Excerpt from Fortieth Annual Report of the City of Keene: Containing Inaugural Ceremonies, Ordinances, and Joint Resolutions Passed by the City Councils, With Reports of the Several Departments for 1913 But today, Oh Father of Life, we are brought face to face with grave responsibility. To flee from it would'be cowardly; to perform it imperfectly or less perfectly than we might is shameful. If any man lived to himself or died to himself we might be able to bear the shame of our own folly; but the burden and joy of life is that we are not only responsible for our own lives' welfare but having been selected by our citizens to act in their stead, we are called upon to act for others and defend others' rights and-protect others' homes} Oh, God, to act in the name of others is so grave a matter, we need thy help. It is not sacrilege to call on Thee; wilt thou come into our lives and bless us.. Make us to be honest of heart and pure of motive. May it be the object of not a one to do other than the right thing. Give to us that measure of wisdom by which we may always know the right. Give us, Oh God, that portion of courage that we shall never fear the truth nor falter at the' doing of the right. Bless, we pray Thee, the mayor of our city. We thank Thee for his service already. Help him this year to defend the city's honor, honor that implies righteousness and morality. Bless the aldermen and common councilmen. Give them Thy spirit in all their deliberations. Help us, our Father, that together we may seek to make this the best year in our whole city life. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.