Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-01-03
OUR CHANGEFJlL YEARS,
OUR CHANGELESS GOD
By Bishop Warren A. Gambler

very swallow and frivolous must be
the soul upon which the solemn process
zion Of the years makes no impression
The mere on-going of time by which,
whether we will or not. we are ever
borne nearer and nearer the end of our
lives on earth must be at times seriously
affect every serious mind.
The noblest spirits whose words have
been preserved by mankind have been
raised to Hottest CONCENTRATIONS by the
consideration of the flight of time and
the approach of the eternal world
Moses the man of God. left alone in
the wilderness with none of them around
him who came with him out of Egypt,
cries out to God, Thou earliest them
away as with a flood We spend
our years as a tale that is told
| Paul. the great apostle to the Gentiles.
amid the burdens which came to him
from "the care of all the church es,". COM
forts himself and his fellow christians
with the reflection, Now is our saliva
ton nearer than when we believed"
| st. Peter reminds himself to be dill
gent in his labours on behalf of the
church by the words, Knowing that I
must shortly put off this my tabernacle.
even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath
showed me-"
| Centuries afterwards DR. Watts sang:
Time like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as dream
Dies at the op'ning day"
Still later dear Phoebe Cary comfort
ed her sad. orphan-soul by singing,
"One sweetly solemn thought
Comes to me DER and Ger:
I'm nearer my home today
Than / ever have been before;
Nearer my Fathers house,
Where the many mansions be;
Nearer the great white throne.
Nearer the crystal sea:
| Nearer the bound or life.
Where we lay our burdens down;
Nearer leaving the cross,
Nearer gaining the crown"
| All these voices from both the distant
and the nearer past win find echoes in
the hearts of thousands as they look
backward today on the old year gone
and forward to the new year just dawn
ed.
To some the old year will point the ac-
cusing fingers of an ill-spent and ire
parable past Days have been wasted; .
many days worse than wasted. Oppor-
tunities have been lost which will never
come again. Gins have been committed
whose evil consequences will run on for
ever Friendships have been violated
which can never be renewed, and hearts
have been estranged whfcn can never be
won again. Duties have been neglected
which have passed beyond recall and
must remain henceforth to eternity un-
done. o the tragedy OF the lost yearI
OF one lost day Mrs. Sigourney sang
in these sad lines
"Lostl losti lostt
feel ali search is vain;
That gem Of countless cost
Can ne'er be mine again
offer no reward.
For till these heart strings sever.
I know that heaven-entrusted gift
Is reft away forever.
But when the sea and land
Like burning scroll have fled.
I'll see 1t In his hand
Who judgeth quick and dead;
And when of scath and loss
That man can ne'er repair, ff.4
The dread inquiry meets my soul.
What shall 1t answer there7"
II such be the lament for one lost day.
what should the sorrow be for a lost
year?
To others the parting year looks
taAO0BAA ccAACtACN CS o. ~ SA1IdS ny III
ried hopes and weeps over heart-break-
ing bereavements. No other year, was
ever like it. All the years following 1t
must henceforth be different from all
that went before It; for how can life be
ever again the same when one signs in
vain for the touch of vanished hands and
the sound OF voices forever hushedY All.
the trials which have come to some
which must walk with them all the rest
of the way Heavy are the burdens
Of the gravel
To the young who have known little