The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-01-10
DISCOURAe|NG PAST
MUST NOT Be DEFEAT
Rev. Fred n. Cbenaust says Tears Cam
not Rebuild Resolutions That
Have Vanished.

Having for his subject THE For
ward Look" Rev. Fred r. ChenauH.
pastors of Broad-Street Methodist
Church, made forcefui talk last night
before a large congregation. The ser
mon was one OF the most interesting
ones heard in the editlce for some
time. and the young minister held
hts hearers enthralled for more than
thirty minutes He said. in part:
Life always follows death. Those
who live among dead things are those
who are dying: those who work with
the new are the living. None of us
have lived so we'll during the past
year, but that we regret that we did
not live better. We often put our re-
grets about our neck like a milestone.
and they overcome us In the sea of
dispair. Good wishes are necessary,
but good wishes do not make good
character.
II. The first thing we ought to do
is to let the dead bury their own dead.
cut loose from the past. No year is
good enough to be a standard for the
year that is coming in. Our ideals are
ever advancing. our visions are al
ways broadening and our steps always
leading higher Every day and every
year We ought to climb higher, think
nobler and act wiser. There Is sin
and defeat and failure in the best of
us. The past is often discouraging
but no past should be accepted as de-
feat. We have seen our most beauti-
full resolutions Dissolve and vanish into
air. but tears can never build them
up again. The japanese have prov
erb that runs as follows:
&" My skirt with tears always wet.
! have forgotten to forget
We sometimes think because we
fail once we can never succeed again.
We let the things committed to our
care slip. The charge was, Keep this
man. If by any means he be missing,
thus shall thy life be for his life
Later the man reports. AS thy servant
was busy here and there he was gone.
The resolution We might have carried
out the joy we might have dissent
mated. the encouragement we might
have given. the ministry OF love that
we might have performed, the noblef
character that we might have estab-
lished. these have all slipped while we
have been busy here and there.
Past should Not Trip Us.
We ought to be brave enough not
10 let the past trip us. When the
great food swept. into Galveston. the
citizens did not sit around on the curbt
stones and say. ] told you SO. ! told
you So but they rallied to the work
which was before them. When that
terrible earthquake shook San Fran
cisco as water in bottle. the people
did not sit down amid bleaching ruins
and weep over the past, they united
as one man TO build their city better
than before. When the fertile Inn
perial Valley was covered in water and
made a swamp of death. those heroic
men cleared away the debris and made
that desert to blossom again as the
rose. Just before Fulton died he said
In all my long struggle to work out
the principle of steam I received In
Vulnerable jeers. opposing arguments.
prophecies of failure. but never one
encoura eing word And yet Fulton
continued to work. All the signs of
faded crown, All the curses Of
Hannibal for languishins in Capua
could not restore the lost glory of
Carthage. All the briny tears that
washed to stone the aching flesh of
Niobe could not bring 10 her mother
heart one of her dead children. Let
us not weep over the past, but begin
to build the future
Must Come Out Cnhurt.
?. Not only must We forget the past.
but we must come out unhurt and
helped by it. Some of US have suf-
fere1 sorrow some unkindneSS. some
temptations, some prosperity. some
disaster! and while we cannot make a
set OF circumstances that are beau
tifui, yet we can live lives OF beauty
in any circumstances Many of us
have kept Jealousy ranked in our
hearts. which we should have put out
Bitterness has ranked there that
poisons life. man sticks little
splinter in his hand and the sore fes-
ters-because ii stays there too long;
the arm has to he amputated. en-
DANCE ring the life, so it is with
jealousy.
Sometimes our past attainments en-
trap us, sometimes men have done
really worth things, but they ruin the
effect o fthem by continual repeti-
tons. An author told OF a man whom
when he first told him of some really
worthy thing he had done but at
every subsequent time he met him he
repeated the same thing. | knew a
woman who became obnoxious to
every body because she continually
told of the splendid things she had
done. Many Of us lat sin veil from
Us Gods light Sometimes long
time after things happen we let it
hang over MS like d cloud. shutting
out the truth. God Is able to forgive
and does forgive Let us put away
forever the ugly face of sin. Sorrow
has left its mark upon many OF us
during the lASt year. inere is many
vacant chair that we would love
to drape and many & picture that
we love to look at Ioneingly. Some
are destroyed by sorrow. some EN-
Uttered by it, and some made nobIer
and Drawer because of 1t. To many
it is what Michael Angelo said as he
hewed away al his marble and would
watch the clippings fly under the
heavy strokes of his mallet. AS the
marble wastes the image grows SO
all that sorrow and sin and the hurts
that we have received and the things
that we have achieved have brought
to us. ought to make the image of
God grow deeper In our character.
Grasp Better Things.
3. We must also reach forward and
lay hold upon better things. Some
are ambitious for position. but do not
strive for manhood. Browning said
"Eendeavor to be good, and better
still, and best. Success is naugiit. En-
deavr all The tree registers age by
annual circles of growth. The year
that leaves no mark. that calls for
nothing new cannot eb a worthy one.
THERE'Susefor Uneeda