Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-01-02
Forgetting the Past
G?ad Facing the Future

attentions. tender ministrations. and
high services in the Kingdom of God.
Awfully irrepartble are they. Around
us has been the world groaning with
agony and dying in sin. What have
We done TO sOothe its sorrow or purify
its life? How shameful has been our
seltishness when we have sat down in
hearing OF its bitter cries and have
turned deaf ears TO all its voices of
woe.
The world around us is not the same
il was year ago. 1t, as well as we.
is changed. Hearts have been hardened,
so that our appeals to them have not
now half the chance Of success which
they had a year ago. Some have pass
ed away from the earth, and the grave
has put beyond our reach any POSSIBLE
ity of doing them good Accusing
voices come to US through the portals
Of the tomb, condemning US for our
negligence and unfaithfulness. Little
children, whose tears We might nave
wiped away, have closed their eyes in
death, and old people whose stricken
hearts we might have cheered, have
passed out Of the reach of the con-
solutions we ought to have offered them.
How all of these opportunities must
Cypress the souls Of any who have a
But Notwithstanding the past is
irreparable, much remains for US to
do. No worse use can be made of
rejecting upon the irreparable past
than TO allow such mediation to lead
us to despair of the future. The re-
NEEDLESS losses of the days which
are gone should stir us rather TO
= lose none of the days which are left
TO us. Doubtless many feel that
they have powers which they have
so much neglected that now they
cannot be all they might have been;
they feel that they are ignorant or
many things which they cannot now
learn: that certain powers of heart
and mind will not grow now. And
perhaps all of this is most sor-
rowfully true. But while they can
not now be the best they might have
been. they can at least turn away
from becoming the worst they might
They can exert the powers they
have, and bring out of withered fac
ulties some second growth of GOOD
They can give up wishing for the
impossible. and seize with all Gag
erness that which is still available.
The opportunities of the year past are
gone forever: but great opportunities
with the most sacred obligations are cali
ing to us from the year at hand Re-
pining over the chances to do good,
which have passed forever, will not help
US to embrace the great opportunities
before US. Lit every soul forget the
things that are behind, and press for
ward to those that are before. and by so
much as we regret the past, let us leave
no ground for future remorse.
There are duties for each of us, and
the work of no human being can be
done by another If any one of us IL
unfaithful to his task, that task will
never be fulfilled at all. The resPon-
sibilities Of every soul are so great
that no one can shift his obligations to
another. To each Of us God has given
his own work, and that work must ne
done by the hands to which ii was as
signed or remained forever undone. What
will we do with the sacred appointments
to which the Heavenly King has as
signed US?
These resolutions apply to us as in
dividuals, and they are not less appli-
cable to US as nation During the
past year our country has come into
fields of duty which IT was never be-
fore called to occupy. 1t has become
the teaching nation of the world. From
the far east they come, as the wise
men from the east came to the Jew
ish leaders when the Savior was born.
Like them Of old they come inquiring
about the Redeemer and the way Of
life. What shall we say to them? Shall
our teaching be uncertain. or false?
Shall our example be misleading and
pernicious7
America was never before so SOL
EMMY called to duty as now. The life
We live before the nations. and the man.
nrur
to the world. must tell on the history
of mankind for centuries and milleni-
ums to come.
II is greatly to be regretted that the
south is not preparedato bear her part
in the great work which Providence
imposes upon our whole country. Our
institutions of learning are not manned
and furnished as they ought to be.
They are financially weak and in many
other respects feeble.
We have cared for nearly every 9TH
er interest far better than we have car
ed for this great interest of Christian
education. We have great banks and
great railways and great furnaces and
great factories We have great COM
merciaI enterprises of every sort; but
our institutions of learning are small
in comparison with these great imam
cial institutions.
The new year ought to mark new
era with respect to all these matters.
our people are rich enough TO Begin
TO think of something higher and nos
Ter than simply becoming richer. Our
accumuIations of wealth are large
enough for US TO think of something
loftier than accommodating more. We
have far more money than we have
manhood. and it is time to turn our
money into manhood and cease employ
ing manhood for nothing higher than
gathering more gold.
The misfortunes of Europe nave
encircled U.S. We have coined the
tears of the war-stricken continent
into money. Surely We ought now
to convert this money into forces
that will instruct the ignorant
soothe the Borrowing, heal the
wounded, and tend to purge the
world of sin and suffering. Not
another year OF merely getting
rains should be added to the gain
full years Of the past The new
year should be dedicated to more
generous service and more cody