A Student's Prayer
FRESHMAN ENGLISH COURSE REVEALS REMARKABLE THEME BY STUDENT
THEODORE C. SEILER '46, now in thearmed forces, wrote this sensitive themefor his English 1 course under ProfessorDavid Lambuth, We are glad of the privilege of publishing it here.
I HAVE COME TO A BEND in the road of life and in the days soon to follow destiny will lead me into the midst of a violent struggle where the lives of men are of little consequence; where death, the great reaper, is sovereign. Human life is being hurled unflinchingly into the jaws of de struction in a valiant effort to preserve an ideal and I wish to offer my life, if need be, in defense of this ideal.
The present semester will bring to a close the cherished dream of a life time. My family and I have worked and planned from my earliest years so that I might benefit from an education at an Eastern College. I have had only a brief moment here at Dartmouth, but that moment has been one of the finest experiences in my life and as I go forth from these halls which I so proudly entered only yesterday, I have but one small thing to leave behind. I am not much on prayer making and I know nothing of the correct church procedure for such an undertaking, but I wish to leave the following thought with the men of Dartmouth who are staying on and with those who will follow long after I have left. In every corner of the earth where men still cherish love more than hate, generosity more than greed, liberty more than oppression, and God above all, let my humble prayer and millions of others like it, be heard over the fury of the blast.
Almighty God, give once more unto this dark, tortured earth the blessing of thy holy light. Lead us out from the valley of death into the land of hope and glory. Give unto our children the dreams, the hopes, and the experiences which have been so cruelly torn from our souls. Give unto them minds which know not the confusions, the upheavals, and the uncertainties that have plagued us through all our days. Oh, God, grant unto them a renaissance of life that they may profit by their associations with great institutions of learning; that they may set forth upon the road of life with courage in their hearts, strength in their bodies, knowledge and wisdom in their minds, the love of God and humankind in their souls. Let them not be tormented by greed, jealousy, and oppression. Let them be free to dream their dreams, to build their castles, to pursue their ideals impeded not by the discord of a disrupted world.
Help us, oh God, who live today in a stricken world, to find the strength and the courage to tri umph over the evil which shrouds our lives; to bring peace once more upon the earth that our children may flourish in the goodness of life. Make us to fear not in our darkest hour. Make us to go forward courageously to grapple with death, if need be, to preserve our ideal. Let never the fear of defeat be upon us, but always the assurance of victory. Guide thou our way, make strong our hearts.
It is much that we ask oh, Lord. More perhaps than mankind deserves, but we ask it nevertheless. Forsake us not in our gravest hour. We who lay down our lives today for the evils of our fathers, have come to a greater realization of thy name and of the eternal skein of things. Protect us and guide us oh, Lord, for we dare not fail, we must not fail, we will not fail. God, grant us all this, not for ourselves, but for those who are to follow—for our children. Amen.
