What is success? What is the
true aim in life? What should one, setting out
to make his way through this world, take as the goal of all
his living and striving? Views of life differ widely.
Many think they are in this world to make a career for themselves. They set out with some splendid
vision of success in their mind, and they devote their life to
the realizing of this vision. If they fail in this, they suppose
they have failed in life. If they achieve their dream,
they consider themselves and are considered by others as successful. The world has no other standard
of success. It may be the amassing of wealth,
it may be the winning of power among men, it may be the triumph
of a certain skill, or genius in art, in literature, in music,
etc. But whatever the definite object
may be, it is purely an earthly ambition. Applying this standard
to life, but few men are really successful. great men are as
rare as lofty mountain peaks. Only a few win the high places,
the mass remain in the low valleys. Only a few win honor, rise into
fame, and achieve distinction, while the great multitude remain
in obscurity or go down in the dust of earthly defeat. Is this
the only standard of success in life? Do all men, except for
the few who win Earth's prizes, really fail? Is there no other
kind of success? The world's answer gives no comfort
to those who find themselves among the unhonored. But there
is another sphere, there is a life, in which success is not material,
but spiritual. One may utterly fail, so far
as earthly results are concerned, and yet, in the invisible spiritual
realm, and yet, in the invisible spiritual realm, be a splendid
winner in the race. The true test of life is character. Everything else is extraneous,
belonging only to the husk which shall fall off in the day of
ripening. Character is the kernel, the
wheat, that which is true and enduring. Nothing else is worthwhile
except that which we can carry with us through death and into
eternity. So we fix our eyes not on what
is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4.18 It is altogether possible that
a man may fail of winning any earthly greatness, any distinction
among men, anything that will immortalize him in this world's
calendars, and yet be richly and nobly successful in spiritual
things, in character, in a ministry of usefulness, in things which
shall abide when mountains have crumbled into dust. It is possible
for one to fall behind in the race for wealth and honor, and
yet all the while to be building up in himself an eternal fabric
of beauty and strength. What is the standard of success
in the sphere of the unseen and eternal? It is the doing of the
will of God. He who does the will of God makes
his life radiant and beautiful, though in the world scale he
is rated as having altogether failed in the battle. He who
is true, just, humble, pure, pleasing God and living unselfishly
is the only man who really succeeds, while all others fail. Really,
there is no other final and infallible standard of living. One who writes
his name highest in earth's lists, and yet has not done God's will,
has failed, as God himself looks at his career. God had a purpose
in our creation, and we only succeed when our life carries
out this purpose. The most radiant career as it
appears to men means nothing if it is not that for which God
made us. We fail in life if we do not
realize God's will for us. we live worthily only when we
do what God sent us here to do. A splendid career in the sight
of men has no splendor in God's sight. Not the making of a fine
worldly career, therefore, but the simple doing of God's will,
is the one true aim in living. Only thus can we achieve real
success. If we do this, though we fail
in the earthly race, we shall not fail in God's sight. We may
make no name among men, may raise for ourselves no monument of
earthly glory, but if we please God by a life of obedience and
humble service, and build up within us a character in which
divine virtues shine, we shall have attained abiding success.