Amundsen landed sixty miles closer to the Pole than Scott’s party by taking the risk of setting up base on an ice sheet. Reliance on dogs alone allowed his men to set out on 19 October 1911, twelve days before the British, who used less hardy ponies (alongside motorised tractors and some dogs) to supplement manpower in the early stages and thereafter relied exclusively on hauling their sledges themselves.[105] As Scott knew from the outset, only a mishap amongst the Norwegians could prevent their being first. In the event, the hapless British were bedevilled by bad luck whilst good fortune smiled on their competitors. To their dismay, the five Britons who made the final push to the Pole found that Amundsen had arrived some weeks beforehand. On the weary trek homewards, they encountered freak weather, with temperatures regularly some 10°C or more below normal. Winds blew from the north instead of from the south, full in their faces rather than helping them on their way. At length, shut in by a blizzard of fierce intensity and many days’ duration, the three surviving team members died a lonely death from cold, exhaustion and hunger, just eleven miles short of the depot whose supplies could have saved their lives.
The names of all five men of the Polar party are rightly remembered with pride and honour: Scott, Bowers, Evans, Oates and Wilson. Their last days were recorded in Scott’s diaries, carried back by their comrades from base camp, who came eight months later to bury the dead and to find out how they had met their end. As it transpired, the conduct of these men in defeat turned out to be more splendid than any triumph. The diaries showed a group noble amidst the wreckage of their plans, plucky in adversity and selfless in regard for their fellows. In one of his last letters Scott wrote: “We are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past. We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last ... Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which should have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.”
It was no perversity for the nation to make of this the stuff of legend.
Competitiveness.
Both Scott and Amundsen were strenuously competitive men. It could hardly have been otherwise amongst those called to lead and inspire others across the most forbidding of landscapes and in the most extreme of climates. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with being competitive, as long as this urge is directed in the right way and kept within proper bounds. If not, it is a trait that can be highly damaging. It can be corrosive of friendship, blind us to God and assure us that the end justifies the means. Jesus tells us to put others’ needs before our own. Competitiveness that is not harnessed and channelled into godly activity leads to the exact opposite. The apostle John tells of just such a case: “I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us.” (3 John 1:9).
Misdirected competitiveness breeds acts of enmity, not friendship: “So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.” (3 John 1:10). The result is division, distance and hatred rather than togetherness, closeness and love.
By contrast, John emphasises the values of true friendship, repeating the phrase “dear friend” four times (3 John 1:1, 2, 5 and 11). Where there is friendship, we will:
• Wish the best for others, both materially and spiritually: “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” (3 John 1:2).
• Rejoice in our friends’ progress and achievements: “It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell me about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (3 John 1:3-4).
• Encourage others by acknowledging the good things they do: “Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you.” (3 John 1:5).
• Let others know our regard for them: “They have told the church about your love.” (3 John 1:6).
• Be prepared to give wise and helpful advice: “You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.” (3 John 1:6-8).
Robert Scott had the gift of friendship. His concern for his men and their dependants was ceaseless. His last diary entry pleads: “For God’s sake look after our people.” Wilson, who was to die alongside him, said: “He is thoughtful for each individual and does little kindnesses that show it.”
Faithfulness.
Friendship requires faithfulness. To be faithless is to be no true friend at all. The men who made the journey back from the Pole stuck to each other through thick and thin, not for self-interest of self-preservation but because they were comrades. They struggled on with Evans even when he became incapacitated and slowed their progress alarmingly. They did the same with Oates, though his hands and feet were so appallingly frostbitten that it took him hours to get dressed each day. One night he walked out of the tent, saying: “I am just going outside and may be some time.” He knew he was walking to certain death, but did it for the sake of his friends. It was the last they saw of him.
These five were faithful to each other and they were faithful to God. Around 22 March 1912, with food and fuel already exhausted, Bowers wrote to his mother: “I am still strong and hope to reach [the depot eleven miles away] with Dr Wilson and get the food and fuel necessary for our lives. God alone knows what will be the outcome ... but my trust is still in Him and in the abounding grace of my Lord and Saviour whom you brought me up to trust and who has been my stay through life ...” At more or less the same time Wilson wrote to his wife: “Birdie [Bowers] and I are going to try and reach the depot eleven miles north of us and return to this tent where Captain Scott is lying with a frozen foot ... [If we do not succeed] I shall simply fall asleep in the snow ... All is for the best to those that love God, and oh, my Ory, we have both loved Him with all our lives ...” In the event, the blizzard continued and they had no choice but to stay confined in their tent. By the time the wind eased a little on 29 March, they were too weak to set out. Scott’s last diary entry was made either that day or the day following.
