Los Angeles herald., 1908-11-16
SUCCESS IMPOSSIBLE
WITHOUT CONVERSION
DR.. LOCKE DlSC0URSES ON
TRUE PROSPERITY
Honesty, sobrlety, self-contro and
Other Basic Virtues Indispensable
for All Worthy Achieves
ment In Life

the second of his prosperity Sermons
last evening in the First Methodist
Episcopal church. A great audience
crowded the large church. His sub
ject was: us it possible to achieve
great success in life and be a con-
sistent Christian?' and the text, God
liness Is profitable unto all things,
having promise of the life which now
is and of that which is to come" 1
Timothy AS. DR.. Locke said in part:
I'VE are travelling this way but once.
We can never repair the wrongs and
mistakes of yesterday We may profit
in the future by the errors Of the past,
but the damaged past must remain
as we left 1t. 1t is of first Importance
that each person should possess right
theories of life and settled principles
of action. Alasl that many discover
they are on the wrong path when 1t
is too late to retrace their steps and
win a crown. To make a life is the
highest achievement and the working
out of this ideal should occupy the
time and talent of every honest man
and woman.
II have been asked frequently
whether 1 sincerely believe that 1t is
possible to win the largest successes
in life and maintain at the same time
the loftiest Christian ideals. First,
Briefly, success may be defined as the
ful1llment OF ambitions to occupy
places of influence and affluence and
to stand in the front ranks with those
who achieve.
'It is often stated that so sharp is
the competition and so frequently do
INSCRIPTIONS men adopt questionable
methods that If hey would succeed
Christian man must lower his stan
dards, meet his opponents on the same
level and even at times trample upon
his sturdy principles Of right and
wrong and Justice, or he Will be
crushed out in the battle. To these
general statements l wish to reply in
detail.
1.-THE practice of Christian principles
is indispensable to a man when he
embarks upon his career. Without
them he cannot even get good start.
For instance, he must be diligent-a
diligence which lifts him above mean,
ordinary men and gives him a fell
1owship with princely toilers. Dill
gence is genius; If a man has no other
conspicuous talent he will succeed.
Confucius said, "The expectation of
life depends upon diligence. The
mechanic who would perfect his life
must first sharpen his tools" Dickens,
with his voluminous writings, Ban
croft with his colossal history and
William Carey with his prodigious
TRANSACTIONS of the Scriptures into orr
entail languages, each declared that
he had merely a genius for work, hard
work-persstent application.
Honesty a Necessity
"Again, the man who would get
good start toward success must pos
sess the old-fashioned Christian virtue
of honesty. "A. false balance is abom-
nation to the Lord There are many
men in these greedy days who have
not their price, who cannot be bought.
They Indignantly spurn all overtures
to sell their birthright in the language
of that hero of the Revolution, who,
when he was offered small fortune
to enter the service of England's i'm
beetle king, replied: Three thousand
pounds! 1 am not worth purchasing,
but such as 1 am, the king of England
is not rich enough to buy me! On
the death of George Jones, the founder
of the New York Times, it was re-
called how he refused a bride OF
81, 900, 900, offered h'~1 by the Tweed
ring if he would withhold damaging
information from the columns of his
paper.
"sobriety and purity are other viz
tuous habits without which a good
start in the race is impossible. There
seems to be no place today Tor the
young man who drinks. The railroads,
the banks, large manufacturing inter-
ests, are demanding temperate men.
Even q brewery adVertises for book
keeper, with the significant condition,
only total abstainers need apply The
body must be kept under subJection
or the soul will become its slave. The
physical man is merely q temporary
expedient to furnish a vehicle for the
real man. Narcotics, intoxicants, inn
purity, excuses of any KIND, denle
the body and place the body across
the path of the progress of the MIND
and the soul. All the nerve and mus
cular' vigor of the physical nature
should be reserved for the service OF
the intellectual and moral nature. If
physical strength is exhausted in phy-
steal indulgences the spiritual nature
is correspondingly crippled and i'm
poverished and even fair success made
impossible.
that he that maketh haste to be rich
shall not go unpunished' Avarice is
no friend of success. Riches alone
have never purchased happiness. In
short, character is achievement ana
consistent Christian living is character,
There is no character In any past age
which reaches the lofty plateaus and
unfurls such spotless banners as the
character produced by the imitation of
the spirit and virtues of Jesus of
Nazareth and obedience to his COM
Foundation of Principles
wherefore if the above Christian
principles are necessary to the founda-
tion of a career how continuously
requisite are these same ideals when
the burdens of a developing career
must be carried. The man who for
sakes the principles by which he has
won some recognition in order to Sc
cure larger influence and revenues is
a foul traitor, guilty of treason against
his character The penalty of treason
is loss of prestige and position, loss of
conscience loss of real happiness.
Surely, what really does 1t profit man
If he shall gain the whole world and
lose his own soul? When he loses his
soul he loses his sympathy, faith, di-
vinity, humility, hope In God-in one
word he loses his life.
"It must not be forgotten that a
mans life does not consist in abundance
of things. The man who surrounds
himself with merely an abundance Of
things is like the rich fool who, just
when he was ready to take his ease,
heard the startling announcement, This
night thy soul shall be required of
thee. Then whose shall those things
be?' Life is not things; the soul finds
no food in barns filled with harvests.
A quaint old philosopher once said;
God gave money to fools to show how
little he thought of it..
"The conclusion to which this simple
logic brings us is that not only is 1t
true that a man can win largest sue
cess and be a consistent Christian, but
he cannot secure real success unless he