if you wish to advance spiritually. He is fool who will not try to see his own faults and strive diligently to make them smaller and finally destroy them.
 Let us take it for granted that you keep away from the grossest of sins,- and you are fortunate if you do keep from all of them. That is not all re- quired of you. Duty is 8 positive thing. 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul, with thy whole mind, with all thy strength That is the first | A ha iS it: ''Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'
 Are you sure you lived up to the spirit of these commandments during the year 1901? Fortunate, rare mortal, you are, if so.
 AS master or servant you had duties to perform: Did you perform them all? " ere there not hours during whicn you sulrked your task because the foreman was not looking? Did you tell no lie to sell your employers wares? Did you not waste what you should have been most careful of. either in the shop or at home? Did you care for your children properly and teach them their duties? Did you grow in wisdom and in goodness dur ing the year? You must bear in mind that mot to advance is to go back Ward.''
 It has sometimes seemed to the writer that we have become a nation of laughing philosophers. We see New Years resolutions treated as q joke On New Years night MT Zepheniah Jones is represented as swearing off, the use of tobacco. A week afterward and the jester places the same Jones in the dark corner of an attic burning q cigar in three whiffs.
 J. Zimmerman Hawkins is shown in cartoon during the last night of the Oldt year empLylng his glass of some thing hot, and with an automobile face declaring that that is the last cup of the ''craythur" will pass his lips Tor a twelvemonth. The next picture snows him on January 10th, trying to unlock his front door with his new silk hat. And so on down through the list.
 So all resolutions are turned into joke. This has had it's effects-on fools. But he who is wise, who tries to see the maIuer in the right lighl who does his best to see himself as ood sees him, will not be fooled by the merry -mouthers of the comic pa perS. God is not mocked. Life is q serious business. We must make good resolutions sometimes or go down hill morally and spiritually.
 What is your chief sin, gentle read CT? Look that dying year in the eyes again and find in what you failed most last year Resolve, here, NOW, that the end of 1902 will fiud your soul less stained in that respect. You may break your resolution a hundred times. We'll, that is to be expected: you are human, and it is human to err. But the effort to do better will not be in vain. Waiter is soft thing and rock Is hard Net Lne Colorado river has cut q channel q mile or more ill depth. Resolutions may be soft, but if you keep on renewing them they can wear away habits wnlch the devil has turn ed into granite.
 Don't imagine that only the toper and the 1ibertine need reformation. They need it, Surely; but you will not be caied to account for their deeds unless you help them i'll their sins. Your duty at all times is to yourself first. The most precious thing ill the whole world for you is your own soul. What will it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose that? ou may have q plentiful supply of this worlds goods, true friends, happy home.