Earnest words on true success in life, addressed to young men and women

Front matter

J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. J l UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J

EARNEST WORDS

ON

Contents

PAGE

I. — CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUTH, ... 7

II. — CAUSES OF FAILURE IN LIFE, ... 29

II. Causes Of Failure In Life

TN the races which were among the most intense- -■- ly exciting of the performances at the Isthmian Games, there were a great many competitors, while one only could obtain the prize. The certainty that one only could suceeed, of course presented the highest inducement to each do his very utmost that he might secure to himself the victory and reward. The issue of every trial was that one realized his ardent hope, and the rest suffered a bitter disappointment.

Not precisely the same, but strikingly analogous, are the results which are constantly seen in the more momentous race of human life. There is no limiting of the prize to one ; but it occurs, as a matter of fact, that while all run, it is but a very small proportion of the whole that run prosperously. The many suffer the miseries of failure. The few only, win and enjoy the satisfactions of success. Everywhere along the waysides of life are scattered the wrecks of perished hopes. Every day thousands depart from life worn out with the pangs and the chagrin of ever -recurring disappointments. Sad as this view of our human condition is, we cannot venture to deny its truth.

Whence then the failures that darken so many lives ? Shall we attribute them to mere accident or fate ? Our Christian education forbids us to do that. We know that in the great system of things man's rational nature and consequent responsibility are recognized and provided for ; and that the lawobtains that whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. The fortunes of mankind depend so much upon themselves, that it is entirely legitimate to inquire by what means each may make or may mar his own — may achieve success, or bring on himself the sufferings of failure.

Before we can speak intelligently of the causes which produce so many melancholy failures in life, even among those who enjoy abundant means and opportunities, it is necessary to settle clearly in our minds what we mean when we pronounce life a failure. It is not so easy to do this as we may at first imagine. Failure is the opposite of success. What then is success in life — or when may a life be regarded as a successful one ? What would you

Causes of Fat here in Life. 33

say ? It is a question to which different persons, if required to reply at once, would be likely to give verv different answers.

Some would doubtless consider success in life to consist in the realization of one's plans and wishes. They would regard those persons as successful who attain their ends, without inquiring what those ends may be. Others might take success to consist in the acquisition of those things which mankind generally look upon as most to be desired in securing, for example, wealth, honor, intellectual or social eminence, and what is generally included in the term — prosperity. Yet others would take a profounder view. They would consider that life only as successful in which the true and highest ends of living were in a good degree attained. You may realize your plans and wishes, and these may all turn out to have been wrong. You may get all the wealth your heart desires, and all the eclat of shining in society, and holding conspicuous places among men, and seem to have nothing to desire, and yet all these things may contribute little to your happiness and nothing to your true well being. Should that be called success ? Can anything deserve to be called success, in relation to life as a whole, which does not include such a moulding of one's character and such a discharge of one's highest duties, as will insure one's permanent well-being? I suppose every thoughtful and candid person will say no.

We may say then that a successful life is one in which the best and most useful things of which a person is capable are attempted and accomplished ; and of course that that life is a failure in which the best and most useful things of which the individual is capable are not undertaken, or, at least, are not achieved ; in which talents, opportunities, and years have been enjoyed to little or no advantage, in a just estimate of things. A failure, in this view of it, may be considered as a thing of degrees. It may be partial, or it may be entire. If a man accomplishes nothing proportionate to what might fairly be expected of him, his life is, relatively, a failure. If one's life is useless or injurious to himself and the world, his life is a failure absolutely.

What then — we return now to the question — are some of the more noticeable causes of the life-failures which abound on every side ?

The first which I will mention is the living without any definite and serious purpose. If a man will send a ship to sea, he first of all determines her destination. Then he arranges everything with reference to this. He furnishes outfit and provisions according to the foreseen requirements of that particular voyage. Then he places a master in command and a pilot at the helm, who will know how, through opposing currents and contending winds and storms, to make the destined port. He would certainly be set down for a fool who should dispatch his vessel amply furnished and with all sail set, without any settled destination, or any one in charge to direct her course. We might well imagine in such a case, the devouring elements lifting up their voice in derisive laughter and shouting " aha ! " while they waited for their prey.

