THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR ON THE DUTY OF IMPROVEMENT. BY HENRY WARE, JR. 1794-1843 PRINTED FOR THE American Unitarian Association. BOSTON: JAMES MUNROE & Co. 134 WASHINGTON STREET. JAN. 1840. Price 3 Cents. THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR. On arriving at the boundary line which separates the Old Year from the New, it is wise to pause, and give an hour to reflection. It is one of the points upon the journey of life, by which, as by milestones on the roadside, we measure the progress we have made. So much more of our time has gone, and so much less remains to us. We feel perceptibly that the gradual wasting of our days is bringing us nearer to the end of life, and we cannot resist the solemnity of the feeling. The Past, where is it? What has it accomplished? How have we used it? Has it made us better, as well as older? Has it brought us nearer to Heaven as well as to the Grave? And what is the Future? Shall it be long enough to make amends for the deficiencies of the past? And by what resolutions shall we enter upon it, so as to secure the accomplishment of the purposes for which life is bestowed? Perhaps it may aid some in the right use of this serious hour, to direct their thoughts to the great duty of perpetual improvement. It may help them rightly to scrutinize the past, and to direct their efforts in time to come. The importance of the duty, and the reasons which should urge it, are obvious, and cannot fail of impressing the mind of any who will give them attention. 1. First of all, there is force in the general remark, that Improvement is the universal law of God; to which every thing in nature, and all the arrangements of providence and grace, are conformed. Look where we may, we find nothing made perfect at once; scarcely anything is stationary; all things are in a state of progress. This may be in a thousand ways illustrated, and in every illustration man may read a lesson of instruction for himself. The herb, the tree, the animal, spring from an insignificant beginning, and reach their perfect stature by a gradual progress. The day does not open on the eye in meridian splendor. The year does not burst into ripe maturity at once. The nation does not arrive at power and fame in a day. To look more widely for instances. The globe on which we dwell, with its tribes of plants and animals, ascending in a beautiful scale to perfect man, has come to its present condition by a process of improvement. Modern researches into its structure appear to prove, that before it was brought out of the chaos, mentioned by Moses, it had been already more than once inhabited and destroyed. The remains of its former tenants are found embedded in the ancient rocks. But amongst them are no remains of men. The world, at its several antecedent periods, seems to have been peopled successively by creatures more and more perfect, and man, the most perfect, has existed upon it only since its last formation. And we cannot tell that the series of changes is yet completed. It may be, that after the destruction of the earth by fire, as predicted in the New Testament, it shall be remodelled for the abode of a yet higher order of beings. In the history of God's dispensations toward our race, we have another illustration of our remark. They have gone forward in an improving order. The antediluvian led the way to the patriarchal ; |