The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-02
BIRMINGHAM MINISTER'S
 SEND NEW YEAR WORDS TO THE CONGREGATIONS

loIl, IT an lr1Sn DUH may De p&ruOneu, wish my people for the new year 1921.
 Yet the happiness Lover would give is. after all, but fleetng and transtory and earthly There is an old saying, half proverb, half prayer that I heard lons ago in childhood days in Ireland that I have never forgotten that I much prefer. l will wish it today also to my people The grace of God and a loaf of bread, what more do ye want?'
 Truly. rightly considered, there is nothing more to be wished for; the loaf of bread gives life to the body and the grace of God gives life to the nobler part of man-the soul. Of the two, God g grace Is the better. of course; the body may starve If the soul lives
 Gods grace then that brings God s love. Gods friendship Gods blessing. is for all my people my especial wish. With that grace, though betimes some sorrow and rain may come, yet the in- terior joy of Gods presence will give peace and happiness that the world knows not. that the world cannot take away, for the world gave it not.
 Let me then wish for my people of St. Pauls all the material and temporal blessings that Samuel Lover, through the medium of his four-leaved clover would scatter over the earth: let me also SUD- plement that wish by the old Celtic wish that should so satisfy them that they would need aught else-may they each and all have during 1921 Gods grace and loaf of bread"
 A NEW PULL
 Dr. George R. Stuart. pastor of the First Methodist church, proclaims the following challenge for 1921:
 There is unique and fascinating in terest in things we have never seen. but of which we are expectant. New places new experiences. prominent persons and things we have never seen arrest us, and interest us. AS common as is the course of time, each new day to those who think, brings grateful thrill as the luminous King from the eastern hilltops proclaims it's dawn. The brief period marked by the closing of the old year and the opening of the new carries such variety of facts and emotions that only the serouS-minded get the full values. The antthesis of the backward and for ward glances with their opposing emo tions overwnelm us. The old year with it's experiences, sickness, death, success and failures, joy and sorrow. shadows and sunshine, lies to the back of us. The new year with it's mysteries of gooo and i'll lies to the front of us. As we part with the old year let us sum up the whole and ask with old Pythogoras, who liver 500 years before Christi What have I learned where have been? From all I have heard. from all have seen?
 What know I more that's worth the knowing? What have I done that IS worth the doing? What have I sought that I should shun? What duties have [ left tlndone?
 "The accepted Christian philosophy of life is not to weep over the irreyocabie past or shudder at the unrevealed future
 However, this does not encourage a reckless throwing aside of the sins, failures orc even sorrows of the past or a careless plunge into the future. There Is a wide difference between fatalisn and philosophy; between considering ana brooding; between the firm and steady
 step of faith and the reckless troddtng of fatalism. In saying good-by to the old year let us carefully ponder its ex- periences, get all the value of the divine teachings, and all tho lessons Of success and failures. and then with smiles ar~ tears, regrets and thanks, prayerfuily, considerably close the book and look forward with faith and hope to the new year. The challenge of the new year stjrs the red blood and calls Us to our best.
 Near my country home in Tennessee there arose on the highway an abrupt nil from the bed of a little creek. Here teams often stalled on their way to town Having observed from my porch team of horses stalled and the driver m de- spair, I stepped down to offer my ser vices. The hopeless driver was wiling to accept help from any source. l asReo that I be allowed to drive the team out I stepped up to the horses and united the hamestring. slipped the harness oacK, re
 moved the cellar and chaffed the shoulder a bit; then pulled, back the collar ana A.1 ;, hA haYnaGtYtng. | next removed the bridle from each horse and kindly stroked his head and spoke to him that he might hear new voice or kindness and hope. After replacing the brides took my position on the Wasoh turned the horses to one side and gave the " ord to go. They pulled the "asoi' to the ton of the hill What was the use to remove and replace coi'ar anu hridle? One good reason-r gave the horses the instinctive notion that they had a new proposition, a fresh start better chance Here is the appear potn to instinct and reason. Let us In iove and good fellowship of Christmas turn loose the old year with It's burdens anu cares for a little season, ana py s.rohes of love and kindness relax the pinu,ns harness and then as if in new nte were entered. let us with faith and hope make a new pull for our greater success RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT Rabbi Morris Newfield of Temple Emmanu-El in a bird seye view of the past and a hope for the future, says: There arc many things for whicn we are thankful In the old year. one could list a number of achievements both from the viewpoint of the in divA,xal and the community. acnievo- ments for the nation and humanity Ve are thankful for the establish- ment of national woman suffrage and nrohibition On the other hand we lament that some of the best hopes or the great war are still unreailzeo'
 True. a so-called League of Nations IS formed. but as at present constituted,
 without participation of the United
 States. 1t cannot function to bring about our greatest desideratum-tne
 abolition of war by completed dis armament, and the establishment or permanent peace. The stupidity and greed of old-world diplomacy shat
 tered the promise of enduring peace and plunged Europe into chaos of
 hatred. misery and death. It is with
 mixed emotions that we gaze upon this
 year now gone.
 ~As we look into the year ahead.
 what do we most desire? First and
 foremost the establishment of genu-
 inc League of Nations. with the United States forming an integral part: the
 surcease of national and racial hatred;
 deliverance of central and eastern Europe from famine and pestilence; peace in Ireland, perhaps by form of dominion governments; freed Armenia; a self-governing Palestine where all races and creeds live in amity and allowing persecuted Jews of Europe to find there a haven and