Jón Bjarnason Academy - 01.05.1935, Blaðsíða 42

Tonight as we stand on the threshold of life, we feel much as
those listeners must have felt. Our studies, our association
with the Academy—its ideals, its Faculty, may seem to he over—-
but truly we can say their influence, their, action, is not ended.
Difficult days lie ahead of us all, days that will test the sin-
cerity of our purpose, days that will declare the value of our
ideals and consciously or unconsciously we shall reproduce in
those days—-what we have assimilated in the past years and I
believe that then, if not before, we shall discover that we have
been given more than mere knowledge—more than instruction—
that our teachers have given to us also of themselves.
To say thank you for all that they have done for and been
to us, seems so pitifully inadequate, yet, we do say it in all its
simple sincerity—by our words—and pray that power may be
given to us for the days that lie ahead, that we may re-echo
that gratitude in our lives.
Again a class passes into a world that is askew. In spite of
man’s planning and human effort, we are still groping in
economic darkness, searching, it seems but vainly, for the gleam
that will lead us to security and peace. Voices call “Lo-here
is light” or “there is light” but most of them call to hearts too
tired to follow the elusive glimmerings of that “will o’ the wisp”
prosperity.
What can untried, untested youth bring to such a chaos?
We have no background of experience, no magic touch or sov-
ereign remedy. Despite the will to work which one of us has
any assurance of the chance, and yet I feel that we have our
contribution to make, a contribution this world can ill do with-
out. The contribution we can and must make is one of courage
and of hope, courage to those who own to defeat, courage to
strive again to take their place in the fight—and of hope for
those who battle grimly against ever increasing odds.
Nor must we be unmindful of the danger voiced by the
Apostle Paul who feared “that in saving others, he himself
would become a castaway.” Many and diverse disappoint-
ments will come our way, days of hope will be followed by weeks
of discouragement, yet we must hold fast to our purpose, sus-
tained by our ideals, strengthened by the knowledge that our
task cannot he done by anyone else—that God—the world is
counting on us.
So it is a solemn moment in our lives where we pause
tonight, more than a milestone, it is a boundary post, marking
our departure from the realm of theory to that of the ex-
perimental, the practical.
May we all, conscious as we are of our weaknesses strive
to live nobly, achieve greatly, that those who have given of
themselves so unsparingly to the task of our preparation, may
see the travail of their souls and be satisfied.
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