Connecticut western news., 1920-12-30
The Old Year and the New A Sermon for New Years Eve
 by REV. STEPHEN PAULSoN

My Times are in Thy hand.-Psalm sl:15. ~ AID and solemn are the last hours ", of the dying year. Only few N~ months ago a New Year was given unto us, fresh and pure from Gods great storehouse of time. It has spent it's life upon the earth, and its footprints will never be effaced.. The departing year has brought to us Gods numberless blessings: it has seen many noble deeds done, and it has seen progress in many depart, ments of life.
 The passing of another year must emphasize to every thoughtful person the swift flight of time. Looking backward over the past years of our life they seem to shrink to the size of beads strung around child's neck. Seeking an image of mans career, the prophet sees his days swifter than a weaver's shuttle; his years swifter than an arrow, curving as 1t rises to its fall What is mans life? he asks. It is a cloud dissolving in the sun- shine. It is a summer brook swollen By sudden rains, but soon running out and leaving the stones bare again. Mt is a tale that Is soon told.
 These last days of the old year urge us to husband we'll the time that is still given us. To a shrub year means only a leaf; to the vine, a clus- ter; to the tree, new ring of wood. But to man a year means large portion of his life which has been used or wasted. Youth often unthink- ingly throws all responsibilities on the years to come. To him everything seems possible in the future. Then he thinks to have time for education. Then he will practice economy and thrift, let the present be prodigal as it may. The morrow will suffice for the forming of habits and the building of character. So dazzled by the fu- ture the youth allows the years to slip through his hands, and the result is man who is an intellectual infant and a moral feebling. As you pause now and think over the past, you must realize that the morrow holds no harvests which the laborers called yesterdays did not SOW and cultivate. There was an ancient custom of put ting an hourglass into the coffin of the dead to signify that their time had run out-a useless notification to them. Better put the hourglass into the hand of every living man to show him how swiftly the sands of life do | flow. But, after all, time Is of value only as we make the best use of it. We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts. not breaths:
 l In feelings, not in figures on a dial
 | We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives ! Who thinks most. feels the nobiest acts | the best
 The old year may hold our many failures, many dlsappointments, many bitter regrets. The New Year holds out to us hope and proAise, for my times are in Thy hand, O Lord. 1t should comfort us when we think of the brevity of our years. to realize by contrast the length of Gods years.
 We have but short time to work, and 1t is well to remember that in
 order that we may be dilligent. But God has a whole eternity fn which to work, and 1t Is yell to remember | that also, so that ~.r nay cease from fretfulness and !nH:a-' ce at the slow | progress of His .:,S:' among us.
 Jesus Christ has not ceased from His
 redemption of the world, nor has God
 been defeated in His plans for hu-
 manity, for the Hines of men and ! nations are ;:, iis hand.