Shall a young person, then, furnished with all the high endowments of a rational and moral nature, commit himself and all the precious interests of his existence to mere contingencies ? Shall he place himself at the mercy of the time and chance that happen unto all, with no end distinctly set before him, no thoughtful choice of means, no adopted plan of effort, no fixed and resolute will ? Egregious as this folly is. there are, unhappily many who commit it. Partly in many cases through the fault of parents, who neglected in early years to teach them the true object of existence, and partly

6 Trice Success in Life, through their own thoughtlessness, such seem to take for granted that they are of course to drift with the current of circumstances — to be and to do what the accidental influences with which they come in contact may determine. Is it any wonder that a young man or woman thus objectless and passive at the most critical period of life should fail utterly to live to any good account ? Is it not the most natural thing conceivable that where everything is left to the impulse and the humor of the hour, appetite, inclination, the ruling passions, whatever they may be, should assert and hold ascendancy and determine all the conduct ? With no regulative force within, what should hinder one from becoming indolent, sensual, frivolous, pleasure-loving, reckless, incompetent, worthless ?

Yes, young men and women, it is almost certain failure to suffer yourselves to be like mere driftwood on the sea. One of the first conditions of success in life is a settled purpose which is to shape the whole. It is an advantage to decide, as early as possible, to what particular pursuit, profession or attainment, your life is to be devoted. One who at an early period chooses the line of business, the course of study, the branch of science, the department of art, the field of professional or literary effort, which he will make his calling, will find this choice to exert a happy influence both in steadying and in stimulating his activity. To know what you are striving for, makes it all the easier to strive. But beyond this there is a higher and more general purpose than that involved in the choice of one's particular pursuit, which is essential to a successful life, and the lack of which ensures a failure. It is the broad purpose, fixed firmly in the soul, to make the very utmost of your capacity and your advantages. Such a decision becomes a powerful regulative force. It puts duty first, and subordinates to that inclination, caprice and taste. It stimulates to self-culture and self-mastery. It makes life a rational and earnest thing, and gives it unity and method. But let this high, deliberate, sober purpose be wanting in you, and to a certainty unworthy influences will rule your actions, and you will either make no serious exertions, or will fritter away your time and strength by bestowing them on comparative trifles. Is it anything surprising that those who aim at nothing accomplish nothing in their lives ? No better result could reasonably be expected. It is absurd to imagine that the prizes of life are to be obtained by accident.

A second cause of failure to live successfully, is

38 True Success hi Life.

the want of a just appreciation of the difficulty with which success is won. The young are apt to be sharp critics. They deal severely with the defects which they see in the characters or the performances of others. This, not from any malice, or a mere love of finding fault. The source of the foible — for it should be considered as a foible — is their inexperience. They have not yet had time to learn by actual trial how hard it is to extirpate constitutional, or at least deeply-rooted faults, to exhibit consistently distinguished virtues, or to do anything so well as to deserve the praise of excellence. Those who have come by experiment to understand the truth, while they are not the less discriminating in their perceptions, are inclined to be more lenient in their judgment. You feel a tender sympathy with one who at a faltering pace is struggling upward, when you remember the weary steps with which you yourself ascended the arduous steep.

It is, unquestionably, a great thing to achieve a successful life ; however easy it may seem beforehand to the sanguine. While the world is yet untried and the fresh spirit sees everything future as if bathed in rosy light, there is a romantic pleasure, often, in thinking and talking of the difficulties to be surmounted. When we read in works of fiction, or in real biography and history, of the self-denials, the discouragements, the conflicts, the perils, sorrows and tears, through which some favorite character pressed his way to illustrious virtue and good and useful deeds, we are so pleased with the impression of the picture, that we fancy to ourselves how happy we should be to travel over the same ground. There are perhaps few intelligent young persons who are not conscious of having had such thoughts. But it is a widely different thing to encounter difficulties from what it is to read or dream of them. There is no romance about real trials. They are very prosaic and unpalatable things ; so different, commonly, when they come, from anything anticipated, that one seems not prepared for them at all. Hence it happens, in the case of many who set out in life with some good purposes and some degree of resolution, that when it comes to the actual experience of the sacrifices, the self-denials, and the toils that are sure to be found in every path which leads to true success, there is a shrinking back, a lack of the energy and courage that should bear one through, and at last a failure through despondency. The apprentice cannot endure to go, step by step, through the tedious process of mastering his trade. The clerk gets out of patience with the

