Did it ever occur to you that there might be a reason why so many people make a failure of life? Not only men and career women, but wives and mothers too!

Are you one who is wrestling with the problem of "making ends meet"? Nearly all of us are. This problem need not mean failure - yet it often leads to it.

Every 60 seconds someone in the United States attempts suicide. Each day nearly 70 percent succeed - but is that success?

Suicides now outnumber murders. Now a society for the prevention of suicide is proposed! But the cause is individual FAILURE!

Only a minority, of course, go to this extreme, but the overwhelming majority do end their lives in failure. We are in current "prosperity." Yet more businesses failed in a very recent year than in any other in the last twenty-six. Across the nation- across the world - streaks the shocking trend of increasing failures. Scores of millions daily allow the creeping cancer of FAILURE to chain them to a life of unhappy circumstance, from which only death promises release.

But WHY?

WHY are only the very few really successful? Is it mere chance - is it just happen-so-can it be luck? Or are there definite reasons?

WHY do all but the very few find themselves, by age 60 or 65, dependents? Why must there be old age pensions public welfare aid, charities to support the non-cripples, non-handicapped helpless? Why much children so often provide for aged parents - when even the Bible teaches that it ought to be the other way around?

I am going to tell you why!

When I was a young man of twenty-three, I was on the editorial staff of a national magazine. I was sent on tours over the United States, covering ten or fifteen states on each tour. My job was investigating business conditions, reporting workable ideas and facts. I interviewed businessmen and chamber of commerce officials. I discussed with merchants and manufactures their problems. I searched out ideas and methods that had been successfully applied in sales promotion, public relations, cutting costs, speeding up turn-over, increasing profits.

One of the things my editors assigned me to investigate was the reason behind the success of the few, and the failure of the many. Some 95% of smaller independent merchants were reported by Dun and Bradstreet to be heading toward bankruptcy.

Of course, we were concerned then only with the success or failure of men.

I asked the opinions of hundreds of businessmen. Most thought success resulted merely from superior ability and failure from the lack of it. But this opinion consigned the big majority to failure from birth without a chance. If a man lacked the ability, he was fore-doomed to failure. There seemed nothing he could do about it. I was not satisfied with this idea - and later I proved it false.

I remember that the manager of the large J.L. Hudson department store in Detroit thought failure generally resulted from lack of adequate capital. A minority interviewed agreed with him. But this, also, made dollars, and not the man, responsible for success or failure.

Actually, investigation showed these to be contributing factors but only that. A more prevalent factor, I found, was fitting the proverbial "square peg in the round hole." Most failures were misfits. Most, had they known the rules, could have made a success in another field.

This quest for the reasons for success or failure intrigued me. It did not stop with these editorial tours. Observation and analysis of this problem have continued through the years.

And I know, now, that no human being need ever become a failure!

Failures are not fore-doomed. Success does not just happen! It is governed by seven definite laws. If you know them, and apply them, the happy result, in the end, is assured.

Every individual was put on this earth for a PURPOSE! Every person was put here to become a success. Every human ought to enjoy the sweet taste of success - to find peace and happiness - to live an interesting, secure, and abundant life! And in order that all might - if willing - reap such full and abundant rewards, the Creator set in motion actual, definite LAWS to produce that desired result.

The tragedy is that through the centuries and millenniums man has turned his back on those laws - those causes of the very success he craves! The world long ago ignored and forgot them. Today, most people do not know what they are. Most people have not followed a single one of the seven basic laws of success!

If someone recognized authority had a copy-righted plan to sell that was guaranteed to make all who follow it prosperous and successful, I suppose people by the thousands would flock to buy the plan.

One man had such a plan. It was a sort of pseudo "psychological" religion. He promised the plan would make its followers prosperous or rich - the easy way, of course. Its propagator advertised that it had mad him rich. He boasted of his fine home, his great high-ceiling pipe-organ room. The inference was that it would make its purchasers equally prosperous - but he neglected to mention that it was the naive dupes who bought his bogus plan who made him rich.

This man stumbled on to an advertising catch-phrase for a headline in magazine and newspaper advertisements, which multiplied responses. He used it for years. But ultimately it wore itself out. This charlatan’s "success" was neither real nor lasting. he was, himself, a colossal failure.

The only WAY to true success is not being sold like merchandise.

It so happens that on the very morning of the day this was written, I read in a London newspaper the obituary of Clark Gable. I suppose the world would rate him a great success. But was he?

Just what is success, anyway?

How can people win success when so few know what it is?

I was struck with a number of things in this cinema-star’s obituary. My mind, of course, was on this theme, since I an now writing it.

