Putnam patriot., 1930-12-31

We are standing on the threshold of a New Year. The years seem to come and 20 like the ebbing and the flowing of the tide. They go all too quickly for ehs most of us, it Is hard to keep caught up with pressure of events as they crowd our way. "A Happy New Year" is a fitting wish today, bu. still amid the anticipa- tions of the morrows. many hearts will m.ngle sober thoughts of the storms and sorrows that the old year has borne into eternity. But as I look back over old 1880, and l feel hope within trying to tune up" for a song the words of an old hymn come to mind and remind me that there is still a place for thank fulncss.
 'sFor Thy mercy and Thy grace,
 Faithful through another year,
 Hear our song of thankfulness.
 JesuA. eur Redeemer, hear.
 What will the New Year bringy We cannot tell: but one thing l am certain of that tomorrow's dawnings will bring very similar events trials. joys. sorrows-as the yester- day year. The old hymn continues: 1: sIn our weakness and distress.
 Rock of Strength. be Thou our stay; In the pathless wilderness
 Be our true and living Way"
 How Weak We Are
 The place of weakness and dis tress. How weak we are. We give ourselves over to every whim or passion. ill the sacred things of life and men have no place. We sell our selves to lust and guile. and it means nothing to US. Marriage is either i. sport or meal ticket We either have an army of little babies olut- tered around cold hearthstones or we have warmth and plenty and there are no children. We have made lib- erty license to the shame of our own bare skins. The New Years Path wiil be a way of stability if We know ourselves and the Rock of Strength. To some of as the pathless wilderness has at times been reality during the old roar. Lying south of Kifri, a small city in the northeast corner of Mes 0potamia. close to the Persian bord- CT were score Of soldiers guarding an outpost. For weeks they had been without news from the home land. their letters had not gone out Co them. The dime came when fresh supplies were to be taken out to them and with the supplies, the let tors. Ii was only a three days tourney. and under ordinary circum- stances would have been an easy n.t4 As. sag.,I Iaxr a sand storm came on. and soon the roads over the dasert were complete. ly lost 10 view. We drove on and on, and at san-down we had not arriv- ed. nor did We know if we would yer arrive. We were lost on the wide eNpanses Of the desert. What bewiiderment was ours as we strain cd our eyes looking in vain for in- 1ications of the proper way. There will be the wilderness of doubt in the New Years Path. Again and again we will be compelled to ask What Can A Man Believe?" There will be the painless way of uncer- tainty. The lonely road of sorrow will be there. In such painless will dernesses who but Christ can lead us through Jesus. be our true and living way.
 Will Be Faithful
 If during this New Year we find the path not all bright, but now and then we find it hard to make ends meet. and We encounter blind spots where we simply cannot see and must just grope our way through. we will be faithful. Faithful to the best that is in us. We will be pure. despite the motives that have stir red us in the past. or the thoughts that have had dominion over us, or the diseased imaginations that have often possessed us. We will endure. pure in mind and heart and faithful to the end. So the old hymn ends: Keep us faithful. keep us pure.
 Keep us ever more Thine own
 Help. oh help us, to endure,
 l'.t us for the promised crown"