--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Woodruff, J. Lloyd collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 6 number: 4 published: 1903-02 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'J. Lloyd Woodruff, "A New Year—A New Motto," *Improvement Era* 6, no. 4 (February 1903): 274–276.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0604unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0604unse start_page: 274 end_page: 276 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1903-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0604unse publication_year: 1903 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1903, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # A New Year—A New Motto A NEW YEAR—A NEW MOTTO. BY J. LLOYD WOODRUFF, SALT LAKE CITY. Nineteen hundred and three, with its wealth of opportunity, is here; twelve long months lie before us. Boys, what are we going to do with them ? I wish practically to ask this question of my younger brethren. What are our aims and ambitions ? What do we, in the coming year, hope to accomplish ? Seriously, ask your- self, "How have I employed my time in the past ?" More serious- ly, yes and prayerfully, too, ask, "How do I intend to employ my energies in the future ? Have you ever thought of the power the lives of others have upon us, especially the lives of those we place as standards worthy to be followed ? I believe there is in human nature a something which tends in a greater or less degree to hero-worship. We find this exemplified in the ancestral reverence of the Chinese; the mythological religions of the ancients; the deification of the saints and martyrs by some of the Christian churches today; and I feel safe in saying that if we look into our own hearts, we will find heroes and heroines to whom we look with a certain reverence, and whose deeds and lives we strive to emulate. To my mind there is nothing detrimental in this; provided always, that our heroes are of a type truly noble, whose deeds tend to make the world better. To my younger brethren, I would like to sound a note of warn- ing in this respect. It is, I believe, a fact that we can never be better than our aspirations, never reach a greater nobility than our ideals. Christ wished to impress this fact upon his disciples when he said, (Matt. 10: 24) "The disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord." This being true, how necessary is it for us to choose those who are indeed noble, as our examples ! I have heard it said, "It is better to aim at a mole hill than a star, as we can hit the hill, but can never hope to reach the star." I think, however, it is A NEW YEAR—A NEW MOTTO. 275 far better to aim high; if we do not hit the star, we will find that in our efforts to reach it, we have left the mole hill far behind us, and are stronger and better for having striven for something truly great. Look around among your young friends, note their lives and actions, and then ask them who they think the greatest man is that ever lived. Almost invariably you will see that their actions, to a greater or less extent, tend to create the type of man they admire. Show me a boy who thinks a prize fighter is the acme of manliness, and I will show you a boy who likes to wager and fight, and who will, if allowed to follow his inclinations, become a third or fourth rate fistic star. The boy who thinks the saloon loafer, with his questionable stories, uncouth joke and bad cigar, an enviable figure, will, when young, go around with a pencil or stick in his mouth for the now prohibited cigar. Later, he will be found behind the barn with a combination of wrapping- or news-paper and cedar bark to satisfy his craving for greatness, and perhaps a copy of "Forty Buckets of Blood," or "Dick, the Boy Bandit," to add spice to the situation. On the other hand, where boys and girls have good and great men and women, as their loadstones, we find they are striving to become better, trying day by day to overcome the little unsightly defects in their characters which form the gulf separating them from those to whose greatness they wish to attain. It is time that we should awaken to the possiblities that lie before us, and also to the responsibilities which do and will rest upon us. We are not as other people aie; we cannot afford to let the golden hours of our youth slip idly or sinfully by. We have been chosen of the Lord to do a great and mighty work, and it behooves us to put forth our strength and prepare ourselves for it. Other- wise condemnation will be at our doors. "Let us then be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait." In the annals of our Church, we have a galaxy of great and noble men and women from whom to choose our ideals; sons and daughters of God whose lives have been one long symphony to 276 A NEW YEAR—A NEW MOTTO. Jehovah, and whose deeds are written in the Lamb's book of life. But I would say, let us go farther, let us choose the highest stand- ard of purity the world has ever known. Why not take as the hero we will worship, the being whose life we will emulate, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master? Is this a star too high, too bright, and glorious for us to set as the standard we hope to attain ? No; for he himself said, "Be ye therefore perfect., even as your Father in heaven is perfect." And this perfection which he placed within our reach he esti.nated even higher than his own, for he said, "I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I." Read carefully his life, reflect upon his words, think of his deeds, try to conceive and feel the love he bestowed upon us, and you cannot help but love him. From the innermost depths of your soul, you will worship him. Let but this undefiled love once shed its rays on your heart, and you will sense the bitterness of worldly things, and will rise above the petty jealousies and hatreds that now so often mar our peace. Think of these things, my young brethren, let us make a cove- nant with each other from now on to better serve the Lord. Let us take the life of Christ as our standard, and never cease to bat- tle with ourselves while one unworthy thought, one selfish motive, remains unconquered. Would we really become Christ-like, we have many things to learn, and much to overcome. We must learn to love each other more unselfishly. We must be self-denying and helpful, keeping in mind that:— When we work for those around us, For ourselves we win a prize; Ladders that we build for others Are the ones by which we rise. And above all, we must learn never to trifle with the good name of another. I wish we, the young men of Zion, could adopt a motto something like this, "We do not speak unkindly of each other." When we have learned to so control ourselves that an idle tale derogatory to the fair name of friend or foe, never passes our lips, we will have made a great stride forward to that goal which Christ has set as one of the first laws of the Kingdom of Heaven, "Love thy neighbor as thyself."