WHAT IS SUCCESS?

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 9, 1869

Mortiman began life under the usual conditions of poverty—neither friend nor influence to help. He resolved nevertheless to make his mark. He became industrious, and industry brought him wealth. He was sternly upright, and that secured respect. His generosity kept pace with his gains, and that won renown; so that at the age of fifty he was the richest man in his State, and its chief magistrate. He grew ill. Medical science was impotent. “Sir,” said his attendant, “the brittle thread will snap before the sun goes down.” Astonished he said, “It cannot be; I shall be up to-morrow.” Every art was applied in vain. The agitated form grew weak. Tick, tick, the seconds went, and before the shadows came, the catastrophe was upon him. Turning to the wall, in an agony no pen can describe, he cried, “My life has been a failure,” and was dead.

Christiana entered humbly upon life, and before the sun had reached his zenith, was widowed and broken, and five little ones cried for bread. “It is well,” she said; “we will walk with God.” Long and dreary years came and went, years of care and suffering and yet further bereavement. Hard, hard went the strife of life, till men said that God was not pitiful. At fifty she was not of earth. In her conflicts she had studied the heroes of faith and endeavor of other times. The Scripture characters she knew by heart. Bunyan’s Pilgrim was her companion. The Saint’s Rest had become her own. Payson was her exponent. “The celestial city,” she would say, “is full in my view. Its glories beam upon me, its odors are wafted to me, its sounds strike upon my ears, and its spirit is breathed into my heart.” And her latest breath testified, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”

These are no sketches of the fancy, but veritable history. Tell me, What is success?—Am. Messenger.