Faithfulness figures large alongside friendship in what John writes. There is faithfulness in thought: “your faithfulness to the truth” (3 John 1:3). There is faithfulness in action: “you are faithful in what you are doing” (3 John 1:5). We need both. Having the right ideas is no good unless we put them into practice. Ultimately, going through the right motions is no good unless these are inspired by proper motives.
Imitation.
To help us get it right, we can harness the power of example: “Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.” (3 John 1:11).
We can follow the good example of others and we can ourselves set a good example. This is the real way to honour and glory. Vain seeking after being first may deliver brief moments in the spotlight, but those will fade and we shall eventually find their trophies tarnished. Amundsen died a bitter and aloof man, who fell out even with his own brother and pursued a law suit against him. By contrast, a good name, a good report and real friendship will last for all time: “Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone – and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.” (3 John 1:12).
If ever there were a fine example to follow, it is that of
Scott and his men. During his last days of life, Scott wrote: “We have done the greatest march ever made and come very near to great success ... We are in a desperate state, feet frozen etc. No fuel and a long way from food, but it would do your heart good to be in our tent, to hear our songs and the cheery conversation ... We are very near the end, but have not and will not lose our good cheer.”
To Wilson’s wife Scott addressed this message: “If this letter reaches you, Bill and I will have gone out together. We are very near it now and I should like you to know how splendid he was at the end – everlastingly cheerful ... I can do no more to comfort you than to tell you that he died as he lived, a brave, true man – the best of comrades and the staunchest of friends.” To Bowers’ mother he wrote that her son “had come to be one of my closest and soundest friends ... As the troubles have thickened his dauntless spirit ever shone brighter and he has remained cheerful, hopeful and indomitable to the end.”
Conclusion.
Scott, Bowers and Wilson covered 1,450 miles in the worst conditions imaginable, hauling heavy loads and suffering the agonies of frostbite. Had they managed just 350 yards more each day after leaving the Pole they would have reached the depot that could have saved them. They failed to do so in large part because they would not leave their weaker companions, first Evans and then Oates. Jesus said: “Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). That was what these three did. Their friendship and their faithfulness should inspire us all.
When it was all over, one of the men who had been with Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, said: “It is no disparagement of Amundsen and the rest of us when I say that Scott’s achievement far exceeded ours ... Just imagine what it meant for Scott and the others to drag their sleds themselves, with all their equipment and provisions to the Pole and back again. We started with 52 dogs and came back with eleven, and many of these wore themselves out on the journey. What shall we say of Scott and his comrades, who were their own dogs? Anyone with experience will take off his hat to Scott’s achievement. I do not believe men have shown such endurance at any time, nor do I believe there ever will be men to equal it.”
Tryggve Gran, a Norwegian who accompanied Scott’s expedition as ski instructor, wrote on the journey back from finding the dead men’s bodies: “I think of Scott, I think of Amundsen. I have learned that something called friendship exists. I have come to know men willing to sacrifice themselves for their country and for their convictions.” In fulfilment of a promise made to Oates, Gran subsequently fought for England in the First World War as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps.
It is time for hard questions and hard searching. We do not lack the finest of examples. We know what true friendship looks like. Jesus says, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15). If he offers us his friendship, it behoves us to reciprocate. That means deeds as well as thoughts and words. It means following the example of others and setting an example for others to follow in their turn. We have not been setting much of an example in recent years, but it is never too late to start.
46. So far
Ezra 4.
Key word: obstacles.
In 1914 Ernest Shackleton[106] set sail for the Antarctic in a vessel called Endurance. In view of what later transpired, she was aptly named. Her commander was already a veteran polar explorer, having accompanied Scott’s expedition of 1901-04 and himself come within 100 miles of the South Pole in 1908. This time, his aim was to cross the Antarctic continent from the Weddell to the Ross Sea. He was experienced, well prepared and well equipped, but the Endurance became trapped in pack ice: Shackleton and his men could only watch helplessly as it was gradually crushed to matchwood. They spent months drifting on ice floes, facing the prospect of slowly starving or freezing to death.
