Lost, forever lost, is the Confidence with which we used to go bounding into the New Year—as revellers hasten to the feast.
We have met the Unforeseen so often, have mourned where we thought to rejoice, been trampled upon amid the horrors of panic and defeat where we had so stoutly fought for victory and reward, that our hearts are sadly subdued, Father Time.
***
We did not SEEK this awful life-woe, Father Time.
Thrust, from some great outer darkness, into the hurly burly called Life, we gaze upward at the stars in helpless ignorance of what it all may mean; and some Irresistable Force pushes us, pushes us, swiftly, inexorably, onward to another outer darkness that fills us with speechless awe.
***
Have mercy on us, Father Time. We have been beaten with many stripes, and are covered with many wounds.
God! How we have suffered!
We knew nothing at the beginning, and we know but little now; and, for every lesson that we have learned, we have been made to pay in heart-aches and scalding tears.
Always struggling, often down, always anxious for the Morrow, often in torture Today, we have stumbled forward, Father Time, still looking for the smooth road and the sunny sky and the bright Companionship of Success and Peace.