River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-02-17
OLD A ND |
NEW DAYS |
By HENRY F. COPE
Chicago

For the former things are passed away.
Rev. 21:4.
The old is but the soil from which
the new springs into life. To-day
must not lie buried in yesterday, nor
tomorrow in to-day. The former
things must not remain in their old
places; they have passed away; on
them we stand only to build the fair
er edifices of the future. The old year
must not be carried into the new as
q burden, but as an inspiration.
The new has it's roots In the old, but
Its fruits are farther on. The use OF
yesterday is to see it as yesterday;
that which has been passed is gone in
fact, is cherished in memory only for
what it has done for US. 1t holds our
guiding lights not to beckon us back
but to guide us on. 1t may be fair
with memory's pictures, but they are
only promises of what is to be.
Some feel oppressed by the passing
of the years. To them each one seems
as the knell of a bell that counts It.
self toward the end. Years spell only
age. But the greatest blessing of
some of the pages of life may be
turned and new ones begun, that such
thought is possible as this of the
past with its complement, the future.
The passing days remind us of tie
possibilities of now beginnings. They
teach us TO live the forward looking
life, to cherish hope, to know that,
though we may have failed, though
yesterdays page be dark with stains
and blotted over with tears, yesterday
is not all; there remains the new day
and this we may essay with noble
courage, with a chance at a cleaner,
brighter page.
In the failures of the last year may
have been the discipline that trains
for success the coming year. Our old
days are not to be simply ignored;
they are to be woven up into the
structure OF the new. They are to be
like the lessons we painfully wrought
out on our states at school, forgotten
In the sense that they have been car
ried forward into the enriching, the
skill, and power of higher grades.
Here is this new year; what does
It mean to US? He must be a dull
hind indeed to whom it has no sig
nificance of new beginnings; who
looks not forward to it's first days
with expectation, hope and some de-
termination for its enriching Life is
full Of such occasions, anniversaries
that serve as marks along the way,
times when we can stop and ask
whether we move forward or go back
This is a good time for high re-
solves, time to shake ourselves free
from any burdens of the past and to
face the days that are to be with heart
nerved for nobler living, nobler serv-
ice, higher attainments. This is the
time to seek for larger meanings in
life for ourselves and richer living for
others.
Once men talked about new birth
as taking place once for all in life
How eagerly hearts that counted life
as failure, or saw it as sin stained
and sorrow burdened, looked forward
to such a new beginning. How much
better 1t is to see each new day as a
possible new birth, each as new be-
ginning, each as a chance to do bet
ter, to move forward, to recover from
the past and to remedy the old mis-
takes.
A worthy faith will never see man
slipping back into the dust; it will
feel him ever climbing toward God. A
worthy faith will not mourn over the
tracks marked in the yesterdays; it
will trace with confidence the way
that goes before; it will see that way
leading into a clearer knowledge of
truth; a closer, keener joy in doing
the will of the Most High, and a joy
Gus fellowship with all the great fam
fly of earth and heaven.
True faith will say, as the new days
approach: Here in each of these is
just the chance to find out what life
means, to make real some of my best
and fairest dreams, to do some of the
things 1 have been learning to do and
longing to do in the past, to make
some life as fair as l know all lives
ought to be, to wipe the tears from
some eyes, just another chance to love
and so to find life.