How unnecessary is belief in a so-called past, and yet how often are men tempted to dwell there instead of in the eternal now of Spirit!
Paul, so well comprehending the evils that beset men in their Christian journey, pointed the resolute way of freedom when he wrote to the Philippians, "Forgetting those things which are behind, ... I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Of all who may have had cause to regard the past with regret, had any greater cause to do so than Paul? According to his own testimony, had he not been "a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious"? But Paul saw that the evil of the past had been the work of ignorance and intolerance, and that to spend his time in self-reproach and self-condemnation in relation to the past would but be to continue the evil work in another way. In other words, any time misspent in mere remorse would be much better spent in doing the works of Truth and Love, and thus in atoning for past mistakes through good works.
