The Topeka state journal., 1905-12-31
LOOKING BACKWARDs.
Comments Upon the Uniform Prayer
Meeting Topic
The present is the sum of all the
mast

The present is the sum of all the
past.
The only criterion by which tomor-
row may be tested is yesterday. Ex-
perience, by which name we know
what has gone before, is called a
teacher; that is its business in life.
The instruction of the past is the only
safe guide for future. That is not the
happiest nation which has no history,
the pr0verb to the contrary notwith-
standing; the happiest nation is the
one that is truest to the teachings Of
its past, and quickest to learn those
lessons.
The surest foundation for faith is
to remember all the way which Jeho-
yah thy God hath led thee" What
God has done is best warrant of what
God will do.
That is the greatest year of a per-
sons life in which he has learned the
most.
Beneath the moonlight and the snow,
Lies dead my latest year;
The winter winds are wailing low
It's dirges in mine ear.
I grieve not with the moaning wind,
As though a loss befell;
Before me, even as behind,
God is, and all is Well"
Whittier.
The year 1905 has taught the world
great and unusual lessons; it has been
a rare schoolmaster. Is not the sum
of all that has been learned-from
Russia's revolution, Japan's victory,
the crash of gigantic financial mag
mates IN the business world. the pOliti-
cal victories of the plain peOple=sim-
ply the old, old lesson which Moses
taught the children of Israel, and
which Jesus hurled into the tempters S
teeth. Man doth not live bv bread
alone ?'' The materiaIstfc ideas of the
past decade have received a terrific
shock within twelve-month. The
higher law has asserted its supremacy.
The old-fashiOned ideas of the fathers
have come again to the fore as eter-
naHy pre-eminent and binding. The
changeless verities are once more rec
Ognized as regnant. The world is
reader than for years past to hear
that the things of the spirit are, after
all, the real things
Every old year may help to make a
new life.
Turning from the past to the fu-
ture, the wise person does we'll who
commences the year 1906 with the
truth which lies in the first words of
the Bible. 'In the beginning God"
He who gives first place to Jehovah
y
orderly place, proportion and har-
mony. The reason so many lives are
disjointed, Unbalanced and tuneless is
simply that they have left God out
For He who made US and governs US
is Himself the one really essential fac
tor in our living.
Only a new purpose can make a. new
year. Resolutions lie behind all rev
olutions.
The eyes which look back upon the
passing year, and forward into the
one just opening, should be trustful
confident eyes. If experience has
taught the Christian anything it has
surely taught him that God may be
depended upon He has never vet
failed his own. "They who trust Him
wholly, find Him wholly true" The
message from Gods book for the new
year is Fear not
There are some days in the irrevoc-
able year-thOugh, thank God, it is
not an irreparable year-which we
would gladly blot out. They were the
days Of the souls defeat. of niser-
able failure, of whiting sin, of black
hatred or injustice, the days when the
lower self held the reign over the
higher All the bitter tears of peni-
tence viii not wipe out these days, vet
and beautiful days For the glory of
every kind Of pasts is that it may be
employed for the creation of shining
future.
'Speak a shade more kindly than the
year before,
Pray a little oftener love little