San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-03-11
The Loom of Time
BY ii. Arlington Bruce.

Rich or poor, lettered or unlettered,
employer or employe, there is one
task which everybody has to do. and
which he has to do all his days. He
perforce begins on it in his earliest
| years, and not until he draws his last
breath does his labor at it cease.
The greatest idler in the world
cannot evade this task.
He may flatter himself that he es-
capes work. in the sense that he is
without settled occupation. Yet in his
LATEST moments he is buslly engaged,
albeit perhaps without being in the
least aware of this, in toiling at the
one task it is the common lot of all
20 perform.
That task is putting a distinctive.
an individual pattern into the gigan-
tic fabric God has set mankind to
weave on the loom of time.
1t is fabric made up of the most
intangible of materials, yet materials
so tough that once a single strand is
inserted as it should not be, effort
truly herculean is needed to prevent
the weaver's special pattern from APP
pearing as an ugly blemish in the de-
sign of the whole. Feelings and de-
sires, thoughts and words. actions of
all sorts, are the materials employed.
and wondrous is the abundance of
these from which every weaver can
choose. ~ "3 F
Choice is made, some sort of choice,
every moment of every hour of waking
life.
1t is made whether one is in soli-
tude or in the densest of throngs. 1t
is made in every response to the vary
ing situations in which one finds ones
self throughout the earthly pilgrim
age.
According as the response is gov
erned by love or hate, generosity or
greed, unselfishness or selfishness,
kindness or cruelty. loyalty or treach-
cry. honesty or dishonesty. upright
ness or baseness, the choice is for
good or for i'll. If the choosing is
consistently and continuously for i'll.
the pattern one weaves is bound TO
become so hideous as to alright even
the weaver when the day of the
great inspection at last arrives.
And be sure there will be such
day. The loom of time was not given
man to work upon as one gives child
toy for his amusement. Nor was
man himself brought into the world
as a child might bring soap bubble
into fleeing, purposeless existence.
Heed not those, however, vOcifer-
ously they speak in the name of
science, who affirm the soap-bubble
doctrine of man and the universe.
Heed not the cynics maintaining the
futility of human striving. Heed not
the apostles of the pleasure gospel.
The prophets and the poets have
far clearer vision of truth than they,
a far firmer grasp of reality:
Life? and worth living?
Yes. with each part of us
Hurt of us, help of US, hope of US,
heart of us.
Life is worth living.
All. with the whole of us,
Will of us. brain of us, senses and
soul of us,
Is life worth living?
AYE. with the best Of us,
Heights of us. depths of us
Life is the test of us.
Only, remember, to none is long
given opportunity to work to good
on the loom of time.
All must learn how to work we'll |
on that loom. all are certain to make |
that need correcting. The
tragedy is that so many refuse to
learn 50 many leave mistakes I'M
corrected until life's working day is
done.
Copyright 1923. by The Associated
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