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A storey is told of Canute, the Danish King of England in the 11th century. One day, when he and his courtiers were walking on the shore Southampton, the courtiers were flattering him and speaking of his power and greatness. So the king ordered that a chair be placed on the sand near the water's , and, sitting down on it, he said to the sea, "O sea, I am thy lord and master; my ships sail over thee whither I will, this land against which thou dashest is mine; stay thou thy waves, and dare not to wet the feet of thy master and lord." But the waves on, as the tide was now coming in, and washed around the chair where Canute was sitting and wet his feet and clothes. Then the king rebuked courtiers for their flattery, saying, "Ye see how weak is the power of kings and all men, for ye see that the waves will not hearken to voice." "Do everything in the name of God alone; obey everything for Him alone."
We do not need this storey to remind us that we cannot control the of the sea, which wait upon no man's convenience. Still, we do often need to be reminded, especially when we are young, that if we miss opportunities in life, we may never find them again. Time will not stop and wait for us to make a decision; it is always moving forward, and moment the present becomes the past, and the past can never be recalled.
Time is often represented as an old man with a single lock of hair his forehead but quite bald on the back of his head, and from this we get the phrase, "To catch time by the forelock," meaning to and use the opportunity when it comes. You cannot catch time from behind because your head is bald and smooth, and you cannot recover an opportunity once it is .
It is well to remember this when we are young, for youth is full of opportunities and lasts only a very short time. For example, if a wastes his time at school, he is missing the golden opportunity of a sound education. And he will find later that he will suffer all his because he lacks the mental training he should have gotten at school. It is a chance that can never be fully recovered. The time for it has , and it will never return.