The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-01


| now to you become darkness? Alas, dear
friend, what avails this brooding Ger a
bighted past? win it make your defeat
| less crushing, will it make more bearable
| your humiliation?
But how, how" you ask, shall L escape
from this habit which holds me?" Forget
fulness Forgetting those things which are
behind, stretch forward to those things
which are before. There is yet a goal
which you can reach, there is still a prize
which you shall grasp, there is for you
high calling of God Everything which He
permits us to do is high, is worthy. Take
the things which come to you upon the
morrow, nay even the next hour; throw
your whole being into the accomplishment,
and you will soon in the course of days
awaken to the consciousness that self has
been forgotten, and by such self-oblitera-
ton true life has been found, and happi-
ness.
Again, we should not dwell unduly on our
griefs and sorrows. Sacred is grief dark
is the valley of the shadow. In the heart
of the one bereft of friend, g. loved one
is a great loneliness. Sorrow must have its
natural expression. But true grief is
selfish when the test comes. The test is
this: Has our sorrow for the beloved dead
is divine forgetfulness even of sorrow. 1t
is that forgetfulness which is merged into
helpfulness. Sorrow and grieving may be-
come selfish. 1t is so when it becomes alb
normal. 1t is abnormal when self pre-
dominates in the thought. Let us show our
sorrow for those who have left US, not by
Grape, but by the gontler spirit; not through
eyes dull with much weeping, but filled
with the divine light of a holier love; not by
inactivity and lack of interest in the pres
ent, but by steadier purpose, a more
faithful performance of every duty.
This is the tribute to the dead which is
enduring, which will outlast monuments of
granite. If we cherish our grief unduly our
hearts may become hardened and callous
to the sorrows of others The dead need
not our sorrow, for they are happy The
living need our hands and hearts Let us
look out toward the future. Let US forget
the pail, the CHASTITY terror, the awful 81
lence, the falling clod; let us forget those
things which are behind and look towards
those things which are before, for
already the sky of the future is tinged with
the light of a glory to be revealed. They
beckon us onward to fulfill the course, to
work nobly, to come towards them, which
we must inevitably do; but when at last
that upon our brows there shall be
the olive crown and in our hearts the prize;
for our reward, let US remember, is the
| high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
| And finally let us not dwell unduly on
| past sins. If sin has been committeeman
we all have sinned and come short of the
| glory of God'-sincere and absolute re-
| pentance is necessary to restoration to a
condition which can avail itself of divine
| favor. If sin has been committed and
reparation can be made, it must be given.
| If you have injured anothers reputation
unjustly or selfshly, all in your power
| should be done to set your victim right
with his fellow-men.
| But when once a true repentance, turn
| ing away from sin and all possible amends
| have been made, do not be haunted by the
| hateful memories of the darkened past
past which would present themselves at the
| feasts of light, and dim your joy; do not
cherish them as guests. They need not
your hospitality, you need not their haunt
| ing presence. We cannot afford to spend
time in unavailing sorrow for the sins of
the past, because that will rob us of the
| present opportunity 10 undo the past, and
! to make good our deficit.
And we may we'll believe that our Father
|
| What He would wish rather is the agrees
sive attempt to bring about the reign of
| righteousness in our own hearts and in the
hearts of our fellow-men. If He has cast
our sins, thus given up, into the depths of
| the sea of a loving forgetfulness, shall we
not take Him at His word? For If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
| forgive us our sins and to cleanse US from
all unrighteousness.'
Be thou filled with high and right desires
for the present and the future, and the low
desires and thoughts, like bats, will before
this new light betake themselves on hur-
ried wing to the darkness of oblivion.
Then will all remembrance of petty
triumph fade away, in the gladness of the
thought of being made co-workers with the
divine; in bringing out of the moral and
spiritual chaos of the present the beauti-
| full order of future perfection. Then will
our disappointments be but an ugly dream,
real yet dream compared with the actu-
! atty of accomplishing Gods purpose for us.
| Then will our griefS be too sacred for us To
unduly indulge, for they will be the sub
tie influences which bring us into the inner
circle of the eternities, helping us to appre-
bend even as we are apprehended. And
| above ALL will the gratitude of forgiven and
| forsaken sin urge US on to the realization
| in our lives of somewhat of the perfection
and the holiness of this high calling of our
| God