40 • - , True Success hi Life.

years of irksome- drudgery that must be preliminary to success in business. The student wearies of the long course of mental discipline which custom has exacted, and either abandons study altogether, or, relying on his genius, vainly attempts, with half an education, to compete with those who have been thorough in the work of preparation. A man goes into the pulpit, or to the bar or senate, and fancies that without hard study and solid acquisitions he shall be able to act effectively and permanently upon the minds of men. He figures for a little while, perhaps, with borrowed thoughts and flashy and pretentious words and airs which may captivate at first the superficial. But ere long his emptiness reveals itself; and, as Miss Edgeworth quaintly says, " going up like a rocket, he soon comes down like a stick " — a hopeless failure. The wife and mother, worried with endless cares and petty vexations, as well as with graver trials — most of which she must endure in seclusion, without the encouragement of the world's sympathy and applause — loses her aspirations, her ambition, her elasticity and energy of mind; and gives over all the efforts at self-culture which were requisite to make her a refined and noble woman. So in innumerable instances. Unless the minds of the young be deeply impressed at the outset with the greatness and the painfulness of the difficulties to be surmounted in living well ; unless they nerve themselves for the grapple of great contests, the danger of failure from disappointment and depression, or from miscalculations as to what is needful to success, is very great indeed. You will do well — if you propose, as we trust you do, to live really successful lives — to count well the cost beforehand, and to gird yourselves up for the bearing of many crosses, and the tasking of all your energies to the utmost. To dream of accomplishing anything w r orthy of you without this, is almost certainlv to fail. It is no child's play to climb " the rugged path, the steep ascent, that virtue points to." It is only to be done by high endeavor.

There is a third cause of failure which comes near to being the exact opposite to that just noticed. It is the error of those whose ideals are always beyond their power of execution ; who form, that is, such high conceptions of what they ought to do, or at least would wish to do, that they have no heart to attempt anything in earnest ; or if they do, again and again give over with chagrin, because they cannot approximate to a realization of the vision that floats before their minds.

If the failures from this cause are less numerous than those from others, they are nevertheless especially to be deplored ; for it is only minds of a high order that are liable to fail in this particular manner. It is the prerogative of such minds — minds that have the insight of genius, combined with power of intellect and reach of imagination — to conceive, whatever they attempt to do, of a degree of excellence which no human power can reach. The effect of this is apt to be a passionate desire to achieve something far beyond what is ordinarily reached, even by superior minds. When such a desire has gained full possession of any heart, the mere ordinary degrees of excellence in character and worthiness in deeds, are apt to seem of very little value and hardly deserving one's attention. From the high position from which such persons look at things, and the broad views which they are wont to take, it seems to them almost trifling to come down to the common level of human life and to do good and get good in an ordinary way, as the majority of people do. The conception of something great, something admirable and perfect, perpetually haunts them ; but all their attempts to reach it are like attempts at flying to the sun. The result is that they become disgusted with their own endeavors and utterly despair, or at best, the results they reach are fragmentary and greatly disproportioned to their powers. They fail of living a good and useful life, because they are too ambitious of doing something more than this.

There is indeed something noble in forming; his;h ideals which we may seek to realize. They may kindle our ardor and stimulate us to the best use of our powers. So far as they accomplish this, they are eminently useful. But why should one yield to the morbid feeling which leads to incessant looking to what is beyond his reach, instead of contenting himself to do what is plainly within his power ? The number has always been small, in every walk of life, of those who have attained the highest eminence. It is surely better to be an upright and honorable man of business, filling your place and meeting the demands of society upon you in an average position, than to accomplish nothing because you cannot absolutely rule the commercial world. It is better to contribute even a little to the knowledge of mankind than to bury your talents because you cannot be a Gallileo, or a Newton. It is better to serve your clients at the bar, or your country in the senate, to the best of your ability, than to live uselessly because you cannot rival a Cicero, a

