Article January 22, 1921 Issue

Success

ALDEN F. POTTER

There is a familiar saying that nothing succeeds like success, but then the question arises; What is success? Each individual defines success in the terms of his own experience, and it is easy to conceive of as many different definitions as there are peoples, nations, or languages. But in this babel of tongues, where is the standard that can tell us what the measure of real success is, and to what it can be likened? Is success material or spiritual, does it come from a knowledge of matter or of Mind? Should it be judged by the events of the moment, the appearance of things, or must it be understood from the standpoint of eternity, a basis of indestructibility?

Certainly to be successful is a universal desire. In fact, so universal is the desire for success, that men and nations think they must compete with each other to attain it, and even hinder each other's progress. So keen does the competition become at times that one is almost tempted to think that the supply of success is not sufficient to fill all needs. There is evidence of a general fear that the fortunate circumstances conducive to successful effort, and necessary to it, may be withdrawn. Of course, if success just happens and there is but a limited supply of happenings which produce it, then crowding one's neighbor would be a logical thing; but is that premise a true one? On the other hand, if success, like honesty, is a free gift, something which all men may have without limit without interfering with each other, then the struggle of one with another to achieve it is the reverse of true effort.

Success could not exist as an experience of mankind unless it had a creator. To suppose that it is a creation of mortal man or of human thinking, and not of God and His direction, plunges one into shallows and quicksands, because man originates nothing and human thought is not a creator. On the contrary, human thought seeks to find a creator for itself, while its concepts and laws stand or fall in accordance with a law higher than its own. Christianity sums the whole matter up in the statement that there is but one creator; and a Christian must accept the fact that the one creator creates all the success that there is or possibly can be.

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