Jón Bjarnason Academy - 01.05.1935, Blaðsíða 41

you? Or is the dauntless spirit of your ancestors stirring
slowly into wakefulness within you? May you be the worthy
successors of those brave men and women. May you meet and
conquer all obstacles as gallantly as they.
“Trust in thine own untried capacity.
As thou wouldst trust in God Himself. Thy soul
Is but an emanation from the whole.
Thou dost not dream that forces lie in thee,
Vast and unfathomed as the grandest sea.
Thy silent mind o’er diamond caves may roll;
Go seek them—but let pilot will control
Those passions which thy favoring winds can be.
No man shall place a limit in thy strength;
Such triumphs as no mortal ever gained
May yet be thine if thou wilt but believe
In thy Creator and thyself. At length
Some feet will tread all heights now unattained—
Why not thine own? Press on;
Achieve! achieve!”
Valedictory Address for Grade XI.
Delivered at the Graduation Exercises of Jon Bjarnason
Academy, June 3rd, 1935.
By HUGH MACFARLANE
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Faculty, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Some years ago, a celebrated Divine, in concluding an
address full of inspiration and challenge, gave utterance to this
arresting thought: “My sermon is over—but if it is of God—-
as I sincerely believe it to be—it is not ended. If you have
received it in the spirit in which I prayed you might receive
it—this sermon will have become part of you—and long after
my words are forgotten—and my voice is stilled in death—
this morning’s sermon will live on in your lives—reproducing
itself again and again.”
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