over and over again by assaults at the same point, and did not
strengthen its defences there! But that is exactly what you do; and all
the while, if you would only think about your own past lives wisely and
reasonably, and like men with brains in your heads, you might find out
where it was that you were most open to attack; what it was in your
character that most needed strengthening, what it was wherein the devil
caught you most quickly, and might so build yourselves up in the most
defenceless points.

Do not look back for sentimental melancholy; do not look back with
unavailing regrets; do not look back to torment yourselves with useless
self-accusation; but look back to see how good God has been, and look
back to see where you are weak, and pile the wall, higher there, and so
learn practical wisdom from retrospect.

Another phase of the practical wisdom which memory should give is
deliverance from the illusions of sense and time. Remember how little
the world has ever done for you in bygone days. Why should you let it
befool you once again? If it has proved itself a liar when it has
tempted you with gilded offers that came to nothing, and with beauty
that was no more solid than the 'Easter-eggs' that you buy in the
shops--painted sugar with nothing inside--why should you believe it
when it comes to you once more? Why not say: 'Ah! once burnt, twice
shy! You have tried that trick on me before, and I have found it out!'
Let the retrospect teach us how hollow life is without God, and so let
it draw us near to Him.

The last thing that I would say is: 'Let us remember that we may hope.
It is the prerogative of Christian remembrance, that it merges into
Christian hope. The forward look and the backward look are really but