Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-11-14
BLESSED FAILURES AND BLASTING SUCCESS

Robert Louis Stevenson says in one of
his books, There is, indeed one ele-
ment in human destiny that not blind
ness itself can controvert. Whatever else
we are intended to do, we are not intend
ed to succeed; failure is the fate allot-
ed.
If by such is meant the achievement
of the aims and plans of which We
dreamed in early life, it is most certainly
| true that we are not intended to succeed.
Indeed few, II any, of the plans we
have entertained at any period of our
| lives are ever fulfilled perfectly. And IL
perchance we attain the end at which we
aimed. we find the result less satisfying
than we imaginedsit would. be. Wherefore
all lives, whether longer or shorter, in
sense fail of success.
But there is another view of success
and failure which Chesterton has ex-
pressed in one of his characteristic para
doxes. He says, There is nothing that
fails like success"l If we were success
full in our shortsighted plan for earthly
things, we should most surely fail of
life's true purpose.
There are courses of conduct which
should be avoided, not because they result
in failure but because they most common
ly end in disastrous success. For
example. Jesus warned = men
against certain types of life Just
because they are successful. Verify
1 say unto you they have their reward
More is the pity, that such is the case. TO
succeed in evir is surely to succumb TO
it. Often men think that they have mas
tered the game Of success when
in truth they have been mas
tered by it. who has not seen men who
were more truly the slaves of their bust
ness than the owners of it? And how
often do we observe men who are the
wretched victims of what is called "a
fortune?
Financial success purchased at the cost
of a narrowed mind and a hardened
heart is secured at price far above
what it is worth. It bankrupts him VINO
pays the price. Honours won by the exer-
tions of an Unsuitable ambition degrade
rather than elevate. Il
Solomon had about as much success In
the pursuit of unworthy ends as any
man can hope for, and from all that he
obtained he turned away with safety and
loathing, declaring @AIl is vanity and
vexation of spirit. He sought worldly
wisdom and obtained it to find only that
Gin much wisdom is much grief, and
he that .increaseth knowledge incFeaseth
SORROW (Eccl. i:1S). He pursued the
paths of pleasure and returned from
them grievously disappointed. saying,
Behold this Also is vanity. He under
took to make great works, houses
and vineyards and gardens and orchards
and lakes and pools and great possessions
of every sort; but his own verdict upan
the outcome of the Undertaking Is, Then
I looked on all the works that my hands
had wrought, and on the labour that
I had laboured to do; and, behold, all was
vanity and vexation of spirit and there
was no profit under the sun. Yea, I
hated all the labouF which had taken
under the sun because j should leave 1t |
unto the man that shall be after me. And
who knoweth whether he shall be wise
man or fool? Yet shall he have rule
over all my labour wherein have Ia
boured, and wherein 1 have showed my
self wise under the sun This also is
vanity Perhaps the Wise Man already
perceived that his son, Rehoboam, was
a fool, and that he was made fool by
what his father had Such is often the
case with fathers who gather wealth for
fools and bring up fools for wealth.
Notwithstanding all his wisdoms Solomon
himself was a good deal of fool, al
thought he was not the same kind of a
fool as was Rehoboam, his son. Both
were failures; Solomon railing through |
worldly success and CRehoboam through
worldly defeat And they have had many
successors in failure re ss
There is only one thing to which God
assures success. All the forces of grace
and providence are pledged to make the
pursuits of holiness successful. Blessed
are they that do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filed.
The body of Lazarus at the rich mans
gate could starve and die, but his soul
suffered no hunger. Dives watching
from within the wasted form of the beg
gar borne away to the burial Of pau
per may have accounted such a life
with such an ending a. great failure.
But who failed? Dives or Lazarus? II
we believe the Scriptures we can give
but one answer to that question.
Our Father in heaven is not greatly
concerned to give US dainty food and
soft raiment; He has not encouraged US
to pray for more than daily bread, and
He has emphatically warned US against
being anxious about what we shall eat
and what we shall put on. But He is
greatly concerned about our being holy
as He is holy.
Our times are too much absorbed in
efforts to escape suffering and to win
success. Many people who call them
selves christians, including some preach
ers, seem to think that the chief end
material conditions of life. They would
keep the Saviour constantly multiplying
loaves and fishes for the hungry, If they
could; and they would advise Him that
salvation is more matter of good diet
than of the forgiveness of sins and the
regeneration of the heart These are
they who talk much OF what they call
applied christianity, as if christianity