NEW YEAR STANDING ON THE BRINK OF A JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30947, 31 December 1965, Page 12

NEW YEAR STANDING ON THE BRINK OF A JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN

IB U

GARDNER MILLER)

When we stand at the brink of a New Year we are standing at a place of great loneliness. It may be for only a few minutes but memory can leap the barriers of time and in those few minutes we can think of almost everything, of life, of our youth, of our foolishness, of the hurrying years, of our secrets, of our failures and then of tomor/ow, the first day of the New Year.

The morrow has an inevitable content; strange things may happen; we know net what lies in wait for us. “It was always a serious thing to live,” said that grim old Scottish philosopher, Thomas Carlyle. History proves the truth of Carlyle’s observation. “And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death; out, out brief candle,” said Shakespeare’s Macbeth. But you cannot blow out the candle of time. Our yesterdays still live and their sound may only be muted by the new music of tomorrow. We will step out on an untrodden stretch of the road whose end we can neither see

nor foresee. We begin a journey into the unknown. The way ahead is shrouded but it is not blacked' out. Look back and you will see that the road you have travelled to this point where you have stopped to think, is lit by strange lights, some very strong and others just blinking. Think of those lights as ideas that have found their way into the minds of men and through men have shone out to guide not only your feet but also the feet of all the pilgrims of time.

Victor Hugo, French poet and novelist, author of the book that once read cannot be forgotten, “Les Miserables,” once said something that is nearly immortal: “There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world, an idea whose hour has come.” The man who will invest a new idea in the world of tomorrow, an idea that is explosive and worthy at the same time, will irradiate the New Year with a glow that unknown disasters cannot smother. It may take a long time for an idea to germinate, a longer time to come to fruition, but it will ultimately have an effect upon human society though the originator of the idea has left this physical earth. Mixed Blessings The unknown tomorrow has a veritable Pandora’s box of mixed blessings. You will remember Pandora, the first woman made by the fire-god at the order of Zeus. From a box given her by Zeus she let loose all the evils that afflict mankind. But there was one thing left in the box—HOPE. You will also recall the great picture by G. F. Watts, entitled Hope; the figure sitting on the globe of the world, with bandaged eyes and the lyre in her hands. All the strings of the lyre, except one, are broken and her fingers are groping to touch that one string and draw some music from it. The world will never be bankrupt as long a s hope is in the hearts of men. We look out on the pathway of the New Year, we can see only a little bit of the road, but the hope in the human heart is never satisfied with the immediate, it has long sight and sets in motion forces that will light the way more clearly for those who follow us. Time Never Halts The journey into the unknown tomorrow never halts. We often rest by the wayside and that is good for us

for it gives us occasion to contemplate. But lime is not merely a matter of hours or of days and years. It is a movement that envelopes us all and from its embrace there is only one exit and that will be when we can no longer travel the trail and have arrived at the door of the timeless life. The march of time is never halted. Its compass covers the earth and it stays for no man. A poet has beautifully written of time as an old gipsy man:

gipsy man: Last week in Babylon, Last night in Rome, Morning, and in the crush Under Paul’s dome, Under Paul’s dial You tighten your rein— Only a moment, And off once again; Off to some city Now blind in the womb. Off to another Ere thats in the tomb Time cannot be halted though the poet coaxes: Time, you old gypsy man. Will you not stay. Put up your caravan Just for one dayt But not even for New Year’s Day will time halt. It is we who stand still for a moment to look back. And looking back must not become a habit. ' The unknown tomorrow, New Year's Day, beckons us 110 travel fearlessly, for hope |in the heart will die if we i cease to travel. Look Forward I It was the great characteristic of Winston Churchill that he always saw today in the growing light of tomorrow. He was a man of the forward look. And may it be with us all. We cannot control the unknown, we cannot dispel the darkness, but we can step out with confidence believing that the Divine does not die with the dying day but lives and guides, if we have it so, until the last man on the road reaches his destination. “God Knows” is a poem part of which was quoted by King George VI in a Christinas broadcast in December. 1939. The quotation has remained an abiding memory to untold numbers. And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year; “Give me a light that I may travel safely into the unknown” And he replied; “Go out into the darkness And put your hand into the hand of God That shall be to you better than light And safer than a known way.” Such trust in the Divine will make the unknown way a highway leading to fulfilments undreamt of.