• Author: Unknown
• Editor: B-6591
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume 2
• Page Number:
• Date: 12 31 1913
• Tags:
• advice
• prison

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS ONLY ONE MAN accepted our general invitation to print New Year's resolutions sent to the Umpire and that man treated it as a joke, and he was right. All such resolutions made for that day are jokes. There is no doubt we can make a great many people at least temporarily happy by promising to be good, but the moment we break these promises there are heartaches and sighs, and wise ones say: "I told you so; he never will be any good." If any promises are to be made, make them to yourself. If you fail no one will be the wiser. If you succeed there will be a scramble among the humanitarians for the credit of your regeneration. If you can't keep faith and be honest with yourself, there is a mighty slim chance of your being so with anyone else. Good resolutions made at the behest of others don't amount to a row of pins, and are easily forgotten Your simple promise to be good, is not going to make you so. The writer knew a little boy who was always saying, "I'm gonna be good," and when he was forgiven for some childish transgression with a hug and a kiss, he invariably trotted away with a self-satisfied air to repeat his offense, confident that he had only to say, "I'm going to" and all would be well. Many of us are like that small boy, and people have lost patience with us and now demand that we show results, and in that they are right. "Mr. Moody, I am a reformed man since I heard you preach," said a man to the noted Evangelist one night, after service. "Humph " said Moody, "I would rather hear your wife on the subject of your reformation." People now days are like Moody, they want to see "the goods." The only things that count in this world today are results. We must "show" people—promises have proven to be dead wood for too many years, and it is now up to us to produce. "When I get out, I'm going to" — Nothing doing. It won't work; do it now. You have found many opportunities for doing bad in jail; look around and find some good things you can do. There are plenty of opportunities for you to practice on, and eventually you may get into the habit. It will be training, enabling you to start your life over with at least one asset of value. "Willie Green resolves to have that everlasting smile for the whole year of 1914." That was the one resolution sent to the editor, and the man could not have made a better one, providing the smile is to be accompanied by a twinkle in the eye. No man ever committed a wrong with a grin on his face and merriment flashing from his eyes. The perpetration of an evil deed is a serious business, without a particle of fun in it, and under no circumstance can it excite hilarity. Therefore to be on the safe side, smile, and keep on smiling. Learn wisdom from fools, and smile with ‘Willie Green."