After all, what is success, and who are competent to judge? The great masses who lived in the days of Jesus would have said that his life was a stupendous failure, that his life and teachings ended in inglorious defeat. Even his disciples were disappointed in his death; and their efforts to perpetuate his name and teachings were covered with ignominy and contempt. It was centuries before the success of his life became apparent to the world. We can easily comprehend, therefore, how it has taken centuries to accomplish achievements that were set in motion by some obscure or despised personage. The triumph, therefore, of Jesus would have been looked upon by his generation as one of the paradoxes of history. When the Prophet Joseph Smith was slain, his enemies rejoiced in what they considered the inglorious ending of his life. They were sure that all he had done would end with him, and so they could pronounce his life a burlesque and a failure. It will be seen from these instances that the contemporaries of a man are not always competent to say whether his life has been a success or a failure. A sound {154} judgment must await future generations, perhaps future centuries. If your neighbor today is a poor widow who rears, amid the greatest struggles and in unbearable poverty, three or four or half a dozen children, Perhaps no one would say of her life that it was a success, and yet there may be in her offspring the embryo of future greatness, future generations may cover her motherhood with glory. After all, one's success must be determined more by the eternal (as well as the present) needs of man, than by temporary standards which men erect in pursuance of the spirit of the age in which they live. Certainly nothing is more fatal to our well being than the notion that our present and eternal welfare is founded upon the wealth and honors of this world. The great truth enunciated by the Savior seems very generally to be lost sight of in this generation, that it will profit a man nothing though he should gain the whole world, if he lose his own soul. The standard of success as declared by the word of God, is the salvation of the soul. The greatest gift of God is eternal life.--_Juvenile Instructor,_ Sept. 15, 1904, Vol. 39, pp. 561-562. WHAT IS TO BECOME OF SUCH AS ME. That there are many good people in the world who believe the principles of the gospel as taught by the Latter-day Saints and yet, through circumstances and environment, are not prepared publicly to accept the same, is evidenced by the following extract from a letter written by a reverend gentleman: "What is to become of such as I, who believe this about you, and yet are tied and bound by circumstances such as mine? Here I have been a minister for fifty-five years. I cannot change now if I would."