Clark Gable was heralded on page one of this newspaper as the KING of the films. He was described as "the romantic hero of 90 films." He was one of the first ten money - making stars in the years 1932-43, 1947-49, and 1955. That is 16 years. And the top film stars make fabulous incomes. "He was," said the obituary, "one of the few screen idols to stay the course for so long." But does all that spell SUCCESS?

One of the "fascinating" things mentioned about his life was that he had been married five times! Would we consider at least three failures in marriage (one wife was killed in an air crash) SUCCESS? The obituary said he cultivated "the furrowed brow, the knowing frown, the half-closed eyes, those ears and the wise-guy leer." They were not natural. He deliberately cultivated them for the women. "Clark Gable," said the obituary, "had cultivated these for the girls for nearly the whole of his romantic reign." "You might have called it his trade mark. He would." "It’s just a business to me, always has been," he explained. It was just his way of "earning a living."

In my lifetime I have had close and intimate contact almost constantly with recognized successful men. I have read many books and articles written by such men, numerous biographies and autobiographies of the great and the near great - their experiences, their philosophies. I know how these leaders among men think, how they act, what principles and rules they follow.

One factor characterized nearly every one of these men. They made money. They acquired material possessions. Many headed big corporations. They achieved recognition as being important.

Significantly, most of these men practised the first SIX of the seven laws of success. That is tremendously important!

There was the president of a great motor car corporation at the time when I was the young assistant secretary of the Chamber of Commerce in his city. He made money. He was recognized in the world as important. He rose to the top in his profession and industry. But in the flash depression of 1920 his corporation passed into receiver’s hands, he lost his material gains - and he ended his life a suicide! Was he, after all, a success? This man put to practice five of the laws of success. He not only neglected seventh, but also the sixth.

Then there were two great bankers whom I knew, one of them quite intimately. This was Mr. Arthur Reynolds, president of the then second largest national bank in America. I first knew Mr. Reynolds when he was president of a bank in the city where I was born. Later, as an ambitious and rising young advertising man in Chicago, I went to him often for personal counsel and advice. He was always interested, helpful. And I always considered his advice sound, and followed it. Mr. Reynolds won a measure of national and world-wide fame.

Some thirty-five years later I walked into this great bank and inquired of one of its many vice-presidents whether he knew where Mr. Reynolds had moved, and where he had died. I had heard that the had retired and moved to our headquarters city, Pasadena, and died there. This vice president had never heard of Arthur Reynolds.

"Who was he?" he asked.

He inquired around. No one he asked remembered Arthur Reynolds. Finally the public relations secretary sent to the bank’s library, and presently a clerk brought a newspaper clipping. It was the sole record the bank seemed to possess of its former president, who, with his brother, was largely responsible for building up this bank to its gread size and importance. The clipping was from a San Mateo, California, newspaper. It told of his death.

After reading it, I handed the clipped obituary back.

"You’ll certainly want to keep this," I remarked. "It must be valuable to the bank."

"Oh, no," he replied. "If you knew him, take it along."

And thus I carried from that great bank what probably was the only record of this man. His "success" was not lasting. It was not long remembered.

During his busy life-time, this man applied the first SIX of the seven rules of success. Yet whatever success he achieved was fleeting, and although he had accumulated money, acquired a nice block of stock in the bank, lived in a fine home, became recognized and important in his life-time, all of this "success" died with him!

The other great banker Mr. John McHugh. I first knew him as a president of a bank in a mid-west city. Then I had an hour’s interesting chat with him in the Willard Hotel in Washington during the American Bankers’ Association national convention in 1920. He was then president of a well-known New York City bank. Later, consolidations of several New York banks elevated him two offices higher than the president of the then largest bank in the world. Yet some 36 years later when I inquired about him at this great bank, the answer was the same - "Who’s he? Never heard of him!" His "success" did not live after him.

Yes, I have been privileged of knowing many of the great and near great - especially in the American business world. I have known multimillionaire capitalists, chief executives of great corporations and banks, cabinet members in the national administration at Washington, authors, artists, lecturers, college and university heads.

For most of them, success meant the acquisition of money and material possessions, and being recognized as important.

One important man I knew was Elbert Hubbard, philosopher, prolific writer, publisher, lecturer, known as "the Sage of East Aurora." "The Fra," as he sometimes styled himself, became quite famous. He wore semi-long hair under an extra-size hat, and a string bow tie. He was said to be worth a half million dollars at a time when that equalled a million and a half or two million on today’s market.

He published two magazines, composed mostly of his own writings, The Philistine, and The Fra. He boasted the largest vocabulary of any man since Shakespeare. He published An American Bible, shocking many of the religious, yet explaining that the word "bible" merely means "book," not necessarily implying sacred writings, unless the word "HOLY" is prefaced. His "bible" consisted of his selection of choice writings from American writers. He included Franklin, Emerson, Paine, Jefferson, Lincoln, and, of course, Hubbard! He allotted nearly half of the entire volume of Hubbard - and all other famous Americans combined shared the remainder.

