Smyrna times., 1876-04-05
Failure and Success,

There were seven thousand, seven hun
dred and forty failures in business during
the year 1875, involving liabilities to the
amount of over two hundred millions of
dollars. In the five years-IS7l-IS75-
the whole number of failures reported was
twenty-five thousand, seven hundred and
thirty-seven, and the liabilities of these
bankruptcies were nearly eight hundred
millions of dollars. 1t is estimated that
eighty-five per cent of all who go into
business, fail in the course of a few wears.
and that only three out of every hundred
gain more than living. Such are the un-
certainties of trade, with all its opportuni.
ties, its shrewd and daring operators, its
varied experince, its versatility, its capital,
its enterprise, and its power over men.
There is nothing parallel to this enor-
nous and continuous ratio of faileur in
any other line of active life The ranks of
the liberal professions show no such pro-
portionate losses of position and fortune.
The number of lawyers and physicians who
succeed in their callings is far more to the
credit of their training and their powers.
The ministry are generally set down as
having little knowledge of business and of
the world; but they certainly know their
own business well enough to make better
showing of reasonable success in the world
than the most of the business men who re-
gard them with SO much patronizing pity.
Whatever the causes may be, the facts
remain. Some men gain ultimate success
by previous failure. They do not find out
their own talents and their true vocation |
until they have been taught by bitter ex-
perience what they were not fit for. Others |
break down hopelessly in fortune and |
spirits, and end their days as "wrecks of |
their former selves" Villains recover
themselves from ignominious failures, and
sometimes "die in their nests" without
shame or fear. Good men yield to sue
cessive misfortunes which hasten them to
their graves in premature old age. The
wicked prosper and the godly suffer af-
Fiction. Providence includes these in
equalities in its mysterious orderings, and
with the grace of God often makes rich
compensations for the greatest trials. If
the kingdom of heaven can only be entered
through much tribulation," it has ample
resources and glorious rewards for those
who "endure unto the end" Jacob went
halting upon the thigh whose sinew shrank
at the touch of the angel whom he con-
CURED, and who made him prince, and
gave him his new name on the field of con-
hict. Paul could well afford to keep his
" thorn in the flesh" while he remem-
bered the sights and sounds of the third
heaven
We need the discipline of failure in order
to secure the best success. Uninterrupted
prosperity is the bane of many soul that
takes its ease, like Dives, in purple and fine
linen, until the midnight cry is heard.
Broken fortunes, chastened experiences.
checkered lives, losses and crosses, sorrows
and tears, night-wrestlings and life-battles,
have been rare, and yet are "things that
accompany salvation" to thousands, who
but for the rod would not get their robes
and crowns.
In these trying times this lesson of the
many and the suceesso the few, is like the
preaching of John the Baptist, heralding
the Saviour and his grace.
If we had accurate statistics of the pro-
portion of religious failures to the sue
cesses in any given church or denomina-
ton, we should not find great cause of
gladness. 1t is estimated by our Methodist
friends, however; that only about one out
Of every seven persons who are admitted
on probation, afterwards make full pro-
fessions of their faith. This was the
average in several large conferences a few
years ago. 1t is well that there is back
door, out which unworthy probationers,
who have been quickly received, may de-
part, as soon as they are proved to be unfit
for full membership. But all churches
suffer from this wastage in greater or less
degree and few of the whole body of COM
municants in any single church make large
religious attainments. The average church
member seems to aim only at keeping in
line with the march of the sacramental
host. The leaders and heroes are always
few; but these, too, depend largely upon
the rank and file. Yet while, among real
Christians, failure to reach the highest
eminence Is common, the wrecks are only
those of misfortanes such as Paul and mil
lions of humble believers have endured
and even then final success has come out Of
these very failures. II
Broken fortunes may be mended, bust