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Poems and Short Features
Crowning the Year with Goodness
As we review the leadings of divine providence during the
year that is past, let God’s goodness and mercy stimulate our faith and
confidence in him as respects the new incoming year. A proper retrospect on the
part of a proper child of God will enable him not only to render thanks for the
past, but to look up and lift up his head, realizing that our deliverance is
nearer than when we first believed; and that he that began a good work in us is
both able and willing to complete it, if we will but continue to submit our
wills, our lives, our all, to his wisdom and loving care (R2738, Psalms 65:11).
A New Year's Prayer
(Anonymous)
Audio MP3
May God make your year a happy one!
Not by shielding you from all sorrows and pain,
But by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;
Not by making your path easy,
But by making you sturdy to travel any path;
Not by taking hardships from you,
But by taking fear from your heart;
Not by granting you unbroken sunshine,
But by keeping your face bright, even in the shadows;
Not by making your life always pleasant,
But by showing you when people and their causes need you most,
and by making you anxious to be there to help.
God’s love, peace, hope and joy to you for the year ahead.
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The New Year
Into the silent past the year has fled,
With all its hope and fear, its joy and pain;
And now, like an interminable plain
On which our eager feet have yet to tread,
The New Year lies before our gaze, o’erspread
With golden prospects; hopes that once in vain
Were entertained now spring to life again,
And heaven’s bright sunshine gleams above our head.
Oh, glad New Year, unsullied yet and free
From taint of sin are thy propitious hours;
Thy cloudless countenance, serene and mild,
Assures us of our God’s fidelity,
And bids us in His service use our powers,
That all thy moments may be undefiled
—W. H. Pepworth
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