LIFE IS A PRIVILEGELife is a privilege. Its youthful daysShine with the radiance of continuous Mays.To live, to breathe, to wonder and desire,To feed with dreams the heart’s perpetual fire,To thrill with virtuous passions, and to glowWith great ambitions—in one hour to knowThe depths and heights of feeling—God! in truth,How beautiful, how beautiful is youth!Life is a privilege. Like some rare roseThe mysteries of the human mind unclose.What marvels lie in earth, and air, and sea!What stores of knowledge wait our opening key!What sunny roads of happiness lead outBeyond the realms of indolence and doubt!And what large pleasures smile upon and blessThe busy avenues of usefulness!Life is a privilege. Though noontide fadesAnd shadows fall along the winding glades,Though joy-blooms wither in the autumn air,Yet the sweet scent of sympathy is there.Pale sorrow leads us closer to our kind,And in the serious hours of life we findDepths in the souls of men which lend new worthAnd majesty to this brief span of earth.Life is a privilege. If some sad fateSends us alone to seek the exit gate,If men forsake us and as shadows fall,Still does the supreme privilege of allCome in that reaching upward of the soulTo find the welcoming Presence at the goal,And in the Knowledge that our feet have trodPaths that led from, and must wind back, to God.
Life is a privilege. Its youthful daysShine with the radiance of continuous Mays.To live, to breathe, to wonder and desire,To feed with dreams the heart’s perpetual fire,To thrill with virtuous passions, and to glowWith great ambitions—in one hour to knowThe depths and heights of feeling—God! in truth,How beautiful, how beautiful is youth!
Life is a privilege. Like some rare roseThe mysteries of the human mind unclose.What marvels lie in earth, and air, and sea!What stores of knowledge wait our opening key!What sunny roads of happiness lead outBeyond the realms of indolence and doubt!And what large pleasures smile upon and blessThe busy avenues of usefulness!
Life is a privilege. Though noontide fadesAnd shadows fall along the winding glades,Though joy-blooms wither in the autumn air,Yet the sweet scent of sympathy is there.Pale sorrow leads us closer to our kind,And in the serious hours of life we findDepths in the souls of men which lend new worthAnd majesty to this brief span of earth.
Life is a privilege. If some sad fateSends us alone to seek the exit gate,If men forsake us and as shadows fall,Still does the supreme privilege of allCome in that reaching upward of the soulTo find the welcoming Presence at the goal,And in the Knowledge that our feet have trodPaths that led from, and must wind back, to God.