The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-02-07
MEN WHO MISSED
THE MARK

Terse Comments on the Uniform Pray
er-Meeting Topic of the Christian
Endeavor Societies, the Baptist
Young Peoples Unions, ETC., for
Feb. 8-"Bible Lessons for Men That
Failed" Gen., w., 3-12; Judges, xvi,
20-21; |. Sam, ill.,, 11-14; XIV, 6-29.
In railway stations, in public reading
rooms, in court houses in the visitors
galleries of congress, wherever a warm
corner may be obtained free, we see
the melancholy company of men who
have failed. What a host of them
there are, men without spirit or pur-
pose, making no return to society for
the benefits it bestows upon all, and
seeking only the qualification of their
few material wants. Sad as is this
spectacle, which all jewellers in cities
knows, yet it does not represent SO
great failures as does such that wears
fine raiment and dwells in opulenCe.
These poor wrecks of humanity are,
as a rule, simply the incompetent, the
lazy and the unfortunate. The failure
that spells tragedy is that, Of the men
who have repudiated their convictions
and higher nature, and, for the sake
of some low goal have sinned against
light. For, after all, the only failure
that counts is a failure in soul. In
ability to attain worldly goods may
signify little or much; but it is never
a true test of the success or failure
of the real man. 1t is to be noted that
! the Bible writes no man down as a
failure simply because he is poor;
! most of its heroes were that. Only
| moral failures are recorded as failures
I in that wise Book of human life.
Faithlessness is always failure. Not
| merely does it produce failure; it is
failure itself.
The first man to live was failure
Adam had the best chance and made
the worst use Of it. III bequeathed to
! the race an inheritance of failure Dis
| obedience was the pit into which he
fell, and it is a pit whose mouth yaWns
for all of us. All failures may be said
to spring from disobedience, since all
other sins are born of it. The man
who obeys succeeds; the man who
diSobeyS failS-that is a law of life, as
certain in it's working as the sun In it's
| setting.
Disobedience caused the first failure
and jealousy caused the second. If
Satan may be said to need a motive
for SHINING, it was supplied by jeaI-
OuSy. Outside of Eden's gate, jealousy
took possession of the second man,
and Cain became a murderer. Books
of morals and counsel do not say as
much about jealousy as they do about
many lesser sins, but every man who
! has his eyes open to the real world
about him knows that jealousy is one
J of the primal and potent forces at work
| in society. Perhaps in social life it
| is most manifest, but it is none the
| less present in the business and pro-
| fessional world. Jealousy robs many
a man of his birthright Of manhood,
ana makes MIN stoop to deeds almost
! as foul as that Of Cain. Whenever
| jealousy enters life, failure speedily
| follows it.
Success is in fulfilling the divine
plan for human life.
Most of the Bibles greatest char
! acters, its men who won success that
| shines to this day. were apparent fail
ures. From Abraham to Paul, it's
mightiest men appear to have closed
! their careers in defeat. This was
most notably true Of Him who ended
| His life on a malefactor's cross. APP
! parent failure may be real success and
| apparent success-such, for instance,
| as Herod' s-may be deep and eternal
| failure.
He fails who climbs to power and place
! Up the pathway of disgrace.
! He fails not who makes truth his cause,
Nor bends to win the crowds applause.
| He fails nOt-he who stakes his all
| Upon the right and dares to fall
Richard Watson Glider.
Fear, some say, is the only i'll; if
there be the courageous heart, nothing
else matters much. Whether or not
this extreme view be correct, it GER
tainly is true that fear is one of the
first curses of life and the cause of
many of its failures. Israel was kept
out of the promised land for forty
years because of the craven hearts of
the ten spies and the multitude of peo-
pie who needed their coWardly counsel.
Peter missed the eternal glory of hay-
ing been loyal friend of his Master
by his fear on that chilly night when
he sought to warm himself at the fire
of the Lords foes. Fear paralyZes the
arm, befogs the brain and turns the
hearts red blood into water. He who
! seeks the secret of success has need to
learn courage, first of all.
Early in the Bible story, grim and
leering appetite stalks in. AT its worst,
! it built the cities of the plain that
were so intolerable that God consumed
them by fire from heaven. 1t snatched
the birthright from Isaac's older son,
and in every generation that succeeded
it committed Offenses against man and
! God, making murderer and aQulterer
of Israers best king. Still its deadly
work goes on. Almost every day we
| read of some man, towering above his
! fellows, whose success is turned to
| shame, like the fall of a giant tree rot
| ten at the core, because of appetite.
Against this type of failure there is
! provision made in tie divine economy;
| the secret is given in the words of the
! inspired apostle-"W Walk by the Spirit,
| and we shall not fulfill the lust of the
! flesh"
| Lack of money and love of money
are responsible for most commercial