1/1 – Family Altar

Another year has begun to weave its eventful story for us on the restless loom of time. What will its flying shuttle bring us in its new and unforeseen tasks and trials? Will it prove, indeed, a happy new year, as we wish one another today? It will prove so only when it proves a holy year, in which our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, abides in us with His changeless love and we consecrate its hurrying hours to His praise and service. He has promised to be with us alway, even unto the end of the world. He can and will be our sheltering and directing cloud by day and our bright, shining pillar of fire by night in the untrodden paths before us.

Let us begin the new year in His saving name, and make no other resolution than that Jesus, our Jesus, shall be our One and our All also in this new year of our fleeting life. Then it will prove a happy new year for us. Then we can go to Him for pardon in all our sinful weakness, for sustaining help in all our tasks and trials, for comfort and deliverance in all our sorrows, for a peaceful, blessed end, if this year should be our last. To His almighty and loving hands we can safely entrust our lives, the destinies of our loved ones at home and abroad, the fate of His church on earth, the future of our beloved country. He is and always remains the “Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,” [Isaiah 9:6] Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever.