SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1920, Page 10 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

"VIVAS TO THOSE WHO HAVE FAILED." Text—"These all died in faith, not having inherited the promises."—Heb. XI. 13. [An Address to Men by Rev. A. H. Collins.] All the world applauds success, j though few pause to define it. If a man be valiant and overcome, he will not lack voice to hymn his name, or hands to win laurel for his brow. _lf a man amass a fortune, never mind how; or gain influence, or win distinction, there, will be hosts of friends to publish his fame in hope of sharing it. Crowds throng the temple of "the goddess getting on,"' and they cry •'great is Diana of the Ephesians"! Countless volumes have been written to tell the story of victories on sea and land; but who will tell the more heroic story of those who fought and failed? Who will Sing the praises of those who went down in the battle, wounded and whelmed' When the fight is over and the victors come out of the smoke and carnago to be greeted with ringing cheers, who will raise a cheer for the men who fell on the eve of victory? Yet, were the fallen one wbit less brave than those who came out of the hurly-burly without a scratch or a sear? Nay, the fallen may have been the bravest"of the brave. When buildings strong and high are erected the j foundations must be deep and broad,, and there will be much costly material) buried out of sight. Those strong! foundations are invisible to the eyes of men, and yet without them, there could be no majestic pile greeting the sky and doing the service of men. *So is it with many obscure lives that are. written down a failure. They havs been built into the foundation of the temples of fame, and without thorn these temples would never have been reared. How many an inventor has toiled and tumbled on the verge of some great discovery, yet died in the wilderness of poverty, and neglect—died of a broken heart and a bewildered brain. Then some other man arose, who, profiting by tho experience and experiments of his fellow, carried the work I to success, and lo! two continents ring with his far-sounding name. "Other men have, labored and ye have entered into their labor." i In the State of Arizona there is, a natural bridge, spanning a canyon fifty feet wide. The bridge is composed of an agatized tree. Scientific men Bay that ages ago the tree was felled by some terriflic storm and hurled across the gorge. Then under the influence of time and weather it pissed through various stages of mineralisation until it became a trunk of solid agate. The tree seemed a failure when it fell, and yet it lias provided a means of passage for countless feet for countless centures. In some such way, the fallen and failed in the forests, where the trees are men, have proved a bridge over which others have passed to success and honor. We daily walk the wavs of life built out of the toils and tears and sacrifices of others. >iot a comfort we enjoy, not a freedom we boast, not a hope we cherish, not a tool we use; but is ours because of the efforts made by men who "died in faith not having obtained the promise" "All honor to him who wins the pr'.ie, The world has cried for a hundred years; But in him who tries and tails and dies, I give great fjlory and honor and tears. So with Walt Whitman, I sing "Vivas to Those Who Have, Failed!" The world might have got along very well without the men who have succeeded; but it would have gone hard with us had it not been for the men who tried and failed. Defeat may be the precursor of splendid conquest; mistake and misdirection may prepare the way for solid progress. "Vivas to those who have failed!" Let no man insult their memory. Our present is built on their past, and our future will be a prize received from their shadowy hand. They passed away, like Moses on some solitary Nebo "and no man knoweth the place, of their sepulchre," but not without the consolation of having helped others into the promised -land of larger knowledge, fairer hope, and more fruitful service. They went down into the dark waters of defeat, yet their brave souls shine like friendly harbor lights, through the storms of history, and future generations steer their craft in safer channels, and across more prosperous seas. Hail to the baffled and beaten! Honor to the men who, seeing the invisible, endured the slings and arrows of misfortune! Praise to the elect souls, who remained true to lofty ideals of life and duty. Glory to the men who were worked and traduced and beaten, yet "stood like iron pillars, strong and steadfast as a wall of brass!" This is the heroic strain of our text. It is the epic of failure: a prose poem in praise of the men who have failed. Other poets have chanted the praises of thoße who won; but it was reserved for . this prophet of the new order to score a chant in praise of the defeated and scattered in the wars of truth. This eleventh chapter of the Hebrews is a picture gallery of faith's heroes: the patriots and martyrs who fought the. first battles of freedom and made nobleness epidemic Thev won the first conquests of soul over sense. They wove the first threads in the Hag of freedom, and made it the banner of the morning, having dyed it crimson in their heart's rich blood. They were men of oak and rock, and this is the Bible way. For this holyBook is the literary expression of a religion that glorifies in the. base and the weak things of the world, that exalts the humble and blesses those who have been made a laughing stock by a blind and carnal age. Christianity is a religion whose choicest beatitudes are reserved for "the poor in spirit," "the meek," "the hungry," and "the persecuted." This it is that gives the Bible such unchallenged supremacy in a world where so many have failed and "all have sinned." Where outside this book will you find such comfort for tho weary, such hope for the depressed, such inspiration for the heart-broken victims of life's illusions? I say this whole chapter is an epic of failure. It's voici. conies rolling across the ages, telling the deeds of the faithful who failed. •'■These all died in faith, not having received (he promises." They were disappointed and cheated of the lower and the temporary, but they received a higher and eternal fulfilment of all they ever dreamed. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, jMoscs, these men set out to conquer kingdoms and possess new lands uniler the seal of God, and ended their siormy career as aliens and vagabond ; on the earth, with scarce land enmiLv in which to dig a grave "Failed." says the world of sense bound souls. Barak, Samson. Jephtha, David and Samuel, those men sweat and toiled to establish a kingdom o£