Hubbard was not the victim of an inferiority complex, and he preached a positive philosophy. He did have rare insight and wisdom in purely material matters, and a keen understanding of human nature.

He knew that "important" men craved flattery as an actor enjoys applause. A large share of his fortune was made by writing an almost endless series of booklets, captioned Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great and the Near - Great. These were printed, of course, in rare style in his own Roycroft Press. Dozens and scores of America’s rich and famous men paid Hubbard premium prices to write them up in his inimitable literary style.

An interesting side-light on Mr. Hubbard’s concept of success came spontaneously from his lips one Sunday afternoon. He and I were chatting at his Roycroft Inn at East Aurora, New York.

"I asked a Unitarian minister," I said, "whether he had ever been able to discern just what your religious belief really is - if any."

"Fra Elbertus" was interested at once. "And what did he reply?" he asked curiously.

"He said he wasn’t quite sure, but he suspected that whatever your religion may be, it probably originated in your pocket-book and bank account." There was no denial.

"Ho, ho," laughed Elbert Hubbard, "well I get away with it, don’t I?"

But was Elbert Hubbard a real success, after all? By human standards, I suppose he was. He knew and applied the first six of the seven laws of success. He worked hard and industriously, and he reaped a bounteous harvest of money, popularity, acclaim. He and his wife Alice Hubbard went down together into the depths of the Atlantic when a German submarine sank the Lusitania. This was one of the over acts of the Kaiser’s forces that plunged America into World War I.

But his fame did not appear to last. One seldom hears of him any more.

Our colleges have been privileged to come into possession of the fabulous estates of two very wealthy men - one in America, one in Britain.

The American multimillionaire was, many times over, the largest stockholder in the United States Steel Corporation. He owned outright, besides, some sixty-five other corporations. Yet he said to me one time: "What have I done that God Almighty has cursed me so?"

Another time he said, of his fabulous treasures that gilded his mansion: "Mr. Armstrong I could not bear to live without these fine things around me."

But when he died he took none of it with him. Some of the choicest furnishings went to heirs and the rest was sold at a public auction. Agents purchased the mansion and its magnificent grounds, which adjoined Ambassador College, for a fraction of its value at public auction and turned the property over to the college. It has been converted into an important part of an institution of character-building, where students are learning the seven laws of lasting success.

The British multimillionaire was Sir David Yule, jute merchant of India, one of the wealthiest men in Europe. His wealth grew to twenty-eight millions pounds, at a time when that was the equivalent to about a quarter-billion dollars on today’s purchasing power. He probably was the only Englishman who ever amassed such a fortune in one life-time - he inherited none of it.

In 1925 Sir David decided to build for himself a mansion on his 1200 - acre estate, located only five miles from the northwest edge of London. Prior to this he had built a "modest" two-story house of some 14 rooms to live in during construction of the mansion. It was later to become the guest house.

But after completion of the mansion Sir David and Lady Yule found their smaller house more home-like. The larger building was, so we now believe, designed and built for a college building, on institutional lines of Georgian architecture, rather than for a home.

Meanwhile Sir David became so engrossed in his business enterprises in India that he began spending most of his time in that country. lady Yule, so we are informed, did not care for India. So they were separated most of the time - Sir David in India, Lady Yule in the guest house and their daughter, Miss Gladys Yule, living with a staff of servants in the mansion.

Like other wealthy men, Sir David did not take his wealth with him. Nor did his widow, nor their daughter, in their turn. In the end taxes took nearly all, leaving finally less than a million for distribution among a few beneficiaries. Sir David was not blessed with any remaining descendants. His name and family stopped with him.

Of course I never knew Sir David. But, as Chancellor of Ambassador College and Chariman of the Board of the British corporation which purchased the central 120 acres of the estate as the site of Ambassador College in England, I do now have control of Sir David’s mansion and his tomb. He lies buried in an admirably designed carved stone tomb, covered overhead by a stone and wood canopy, enclosed by an ornate iron fence inside a small wooded park, the whole being encircled by another iron fence. These words are being written in the spacious sun-lit classroom that once was Lady Yule’s seldom-occupied bedroom, and I glance out upon the wooded tombsite, some two hundred yards distant, as I write.

Sir David Yule was known as an eminently successful man. His, like other important executives I knew, was a philosophy of industry, rigid application, perseverance, hewing to the line of his purpose, relentlessly driving himself toward his goal. But was it, after all, the right goal? Was this, after all, real and lasting success?

Their goal in life - their definition of success - was material acquisition, recognition of importance by society, and the passing enjoyment of the five senses.

But the more they acquired, the more they wanted, and the less satisfied they became with what they had. When they got it, it was never enough. And again, after they had it, they didn’t want it!

