PLUCK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2666, 19 April 1905, Page 70

PLUCK.

Pluck! Pardon the word, my readers, inasmuch as you ■will not find it in the dictionary in the sens© I now use it ; yet, nevertheless, it very fully expresses the attribute of the human character I have in mind just now. Certainly it plays a very important part in life's triumphs or successes, and is very early required in life's battle. The little school-child has need of pluck both in town and country. The city child has need of it every evening when the voices and sights of the street call to him to throw down book and slate and join the band of merrymakers who crowd th-e x javemen t' a^ niany a corner. The country child must give it full rein, or he cannot press through lus various tasks in time to master his "home lessons" ere sleep steals over his eyes and dulls the workings of his brain. Each mu&t exorcise it on the playground or at the desk if he would hold his own. It must go with the young man who enters an office or goes behind the counter in order to gam for himself a. position in the future. It must make him strong to resist the temptadons peculiar to city life, to &tand firm a.i-,aiiisL the laugh which greets his refusal to take the first step down paTihs all too surely leading away from honom and respectability, to refuse to join in amusements or dissipations which cannot fail to clog his upward steps. Pluck must go strong and unyielding to the baekblocks with those who go there to war with Nature in her own domain — to wrest from her a borne, to lay low the mighty forests, to banish (he waving tussock, to uproot the roaring flax bush, to drain the stagnant swamp, till, to sow, to wait ofttimes long, weary years for the reward of their labours. Not only must it nerve their hands, but it must also strengthen their hearts to bear the bitterness of isolation, the loss of human fellowship, the absence of all social, religious, and literary advantages — must fit for the endurance of toils that have no limitations us to time. Pluck, indomitable and long-enduring, must indeed go there — to the far baekblocks — and abide, else can only failure result. Pluck must enter into the study of him who> would proclaim the Gospel message to his fellows ; must mount the pulpit steps, that so he may have courage to denounce the favourite sins of the people, even at the cost of his popularity ; must go in and out with him, that he may be faithful in all his dealings. Nor is pluck less required in the performance of our home duties — the tiresome and the tiring ones — those which call so persistently for perseverance, which try patience to its farthermost limit. All the day long it is needed for the righting of wrong things, for the carrying-out of all those minor details on which depends so much. We need it all the year long as we try to train our sons and daughters to be good and noble men and women in whatever sphere they fill, curbing their evil tendencies and striving to eradicate their besetting faults ; and afterwards to enable us •to endure the wrench of separation which the years must inevitably bring — the anxiety and the longing. Yes, without doubt pluck is an indispensable aid in every walk of life ; not least in the lives of those whose bodily strength has failed while yet the spirit is willing —^ye, eager, — who are learning the hard, hard lesson of simple endurance. Pluck, then, is a grand attiibute, allved to the three Graces — faith, hope, and cliaiity. It is sublime. Alone, pluck may enable one to toil, to endure, to overcome and, after all, leave the heart hard and st;rn. callous or cynical, contemptuous towards their more timorous fellows ; and then, where the glory of triumph, wherein consists it* gain, since in such a heart theie is no loom for love, for -joy, or happiness? And if these are lost in the struggle, for what purpose all life's toils? Hope will sing of a brighter tomorrow through the darkest, chilliest today ; will stretch fair pictures on the canvas of the future which will act as a mighty stimulus in the present. Faith will teach "that every effoi't made to bring our woik under the guidance of the Great Master will meet vnth it- reward, will tell us that even when we tread the depths of disappointment or climb the steeps of difficulty, still Love and Wis lorn are in the leading ; will show us that just across that valley of humiliation, from whose dank chilliness the soul i- shrinking there grows the sweet-scented flowor of peice, and close beside it th-e stately one of triumph-over-all. And Chaiitv ! Oh, Cbaiity opens the eyes ■wide to all that is lovely and of stood report in our fellow-men, while it condones or leads us to deal gently -with their failings, so that we may be willing to be judged even as we judge. Pluck alone may make a strong character and a brave ; but pluck allied to faith, hope, and chaiity will produce one in which strength and sweetness combine lo make one both biave aud noble.

Violet.