Soul Greatness
Strong is the Soul, and wise, and beautiful;
The seeds of god-like power are in us still;
Gods are we, bards, saints, heroes, if we will.
—Matthew Arnold.
Making Most Of The Present
Time wears all his locks before,
Take thou hold upon his forehead;
When he flies, he turns no more,
And behind his scalp is naked.
Works adjourned have many stays,
Long demurs breed new delays.
—Robert Southwell.
Opportunity Speaks To The Awakened
They do me wrong who say I come no more
When once I knocked and fail to find you in;
For every day I stand outside your door,
And bid you wake and rise to fight and win.
Wail not for precious chances passed away,
Weep not for golden ages on the wane;
Each night I burn the records of the day,
At sunrise every soul is born again.
Laugh like a boy at splendors that have sped,
To vanished joys be blind and deaf and dumb;
My judgments seal the dead past with its dead,
But never bind a moment yet to come.
Though deep in mire, wring not your hands and weep,
I lend my arm to all who say: ” I can.”
No shamefaced outcast ever sank so deep
But he might rise and be again a man.
—Walter Malone.
Alternate Reading: James 2:14-26.