Article April 30, 1910 Issue

SUCCESS

REUBEN POGSON

Success in man is the measure of his capacity to reflect or express God in all the infinite ways indicated by the synonyms for God found in Science and Health, namely, Love, Truth, Life, Mind, Principle. From this standpoint we can easily see that Jesus was the most successful man that ever dwelt on this earth, a statement only made possible through the light of Christian Science shining on the inspired Word, the Bible. Too long has theology impressed us with the gloomy side of the earthly existence of the glorious one who was Master of all his consciousness surveyed,—the man "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin,"—the acceptance and acquiescence in that which denies the unity of God, man, and the spiritual universe.

Did God create man for success or for failure, or for a mixture of both? All the good in humanity rises in protest against the idea that God created His likeness to be a failure: The mere fact that one is still associating the words "image of God" and "failure" in one sentence is evidence of the mesmerism that humanity seems to be under, in that it does not strike men and women as being too incongruous to be discussed. It does not follow, however, that a successful man in this true sense is necessarily famous as the world understands fame; nor does it follow, on the other hand, that a successful man shall not be famous—nay, as progress hastens, fame will wait more upon real success than on the transitory glitter of human achievement. The world has to acknowledge even now that the most famous woman of today is the one who is the most successful according to the strict definition stated here. The writer is grateful to Mrs. Eddy for having demonstrated that poverty is not a necessary mark of holiness, but is a sign of incapacity to express that possession which comes from hearing the Father say to each of us, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." These words of the Father must cause a well-spring of joy to bubble in the hearts of all who are born under the ban of poverty and the yoke of social and economic oppression.

The aim of the Christian Science student is not the amassing of material riches, nor the scaling of dizzy heights of fame, but the breaking down in his consciousness of the belief of incapacity, the belief of penury, the belief in a starving lack of originality, the inability to reflect the divine edict, "Behold, I make all things new." This is the aim of the student of Christian Science working from the selfless desire to achieve for the vindication of the glory of God in earth as in heaven. Man is, always has been, always will be a success. There is no evidence on record of man ever having lost the dominion given him by God. The first chapter of Genesis and the first five verses in the second chapter constitute the whole record of spiritual creation that we have, and nothing has been altered. The facts stated there are as true now as ever they were, and as humanity wipes out of its consciousness the belief in the Adamic record of creation, so it will gradually reduce the seeming gulf of years that separate this generation from the spiritual era and man will awaken to know that what the Adam-dreamer has sleepily declared to have occurred thousands of years ago in the dim past is really with us here and now.

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