THE BACKWARD GLANCE

Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as be that putteth it off.  1 Kings 20:11.

     Well, here I am at last, looking backward further than I can see forward. I am not yet in heaven, and it is possible even at my age to slip and become a sad disappointment to God and men, as others have done. But I suppose I ought to be able to give some advice to young preachers.

     Oh, what an army of ministers there would have been, had all those remained true and faithful who began preaching when I did more than forty years ago! Some of them, for a while, far eclipsed me in ability and possibility. They climbed much faster and higher, but because they did not die out completely and keep dead they tumbled and landed on the scrap heap of misused and abused talents. I feel like weeping: "How are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the uncircumcised Philistines rejoice."