Burke, or a Webster. It is better to preach the gospel in a plain way to the comfort of God's people and the saving of some souls, than to refrain, because you cannot be as profound as Paul, as persuasive as John, as elegant as Bourdaloue or Massillon, as glowing as Whitefield, and as acute as Jonathan Edwards. It is better to write lays that shall touch and warm the hearts of those about you, and words in prose that shall help to enlighten their understandings, than to withhold them because you cannot write another " Paradise Lost," or another " Spectator," or " Rambler." It is better to shine as the beloved and honored centre and joy of some quiet domestic circle, than to count this as nothing because you cannot enroll your names on the list of historically famous women. I need not go on with this sort of illustration. Nothing can be plainer than that when we suffer our ideals to indispose or unfit us for practical and even commonplace well-doing; when we fall into the illusion of thinking that it is not worth our while to try to do anything, in any particular line of effort, unless we can do the best thing in that line which we are able to conceive of as possible to be done, we render it nearly certain that our lives will prove to be almost, or altogether, failures. Remember, that the power of practical execution, the power of doing, must be combined with the power of conceiving what may be done, if you would live successful lives.

There is a fourth cause of failure which it yet remains to notice. It is the want of a practical recognition of the all-directing Providence of God, and a practical harmony with it. With all who admit the existence of a Deity, a personal God of infinite perfection, the admission theoretically of his universal Providence must be a matter of course. The one conception necessarily involves the other.

But all experience shows that along with the ready acknowledgment of a divine Providence in terms, there may exist a practical atheism, or a state of mind falling but little short of this. That is to say, there may be no habitual thought of the Providence of God, either as indicating the course of life to be pursued, or as concerned with the particular steps to be taken at each successive stage. We may— unfortunately too many do — adopt our plans of living and proceed in the details precisely as we should if the idea of a Providence had never entered our minds.

But if there be a divine Providence —

— " a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough hew them as we will—''

— no life can be a really successful one which is not wrought out in accordance with the divine ordering of things. Providence has a place and a use for everything. It does not set the palm-tree and the orange in arctic regions, nor clothe with furs the animals inhabiting the tropics. The sparrow and the lily is each fitted to its position and its end. Not less certainly must this be so with every human being. This, then, is one of the great questions which meet every young man and woman when youth throws open before them the many paths of life. To what particular life-work am I best adapted, and to what does the course of Providence lead me ? Happy they who wisely consider this, and find it in their hearts to pursue, faithfully and steadily, the ends which their own fitness and the natural order of events has placed before them. He who cheerfully consents to do the particular work, whether in itself pleasant or unpleasant, that Providence assigns him, is like a ship that lays her course so as to have the advantage of favoring wind and tide. Working in harmony with that resistless will that determines all events, he cannot but succeed.

But how many there are who seem to be always struggling to be something different from what Providence would make them, and to do something different from the tasks which Providence imposes ! This class of persons are perpetually dissatisfied, unstable, capricious, whimsical. If they have been brought up to business, they wish they had been brought up to study. If brought up to study, they wish they had been brought up to business. If necessity detains them at home, they are pining to go abroad ; if obliged to go abroad, they are longing to be at home. If they live in the city, they would greatly prefer the country ; if in the country, they are unhappy for the town. If in private life, they look wishfully to conspicuous places ; if filling prominent positions, they are ever picturing to themselves the pleasures of retirement. If living singly, they are anxious for married life ; if burdened with home cares, they sigh for single blessedness. Thev see nothing but the discomforts of their own condition and work, and nothing but the pleasures of the condition and work of others. Somehow or other — they cannot tell us why it is — they are always rowing against the stream. They seem to themselves the most unfortunate of mortals. Among the most unfortunate certainly they are ; but it is all because of their own great error. Instead of wisely waiting on divine Providence and acquiescing in its allotments, they are in constant collision with its mighty wheels. No wonder they are overborne and swept away. A life ordered in such a manner can be nothing but a failure.

Believe it young man and woman ; your lives will certainly prove failures unless you set them in harmony with the will of God concerning you. Your wisdom lies in choosing for yourselves the same end which he chooses for you ; and in faithfully keeping in the path by which his providence would lead you on to its attainment. The heart of a man deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. You are not forbidden to have your own preferences and to use your own judgment, so far as decisions are fairly left to you. But see to it that you contentedly accept what God has plainly appointed for you, and that you do not in anything attempt to resist and thwart his manifest designs. Accept the precise life-work which he providentially sets before you, and perform it courageously and with a right good will, if you would escape the mortification and the miseries of failure. In concurring with God's design, you will give the best scope to your own powers and will find everything go well. In working against his will, you will experience, soon or late, a complete defeat.

