Mr. Sill illustrates this truth in one of his poems, where, speaking of
the young, "led on by courage and immortal hope, and with the morning
in their hearts," he says:--
"They to the disappointed earth shall give
The lives we meant to live,
Beautiful, free, and strong;
The light we almost had
Shall make them glad;
The words we waited long
Shall run in music from their voice and song."
Mr. Whittier also suggests the same truth:--
"Others shall sing the song,
Others shall right the wrong,
Finish what I begin,
And all I fail of win.
"What matter I or they,
Mine or another's day,
So the right word be said
And life the sweeter made?"
So while we are alone in our responsibility we need give no thought for
anything but our own duty, our own little fragment of the Lord's work.
The things we cannot do some other one is waiting and preparing now to
do after the work has passed from our hand. There is comfort in this
for any who fail in their efforts, and must leave tasks unfinished
which they hoped to complete. The finishing is another's mission.
CHAPTER XVII.
SWIFTNESS IN DUTY.
"Life is a leaf of paper white,
Whereon each one of us may write
His word or two--and then comes night."
--LOWELL.
Many good people are very slow. They do their work well enough,
perhaps, but so leisurely that they accomplish in their brief time only
a fraction of what they might accomplish.
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