SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1648, 30 September 1903, Page 81 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

' Clergymen and all interested in religious work are invited to send news items and other contributions suitable for ‘publication in this column to “Mizpah,” care of EJditor “New Zealand Mail,” Wellington.

JN THE REALMS'OF THE FROSTS 1 .

("By a Banker.) Far off, and away in the frigid domains of eternal cold, gripped tight in the -icy hug of •'biting, ceaseflejst% frosts,, and face to face with a- mighty gelid -'barrier/of sojlid ice, towering high towards . the heavy leaden skies, is a valiant band of heroes who, year, after year, have been essaying' to reach that new object of the explorer’s ambition, ; the (South Pole, Through the long, •deadly winter, pliinged day and night in cu^OTian;);.darkjLihss : jV' frnaonsf ;bliiz- ; '_whir|wi.nd of frozen snow', which sniites them /as though iferfwere .A tempest of - missives hiirled .from'spme , angry volcano; their good ship “Discovery” • shrouded - deep in an ever descending .. showy- avalanche, every mast, every rope, encased in a thick sheathing of ice,, there these brave -mem while away . the heavy time in a deadly monotony, '-^onily ; brokenby. ever recurring /tempests /-tl its long; nbseric in ore for h few dead world, a very wilderness of upC." /grinding Hoes, a4I covered deep by the driven snow ; the entiro < frozen prospect vvi thout vestige of life,,a grim and deathly stricken realm. _ * And then, leaving their wintry home, v : : they start on tlieir sledges, drawn h.v. a score of hardy dogs, on a. long andydreaiy;; journeyi ov)eir |.^he:,d^eit;^;Mipwy ; : - wast#, in order to attain the summit of . their: ambition/ and plant ‘ the British ; flag the world. But, one after the Other, / the wholo of the wretched, shivering animals succumb to the piercing cold, and then, harnessing themselves in the. yoke, they drag the heavy sleighs . / slowly and laboriously back to the ship; all haippily surviving the melancholy and dismal ice voyage, though frost-

bitten and nipped to the very bon© by the cruel An tare tic. blasts, and benumbed by- a frost' so intense that the mercury itself, is . frozen /hard. .&4 -,v> --1 And then, though with the advent of the \short. summer t{lie gafod jthiipi fts .freed from its imprisoning ice-trammels, . yet there they still remain, still oon- ~\ tent to freeze in that inclement, inhospitable realm of cold, still endeavour- ! ing to ' discover some inlet through , which they . can take , their ship yet - /nearer to the pole, even though yet. another and another wild' winter’s hibernation may be involved. Surely one cannot help admiring the indomitable courage and unflinching j perseverance of those hardy explorers, even though after all it may be‘difficult to understand what material or moral gain will bo achieved, even if , they' do place a cairn over the axis of the globe. But if men would undergo as much hardship and as much privation for the sake of attaining an inheritance in lieaven it- would be intelligible. t -Happily, however, it is only/ needful to ; live a godly life, and to 'claim the atonement of ' the Redeemer as sufficient satisfaction to Divine justice. For then that inheritance is absolutely assured. . ‘