Collection of Thoughts at New Year (12/31/77)

Collection of Thoughts at New Year

by Roman J. Lysniak

NEW YEAR - BETTERING THE BEST: When Bertel Thorwaldsen, (1770-1844, famous Danish sculptor), was asked, "Which is your greatest statue?", he replied, "The next one."

NEW YEAR - FLIGHT OF TIME: Picture by Walter Crane, (1845-1915, British painter and illustrator). Our common view of time is of passing with slow and measured tread, but the truer conception is to think of it as a "flight." The artist Crane, in a painting, entitled "The Chariots of the Fleeting Hours," represents the hours being drawn by four wild horses and driven by remorseless youths, who incessantly urge their horses on, lashing them to a greater speed. Meanwhile sinks the sun and the night hurries to meet the rushing chariots. To those in earnest, this is the view to take. "I must work while it is today, for the night comes." Only by this sense of urgency can we do anything worth doing in the short span of our earthly life.

NEW YEAR - LOOKING BACKWARD: An old painter of Sienna, Italy, after standing for a long time in silent meditation before his canvas, turned away, saying: "May God forgive me that I did not do it better!" May similar words also be upon our lips, as with a glance backward, we are about to step out upon the threshold of another year.

NEW YEAR A NEW START - WATCH SMALL THINGS: When William Lloyd Garrison, (1805-1879, American abolitionist), became a Christian he wanted his Christianity to reach into all details of his life. His handwriting, for instance, was very poor, and he set out to better it, making every letter with care, so that before long his penmanship became remarkable for its distinctness and beauty. A new start like this, even in small things, would make better Christians.

NEW YEAR POLISHING - WORKING UPON CHARACTER: Workmen in bronze factories, as they labor on the panels of massive doors, clean the surfaces, trim the edges, fill in the cavities, touch and retouch the outlines, shape and smooth and polish one part after another, and then go back and do the same thing over again. A visitor once said to one of them: "I shouldn't think you would know when you were through with this work." "We are never through," was the workman's reply, "so long as they will let us keep at it. We stop when they take the panels away. That's all the finishing there is to it." One of the hardest lessons to learn is that we must go over our character year after year, cleaning, trimming, shaping, smoothing, polishing, touching and retouching. But what a holy joy it will be if, when He comes to take these characters away, they are 'complete in Him'."

NEW YEAR MOTTO: "They have a custom in certain parts of Africa," a missionary, once wrote "of asking every chief for his 'Losako', or life motto. I met one day an old chief who asked for my 'Losako'. I repeated in the native language, 'Love the Lord with all thy heart,' then asked for his 'Losako'. The old chief slowly and reverently repeated, 'When you pass through the jungle be very careful to break a twig, that the next man can find his way.'"

NEW YEAR INSPECTION: When a ship is about to start on a long voyage, it is the custom in the navy to put her through the process called "rounding the vessel." This consists partly in verifying the compasses on board, that is, in testing the magnetic needle in each compassbox and ascertaining whether or not it points due north.

We are starting on another year of voyaging upon the unknown sea of life. It will do us good to consider our ways, to test our compasses, to "give more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest haply we drift away."

NEW YEAR: "One was rummaging along the seashore, gathering treasures of stone and shell. High on the beach lay a shell more beautiful than any yet discovered. He was searching in a dreamy, listless way, looking here and there. 'That shell is safe enough,' he said. 'I can pick that up at my leisure.' But, as he waited, a higher wave swept up along the beach, recaptured the shell, and bore it back to the bosom of the ocean. How like the experiences of our lives is this! When the wave of another year has flowed back and off the shore of time, how many shells of plans, of opportunities, of purposes toward noble and better lives, lying there, you thought within your easy grasp a year ago, has it swept into the irrecoverable past!" (Paragraph entitled "New Year" from a work by Wasyland Hoyt, D.D.).

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