Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1915-12-27

calendars that have guided our steps
through the year that will so soon
be gone; 1915 will be gathered to its
fathers and ensepulchered in the
tomb of the past. As we are crossing
the threshold of the new year, it is
an opportune hour to consider our
own relationship to the vicissitudes
of time. In the text and its contents
we find the calculation ready to our
hand, the work of a man who had
sounded the depths of life and knew
il we'll from every angle.
"There are two preliminary state
ments I want to make, however. One
is that a strong confidence in God
is a prerequisite to any successful
appreciation of st. Paul's calculation:
we believe and therefore we speak,
he saws. we believe and therefore
we hear we answer back. Faith is
the victory that overcometh the
world'-that masters it, Interpreters
it, fulfills it. transfigures it.
"The other preliminary statement
concerns the unyarying radiant joy
BUSINESS Of Paul in the midst OF all the
experiences of life. His faith htteo
him into a sane, Christian optimism.
Movine always in triumph, his soul
was oyerfiowing with songs of jubi-
lation. His life was never pitched IN
a minor key. Eternal glory redeemed
all his days. When we know Christ
as he knew Him we shall share his
perennial gladness. Christianity has
no nlace for grumbling and COM
planning and long-facedness.
"A double contrast enters into the
reckoning of the impact of time on
our lives. The things that are seen
are set over against the things tnat
are not seen. The temporal and the
eternal are contrasted with each
other. 1t is tangibility set over
against permanency. The material
part of things is transitory. Tne splr-
itual part is permanent. rms is true
of ourselves. 1t is true of TINS MS
toric church, of our homes. of our
schools and colleges, of all things
about us. The material part must
decay. The inner part abides. The
faith. the love, the noble impulses, the
nuritv of soul, the knowledge of the
truth-all these and other spiritual
qualities which issue from the insti-
tutions I have mentioned are unseen
but they are eternal.
"The material things are real. but
they are transitory. The spiritual
things are real and abiding. The lat
ter are. therefore, of superlative I'M
portance. Yet we have way OF
saving thing is 'immateriar when
we mean it is unimportant. That is
an evidence of our materialistic con-
ception of life. The usage should be
reversed.
MANY of the feeting things Of our
own earthly life are beautiful and
good. The clouds of the sky, the sun
rise or sunset, the flowers, the trees,
the birds. the beauty of the human
face. the glory of strong manhood
these are things to rejoice in. Still
they pass quickly away. They can
give no perpetual satisfaction.
The true secret of life is to take all
these transitory facts as they come
and use them in such a way as to
make them minister to imperishable
character in ourselves and others. We
should be exchanging the transitory
for the abiding every hour we live.
Money. strength. churches houses
all should be made to issue in those
innert forces of mind and heart that
which we shall carry with us into the
eternal world.
owe should sight the goal of life
clearly as the New Year dawns on
us. We should steer our way straight
for that goal when we have dis
covered it. BY faith we should live
among the spiritual substantials. The
seeming unreality of the spiritual life
should be outgrown by each of us
mind should be exerted in the effort
to naturalize our thought-life in
heavenly regions. where the word de-
c1ares our citizenship to exist. This
will make the new year resplendent
with an eternal glOry.'