STRAY WORDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2083, 25 January 1894, Page 46

STRAY WORDS.

" And so for most of us life is a hard struggle at the best, do as we may with it."

They were words uttered by a weary-look-ing man the other day as he went on board one of the big steamers which has now sailed away, taking with her the man and his burden too; but his woids have haunted me, as a sentence sometimes will, and the thought lingers unpleasantly. If it is such a hard struggle at the best, wbat must the worst be ? It is not an aucouragiDg view of life when one has all the stern realities to face ; but when the realities affect those who are nearest and dearest to us there is but one course for us to take, if we are to do anything with our lives — and that is, to face toe difficulty bravelj. If we can only find courage to seizo the grsa'eat iir&r, surely the leaser ones will shiinic more and more "from our sight. I have tried to reason it out, and perhaps I may come to a solution by-and-bye. We have had a life given to us, and we have a hard struggle to live. What are we to do with it ?

We are told we make the greater part of a difficulty ourselves. By refusing to look at it closely its dimensions are magnified — perhaps so. By our own despondency we lack, it may be, the power to brace ourselves to the necessary effoit; but if so, this only applies to those of us who have the courage to banish a desponding thought, lest it gains aunh strength that, it 'becomes a morbid fancy, aod so is apt to fake s?uch a strong hold on us that we are wholly unable to meet a difficulty f.ven half way. Then courage is surely the first essential to meet our greatest difficulty. But we shall nted all our moral courage/ for it is ugly and ill-favonred, and it has so many little fibres which feed the tap-root. And is it not these many little fibres that are so closely net.ied together that alarm us moat ? They aye so confusing and intri«aie. It is impossible to follow one singly; and if we pause, aqd one is lost in the

tangle, it seems to grow at both ends, and the result is a more hopeless plight than before. But then we need perseverance to go on, steadily picking up one fibre after another, and we soon find they wither parted from the parent root, which in turn too must get weaker from the loss of the nourishment the fibres bring.

It is a slow, slow method, for we must follow the tap-root down deep, stripping off every fibre. It needs courage, perseverance, determination, to get to the bottom of it ; but the reward is great when we shall feel at laet we have conquered and the root of the evil is dug out, leaving not even an unsightly surface, for we can so easily smooth over the roughness. Though .perhaps the scars and the heart wounds are not quite healed, they are not in view, and even we remember them seldom. But how many of us succeed ? — the majority of those who have tried ! iJut the trial means heart and brain concentrated on the end in view. Whatever the difficulty may be, all our effort must be made to get to the root of it — to expose the ugly writhing thing to the scorching sun, Success, and this done it will wither. But there must be no faint-heartedness — no lingering. The fibres grow rapidly, and will soon entwine our fingers in their meshes, and it means a very real struggle, for if we do not succeed that ugly thing will grow triumphantly over us. When once we have killed it, however, our way is more oven ; for are not difficulties like parasites I—do1 — do they not gain nutriment from the greatest of all, as the weak will ever cliner to the strong ? And when we have succeeded once, may we not hope to again? till bravely, peraeveringly, we meet them and conquer them. Surely the struggle we have had for the attainment of patience and perßeverance will have helped us to acquire them. And so with the necessary arms, may we not have an equal chance in the contest of life 1 "Do as we may with it," he said ; but it is not ours to do as we may. If wo would live up to the faith we profess, is it not rather " must " ? — for the strong must help the weak, encourage the faltering, lest that ugly difficulty shall entangle them hopelessly ; for are they not our dearest we fight for, and may we not hope to attain an honourable close to a life that is never weary of the struggle when it is for the weal of our loved ones ? May we continue in it with a bright, happy soul that shall radiate its sunshine round the hearth, and in the home that is won — " Be it ever so humble " — but let it be home in its truest, sweetest sense, whore we gather with our loved ones with one accord ; where, too. the stranger shall find a welcome and leave his blessing on our threshold.

Shall we not be doing as it was intended we should do with the life we have received — patiently, cheerfully walking in our own path, though it is stony and uneven ? — for we have others with us, some of whom ara weak, and it is our duty to guide their footsteps into the smooth places, that they may not suffer. Surely we may find our reward in the love that goes with us, and may we not find the struggle turned into a blessing, enriching the lives of those about us and ennobling our own 7 Would that it might be so for most of us, and we should hear fewer complainings of life's bitterness, and see fewer tired faces, whose sad looks tell of their hopelessness. Few of us have it, in our power to do any material good ; but is the good done imma- j terial because it is confined to our own family circle, or to our immediate vicinity ? May we not spend a useful and intelligent life even on a small scale, and by our example and encouragement bring into the lives of those around us a hopefulness that shall enable them to grapple with their own difficulties, and perhaps surmount them? Will this not be a fitting and honourable thing to have done with our lives, though the summing up may be only a faithful life's stewardship ? A. J.