Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-12-30
HOW WE SPEND OUR
YEAR, SERMON THEME
Rev. Maurice White, Pastor,
Heard BY Large Congregation,
First Presbyterian Church
MANY MIDSHIPMEN THERE

a
A large congregation, including
nearly one hundred midshipmen of the
Naval Academy, worshiped at the First
Presbyterian church yesterday morn
ing, where the services partook of the
nature of the close of the old and the
dawn of the New Year
The choir music was augmented by
a trio OF midshipmen violinists. and
several midshipmen vocalists. The
offertory was taken by four midship-
men. The pastor preached on the
theme How We Spend Our Year" He
spoke in part as follows:
'We spend our years as a tale that
is told" Psalm 90:9 This translation
follows Jerome Other renderings
are Sigh 'murmur, whisper, or
thought As the poet puts it: Swift
as thought gay youth is port and
gone The Hebrew word is also used
to mean thunder But for want of
solution to the problems we will keep
the reading tale in the authorized
version, and add that is told though
where Jerome got that idea no one
knows. The meaning of the verse in
any case is that Our years are gliding
swiftly by" and il is far more i'm
portant to get the meaning of Scrip
ture, than to get its exact words
"And truly, life is like tale that is
told. We write it year after year,
chapter by chapter. Every one writes
a different story. No two are the same.
They may have similarities, but they
have their distinctions Some are
writing The Story OF a Successful
Life others are writing what AL
drich was pleased to call The Story of
Bad Boy Many of us are fond of
adventure of one sort or other, and
our lives, while at school at least, re-
semble The Merry Adventures of
Robin Hood, or The Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes, or of Tom Sawyer
Some few will write powerful auto
biography, like Gibbon, who bent a
strong will to the accomplishment of
a great task; or Benjapin Franklin
who founded strategy and success
upon crust of bread, or you may be
an eccentric person like DR.. Samuel
Johnson, and keep us constantly
guessing as to what you will say or do
next. while we rest assured il will be
something unusual and astounding.
Some lives are as much of a misfit as
"A Connecticut Yankee in King Ar
thurs Court
Many a life is a tragedy. 1t starts
with some unfortunate little thing
which is not controlled, and which
grows to an irremediabfe failure and
misfortune in the end Ii may be jeal-
ousy and the tale that is told be-
comes a tragedy of course, as i'm the
case of 0thello. 1t may be parental
weakness and results in a tragedy
course, as it did with King Lear 1t
may be the reckless impatience of
Romeo, a tragedy of course. II may
be the Incidence of a Hamlet and an
other tragedy results. Tragedy. trag-
edy, tragedy, all resulting from some
little flaw in the character that went
unchecked
Eyes, you are each one spending
your years as a tale that is told
Chapter Is is closing. and you are
about to start chapter 10. For few
here and there this will be the last
chapter of the book What will the
end bejoyful or miserable? The
Lady or The Tiger? Once the tale is
written it can never be changed. No
'Twice-told Tales in life. They are
written in the records of Heaven,
which are unalterable. God is reading
the story you are writing; your frinds
are reading it too. Shall we write
worth while story, while we have the
chance? We spend our years as a tale
that is told"