“Winter makes ready for the spring
By months of struggle and suffering;
And the victory won from the mortal strife
Strengthens the fibre and pulse of life.
How if the earth in its chill despair
Felt that the fight were too hard to bear,
Where were the bloom and the vintage then?
Where were the harvest for hungering men?”
If we had but one chance in life it would fare badly with most of us. We do scarcely anything perfectly the first time we try to do it. Nearly always do we fail. Not many lives are lived beautifully, without a break or a lapse, from childhood to age. If, therefore, the opportunity of choosing good came to us only once, and was then forever withdrawn, few of us would make anything of our life. We are in the habit of saying that opportunities never come twice to us
One writes,—
“Never comes the chance that passed:
That one moment was its last.
Though thy life upon it hung,
Though thy death beneath it swung,
If thy future all the way
Now in darkness goes astray,
When the instant born of fate
Passes through the golden gate,
When the hour, but not the man,
Comes and goes from Nature’s plan—
Nevermore that time shall be
Burden-bearer into thee.
Weep and search o’er land and main,
Lost chance never comes again.”
This is all true, but it is not the whole truth. No single opportunity comes twice, but other opportunities come. Though we have failed once, that is not the end. The past is irrevocable; but while there is even the smallest margin of life remaining, there is yet another chance.
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