Chapel talk, 1978

Excerpt from remarks delivered by Dean Alice E. Johnson

Dean Johnson delivered these remarks as a guest preacher at Harkness Chapel on Dec. 10, 1978. She warned her listeners to make good use of their time on earth because they have only one chance to live.

“Use what talents you possess. The woods would be very quiet if only those birds sang who sing the best.” — Henry Van Dyke

Whether you are a genius granted five talents and, therefore, eligible for Harvard, Yale or Princeton graduate school; or whether you are a slightly above average person with two strings or talents to your bow; or whether you are — as is true of most of us, a limited one-talent individual — whatever you are, it is your duty to enlarge upon the gift or gifts bestowed on you.

If you fail to do as the birds in the woods — that is, fail to make a joyful sound with what you have been given — you will end up as did the man who was given one talent and then buried it in the ground: You will be cast out into the outer darkness amidst much weeping and gnashing of teeth. In modern collegiate parlance, one might say, “This was a man who failed to live up to his potential.” He never made any attempt to lift up his voice and be heard. That was his fatal error….

How many of us can honestly say we have never squandered a single talent we possessed? How many of us can honestly say we have never buried a potential ability we had that could have meant special achievement? How often do we forget that “there is no work, nor desire, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave.” The buried talent, then, is laid within a grave of our own making. Only by letting our voices be heard — or by allowing our little light, however small, to shine — only by making the effort to use our talents will we be able to justify our lives.…

Those talented birds who refuse to use the gifts they have been given will discover too late that only one short span of time for achievement is ever granted. There are no second chances, which makes the life we have more precious.