A WRITER has said, “Some men glide among events like sand in a glass, bearing no trace of what they have passed through. They are no wiser for a hundred lessons, no more modest for a hundred failures, no more cautious for a hundred errors. Others pass through events like waters through the soil, carrying with them a tinge of all they traverse. On some life is lost; no circumstance can make them wiser. On others no event falls fruitless; there is for them no improvement and instruction in all things. To the unwise the past is an exploded match, that has flashed and missed, and is useless. To the wise the past is a steady light, shedding beams in the path of the future.” These are truthful words. A glance at the busy throng of men, in the thoroughfares of life, prove that thousands are no wiser nor better for having lived. The years, as they roll around, have neither voice nor language, lessons nor warnings, for them. They see no good therein. They hear no sound of Providence in the din of life. They feel no throb of joy that Jehovah reigns. The past is a blank leaf of Nature’s volume, without a line to be read, or a character to be interpreted. Perhaps they have experienced similar joy and sorrow again and again, without so much as asking what it means, or whether it has any meaning at all. Disappointment succeeds disappointment, loss, is added to loss, sickness to sickness, and death to death, and still they never learn. The dullest merchant was never half so dull in learning from his secular experience. The most stupid mechanic was never half so stupid in profiting by his success or failure. The most reckless speculator was never half so reckless of his interests and hopes. Here we may learn from the conduct of successful men in their trades and professions. Wise men learn something every day to profit them in their secular pursuits. The wise statesman derives some of his most practical and valuable lessons from the rise and fall of nations. The wise laborer avails himself of all the improvements of past days, in connection with his particular handiwork, to aid him in his calling. The wise merchant, in seasons of financial pressure, reverts to other crises experienced long ago, to enable him to meet present adversity. Is it less important to view the past with teachable spirits, in order to be qualified to live or die? When a fortune is sacrificed in a single day, shall man derive no other lesson from it than that of greater shrewdness in future? Or shall he rather learn that “riches take to themselves wings and fly away,” and that the only durable riches are spiritual and eternal. When his thoughts turn backward, shall he recognize only good and bad luck, as the worldling calls it, or shall he see the footsteps of Jehovah, and learn that “He putteth down one and setteth up another?” When he recalls hours of bodily suffering, shall he behold only the dire disease that wasted away his strength, or perceive, with grateful heart, the Almighty arm that raised him up to health? When recollection is busy over the drooping form of a loved one who has gone, shall he think only of inexorable death, or shall his thoughts rise to him by whom the “last enemy” shall be destroyed? These are thoughts that wisdom bids us ponder. In contrast with the thoughtless multitude who live but never learn, how beautiful the childlike faith of those righteous few to whom the past is replete with lessons from on high! To them every event and every moment of life has moral and spiritual significance. God is in all their experience. Their joys and their sorrows are alike ordered by infinite wisdom and goodness. They see God in the minutest event as well as in the most important—in a cup of cold water and the gift of pardon. It is he who sends the ten thousand little comforts that make up life, as well as the great gush of joy that sometimes pours like a river through the soul. Nothing is too small for him to notice—nothing too great for him to give. Blessed past to these children of faith and trust! There are Bethels, Zoars, pillars of cloud and walls of fire, all along the track of years, to remind them of the everlasting Guide, as oft as memory recalls the past. Earthly possessions may have been scattered to the winds; earthly hopes may have perished like summer flowers; dear friends may have gone to the grave; and a thousand sad experiences may have marked the passing year; but it is all right, since every occurrence is a teacher of wisdom from him who doeth all things well. Blessed past! we say again, to the trusting heart. Though worldly men may pronounce it worthless, the Christian cannot afford to live without its stern reality and friendly voice.—Sel.