Let us forget the little slights that pained us,
The greater wrongs that rankle sometimes yet;
The pride with which some lofty one disdained us
Let us forget.
Let us forget our brother's fault and failing,
The yielding to temptation that beset,
That he perchance, tho grief be unavailing,
Can not forget.
But blessings manifold, past all deserving,
Kind words and helpful deeds, a countless throng,
The fault o'ercome, the rectitude unswerving,
Let us remember long.
The sacrifice of love, the generous giving,
When friends were few, the hand-clasp warm and strong,
The fragrance of each life of holy living,
Let us remember long.
Whatever things were good and true and gracious,
Whate'er of right has triumphed over wrong,
What love of God or man has rendered precious,
Let us remember long.
So, pondering well the lessons it has taught us,
We tenderly may bid the year "Good-by,"
Holding in memory the good it brought us,
Letting the evil die. (Text.)
—Susan E. Gammon, Christian Advocate.
(2245)
Omens—See Superstition.
OMNISCIENCE
Here is a sentiment of the Psalms repeated in distant Japan by one who, perhaps, had never read about the all-seeing One who "understandeth our thoughts afar off":
Take heed unto thyself; the mighty God
That is the soul of nature, sees the good
And bad that man in his most secret heart
Thinks by himself, and brings it to the light.
(Text.)—Her Majesty the Empress Haruko
of Japan. Translated by Arthur Lloyd.
(2246)
There was in my regiment during the Civil War—I was chaplain—a certain corporal, a gay-hearted fellow and a good soldier, of whom I was very fond—with whom on occasion of his recovery from a dangerous sickness I felt it my duty to have a serious pastoral talk; and while he convalesced I watched for an opportunity for it. As I sat one day on the side of his bed in the hospital tent chatting with him, he asked me what the campaign, when by and by spring opened, was going to be. I told him that I didn't know. "Well," said he, "I suppose that General McClellan knows all about it." (This was away back in 1861, not long after we went to the field.) I answered: "General McClellan has his plans, of course, but he doesn't know. Things may not turn out as he expects." "But," said the corporal, "President Lincoln knows, doesn't he?" "No," I said, "he doesn't know, either. He has his ideas, but he can't see ahead any more than General McClellan can." "Dear me," said the corporal, "it would be a great comfort if there was somebody that did know about things"—and I saw my chance. "True, corporal," I observed, "that's a very natural feeling; and the blest fact is there is One who does know everything, both past and future, about you and me, and about this army; who knows when we are going to move, and where to, and what's going to happen; knows the whole thing." "Oh," says the corporal, "you mean old Scott!"—Joseph H. Twichell.
(2247)
Omnipresence, A Wrestle with—See Children's Religious Ideas.
One Idea, The Man With—See Engrossment
in Business.
ONE, WINNING
In St. John's Church, in the little town
of Beverley, England, one stormy evening in
December, 1853, a meeting of the church
missionary society was being held at which
a scant audience was present, including just
one young man, who on the Sunday previous
had been particularly invited to attend. The
vicar of the church, the Rev. A. T. Carr,
suggested a postponement, but the speaker, a
venerable rector of a near-by town, replied
that those who had braved the storm were
entitled to hear the message intended for
them. The service over, that lone young
man trudged homeward, when the thought
came to him: "I was the only young man
there. Why should not I become a missionary?
May not the Lord have something
for me to do in heathen lands?" The resolution
was made. That young man was
