God's world of nature is full of
romantic possibilities.

And God's world of men is infinitely more so, and one of life's
delights is to know it and look forward to it guessing what we shall
be. Outlook. Vision. That is what gives zest to life. That is what
we need to make life bright and beautiful.

* * * * *

I see a group of small boys sitting at their play, and their eyes are
bright looking into the future. They are going to be soldiers, and
sailors, and circus riders, and travelers, and all sorts of things.
Because they are boys with the enthusiasms of boyhood, they may be
anything. All the possibilities of boyhood belong to them. It doth
not yet appear what they shall be, but it is delightful to look forward
and speculate about it.

* * * * *

I see them again a dozen years later. They are starting in life, just
left college, young soldiers and lawyers and curates and business
men--still with their visions and dreams of the future. It doth not
yet appear what they shall be, but because they are young men, all that
belongs to young manhood lies before them, as they look forward in
their day-dreams. What countries they shall live in and what girl they
shall marry, and what positions and what work, and what excitements,
and what pleasure lie before them. Ah, it is delightful to be young,
realizing the possibilities in front--dreaming of what we shall be.

* * * * *

I see a crowd of older people, men and women dull, uninterested. "We
are no longer young," they say, "we are middle-aged or elderly. And we
have ceased looking forward. We have lost the vision. We have not
become as great as we expected, or as good as we expected. We are
fairly comfortable. We have not much to complain of. But life is a
bit dull. The path is a bit monotonous now. We have traversed most of
it. We can see to the end. There are no more romantic possibilities
to make life exciting, no more visions of 'what we shall be.'"

* * * * *

Don't believe it! Not a word of it. The visions are there all right.
Look out over the wall. This life of yours is only one of the stages
in your career, and not the first stage, either. The first came to
you, silent, unconscious, "where the bones do grow in the womb of her
that is with child." There you grew and developed for the next move
forward. One day came the crisis of birth and you pa