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More
from and about
Henry Van Dyke
(biographical info at bottom of page) |
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To
desire and strive to be of some service to the world, to aim at
doing something
which shall really increase the happiness and
welfare and virtue of humankind--this is a choice which is possible
for all of us; and surely it is a good haven
to sail for. |
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Are
you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and desires
of little children; to remember the weaknesses and loneliness of
people
who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love
you,
and to ask yourself if you love them enough; to bear in mind the
things
that other people have to bear on their hearts; to trim your lamp
so
that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in
front so
that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your
ugly
thoughts and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate
open? Are you willing to do these things for a day? Then you are ready
to
keep Christmas!
One that plants a
tree is a servant of God, that person provides a kindness for many
generations, and faces that he or she has not seen shall bless
that person.
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To be glad of life, because
it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up to the
stars; to be satisfied with your possessions, but not contented with yourself
until you have made the best of them; to despise nothing in the world except
falsehood and meanness, and to fear nothing except cowardice; to be governed by
your admirations rather than by your disgusts; to covet nothing that is your
neighbors' except their kindness of heart and gentleness of manners; to think
seldom of your enemies, often of your friends and every day of Christ; and to
spend as much time as you can with body and spirit, in
God's out-of-doors--these are the little guideposts on the footpath of peace.
A
friend is what the heart needs all the time.
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There is a
loftier ambition that to stand high in the world. It is to
stoop down and lift humankind a little higher.
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There
is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful
temperament.
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Remember, what you
possess in the world will be found at the day
of your death to belong to someone else, but what you are will be
yours forever. |
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It
is better to burn the candle at both ends, and in the middle,
too, than to put it away in the closet and let the mice eat it. |
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Use
what talents you possess; the woods would be very
silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. |
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Time
is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear,
too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice,
but for those who love, time is eternity. |
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| Born
November 10, 1852, in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and educated in
theology at Brooklyn Polytechnic, Princeton, and Berlin, Henry Van
Dyke
worked twenty years as a minister, first in Newport, Rhode Island,
from
1879 to 1883 and next in New York until 1899. His Christmas
sermons, his essays, and his short stories made him a popular
writer. His poems
reveal a classical education as well as a common touch in matters
of
faith. He became Professor of English Literature at
Princeton in 1900. During World War I he acted as American Minister to the
Netherlands (1913-16) and then naval chaplain, for which he was awarded the
Legion of Honour. He died April 10, 1933.
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