A Successful Life

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Mar 8, 1906

A Successful Life

REAL success in life—not perhaps what the world would call success, yet which commands a tribute of honor from all classes—is within the reach of all. To be successful is to be useful, to be helpful to others. The comments called forth by the recent death of Mr. S. H. Hadley, in New York City, reveal the truth of this statement. We quote the following from the Washington Times:—

“S. H. Hadley was at one time a degenerate gambler and bum of the lowest type. He drifted into Jerry McAuley’s mission one night, and was converted. The submerged wreck of a noble manhood was rescued, a perverted spirit regenerated, a chilled heart warmed and thrilled.

“He gave his life to helping debased men and women. He never asked, ‘Are you worthy?’ Where help was needed, he gave it. The reformation came later. His sympathy and love gave him influence over men. It was not what he said, but what he was that made every distressed heart tired of life turn to Hadley for comfort.

“They buried him only a few days ago. The services were held in the dingy old mission. But it was one of the most notable funerals ever held in New York. The tenderloin was there in tears. But uninvited came,—John H. Huyler, the candy manufacturer; R. Fulton Cutting, head of the Citizens’ Union; William T. Wardell, of the Standard Oil Company; W. M. Smith, W. E. Lougee, M. Linn Bruce, S. W. Bowne, A. N. Ryerson, M. Hartley Dodge, C. F. Tietjen, and B. De F. Curtis, all men of wealth,—and they wept with the bums of the Bowery, for everybody seemed to love Sam Hadley.

“There is inspiration in the life of Hadley. And there is inspiration in the tears of the mourners; in the fact that it brought a lump into the throat of most men when they read it; in the fact that the press is philosophizing over it, and the pulpit moralizing; in the discovery that we all have hearts, and that deep down under our cloak of commercialism there is a spirit of admiration for goodness and cleanness and purity of life that almost amounts to covetousness.”