, and to guide
us into the ways of thinking and acting which are better than those we
followed before. And if so, then they will do their work only when they
are themselves relatively forgotten in the new life to which they
introduce us.

The gardener prunes the vine that it may bring forth more fruit. He
cuts off useless branches that others may replace them, stronger and
fresher; and the pruning is to be forgotten in the ripening clusters
that are gathered in consequence of it. The gold is refined that the
alloy may be disengaged from union with the precious metal; and when
the latter is purified, its worth far exceeds the trial through which
it had to pass. And who of us cannot glean from our own lives
illustrations of a like character? Looking back through the mist of
years, we can recall the failures that at the time nearly broke our
hearts; losses that nearly crushed us, but which it now requires a
positive effort to remember, so completely have they merged into the
life for which Providence meant them to qualify us. Those gloomy days
were meant to be forgotten. They were meant to merge into a nobler
life. They were like the sharp pain of a surgeon's knife--the pain soon
passes away, but the benefit of it remains. God never meant them to
linger as phantoms in our memories, to absorb our thought and claim our
sole attention. He meant them to make us patient, and stronger for
other tasks, for the doing of which this discipline was required.

We should be very careful, however, to drown our pains and sorrows not
in selfish work and pleasures, but in Christian work and in the joys of
Christian service. Let us use no intoxicating cup to cover with
oblivion our troubles and cares. Some plunge even into actual
dissipation that they may kill the sting of memory. Others resort to
business and social pleasures. But then the forgetfulness is
short-lived and bitter, and you truly add new causes for further regret
in years to come. It is worth our while to forget our trials and
sorrows, if we do so by becoming absorbed in better living and in
Christian work. Go out of thyself and serve others. Forget thyself in
thinking of thy fellow-men. Reach forth unto the things that are before
thee. Help the unfortunate. Raise up the fallen. Teach the ignorant.
Keep thy mind busy with useful thoughts. Give thy brain and hand to
useful toil. Forget thy own pains and griefs in ministering to those
which others have. It will then indeed be