The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1904-01-01

past year and see II you can find one
day which is free from failure or mis-
take. Most Of the days are stained
with sin of heart and life, and the
~cleanest and best days of the year are
not without their evidences of human
weakness and failure. Are we afraid
to face them and hear them speak?
This is not manly; this is not right.
But oh, how many urn from the mem
DRY of past failure, or wrongdoing,
past mistake OF grievous sin, past diff
fculty 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
him by which he would avoid those same
pitfalls again. The runner circling the
track stumbles because of unevenness
of ground. When next he 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 a 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.
DAYS do speak of failures and sins,
IL 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 a
help to the living in the present. Lord
Melville, the noted English statesman of
one hundred years ago, when OF New
Years Gay he was wished a Happy New
Year, exclaimed: Il hope this year will
be happier tina the last. for 1 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 the New Year. The New Year brings
with it the worthy impulse to do better,
and from this impulse is formed the New
Years resolutions-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 its close and the other. bright
and fresh and u~ntarnished, begins to I'M
fold.