JAMES MONROE HUBBERT
American clergyman (1850 - 1934)
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He had his virtues. This old year was impartial. No
discrimination knew he between classes or conditions. He meted
the same number of hours to the man in the hovel and the man on
the throne. The hour-glass be turned the same number of times
for him whose garments were plain and coarse and him who wore
garments of costliest fabric. Like God who sent him, this old
year was no respecter of persons. He showed constant vigilance.
No laggard, no loiterer, he. Having been sent to fill a space in
time's calendar, he filled it to the full. Sent to mark off so
many hours on time's dial, his hand was never slack; he slept not
for a single swing of the pendulum. May we keep our vigils as
faithfully! He fulfilled his mission. God's plans are deep, and
we know little, perhaps, as the mission of any of these passing
years, decades, centuries, and cycles; yet we know that each
fulfills a purpose in the betterment of humanity; and the closing
year has served well his embassy in bringing the race nearer its
final goal. A prize, peerless and bright, awaits each of us if
we are as true to our mission as the old year has been to his.
- [Old Year]
This dying year will bear witness for or against us at the
judgment. We sometimes say, "Time dies." Is time dead? No.
The years die, but time lives. Time will live till the judgment,
and then "Time shall be no longer." When time ends, eternity
begins. The passing years are time's children, which will come
from their graves to bear witness in the case pending between God
and men at the great judgment-seat. Among the years which shall
witness against us will be this dying year. If it shall be seen
that in the year's record are written bright pages concerning us,
happy shall we be. Pages which tell of toils for Jesus, of
earnest prayers, of loyalty to God and conscience, of
self-denials, of visitation of the sick, of sympathy for the
distressed, of instruction of the ignorant--how many such things
has the old year written for us?
- [Old Year]
Last Revised: 2009 April 2
Copyright © 1999-2009 John C. Shepard. All Rights Reserved.
The GIGA name and logo are trademarks registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by John C. Shepard.
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