Newport weekly independent., 1902-12-26

It soon pushes up it's tender blade of green, and if not blighted and killed by the heat of ungoverned desire and passion, or dried up by the drought of careless neglect and forgetfulness, or drowned out by the ficllleness and change of an unsteadfast heart, then it may attain a vigorous growth and bear the fruit of glad success and bright prosperity. Old Father Time, who came to us one year ago young and fresh and bright, has ] counted off the days for us one by one. With the passing of each night and the bursting of the sun into the eastern sky, he has laid at our feet the new day of possibilities. And thus the year has sped around, and, well or lily spent, it is nearly gone. Old Father Time has but a few days left in his control to unroll before us, but, as with feebler step and short ened breath he hears the sum of his days, he raises his trembling hand and points us hopefully toward the Promised Land of the New Year. Will you enter that Promised Land with Caleb and Paul and make it the best year of your life?
 The Promised Land.-The history of the children of Israel is familiar to all How the promise came to sess the land of Canaan; how they suffered bondage in the land of Egypt for 400 years; how God raised up a leader for them in Moses and brought them by a miraculous way through the Red sea, down through the wilderness around Mount Sinai, and up to the border land of Canaan, where we find Caleb pleading with the people to go up at once and pos sess the land which God has prom ised to give them, and which in His strength they are well able to over come. The Promised Land was land flowing with milk and honey. A veritable garden spot where every Is- raelite was to dwell in safety and contentment under his own vine and fig tree. A Promised Land for Israel, but is there a Promised Land for everyone who will go up and possess it? Let us see.
 The Promised Land was given by promise of God to Israel: it was se- lected by God, and God led the way up and into the land. This triple association of God with the Promised Land has it's close parallel in the re- lations which God sustains or wishes to sustain to every life. It is said that life is what we make it, and a trenckant saying of the present day is: Don't wait for your opportu- nifty; make it." Longfellow, in his "Psalm of Life," says:
 Lives of great men all remind us
 We can make our lives sublime,
 And departing, leave behind us
 Footprints on the sands of time.''
 These declarations are true when God is linked in the thought and when He has an opportunity to work out in the purpose and activity of man, but they are only half truths if man seeks by himself and in his own strength and wisdom to make his own opportunity, and to make his life a sublime success. There can be no truth apart from Him Who is The Truth. There can be no true success, true happiness, true achievement of any kind which does not include God as a factor. The Promised Land of every life is the supreme possibil- ity which lies in that life through Christ Jesus; as Paul puts it: "The high calling of God in Christ Jesus" The supreme possibility of the chil- dren of Israel lay in their entering the Promised Land of Canaan and oc- cupying it. How the glory of that possession shines out in the reign of Solomon, so that to this day the splendor and wisdom of Solomon are cited as basis of comparison. The children of Israel, if they had not entered their Promised Land, might perhaps have built cities elsewhere. they might have become a successful and prosperous nation, possibly, but they never could have reioiced in the splendor and riches, and prosperity and power of a Solomon's reign if they had not occupied the land God chose for them and gave to them. So it is with the individual life. It may refuse to enter the Promised Land. and still seem to win success and honor, and fame, and riches, but the su- preme possibility of the Promised Land is not realized
 The Promised Land was Divinely selected, and God by His wonderful providences led the way into it. So it is with the Promised Land lying before you and me in the New Year. It is Dieinely appointed, and God will lead yon and me into it, if we will but let Him. The "high calling of God in Christ Jesus," is the land flowing with the milk and honey of Divine possi- bilities which God calls every soul to enter. There are fghtings by the way, there are Jordans to be crossed, there are JerichOS to he overcome