THE GARLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3764, 4 May 1926, Page 72

THE GARLAND.

( FOR THE QUIET HOUR.

No. 562.

By

DUNCAN WRIGHT, Dunedin.

(Fob tki Wirm) TRUE HEROISM: He is a hero, staunch and true, Who fights an unseen foe; Who puts at. last beneath his feet His passions base and low, And stands erect in manhood's might, Undaunted, undismayed— The bravest man that drew a sword In foray or in raid. # * # When lecturing to students (Professor Grainger Stewart, M.D., presiding) the late Professor Henry Drummond related following incident from real life:—“I knew a man who lead a woman •stray. He was then faut and evil. A jear or two after he was changed, and became one of the most prominent men

in the religious world. But all through his success there was the stain and shadow of that woman’s life upon him. Only three people ever knew about it, and it was twenty years ago. He preached all through England, Scotland, and Ireland in the hope, I fervently believe, that that woman would hear him, and be saved. Every prayer he offered he prayed for her. “Not long ago,” continued Professor Drummond, “I was in London at a meeting which he was addressing, and after tile meeting a woman with bowed head walked up weeping. I saw them as they stood .alone. That was the woman he had, for twenty years, been searching for. That man’s sin was finding him out.” And looking these manly fellows in the face the speaker in his inimitable style said: “God will help and stand by you if you will make a manly and heroic effort to turn back and undo the past.” * * * When dealing with sin and vice, with sham and hypocrisy, let the speaker in town and country, lay or cleric, with sledge-hammer denounce the wrong, as did the great Divine Teacher, and honest men will respect and honour Him. But let the man in the pulpit and the man in the pew, for pity’s sake, deal in

measureless mercy with the wrongdoer, mau or woman, as did the Man of Galilee when He said: “Let the sinless man among you be the first to throw a stone at her’ ; or this :“I do net say seven times, but seventy times seven.” * # « Don’t go beyond your own street or neighbourhood to see both oomedy and tragedy. Look at that handsome upstanding young fellow who said to his best friend on earth: “Mother, you are the best mother in this world, and I could die for you.” Beautiful, isn't it? But quietly the loved one replies: ‘‘My boy, yon need not die for me only oblige me by coming in earlier at night than you do.” Alas! for mock heroism the son replies: “0, mother, I couldn’t do that.” Was it not the New Zealand poet who said: “Conscience makes cowards of us all.” * * # All honour, then, to each brave heart, Though poor or rich he be Who struggles with his baser part, Who conquers and is free, lie may not weur a hero’s crown Or fill a hero's grave, But truth will place his name among The bravest of the brave. * # * “NO SURRENDER OATES.” “It was blowing a blizzard. Oates said: ‘I am just going outside, and I may be some time.' He went into the blizzard, and we have not seen him since.’’—The Diary of Captain Scott. It was not in the fury and the foam, The swift, earth-shaking tumult, and the shout Of flose-knit squadrons riding hard and home, That he went out. For him no trumpets called jubilant blast, Only the ice-wind’s everlasting moan; Alone into the solitude he passed. Yet not alone. For joyfully the long line of his peers, Most joyfully thost stanch old bands and true, Which rode at Balaclava in far years, And Waterloo. Warburg, and Paardeberg and Dettingen, Watched him go out into the deathly wild— Ay, many valiant souls of mighty men Saw that, and smiled. —Frank Taylor, in The Spectator. » * * YES, TRUE HEROISM. About the year 404 a.d. over 80,000 people of all classes, from the Emperor to the sailors and mechanics, were assembled in the vast amphitheatre of Rome for the public sports, in which they took delight. Their pleasure reached its climax in the cruel gladiatorial contests. For ages these ferocious combats between wild beasts and men, and between armed men, had fed the brutal taste of the Roman multitude. The mass was “piti less in its frenzy for exciting scenes.” On this occasion the sports were held to celebrate a victory over the Goths. When the array of ‘‘swordsmen with sharp spears and swords” came into the arena for a full combat of many fighters and the crowd was applauding, suddenly all held their breath. For a man in a rough cloak, “bareheaded and barefooted.” sprang into the midst of the combatants, and signed to the gladiators to stop. Turning towards the people, he called aloud on them to cease from the shedding of innocent blood. But thev answered him with savage shouts, “Back, old man !” “On, gladiators !” The swordsmen thrust him aside, but he strove to part them. “Sedition! Sedition!” “Down with him.!” the people cried. Then the gladiators cut him down, and the insatiate mob hurled stones and anything that came to hand on him. And Telemachus, the hermit, who had avowed himself to a life of prayer and self-denial, lay dead. “He had died, but not in vain. His work was done. shock of such a death before their eyes turned the hearts of the people, and, from the day when the hermit died in the Colosseum, there was never another fight of gladiators” in any province of the Roman Empire. And the memory of this devoted man’s sacrifice has left, an imperishable wreath around his name. * # » Now for a moment look at another homely picture from real life. He is quite a young fellow full of life and sunshine. His elastic step and erect form stamp him as a true heaven-born gentleman. He is the light and joy of his home: never was a slave to alcohol, nor stupid, selfish dissipation, largely because his mother is an invalid, the father is dead, and the sister is too feeble to face the strain and stress of a busy, bustling world. Hats off for all such heroes! * # * « Onward! Onward! may we press Through the path of duty; Virtue is true happiness, Excellence true beauty!