December 31
Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.--PHIL. iii. 13, 14.
Yet I argue not
Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer
Right onward.
J. MILTON.
It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is to be done,
but by making the best of what we are. It is not by complaining that we
have not the right tools, but by using well the tools we have. What we are,
and where we are, is God's providential arrangement,--God's doing, though
it may be man's misdoing; and the manly and the wise way is to look your
disadvantages in the face, and see what can be made out of them. Life, like
war, is a series of mistakes, and he is not the best Christian nor the best
general who makes the fewest false steps. He is the best who wins the most
splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes. Forget mistakes; organize
victory out of mistakes.
F. W. ROBERTSON.