Confess your faults One to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. James 5:16.

     Webster says that a "mistake is an error in opinion or judgment; misconception, and deviation from propriety." That we all have made mistakes none will deny. Some of these have been more serious than others.

     The principal difference between a mistake and a sin lies in the fact that the intention is pure in the one, but not in the other. Though perhaps a mistake may not incur the divine displeasure, yet it may hurt one's influence and bring havoc to the work of God. For this reason we should pray for grace and wisdom to be kept not only from sinning, but as far as possible from making blunders. The more conscientious one becomes, the more aggravating will appear even his mistakes.

     The writer can testify of a truth that his mistakes have been greater sources of mortification than many of the sins of his former life. Notwithstanding the fact that they have been grievous to me, I dare not waste time, or please the devil, mourning over them, but will believe God to so overrule them that, in the end, others along with myself may get more good and His name receive more glory than had they never occurred.

     To relate a few of them (for their name is Legion) may lower me in the reader's estimation, but if he can profit at my expense and thereby avoid similar errors, I will hope that, like Samson, I may accomplish more through my blunders than through my seeming successes.