THE NEW YEAR
By Martha LE. Warner
AST TRULY wish for our friends
a H We sincerely hope
BY
appy New Year.
that for them the year will be happy from
the first day clear through to the last; but
we know that such will not be the case,
for so many unexpected things can happen
in a year. So many unexpected things can
happen in a day.
Yesterday my friend was alive, and well
and bappy. Today she is dead, and her
three daughters are saying, ** Why, why.
—why?"” And their hearts are filled with
bitterness, and crushed with grief. Wish-
ing them a Happy New Year would not
ease the ache or take away the bitterness.
Only God can do that.
In the year that is stretching out before
us there are bound to be many happenings
that will make our hearts ache, for the
scraps of conversation which come to us
from groups of people wherever they are
gathered, 1s of war ~-war as it 1s fought
across the waters, and in the waters, and
as it will be fought if, and when, it comes
to our shores.
War does not spell happiness. Men and
women {rom all walks of life are taking
sides; and while they argue, silently and
stealthily there creeps into their hearts a
satanic spirit of bitterness and hate, which
if allowed to go unchecked, will grow mn
strength until this world is plunged mto
utter chaos.
Right here I seem to hear some good
soul atlirm that in his beart there 1s no
room for hate or bitterness. Which is all
very well and good, but I would hike to
ask a few questions.
Tell me why you and vour neighbor are
not on speaking terms. Tell me why vou
and a certain brother in the church will
not serve on the same committee. Tell me
why vou duck around the corner rather
than meet a one time friend. Tell me
why vou have forbidden your home to the
voung daughter who was secretly married
some months ago.
I will tell you why. It 1s because you
have not learned to forgive. It is because
vou have forgotten that after “Give us
this dav our daily bread,” comes the line,
“And forgive us our debts, az we forgive
our debtors.”
If you have ever seen an electric crane
pick up scrap metal and the like, you may
have noticed the great dise which hangs at
the end of a rope with a wire connected
with it. When it is desired to pick up any-
thing, the current is turned on, the disc
magnetized and then it will hft huge
masses of scrap. But as soon as the cur-
rent 1s turned off, down drops the load.
In a way, cannot this same principle
be applied to all of us? When we are
magnetized by the Holy Spirit, when our
hearts are filled with the love of God, then
His power flows out through us and draws
other souls to Him. But when the current
is turned off, and we forget God, then our
power for good 1s gone and we scatter, not
seeds of kindness, but seeds of fear and
hate, which yield a harvest of untold sor-
row and suffering,-—and all because we
have not learned to forgive.
Oh, my friends! Let us start the New
Year right by forgiving all who have
wronged us; ever remembering that unless
we forgive, we are not forgiven. Let us
take for our own the words of Bonnie
Day's poem, and say them over and over
again.
New Year's Eve
By CLARENCE EpwIN FrLynN
I'm finishing the page tonight,
Confessing it 1s mine.
In a few moments I will write
The final, falt’ring line.
“I'll write a model for the years.
There shall be no mistake,” |
[ said, but there are blots and smears :
[ never meant to make.
The page completed, it shall be
Forever put away.
| Its failures shall not hinder me
Upon a future day.
A firmer hand, a better pen,
Perhaps a clearer light,
May help me to do better when
I shall have more to write.
“TI now forgive. If any have offended
Through ignorance or malice, be it
known
The debt 1s canceled and
ended,
There's nothing to atone,
the matter
“I now forgive, my thought goes out in
blessing,
And love erases every trace of wrong.
Father, what lifts the weight that has
been pressing
So sorely, and =o long?
“Child, “twas the weight of your own
condemnation,
The self-inflicted load that burdened you,
By vour own act of reconciliation,
You are forgiven, too.
“For while vou held your brother as a
debtor,
Your bitter thinking shackled your own
soul,
The =zelf-same act that broke for hun
the fetter
Has made vou free and whole.”
Did 1941 Fail?
By Claude E. Holmes
N A New Year's message to the medical profession,
the editor of the Illinois Medical Journal {Jan-
nary, 1911) revealed his hope for the future:
“During the new year we hope to see the overcoming
of hatred, banishment of suspicion, rejection of the
theory that force creates right, abolition of economic
conflict, and eradication of world egoism whereby
states violate the liberties due their citizens.”
This was a heavy program for one vear. In fact,
six thousand vears have failed to accomplish such re-
sults. You can draw your own conclusion as to the
extent to which it was realized during 1941,
Medicine has made tremendous strides in the past
one hundred years. It has conquered many diseases,
stumped out epidemics, and attained a marvelous skill
in surgery. But with all its genius and eflicieney it has
not discovered a serum that will make man immune to
the fever of hate: it has no antidote for the poison of
intolerance: it has no painkiller for an aching heart,
no balm for an accusing conscience, nor vet a stimulant
to bolster up a heart that is failing because of the
sights 1n the world today.
Physicians and patients need to know that the word
of God is still the greatest healer of humanity's suffer-
ings, both physical and spiritual. If its principles are
learned and lived, they will lay the foundation for a
long and happy life.
“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Prov -
erbs 17: 22) and “perfect love casteth out fear™ (1 John
1: 18) are scicuotitic facts as well as religious truths.
We are assured by no less an authority than the Great
Physician Himself. that if we feed the hungry, clothe
the naked, and work for the freedom of the oppressed,
our ‘health shall spring forth speedily.” Isaiah
58: 6-8. The Word is full of the most efficacious
remedies that may be found in the world.
Vol. LI
tre Watehman
JANUARY, 1942-No. 1
JAMES EARL SHULTZ, kditor
by
SOUTHERN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION ~~
Magazine
An Interpreter of the Times
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