WHAT IS SUCCESS?

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 148, 26 June 1925, Page 11

WHAT IS SUCCESS?

DOES IT DEPEND ON MONEY?

KNEELING BEFORE THE GOLDEN CALF.

"After all, money is the only real s-uc-cess, and a man's actual success in the world is judged by his power of making money." These words, attributed to an American millionaire in an interview published recently, would, probably, bo endorsed by the majority of 'wealthy men; but, although they are fairly true, they are not entirely true, declares a writer in the Melbourne "Age." There is, surely, something flimsy in the. assumption of superiority by mere reason of money success. There must be some way of judging of a man's measure of success other than by the crude money standard. It is unthink.p,ble that -we should spend our lives before the golden calf kneeling, adoring, while every good thing within is, every sweet and honest and trusting trait that we possess, shrivels to dust and ashes. Such an attitude might be possible were ■it not for the fact that deep down:in the human heart there exists the undying'conviction-that-no success isaworth having that:depriv.es us of the power to conceive of a true human state of life to be longed for, to be worked for and finally won, that is not governed;by','the. deity gold. Such success has its fountain head in the spiritual attitude of folk, in the universal, spiritl of good which is the one little precious bit of divinity that leavens the' -whole of humanity. : . It would, indeed, be absurd to undervalue money. . Its, importance is paramount, a thorough knowledge of its worth indispensable to success of any sort. Men of courage and ability who have . acquired immense. fortunes, men who recognise and shoulder their responsibilities, ; ,men-, of : vision, are counted among, the great sources of/our national life, and their importance no' thinking person ever questions. But if a man's dreams' and hopes and aspirations all circle round and are centred in the accumulation of money and that alone, the conditions of his-life-are so unjust arid lntrmsicially dishonest' that he must suffer moral detioration. Avarice sinks Her talons deep into his heart, and he fails— and knows that- he fails—in securing the gerater and sweeter realities of life—for there'must be, and are, things more vital to our well-being than wealth. ;' i Bare one, in these opulent and moneylovnig times, venture to express the opinion that the great thing in life is happiness? The search of;the world is for peace .of. mind, for the joy of living and of; sharing- the, life of others.: We need not go very; fa^to;find men and women Xl? liUS^nS' thro?Sh hasty,and heated dajs, havr, wasted years of their lives pursuing things which bring them wealth and -power and strange intangible, joys, but which leave their hearts full of -bitter disappomtmeht: and disgust. ■'.:■ ' . Despite the -fact "that we are tremendously proud of your civilisation we do not,, any : of, us, believe that civilisation moves m_ one' eternal upward movement iNor has it ever so moved. ..Confucius has i told us that if we would divine the fu- ! tare we .must study the past. 'If we go back, Jiot .hundreds, but thousands If yVh Wfi "d the same w°>ld-our: world ,~witU, the. same unflinching purposes and we "find civilisation^oving then ?s ' curves^each haying-its .alternations-of ; life and death, or growth and; decline, of inspn-atwu .and,. decadence., That the I worldvjs at .present passing through a:i ; decadence.isgenfrally a |mi"! ted ;. that this phase cannot be stemmed or stayed by el ther. Church.or State patent to all., But our faith in the ! w-?r }> W? S ' lightly, now. as ever Without that;faith . the' world; as know it, would .cease to be. YaW but 3£Tfc \ mds us to the fmpenshable belief that each' new upward a .!, e-Dirth of. the divine nspiration that will.lead us a little nearer, the stars Carly c. writes, of "the majestic silent men, sjlenfcly thinking, silently woS tion of_; they are the salt of- the.earth i' There is no suggestion here of failure nw^there.anyhmt.of.a.man^iife consisting; m the; abundance of things ?hat Mm 1 • /•! these men > who" are 'sub-^ know ys f^ lSeT t -'*? /T 6 a« world knows it, and scornful of any reward save; the _ success of /their undertaSng: If we look closely into the'lives of such men we find that the keynote of their w/th vt % % War^ vital faith. "nted with simplicity- and sincerity. : They know.singularly little of the methods bf the h"stlerf They are. by nature steadfast, and behind their sound hnsiness acumen we find the large gentleness^ of true refinement and sympathy.'ihe unconfessed pain endured by many men and women—no longer. yoU n—who have been given to understand that they 111 uSSf g '£? uf&^S 6eS will not bear thinking of. Do we really believe that these."failures" pass out of the world, like mist wraiths; at dawn, eavmg no memorials in the hearts of those who loved them, of those whom they have loved and striven for? If so, what then, of our forebears,- the pio-' neers of Australia, who aspired and suffered and adventured? God forbid that we, should ever think of that generation of intrepid pathfinders as failures, thouch many of them died poor ! Those splendid old people of unpurchasablo honour and cheerful beliefs, fighting adverse fortune with rare courage, and rising to every occasion, never dreamed of failure f 1..1111^ life's purpose. Nor did they fail. They were God's servants, and remembering that this is the: highest imaginable office a human being may or can attain, they measured their success by the amount of service that they rendered to Him. - We'all have within us certain pent-up possibilities and'potentialities which often, for lack of courage or self-reliance or opportunity, fail to fructify: Possibly we are dreamers or plodders, or we are gathering together, because of their ultimate rich blessing, the little things' of life which mean so much to us and so little to our purse-proud neighbour. We do not become rich; we do not stand out in high lights; we do not sway multitudes. Nevertheless, our lives are' not without happiness and be'autv and our hearts know so little of envy "and bitterness that we-reach out, deeply content, to our trivial daily blessings, to the delight of such simple things as. the blackbird's .rhapsody at dawn or the lispinc witchery of a field of barley; we can watch with strange peace the sun rising over a world slowly. unfolding in golden glory, and our souls, unafraid lift upward in the sound of God going in midnight winds. These are our great possessions. .Having them, we love, we laugh, we toil, wo suffer, we grow old. We have, .however, shrunk from treading ambition's glittering ridge, and we find ourselves tabulated as failures. That this disparaging appraisement wounds and confounds us' cannot ba denied, but because of certain depths of human understanding within ourselves we continue to live our lives willi infinite patience, and, at the last, knowing no rogrcts for wasted years, we pass i|giqUy uwftjwvvß rt|ilurcp™-."wi!ary t»ni] «Bttts«ti and midisliGuoiired.,.".