THE GOSPEL OF SUCCESS.

Evening Star, Issue 14515, 5 November 1910, Page 2

THE GOSPEL OF SUCCESS.

Op all gospels this is ti» most popular. Ifc commands the largest audiences and the most numerous preachers. It might be said, indeed, that it is tho on© ideal of life on -which everybody is agreed. Yet we- remind ourselves that so influential a teacher as R. L. Stevenson says that " our business " in life is not to succeed, but to fail with "a good grace." From tho number of those who do fail, it might be reasonably enough.ihforred that that is the purpose of existence. But nobody voluntarily seeks failure. Everybody is out after Success. Not failure but Success is the supreme beatitude. It may bo -worth while, then, to consider what Success is, and what are tho conditions and characteristics of a successful life. In so venturing wo do not forget that Mr Chesterton pours ridicule upon such an undertaking. Ho writes 'ln All Things Considered': There has appeared in our lime a particular class of books and articles which I sincerely and solemnly think may be called th© silliest ever known among

men. And ho goes on to explain that tlies? books are about how to succeed in life. He argues that there is no such tiling as Success ; that if a thing is successful it merely

i iss ' that it is. A millionaire is successful us a millionaire, a donkey in boing a donkey. Any live man has succeeded in living, a dead man may have succeeded in committing suicide. But Mr Chesterton's paradoxes in this essay seem not merely to bo what all proper paradoxes ire—truth standing on its tip-toes iu order to get a hearing for itself, but truth toppled »ver so far that it threatens to fall witlun Ihj boundary-lino of error. So wo shall iot be deterred from writing our article ."ven though, according to Mr Chestcrtflh, His. a silly undertaking. Thoso who agree with him must either road no further or iiuctLse the apostolic injunction "to bear ,ii.h fools gladly." *******

Our first business must bo to find out what is Success. It is not difficult to discover what at least is the popular conception of it. With tho majority of people tie suecsjful man in the man who can accumulate money. Tho word succeed etymologicaily means to cojiio after, by following in duo ord'H- of birth, as, e.g.,. the rightful successor to a monarch, and it carries with it still this masterful color. From originally meaning to get under, it means now to ■ct over or up above others. And as money is the power by which this can bo mest easily accomplished, so the successful person comes to signify the money-making person. Thiiv is what the man in. tho street understands by Success. And there is a scii6o in which ho is right. It would be tho merest, affectation to suggest that money is not a desirable tiring. It is. Ae Emerson says: " The Pulpit and the Press " have many commonplaces denouncing the "thirst for wealth, but if men should take "ihese moralists at their word and leave " off idniing to lib rich, tho moralists would "wish to lekindlo at all hazards this love "of power in tho people, lest civilisation "should be undone.'' Xo, we cannot dispense witli it. A man has to do with things, and things are not outside even the Creator's thought, else what is tho meaning of tho earth with all its treasiiro of wealth in every square yard of it? * * * * * * *

T!k> real question is as to one's purpose in tho pursuit of money. For what does a n.iii want it? Does he want it so as to bo able to say that ho has more than others? Decs he want it for the sake of power, ostentation, tho furnishing of a home with luxuries, and the education of children, eo that they shall be able to levy a further tax on the community by the very wealth that the community has given them? It is this sort of Success that gives men such a bad name, makes them at once eo envied and hated. As Mr A. C. Benson writes in one of his books :

A sagacious, shrewd, acute man of tho world is some-times a mere nuisance. He has made his prosperous comer at tho expense of others, and he has only contrived to accumulate behind a little fence of his own what was meant to be the

property of all. And w> wo got or. the proper track of the right u.-c of money. Money is compressed force. It can be made to tiilk and work, and the proper purpose of talking and working is. io contribute to life. Wo irach thus the philosophy of Ruskins guiding principle: "There is no wealth but life." Man is pat into this world not to accumulate riches and property, but to make these subservient to life, his own life, and the Hie of the world. That is the only trueSuccess. A great Chicago merchant once gaid : " My aim in this world is to get the " Kingdom, of Heaven made real in it, and " l sell stock to pay expenses." In other words, the true purpose of business is to make money in order to niako men; in order to widen and enrich the life of the cominunily and of the world. No life is truly successful that dons not make that the guiding principle in its acquirement of wealth. Hut the principle is capable of further analysis. An American writer in one of lis books tells the stoiy of a man who died a few years ago in Boston. Ho was ono of its first citizens—a banker, wealthy, public-spirited, and a, devoted friend of education. Ono who knew him well, describing his character and career, spoke of him as "successful." When he had written the word ho paused and asked himself What is a successful life? He answered: "It is tho life which a man would like to live over again." That seemed inadequate, for most persons would like to live their lifo over again, or at least they would rather do it than rfop living and go out into tho great .unknown. So ho amended (ho description in this way : " A successful «- life i s one which a man's neighbors would "liko to liavo him livo over again." But this too was unsatisfactory, for a man's nei«hhor3 would wish to gratify him if he so desired, all the more if in the repetition there would bo an improvement in the life. So after trying one definition after another he finally came to tho conclusion that a successful lifo is one which a, man would like to continuo definitely in the world which he enters when he leaves this one, and would there iind satisfying and honorable. That seems reasonable and complete. It is certain none of ns will be here long. Wo were nob meant to he. We have a long journey before us. There are more lives yet, there are more worlds waiting, For the way clhnbs up to the Eldest Son, Where the White Ones go to their mystic mating And the Holy Will is done. ******* It. is unreasonable to suppose that all thesa years here mean nothing—that what they give ns in experience is dropped, and wo start anew somewhere eke. That would be contrary to tho whole analogy of tho present life, an analogy which shows us how the past is garnered up and carefully preserved in our present. We carry with us through all the changes here the experiences of the bygone years, and " what we have been makes us what we are." We have-no reason to conclude that it will bo

