The Newport plain talk. (Newport, Tenn.) 1909-1939, 1915-01-06

| ler, yet IearIul OF entering a
church lest they be shamed by
their rags.
What will the new year bring
to them?
| Will it cast but a little sunshine
into their shadowed lives?
| Will it send some brother or
sister to invite them to a place of
worship, where their soul hunger
may be appeased by the gentle
words of a man of God?
We might be good brother
or a good sister" to these
worthy unfortunates.
But will we?
A New Year!
| What will it bring to our coun-
try?
| Will it bring us a continuation
of that great Peace which provi-
dence has thus far bestowed up
on us?
/, Will it blaze for us a highway
/ through the network of entangle-
ments which have drenched the
soil of half the world with the life
blood of thousands upon thous-
ands of the most intelligent and
enlightened peoples of all times?
Will there be a bright and
shining star to lead us safely
through the appalling perils that
now beset the earth?
Or will the new year visit upon
us the whitening blight of war,
and pestilence, and famine, and
determinations? s
Will the sweet music Of the
humming wheels of industry and
the joyful notes of gladstone voices
raised in song be replaced by the
roar of cannon, and the shrek
of shells, and the bursting of
bombs, and the eroans of the
manned, and the mutilated, and
the dying?
Which will it be?
If we only knew!
A New Year is born! =
Nineteen hundred and fifteen!
And what of that?" you ask.
Not much-just a little-and yet
so much? Nineteen hundred and
fifteen! Only four words, and yet
those words signify that today we
reckon our time from the year in
which Christ was born-that
Christ was our ideal man-our
perfect man-the only man who
was in all things a man.
And in the infancy of the new
year shall we keep before us the
record of the man whose memory
and whose deeds even time itself
cannot dim?
Shall we keep before us the
memory Of the man in whose
honor we write "1915?"
A New Year!
Will it reveal to us man?
Is there one among us whose
life is so spotless-whose deeds
are so glorious that years and
centuries of time will but add
lustre to his fame?
And if not, why not?
Will the new year produce even
one man-one real man-who
will tower above his fellow men
as Christ did above all men?
And will that man come from
our ranks-from our little circle?
Will it be you?
And if not, why not?
A New Year is born!
And what will we be in this
year?
We may not be a Christ, but
we may keep before us the mem
ory Of his gentle humility, his
kindly deeds, of his great Sacri-
flee that the world might be better
and stronger, and grow in the en-
lightment of advancing civilization.
we may take into our business
lives his spirit of honesty, and Of
truthfulness, and Of fairness to
our fellow men.
We may not reach his degree
of perfection, but we may so con-
duct our business dealings and
our private lives that we will not
be a reproach to- one who gave
his all for us.
II would cost us nothing to keep
His glorious memory before us, to
follow at least slightly in his foot
steps, and it would be Of un-
|estimable value to us.
But will we?
Or will we! spend six days of
the week in serving the devil and
expect an hour in church to boost
J us through the Pearly Gates?