righteousness, and, 103 at the end, tliey saw the kingdom rent and torn olfactions, and stained in all its pages by folly and crime. "Failed;' says tinjv'oTld of sense bound souls. Following these came a clond of witnesses, who stood for (jotl and right again rT a rabble horde of time servers, and tlie.se brave souls passed hence, leaving God's name blasphemed and His cause trampled in the dust! "These all died,-'' died and failed. But did they fail? "Yes," say the thoughtless. "No," say God and all the holy angels. The writer of this epistle erects an "arc de triumph" to their blessed memory, with sculptured panel scenes, such as these: "Subdued Kingdoms," "Stopped the mouths of lions," "Quenched the violence of fire," "Out of weakness were made strong," and in the light of all this, it seems to be clear that we need to revise our ideas of success and failure.

I am not here to apologise for coward-1 ice, or sloth, or wooden incapacity. Some fail because they are sluggards, and some because they waste time and energy on aims that are paltry and perishing. Let all such remember that "Not failure but low aim is crime." But I

speak in defence of an entirely different class, and I say that before you write a man down as a failure you must ask, Why did he fail? Were the conditions of success present or absent in his case? Had he a vision, some haunting dream, some far-off shining goal'/ Bethink you also of some of the divine defeats of history: Socrates, with the deadly hemlock cup in hand a failure! Plato, with his dream of a new republic, a failure! Paul, in Nero's prison cell, a failure! Dante exiled from his loved Italy, and his adored Beatrice, a failure! John Milton, in his awful blindness, a failure! The Bedford dreamer, a failure! Jesus on the Cross, a failure! • He who was the noblest of our race came nearest to the verge of awful and absolute failure! Ah I me, the best, the holiest men in all the'world have lived lives of poverty and pain, and died in sorrow and neglect. Statesmen, hustled out of office by a recrient and besotted people, to die amid a shattered and defeated policy that was wise and just. Honest tradesmen who died in honorablo bankruptcy rather than batten on the miseries of the poor. Incorruptible paupers, who might have | exchanged the poor-house for a palace, if only they had smiled and been villains. Preachers who chose rather to be "» voice crying in the wilderness" than speak to men's passions and prejudices! Great souls - who dreamed and dared great things for Cod, a failure. Do I speak to one who has the crippling sense of having failed'; Well, whyhave you failed? Was it because your aim was high? If so, be of good cheer. Better a thousand times fail in a great cause than succeed in a cause that is low and mean. AVhen the courtly Sir Walter Raleigh passed through the court of Queeu Bess he wrote, with his diamond ring, on a window-pane, "Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall." The haughty Queen saw the writing, and added, "If thy heart fail thee do not ! climb at all." Queen and courtier were alike wrong. Better fall than never climb. Better be a fanatic in some noble cause than vegetate in moral indifference. Better be the scorn and derision of your own age than the sorrow and the lament of the age to come. Better, like 'Saint Paul, a fool for Christ's sake than Mr. Worldly Wiseman living in smug self-complacency.

"And for success I ask no more than this, To bear unflinching witness to the truth. All true men succeed; for what is worth Successes name, unless it be the thought, The inward surety to have carried out A noble purpose to a noble end, Although it be the gallows and the block. 'Tis only Falsehood that doth ever need These outward shows of gain to holster. ■ her." •■:■-,■ Every Christian knows tho meaning .of failure. "The life that is life indeed" begins with a sense of moral that drives the soul to Christ for help. When we see nothing between us and I spiritual Tuin the Gospel is welcomed as a. message of hope. In the sense of our helplessness, we die to self and find life in losing life. How near tlie crysalis seems to come to the dust of death! Yet it is just there the sylph awakes! The shining saint is born of the consciously lost and undone sinner. The brink of failure becomes the starting point of heaven. God will make perfect our imperfect lives. "Vivas to those who have failed J"