COURAGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2373, 24 August 1899, Page 51

COURAGE.

I do not know if there is any attribute of the human race more universally needed than is courage. The savage or uncivilised races require a large measure of the unpolished, rougher type of it, with which to meet and combat the wild animals roaming at large, and make of them food or clothing, according to their requirement!- — or iL may be simply to preserve in satety their own lives. They find Die need of it that they may face the fierce and subtle foe« of tbeii tribes We, living in lands where civilisation and refinement of feeling have run io a very gieat height, require a widely different style of coinage hi order to fight well the battle life holds for ea-ch of us, but it must be no vrhit less strong or steadfast. No man, woman, or child can go successfully on without it, each day as it passes brings some temptation to be oVercome, some selfish or sinful habit to be slain, lest all too soon we become its slave, and if tha afforfc to do this does not reauira

physical, it certainly requires moral, cour* age. Perhaps we grown-up people estimate too lightly a child's needs, in this respect;, yet we have only to let- our memories wander backwards to those days which now seem to have been so unclouded and frea from care, and they will remind us of many a victory, won which called for an amount of courage quite proportionate to our small frames. Lessons to be learned when all within us was longing to join in some merry game, duties to be performed jusb at the moment 'when they seemed most irksome, a fault to be confessed while our spirits seemed shrunken with fear. Aj.. yes, my grown-up friends, childhood has its need in this respect. Then the days pass on, and the child becomes a young man or woman. The former goes out into the world to meet its many temptations, some of them undreamed of in the shelter of home ; and God grant to grapple with and overcome them, too. The gambling table and the bar-room with its lurid glare, which always seems to me like the glitter of some poisonous reptile, may strive to lure him in, and stain his soul ere yet he passes out again, or deceit or dishonesty may tempt him sorely. True, comparatively few rob their master's till or appropriate to themselves any material not their own, while yet many will misemploy their master's time, rendering only eye-service, and then grudgingly. Perhaps while they fight manfully the grosser temptations they let slip through the half-open door of their hearts indolence and deceit, with other habits calculated to make shipwrecks of their lives. It Avill be well for • them if, before it is choked out, they call to their aid courage sufficient to drive thence those thieves of human character, and be able to see in themselves "the noblest work of God " — an honest man. Surely, much that proves temptation to a man holds none for his sister-woman, as she, too, goes forth to do brave battle for herself or others ; but then her keener sensitiveness and finer susceptibilities make lines in a path which has none for her brother. On many a side are mountains to be climbed and dark paths to be traversed from which she shrinks with all her woman's instincts, and some of her I victories are gained at the expense of [ crushed pride' and wounded feelings. Nor must we for a moment suppose that in the home life there is nothing to call for courage. Every sphere of a woman's home lifa calls for it. Many a society woman shrinks from its incessant, and often irksome, callsupon her time and capabilities quite as much as does her more humble sister, who, looking from an early-morning point of view upon a multitudinous array of duties, deems the other's life but that of a butterfly sporting from one bright flower to on© brighter still. The housewife might smile almost scornfully as some star of society related with puckered brow her trials experienced in the attempt to outshine as a. leader of fashion all hei acquaintances. '" If she only knew my troubles," she thinks to herself, -'she might talk of needing courage. Why, my duties tire,< physically and mentally. I not only have to attend to the boaily needs and comforts of husband and children, to perform with my own hands toil that is not only unpleasant but also burdensome, but I must think and plan how to make one shilling do the work of two, how to crowd into one hour work sufficient for two hours. I must keep my eyes verywide open in order to help my husband descry rifts of blue in the clouds enveloping him in spite of all his efforts to clear them, away. I must train the souls of my children to climb upwards, straight upwards in paths where truth and purity beautify all around ; this, too, in spite of so much soil and smudge on every hand. I must fighfa evil within my own heart and evil in tha hearts of those whom God hath given me." We will not try to dispute your need of courage to do and dare — aye, and to endure, too, poor, iiiuch-tried wives and "mothers — and yet all that you have just gone over as things calling for courage will fade away into blessings for which to thank God as I throw open a door and show j r ou a picture. Do you see a woman kneeling by a !o\r chair V Mark well the drawn white face, the burning eyes, the twitching fingers clasping and unclasping each other. She, too, is a wife and mother, and where is her husband? . Should he not stand by and comfort lier in this hour of bitter anguish'^ Close the door very softly, and come down the street with me, pass yon glaring window and look in at the bar-room door. Do you," see that man leaning on the counter. He is keeping the half-drunken crowd around him "in roars of boisterous mirth afc his frequent sallies of wit. Watch a while, and as lie drains hia glass time after time the wit becomes abuse, and soon he staggers from the place that has brought him ruin of body and soul to reel into the presence of his whitefaced wife, and yet more bruise the heart he had vowed to love and cherish as far as in him lay. "This man has lost his manhood," you say, " where he found his gin Where is her son? Lethinj come forward to shield his mother and steal some measure of poison from hei wounds." That, alas! he cannot do, for he is following fast in his father's steps, sinking lower and yet lower, dragging with him all the joy of his mother's heart. Ah ! now I know that your weight of care and toil is turning a weight of joy and rejoicing as you acknowledge that she haa need of°a courage far beyond what you require, that she may meet each day and night with tlieir awfal possibilities, a courage drawn with strong crying and tears from the Throne of Grace— a courage which shall know no faktring till it receives its reward in a blessing for lhos» who now so cruelly blight har life. There are, too. the airlifted one». I »eau tKose out oft" by bodily ailment fioni rnklng active part in nny oi life's labouia, who through horns of weakness, pain, and weariness, of exceeding longing after their lost vigour of mind and body, realise that Beyer this aidft ox the grave shall they" ftnd^it. We need courage, my friends, to. do and dare — to conquer x evif habits and overcome temptations; but, oh, not more, than* to endure. " 1 have often been struck," -wrote" a. deai- friend to me, " by two little verses s.

* They also serve who only stand and wait ' fend 'Their strength is to sit still.' " There is something in the- very exercise of effort ithat calls up courage, but " sitting still " or *' waiting" seems fitted to put to flight e\ery vestige of it, and yet, how it is (Wanted — wanted to repel the evil thoughts With which grim spectres haunt the silence —wanted to still the rebellion that, taking advantage of the weakness of the opponent, rises ir the heart as a mighty flood. It is wanted, oh, so much to soothe the agony of longing to roam once more at will amid former scenes and occupations. Surely, there is a word of comfort for those waiting, afflicted ones, " Whom the Lord loveth He chastenetb," and when tKat chastening Bhall have taught you the mission God has for you on earth, you shall know what great things He has reserved for you, where fceither pain nor sorrow nor weakness may enter. It has always struck me that great and abounding courage must be brought to uid those " misunderstood " — those whose words p,nd deeds do not meet with the appreciation ;which is theirs by right. Scarcely can a sorer heart be carried than the one that carries -with it the ever-gnawing sense of .wrong — of injustice, dealt out at all times. (The heart thus oppressed grows sick with Jits own burden. Every human boul needs one to respond to its aspirations, to rejoice in its joy and weep for its woe, to enter into and sympathise with all its plans, and When it cannot find such an one it preys jipon itself, and great is then the need of .courage. Not one of us can do without this strong friend — Hope. Bright, beautiful Hope may paint in the future fair, sweet pictures, but courage must go with us through the dark valleys and over the steep mountains that lie between us and them, else would we faint by the way. " Be, then, of good courage. Wait on the Lord, --and He shall itrengthen thine heart."