St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1908-01-22
Good Resolutions.
A Sermon for New Years Day, and for
Every other Day in the Year.

Every other Day in the Year.
Shall we make good resolutions on
New Years day? Yes. Resolve every
day to build more stately mansions
Every dav a man should be stronger
to will and do; stronger for the resolu
ton and deed of yesterday Nolition is
the high part OF man; the will to say no;
the adamantine Il will not is the
highest part 1t takes volition to dis
miss a vice, to correct habit to turn
away from allurements, and renuncia-
ton strengthens the soul. Surely there
can be but one answer to the question,
Shall ! as the New Year opens resolve to
pass beyond some trait or faint that is
unworthy? We read, to be sure:
For It's with years
As tbs with you,
There is no old,
There is no new.
Yet some minds are SO organized that
they act more readily when time IS mark
ed; they proceed faster and more cheer
ily when they see the mileposts start
more resolutely when the point of de-
parture is fixed and the journey outlined.
Must we not acknowledge that it is
better to resolve and begin than procras-
innate and let the day 90 idly by? There
is theory that the will is weakened by
making set resolutions and failing to
keep them 1t is not a benehcent
doctrine. All our lives are made up of
resolutions and attempts; some glorious
" kept to the achieved end, some carried
out half way, some weakly surrendered
al. IL Tho
Of temptation is best, but the honest
making of good resolution serves the
purpose of fixing attention on the higher
standard If it is only for a day, the
brevity of the upift is matter for regret,
but the little struggle is not lost. The
moral interlude leaves an effect The
truth has been made visible, and it will
come again Therefore, the minds that
need a starting point should on New
Years day choose their dearest weak
ness for sacrifice on the altar of true
living, should call out the strongest
powers Of the will, make the good reso-
luton and keepit
Believe in yourself Believe in the
happiness of bodily and spiritual health.
Faith is the iluminant, the hepmeet,
the tonic of the will Without faith
in himself a mans will is unstable. With
out faith in the satisfaction of purified
life the will staggers and sways away
from the straight road. Believe in what
YOU are doing, and do it with a might
which brooks no doubt, hesitates before
no danger I'VE cannot live the second
day before the first or more than one day
at time Renew the resolution every
day. Each day of supremacy of the
man will makes supremacy easier the
next day Soon very soon, you have
good habit to add TO the other good
habits similarly acquired. You have
added fibre to the strength OF your
being. 1t is only the wellknown story
of the formation of character, Carlyle
told the story in his way when he wrote:
"Do the duty which lies nearest thee,
which thou knowest to be duty Thy
second duty will already become clearer"
You rule your own spirit by the sum
total of seeing the right, resolving to do
the right and doing the right. That is
the progress of conquest over the i'm
peding, baser element in yourself In
one way or another the victory must be
won every day New Years may be
more appropriate to good resolutions
than any other day but if the thought
comes to Won because another year is
opening turn the thought into volition
and growth, without foolish debate over
the Thickness of this day or that.
The dread of failure What if the
resolution comes to naught