Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-11-14

could never be applied to any thing more
than the amelioration of physical ills.
1t seems too obvious to require 1t to
be said that this programme OF saliva
ton from bodily ills is not the pro-
gramme of Christ for the redemption of
mankind and for assuring real success
to every human soul. It was funda-
mental with Him that the life Is more
than meat, and that it CONSISTENT not
in the abundance of the things man
hath
If life's real success is not dependent
upon the abundance of things possessed.
its real failure is not in the scarcity of
ones possessions. What one has, or has
not, is not matter of supreme impor-
lance; but what one is, or is not is the
real test of success or failure.
AS a general thing success with things
outside of the soul is unfriendly to the
highest success with the things of the
soul. Wherefore it Us a most merciful
arrangement of Providence that as Rob-
ert Louis Stevenson has said what
ever else we are intended to do, we
are not intended to succeed Failure
in matters earthly is our appointed lot
because God desires we shall win
heavenly success
But earthly failure can not of itself as
sure us of heavenly success. 1t is OF
no use to any except to them who. turn
1t to right account. 1t embitters some,
who in thus misusing it fail for both
heaven and earth. Than such a result
nothing can be worse
Earthly failure enriches others with
the most divine success. The way of
Christian history is full of these blessed.
glorious failures. In a letter found among
"a bundle of old letters" which through
the ages the church has kept with ten
der care, one such old failure writes, 81
count all things but loss for the excel
lency Of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom 1 have suffered the
loss of all and do count them but refuse
that 1 may win Christ" He died in
prison by the axe of a Roman execu-
toner. He was right scarce of clothes
and friends while he was imprisoned,
having to write back from Rome to a
friend In Asia to send him an old cloak
which he had left at Troas, and telling
that friend in the same letter ''at my
first defense no man stood with me, but
all forsook me-" Some time before he
went as a prisoner to Rome, a worldly
wise politician, who observed the GER
tain failure that was before him in the
course he was pursuing, told him he
was mad" The end was even worse
than the politician foresaw, but at the
last out of the utter wreck of all earth
ly good, this man who failed, as men or
the world count failure, cried triumph
antly, 81 have fought good fight" He
seemed not to know he had failed at
all. Doubtless he did not fail.
How poor our wretched world would be
If no such glorious failures had ever
lived in It! How poor this success
deifying age would be If there was none
such failures still among us!
Let not the sleek, well-groomed man
of business, who has succeeded in the
world, waste either contempt or pity on
these blessed failures. The commercial
world itself will fail when. there are no
more of these heavenly failures alive
ito keep faith glowing among men. Ships
of trade outride storms in which they
would otherwise go to pieces because
these dreamers and their Master ride
the seas and command the winds and
waves.
And let not these failures envy the lot
of them, who compass sea and land to
win earthly success. ''verily they have
their reward" But where is there a
heaven-born soul who could be satisfied
with such a recompense? Was there
ever a saint who would have exchanged
goodness, for gold? Could Elijah envy
Anab his chariot; or John the Baptist
covet a place at Herod's banquet board.
Thanks be to God for the sanity fall
ures among meni Their lives make the
earth wholesome for the rest Of us; for
they are 1.-The salt of the earth