Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1877-01-23
For the SPECTATOR.
Thoughts Suggested by the New Year,
1877.
BY VIRGINIA..

Compared with the brilliant qualities
daring and active enterprise, patience
seems but a tame and negative virtue.
To the ardent, emotional temperament,
how much more difficult it is to wait
than to act To bid the hand fall pas
sively to the side, when extended to
grasp the long striven-for prize, de-
mands an amount of self-control and
patience that only the christian can
gain from persistent prayer and all
conquering faith. To many of us, doubt
less, the New Year brings glad fruition
of long cherished hopes-an assured
possession of the hearts fond idol-but
to many others, the waiting time must
still go on, and patience, sublime and
God-like patience, must be our motto
for 1877.
O, live thou in world like this
And thou shalt know ere long;
How sublime thing it Is
To suffer and be strong.
Since it is to be our Years motto, let
US inscribe it proudly upon our banner,
engrave it deeply upon our hearts, and
practice it every day of the year, whose
untried paths will surely bring us much
to test us.
"The brightest suns that dawn on earth,
And gild the brow of morning;
Are those that give the tempest birth,
With short but fearful warning.
Must the course of human joy,
Be ever thus uneven?
Is there no bliss without alloy2
None-none-save bliss in heaven
ssIt is the greatest courage to be able
to bear the imputation of want Of
courage" said Henry Clay, who has
also left us the sublime sentence, II had
rather be right than be President. y
Amid the turmoil of political life, the
agitations of social and individual life,
such sentences as these are only the
Yoiceless echoes of lips silent in the
majesty of death.
There are times of deepest sorrow
In the seasons Of our life;
There are wild, despairing moments
There are hours of mental strife;
There are times Of stony anguish,
When the tears refuse to fall;
But the waiting time. my darling.
Is the hardest time of all.
Youth and love are ever patient,
Seeking things beyond their reach;
And the heart grows faint with hoping
, Ere it learns what life can teach;
For before the fruit be gathered,
We must see the blossoms fall;
Oh! the waiting time, my darling,
Is the hardest time of all!
Loving once, and loving ever
1t is sad to watch for years,
For the light whose fitful shining,
Makes a rainbow of our tears;
1t is sad to count at morning,
All the hours till even-fall;
But the waiting time, my darling,
Is the hardest time of all,
We can bear the heat of conflict,
Though the sudden. crushing blow,
Beating back our gathered forces,
For moment lays us low;
We can rise again beneath it,
None the weaker for our fall,
But the waiting time. my darling,
Is the hardest time Of all.
For it wears the eager spirit,
AS the salt waves wear the stone;
And Hopes gorgeous garb grows thread-bare
TIL Its brightest tints are gone,
Then amid ifess radiant tresses. +
Silent SHOWS begin to fall;
Oh! the waiting time, my darling,
Is the hardest time of ALL
"Yet at last we learn the lesson,
That God knoweth what Is best,
And silent resignation
Max es the spirit calm and blest;
For perehance the day is coming,
In the changes Of our fate,
When our hearts will thank HIM meekly,
That HE taught US how to wait"
"OPEKIsKA,'' W. Va, New Years Day, 1877.