A Happy New Year! A Happy New Year to all! How our hearts are thrilled at the greeting's from one whom we love! How much happiness and brightness they bring! But there are those in the world who are sad and in want, whose hearts are heavy and their lives shut in. Shall we not send our greetings to them, shall we not send a ray of light, of loving sympathy to all lands, to all peoples, to all the little ones of the earth, to all cities, to the dark places of the earth, the crowded tenements, the prisons, the hospitals?
Yes, we say a Happy New Year, a loving Greeting to you, Americans, Europeans, Asiatics, Australasians, Africans, to you, civilized nations, and to you savages. To you, dear children of every race. To you who labor with your hands, to you who are weary and bowed down, to you who are unfortunate knowing not whither to turn, to you who are in prison, to you who are sick and diseased.
Shall we greet only those whom we love and who love us — truly we send loving greetings to them but so too we send loving greetings to those who do not love us, who may have forgotten what love is, who may be our enemies, perchance enemies to themselves also.
We will encircle the whole earth with our Greetings, we will exclude no one.
We will send forth the welcome of Brotherhood to all Nature and speak to the heart of every creature.
How much a single word may mean! Are you poor, dear reader, poor in material things and in this world's goods? Many a one has these things and yet is not rich. Ah! no one is so poor that he cannot lighten another's sorrow or give a kind word, a sympathetic look or a friendly hand-shake and so, it may be, awaken new courage, new hope, new light in the heart of one of the sad ones of the earth.
No one is so poor that he has not some of the treasures of the heart. You may have forgotten their existence, they may be covered up with selfishness, pride, ambition, but they still exist in your heart of hearts. Did you know their value and their power you would bring them forth. Forget, if but for one brief moment, yourself; send out if but one loving thought to others; live for one short instant for your fellows.
The years pass ever silently on with their swift tread, never to return. That which we call the year 1897 has passed, 1898 is here, but how many thousands, millions of years have rolled over our earth since man was man, and still the goal is far off. Far off and yet how near, nearer, much nearer than man may think. So near that but the reaching out of the hand is needed to grasp it — a reaching out to grasp the hand of thy Brother man with the strong grasp of Brotherhood.
Each year glides into the past with its freight of good and ill, each new year comes from the future with its possibilities and promises. What of the past, what of the future? Much has been accomplished in the past year. In all lands souls are awakening to their divine possibilities, in all lands the cry and the welcome of Brotherhood has gone forth. The great cycle is nearly ended, the century draws to its close. But two years more and the XXth Century will be born. Will you greet it with your faces turned toward the light, helpers and workers in humanity's cause, or will you enter upon its threshold seeking what you can gain for self, ambitious, proud, selfish? Choose, there is no time to delay, choose now; make your choice and so act. The work of the past year has been mainly along interior lines; much still remains to be done in this direction. The inner attitude, the inner purpose and motive is being brought to the surface, and to each is given the opportunity to face himself, to know himself as he is, and the opportunity to take the first step to become that which he may be — a worker for humanity — or, the opportunity neglected, a worker for self. Look then not merely at the external results achieved or to be achieved, but look within, into your own heart, see the divine possibilities latent within yourself and every man, seek to realize them, let light and love shine forth in every deed, every word, every thought.
Send with me a loving greeting to all humanity and kind thoughts to all creatures.
A Happy New Year.
J. H. Fussell
FOOTNOTE:
1. Through the pressure of new business connected with the Movement all over the world, and the development of plans of work for the new year, Mrs. Tingley was prevented from writing the usual matter for the Search-Light, but being still anxious that her New Year's greeting should go forth to all readers of UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD, she desired me to embody her ideas in connection therewith for that purpose, and I have endeavored to do so as faithfully as possible. — J. H. F. (return to text)