otherwise when Death caDs us to make the exchange of worlds. The emigrant leaves his native land behind him, and the scenes and associations connected therewith. But ho does not leave himself behind. All that made up that thing which we call personality, individuality goes with him into the new lande. And Death is only an emigration. Our identity is not dropped at the grave's mouth. The exchange of worlds may mean much, but it cannot mean the loss of identity. It ought not to call for a reversal of the principles by which we have been living, a rcconefcruction of our plan, a transformation of tho purposes and motives which we have approved. Character docs not anywhere depend on circumstances, and need not change with them. If our present life is to have dignity and consistency, wo must so fashion it that wo shall desire its continuance. How can (his be achieved? It is obvious that thero arc certain things with which wo must deal in this world that are no part of us. Their purpose is to cducato, develop, and enrich our personality. But they are temporary and local. They belong to the present sphere and to the passing day. Money, property, the whole tangible earth are in this category. They are all transitory. What is not trausitory is the elements of our being that deal with these. The reason, conscience, all that we vaguely term the soul or spirit, truth, virtue, duty, tastes, habits, love—these and the like are permanent tilings. And it is in these that tho successful lifo must finally grow in root and fruit. It must learn to use all the temporary things only as means whereby the enduring part of it is. developed and enriched. The artisan, the student, tho doctor, the lawyer, the merchant ought to bo reckoned successful only as far as they have been able to use their work so that it has contributed to tho creation and culture of tliose tastes, habits, principles that we amy with us into the worlds beyond death. Tho mero technicalities of these professions may no longer be needed. The doctor's instruments will be superseded, the lawyer will not need the books that were needful here, nor the merchant the goods that filled the stores. But we cannot conceive any world hi which love of truth, in which affection, and fidelity to duty, and service of others can ever cease to be honorable and satisfying. The only question we have to settle lelativo to the things we deal with in our profession and work is how far wo are using these to develop those elements of character which are permanent. Take, for example, duty. It has been rightly said that duty is very nearly the synonym for Success. Duty is democratic. It confronts everybody. It meets us all at cveiy turn of life. It presents its ultimatum every hour, and neither ago nor sex escapes its challenge. Moreover, there is no surer survival of death. We cannot conceive of a world where "ought" should cease to bo the master of life, where tho call of duty should not be heard. It is alike wholly independent of geography and chronology. The truly successful life must be one that is thoroughly loyal to duty, and where duty is ever moving up to higher achievement*. For the reward of duty ja not merely the satisfaction of having done its best, but the promotion to higher opportunities. In all lands and tlirough all human storv The path of duty is the way to glory.

It ought to bo. said, however, that to tread this path may not bring Success in tho popular souse of the word. Sometimes —indeed, not seldom —there is no money in it. But there is manhood in it, and that will be found the only real wealth at the end of the day. The great preacher of this truth to tho present generation is Browning. His philosophy 'is, to put it in a sentence or two, something like this: There corao to us all every day moments when wo see clearly the good and duty. This is tho stirring of tho life eternal. To throw ourselves out in obedience- to it, to follow the gleam instantly and loyally, is tho way to Success. It may mean difiieulty, and trouble, and Joss. The world will" call it failure. Oud has another word for it. ''Ye shall hear it by-and-bye." On tho other hand, to deny the light, to stifle it, to disobey is the failuro that is to be dreaded. There- is no other failure in life worth considering in comparison with this. This failure may not. Co-exist with what the world calls Sncee-ss. It may not coexist with health, wealth, and length of life No matter. It is the cancelling of the timeless life—the life eternal. This is Browning's gospel of success and failure. He preaches it in almost all his poems, but in particular in 'Old Pictures in Florence,' in 'A Grammarian's Funeral,' and in ' Rabbi Bon Ezra.' It is a gospel that needs to bo heard in these days. So many arc set on Success at all hazards. Nelson used to say: " Never mind about the justieo or the impudence; only let mo succeed." It is this sentiment that threatens tho very basis of civilisation. Success (in the vulgar sense), and Success speedily—so multitudes preach and practise. But "Browning's words arc profoundly true: Oh. if you draw a circle premature, I Heedless of fax gain, I Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure Bad is your bargain.