St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1904-01-30


This is not manly; this is not right.
But oh, how many turn from the men,
DRY of past failure, or wrongdoing,
past mistake or grievous sin, past diff
f1culty or trouble, and refuse to hear
these days speak or learn the lessons
which they might teach! How many
try to forget, and rush feverishly into
the New Year with the deluded
thought that it will know no such
record! When Paul declared he was
going to forget those things which are
behind he did not mean that he locked
the past in the chamber of impenetra-
BILE oblivion and rushed heedlessly on
ward in hope of winning the prize.
No; but he did mean that the failures
and sins and mistakes of the past were
not to handicap and discourage him
in the race which lay before him. But
those same failures and mistakes and
sins were to be the helpful signposts to
pitfalls again. The runner circling the
track stumbles because of unevenness
of ground. When. next he comes to
that place he would be foolish indeed
if he forgot all about the dangerous
spot. He must remember it SO that
he may avoid stumbling there sec
ond time. But on the other hand he
must forget the failure. He must not
let the impression prevail that he
stumbled there once and must there
fore stumble there again.
nAYS do speak Of failures and sins,
- but their true message is not one OF
encouragement, but encouragement.
The Devil points to the days of failure
and says: See how you failed; OF course
you will fail again. But God points to the
days of failure only that He may point
out the cause of failure and help to VIC
tory at another time. 1t is not mans
fault that he cannot blot out or rewrite
the past, but it is mans fault If he does
not learn the lessons of the past as
help to the living in the present. Lord
Melville, the noted English statesman OF
one hundred years ago, when on New
Years day he was wished Happy New
Year, exclaimed: Il hope this year will
be happier than the last, for scarcely
recollect having spent one happy day in
the whole of it" He could not recall the
year and live it over again. For this he
was not to blame, but he was to be cen
sured that he did not search out the rea-
son or reasons for the unhappiness Of
that year, and prevent their recurrence
IN, h1 Hv.@,. we
with it the worthy impulse to do better,
and from this impulse is formed the New
Years resolutions hastily
formed and easily broken. This is al
ways the comedy and tragedy Of the New
Year. And wherein does the trouble lie?
Not in the making OF the resolution, but
in failure to listen while the days of the
past speak their message for the future.
Days should speak, and multitude OF
years should teach wisdom and espe-
cially should this be true as one year
draws to it's close and the other, bright
and fresh and untarnished, begins to un-
fold.
A ND in the speech Of the days of the
n past is found prophecy Of the fu-
ture. No one who stands upon the
threshold of the New Year but wonders
what is hidden within its bundle of days.
Man never possesses more than the pres
ent; God is the custodian of the future.
But the days of the past may furnish
something more than a hint sometimes
of what the future will be. The sowing
of the past brings the reaping of the fu-
ture Do you fear to let the days of the
past speak because they may prophesy
Of an unhappy fr,litage to be garnered
from the days of sowing gone by? Per-
haps; but will foolish blindness and re-
fusal to hear the message OF the days of
the past avert the undesirable reaping Of
the future? Nay, verify! Days should
speak, and multitude Of years should
teach wisdom" And II we patiently and
humbly receive their message we may b.
able to change defeat into victory, and
failure into success And what is the
supreme message Of the days and the
years? 1t is not Of man and his doings,
but it Is of Christ and what He has done
for man. The days OF Christ upon
earth have not ceased to speak. Christ
the Son of God, Christ the perfect man,
Christ the sacrifice for sin, Christ the
Saviour of the world And every day
since Christ wrought out the redemption
of man from sin has been laden with the
message of the Christ.
TT is the presence of Christ in our days
| which makes them worth living. even
though we fail to recognize that Christ
and yield to Him obedience. 1t is the
certainty of Christ in the days to come
which fills them full of hope. It is
Christ Who can help you interpret the
days of the past, and it is Christ Who is
able to help you enter the days OF the
New Year hopefully, VIGOROUSLY and
successfully. Retrospection without
Christ to interpret and reveal the lessons
of the past is a failure. Prospection
without Christ to cheer. and encourage
is discouraging and perilous. New
Years resolutions without the Christ
as the inspiration and the dynamic force
to execute are sooner or later sad and
dismal failure. Samuel Johnson gave
expression to this truth when he said:
81 have now spent S. years in resolving;
having, from the earliest times almost
that I can remember, been forming
schemes of a better life. I have done
nothing" What an admission for
great man. But we all have to make the
same distressing confession where we
are trying in our strength to make and
keep New Years resolutions. But Sam
uel Johnson did not rest there. His
nraver was finally. 20 God grant me to