BY MARY ROWLES.
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A Happy New Year, and a new beginning For hands that have wavered and steps that fall; New time for toil and new space for winning The guerdon of happiness free to all. Now hope for the souls long clouded over With possible sorrows and actual pain; New joys for comrade, and friend and lover, The year is bringing them all again! New days and hours for the patient building Of noble character, pure and true; For faith and love, with their radiant gliding, To make the temple of life anew. A Happy New Year, and a truce to sadness, Its every moment by God is planned; Whatever may come, whether grief or gladness, Must come aright from a Father's hand. He blessed the old in its dawning—thenceforth His love was true to us all the way, And now in the hitherto shines the henceforth, And out of the yesterdays smiles to-day. We would have power In this year to brighten Each lot less blessed and fair than ours; The woe to heal, and the load to lighten, The waste soul-garden to plant with flowers. May every day be a royal possession To high-born purpose and steadfast aim, And every hour in its swift progression Make life more worthy than when it came. |