The Living Word Awakened My Soul, Gave

Deep, Solemn Optimism, It Seems To Me, Should Spring From This Firm Belief In The Presence Of God In The Individual; Not A Remote, Unapproachable Governor Of The Universe, But A God Who Is Very Near Every One Of Us, Who Is Present Not Only In Earth, Sea And Sky, But Also In Every Pure And Noble Impulse Of Our Hearts.

Once I Knew The Depth Where No Hope Was And Darkness Lay On The Face Of All Things. Then Love Came And Set My Soul Free. Once I Fretted And Beat Myself Against The Wall That Shut Me In. My Life Was Without A Past Or Future, And Death A Consummation Devoutly To Be Wished. But A Little Word From The Fingers Of Another Fell Into My Hands That Clutched At Emptiness, And My Heart Leaped Up With The Rapture Of Living. I Do Not Know The Meaning Of The Darkness, But I Have Learned The Overcoming Of It.

Knowledge Is Power." Rather, Knowledge Is Happiness, Because To Have Knowledge - Broad, Deep Knowledge - Is To Know True Ends From False, And Lofty Things From Low. To Know The Thoughts And Deeds That Have Marked Man's Progress Is To Feel The Great Heart-throbs Of Humanity Through The Centuries; And If One Does Not Feel In These Pulsations A Heavenward Striving, One Must Indeed Be Deaf To The Harmonies Of Life.

If I Am Happy In Spite Of My Deprivations, If My Happiness Is So Deep That It Is A Faith, So Thoughtful That It Becomes A Philosophy Of Life. If, In Short, I Am An Optimist, My Testimony To The Creed Of Optimism Is Worth Hearing.

It Is For Us To Pray Not For Tasks Equal To Our Powers, But For Powers Equal To Our Tasks, To Go Forward With A Great Desire Forever Beating At The Door Of Our Hearts As We Travel Toward Our Distant Goal.