I think it will be found that the general causes of failure to succeed in life which have been noticed, cover pretty nearly the whole ground ; and that to one or the other of these, nearly or quite all of the more particular causes may fairly be referred. The want of a definite and controlling purpose ; the lack of a just conception of the difficulties to be surmounted in living well ; the distaste for the common forms of well-doing which results from exaggerated ideals of what is possible ; and finally, the neglect to work in harmony with the Providence and will of God.

Let me then urge you whom I now specially address, to think deliberately on this w T hole subject, and to make a practical use of what has been now suggested. You will bear in mind what was said as to the nature of success and failure. To live successfully, is not the same thing as to escape reverses, to have everything turn out according to one's wishes, and to live in outward prosperity as the result of one's endeavors, or good fortune. Nor is failure the same thing as experiencing misfortune and having many disappointments to endure. To gain the most of true good for ourselves and to do the most for others, which was possible to us — this is success, as we have shown; and to lose the best good for ourselves and others which right living 4

50 True Success iti Life.

would have secured — this is failure. If you are earnestly intent on living to the highest ends, your plans of business, of study, of professional labor, of social influence and the like, will be all the more likely to succeed. You may reasonably count on a good measure of this sort of success. But you are to estimate the value of your life upon the whole, by a higher standard than anything like this affords. Has life done for your character what it should ? Has it made the most of your capacities ? Has it entered for you an honorable record of talents and opportunities improved, of good influence exerted and good works done, in the eternal book of God's remembrance ? These will be the questions by the true answer to which your success or failure in living must be at last determined.

Young men and women — so run the race of life, that ye may obtain the prize of living well. On this let your hearts be set. Achieve this, and you attain true glory. Fail of this, and you lose all. A life - failure ! Who can picture the catastrophe? God grant that not one of you may ever come to understand it by experience !

SELF-C ULTURE.

'• For unto every one that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance ; but from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath." — Matt. xxv. 29.

III. Self-culture

| "VERY reader of the New Testament is famil- 4—* iar with the parable of the talents. All the faithful servants, in proportion to what they severally received, increased the amount entrusted to them. The unfaithful servant, on the contrary, gained nothing. The former, because of their improvement of what was committed to them, were advanced to the possession of higher gifts. The latter, because of his misimprovement, lost all he had originally received and then was condemned and punished.

Precisely this is what is constantly occurring. Each human being is naturally endowed with certain faculties ; with one or two, or five or ten talents, according to the pleasure of him who distributes his benefits as he will. Every one who diligently and faithfully cultivates his powers, finds them becoming ever more effective ; feels himself continually growing richer in capacity to know, to do, and to enjoy. Those, on the contrary, who are neglectful and wanting to themselves, discover after a time that they are steadily deteriorating, becoming less and less capable of doing any thing useful, honorable and good. Such is the law under which we hold our high endowments received from the divine hand. It is a law enforced by the course of Providence.

In childhood, and early youth perhaps, parents or others have the care of our improvement. Without much regard to our own choices, we are placed at school and the work of education is begun. But at length school days are over. Parents begin to dismiss us from their particular care and supervision, because they think that the time has come when we can and should bear our own responsibilities and exercise our personal judgments. This is the position in which those in riper youth are placed. They have been set forward a little in the way of self-discipline and self-improvement ; and it now devolves on them to decide whether they will steadily go on improving, developing themselves by earnest effort in all practicable ways, or whether, forming no purposes of growth and doing nothing to ensure it, they shall unconsciously lose what by the aid of others they had already gained, and so suffer at length the miseries and bring on themselves the guilt connected with wasted powers.

Have you considered, young men and women, that the question whether you will now deliberately make the work of self-culture, in its broadest import, a work to be faithfully pursued through life, or whether you will neglect to give any serious attention to the matter, is at this point of your progress demanding of you a decision ? If you are forgetting this, and taking no pains to make yourselves what God has put it in your power to become, be sure that you are making a wrong start on your career of life. But may it not be hoped that you are really desirous to prosecute intelligently the work of self-improvement ? Is it not true, at least with many of you, that you are wishing for a better understanding of the particular things which this important, yet at the same time, very difficult work involves? Let me direct your attention then to some of the chief things included in a true self-culture.