DARING THE DIFFICULT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 139, 13 June 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

DARING THE DIFFICULT.

(By' DR. DON. D. .TULLIS.) .Nothing is so interesting'as the stor\ of a human life. He is a great writer who can relate it well. Most biographers are too prodigal. They require volumes to recite what they do not lii'.ow about their subjects. As a re-'.:.- they often hide rather than reveal character. Men like Washington and Lincoln would not be able to recognise their own portraits in the profusion and confusion of their biographical galleries. Of all literature, the Bible contains the best biographies. They are unique in understanding and brevity. One of them is complete in 17 words. "Beniah, the son of a, valiant man, slew a lion in a pit on a snowy day." That's all, but it is enough to give the reader an understanding of his heroic lineage, his giant physique, his determined will and his spirit of victorious endeavour in the face of impossible handicaps. Beniali's father was a valiant man. Blood does tell. Cowards do not beget heroes, nor heroes cowards. Somewhere, back of every great character is another great character. In the progress of the human family greatness is recurrent and never recent. More striking than Beniah's background is his foreground. He dared the difficult. He fought in the face of handicaps. It is not easy to slay a lion under favourable circumstances, but to accomplish such a feat in a pit, with all escape cut off, and on a snowy day, when the fool''"? is uncertain, is a mark of unconquerable character. This is exactly the experience of millions during the trying days of the past half decade. Loss, unemployment and uncertainty, have threatened everywhere. Those who have lacked Beniah's valour liave slain themselves rather than face forbidding situations. But for every one who has given up, thousands have stood up and wrestled tirelessly with their problem in pits with unscalable walls and on floors slippery with the snows of many bitter winters of despair. Hats off to the men and women everywhere who have slain their lion in a pit on a snowy day. Whether the particular arena of their conflict has been the office or shop, the home, church or school, the streets of a metropolis or the fields of the country side —more power to them. They are the pledge of America's to-morrow. —X.A.N.A. Service.