The men had rescued the ship’s lifeboats before Endurance sank and eventually took refuge on Elephant Island barely two hundred miles outside the Antarctic Circle, using the boats for shelter. Leaving most of his companions there under the command of Frank Wild, Shackleton and five others set out in the most seaworthy of the skiffs to row nearly over eight hundred miles to South Georgia and fetch help. With a combination of luck and skill, they made it, only to beach their wrecked vessel on the south side of the island, where nobody lived. Nothing daunted, they set out to climb the high mountains that ringed their landing-place. They climbed the first one, but could find no way down. So they climbed another, and another and another. Seven times they climbed, until at last they could make their way into the valley beyond. Finally, Shackleton and his weary, half-starved men stumbled into a whalers’ hut, raised the alarm and oversaw an expedition to rescue their remaining shipmates.
It was Shackleton’s proud boast that he did not lose a single man throughout the entire period of this expedition. By the time they returned to Britain, they had been away for two years.
False friends.
Like Shackleton, Ezra had to combat adverse circumstances. The obstacles that he faced threatened to sidetrack him from his God-given assignment. He had to deal with attempts to undermine the project from within, with misrepresentation of his objectives and motivations, and with hostility from those in power. Handling this took a man of extraordinary qualities. More to the point, it took a man of great godliness, a man with the wisdom that only comes from having a close relationship with the Almighty, knowing the word of the Lord and putting this into practice. His God-centred approach enabled Ezra to deal with circumstances that would have broken lesser men. It enabled him and his co-workers to see through false protestations of friendship and to ride out the storm of official hostility and opposition.
The first attack was subtle. It came in the guise of godliness, brotherhood and proffered assistance: “When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and said, ‘Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.’” (Ezra 4:1-2). On its face, this seems reasonable, worthy even. Set alongside it, the response appears harsh, intolerant, ungrateful and bigoted: “But Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, ‘You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.’” (Ezra 4:3).
The implications of this interchange for us are profound, for they go to the heart of the way in which we should deal with other religions. Since this is an area where misunderstanding so easily arises, it is worth emphasising that there is no ground on which to discriminate against anyone merely because they come from a different race or culture. Nor should we fall into the trap of thinking that the religious labels that human beings attach to each other cut any ice with God, for “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (Joel 2:32). Time and again Jesus made clear that what God is interested in is the reality of what is in our hearts, not the outward show: and hence, by and large, he did not discuss theological niceties with the ordinary people he met during the course of his earthly ministry. From this concentration on substance rather than form it flows inevitably that there will be some who profess belief in Jesus to whom he will say, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:23). Correspondingly, there will be others who will be surprised when he acknowledges them as one of his own (see Matthew 25:37-39). All this, however, is a long way from saying that any religious viewpoint can be adopted and it will be all right with God as long as we are sincere in what we believe.
Regrettably, our thinking has become confused. We should by all means recognise that there are many of good faith who espouse other religions and the mere fact of their adherence to another creed does not make them bad people: in many cas
es, quite the contrary. At the same time we need to be realistic and clear-sighted about what other religions stand for and the direction in which they tend to lead. The simple fact is that a significant minority of Christians does not go around trying to blow up their fellow citizens, even though the persecution suffered by Christians in many parts of the world is grievous, deeply rooted and ongoing. Forbearance does not come about because Christians have less cause to take affront than do those of other faiths, for daily the name of Jesus is traduced, vilified and spat upon. The reason that these outrages do not spill into violence is simple: the Bible leaves no room for doubt that such a response would be contrary to the will of God.
People are not daft. Some will always do right and some will always do wrong, but the vast majority act according to prevailing circumstances and the information at their disposal. By uncritically sharing a platform with other religions, by failing to confront their errors and by giving the impression that they have more in common with Christianity than is in fact the case, by promoting and subsidising them, the message that we are giving is this: that all religions stand for much the same thing and consequently it does not matter which we believe. Indeed, people would be entitled to draw a further conclusion: that the excesses of one religion could just as easily be the product of another and since each is as bad as the next they should all be avoided at every cost. Our lack of courage and insight thus places an unnecessary obstacle in the way of those who are searching for the right path. Ezra and his companions did not lack those qualities. They were prepared to say no, even at the risk of provoking a hostile reaction.
Redeeming a Nation (Timeless Teaching) Page 33