Looking Backward and Forward
By T. H. Jeys
Another year of probationary time has almost run its course. Soon we shall have come up to the beginning of another year of privilege and opportunity. As we look back through the months, we shall see many mistakes, many weaknesses, many failures. Our hearts will be made sad as we contemplate the defeats and sorrowful endings of many enthusiastically laid plans. And yet our minds should not be wholly given up to the retrospective. We are not only to look backward, but “forgetting the things that are behind,” we are to look forward with hope and faith and courage. We are to ask for strength for future conflicts, wisdom for coming perplexities, ability for the battles that lie still beyond. We may view the past only that we may avoid its mistakes in the coming days. We may contemplate our sins and weaknesses only that we may give them to one who has bought them. We may look at our own broken plans, only that we may lay them down at the feet of him who doeth all things well. Concerning the future we may not take counsel by the past. New experiences, new achievements, new victories, are to be prayed for, hoped for, expected. We are to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest. We are to labor earnestly to see that our own prayers are answered. We are to give our means and ourselves that the work may be done. We are to shake ourselves free from the lethargy of the enchanted ground. We are to cease to be harrassed by the old doubts and fears. We are to pray that wisdom may be given for every trial, strength for every temptation, power for every struggle. We are to look out on the world lying in wickedness, and cry mightily to God to finish the work and cut it short in righteousness. Then we shall nerve ourselves for the mighty struggle, and go forth to the last great conflict conquering and to conquer.