We are standing on the threshold, we are in the open door,
We are treading on a border land we have never trod before:
Another year is opening, and another year is gone,
We have passed the darkness of the night, we are in the early
morn:
We have left the fields behind us o'er which we scattered seed;
We pass into the future which none of us can read.
The corn among the weeds, the stones, the surface-mould,
May yield a partial harvest, we hope for sixty fold.
Then hasten to fresh labor, to thrash, and reap, and sow,
Then bid the new year welcome, and let the old year go—
Then gather all your vigor, press forward in the fight,
And let this be your motto, "For God, and for the right."
"As it is the characteristic of great minds to make many things be understood in few words; so little minds, on the contrary, have the faculty of speaking much but meaning little."
