. Which of these things are you? Look over
the past year. Have you been ready for duty? Is your testimony always
"ripe"--ready for the opportunity? Are you ready for service of any kind?
If you have been a sponge, quit being one. Quit now. Get God to make
something better of you. If we are not now sponges, we can soon become so
by neglect of duty. The only safe way is to keep pouring out.

TALK FIFTY-NINE. THE FINAL RETROSPECT

There is a new grave in the cemetery today. An hour ago the sad-hearted
mourners, with fast-falling tears, looked for the last time upon that
familiar face. The light has gone out of the eye, and the sound of the
voice is stilled forever. "Finis" has been written at the close of his
life's story. He no longer is.

A few days ago he realized that the end was drawing nigh. Before that he
had looked forward, and it seemed to him that his life might run on for
years. But it was not so to be. The death-angel drew near, and he heard
the sound of its coming wings. He then began to look backward, to see his
life as a completed whole. He could now see life in its true light; for
life does not appear the same when we look back upon it from the end as it
does when our gaze is turned forward in the busy hurry of the days of
health. When one is brought to the brink of the grave, life takes on a
different aspect; it appears in its true perspective. We are usually so
absorbed in the present that the past and the future have little place in
our thoughts. Most lives are lived, not according to any plan or purpose,
but according to the fleeting influence of the present moment.

Reader, you and I are on the path to the cemetery. Some day, and it may
not be far off, we shall look back over our lives from the end. Day by
day, often with but little thought, we are building the structure of our
lives. Yesterday we laid the foundation of today, and today we lay the
foundation of tomorrow. Unless we lay a good foundation and build well
thereon, when we look back upon our lives at the last we shall find much
to regret. The wood, hay, and stubble of selfish works and selfish
purposes will be burned up in the fire that will try every man's work.

How much of the selfish element enters into most lives! The ambition, the
labor, the planning, is for self. If self prospers, what else matters? If
self has ease and comfort, what matters it about others? If self is
pleased, is not that enough? Self seems to be the mai