Some "successful" men of the world maneuver to get their pictures on page one of metropolitan newspapers, or on the front covers of national magazines. But this never satisfies for long. There’s nothing the public forgets so quickly as yesterday’s news! Some think that man’s delight is in having many wives, even if they must have them successively instead of in a harem. But this becomes a corroded experience, and they never know the joys of wedded bliss between one husband and one wife, each always true to the other.

Such men seek the flattery of others, and engage in back-slapping to invite it. But, like an actor’s applause (the word always make me think of "applause") it doesn’t last and leaves them flat with inner hunger for something that will satisfy! So they become restless, discontented. Their bank accounts may be full, but their lives are empty. And what they do acquire, which is never enough and never satisfies, they leave behind when they die!

What is wrong?

If the rich have not been happy, what about the poor? Is money, after all, the root of all evil? Must we take a vow of poverty to become successful? And if the highly educated have not found happiness, must we accept the adage that "ignorance is bliss," after all?

I have come into contact with the lives and experiences of many of the "Park Avenue" side of the tracks. Also I have experienced conditions on the other side of the tracks. And I have become intimately familiar, as well, with life as it is lived by upper and lower middle class.

Strangely, of all people I have ever known, those who appeared to be most happy and contented were at one of the extremes. They were a class that has all but vanished today. These were the completely uneducated, totally poor southern Negroes fifty years ago. They were only one generation removed from slavery. Education had not come to them, though it was starting with their children. These people could neither read nor write.

In 1912 I was time-keeper and paymaster of a large southern Mississippi lumber mill. I handled the pay-roll of some 350 Negro laborers, in addition to the other employes. We had to make wage-payment available three times a day, in form of checks on the company’s commissary store. On Saturday night, if they had not checked out in food and goods all they had earned, they were paid the remainder of the week’s wages in cash. Had we paid them only once a week, in cash, they and their families would have starved. They could not keep money on hand longer than one or two days. And none would willingly come back to work as long as any loose change jingled in his pocket.

This is explained by my regular Monday morning routine. Many men would always fail to show up. Then the various foremen came to my office and reported the number of men each was short. It was my job to go out, find them, and herd them back to work. These, of course, were the ones who had not yet gotten rid of their last nickel from Saturday night’s cash payment. I knew where to find them - out on an intersection in the company’s housing district, shooting craps. As, one by one, they lost their remaining change in gambling, they would amble on back to their mail jobs - until I appeared and drove the remaining ones back.

Not one of these men could write his own name. Each merely made a cross where I wrote out his name, and labeled it: "His mark."

One often saw a Negro man or woman, over in the commissary store, squishing big cheap sardines from a can in one hand, a hunk of cheese in the other, munching away at it happily. Everything they bought was the cheapest - except shoes and men’s hats. These had to be the finest. Those Negroes never were allowed to try on shoes; the shoes were never large enough; and those Negroes had tender feet. So they sliced open with a razor their new Hanan shoes across the top so their toes could protrude comfortably, crumped their fine new Stetson hats all out of shape, and sauntered contentedly on down the lane.

The company- owned shacks in which they lived were gaily wallpapered inside - with many-colored comic pages from Sunday newspapers. The women wore the most clashing and screaming colors - such as loud purple with brilliant yellow or green, bright orange with blue. They also were embellished with the most beautiful and flowery names, such as Magnolia, Angeline, and Camellia.

Yet, of all the classes of people I have ever known, these ignorant, happy-go-lucky Negroes by-gone times appeared to be the happiest. They were free from cares and worries. They bore no burdens of responsibility.

They were like the man in the motion picture Porgy and Bess who sang: "I got plenty o’ nuthin’, and nuthin’s plenty fo’ me." But they had free air to breathe; the young man had his gal; the married his wife and many "chillun" - old Hub Evans, with "only three" wives, said he had "thutty-six, Suh, an’ hopes t’ make it foty fo’ ah die."

But what about SUCCESS in life? Could you by any stretch of the imagination, label this ignorance and state of irresponsibility SUCCESS? Of course not.

How, then, explain their state of contentment?

The Carnation Milk people claim to have contented cows. The absence of responsibility, freedom from fears and worries, may leave an animal in an apparent state of contentment. The cow simply doesn’t know enough to be discontented!

We have looked at the two extremes of wealth and poverty - knowledge and ignorance - industry and lassitude. Now let’s see if the classes in between have found the recipe for success.

The London Observer’s "Weekend Review" Sunday section has been running a series on "Life in a Classy Suburb." In their issue of November 20, 1960, appeared a report and analysis of a survey conducted in middle-class Woodford, the article reported, vote Conservative, are commuters, and are striving constantly to improve their circumstances. Their men belong to the bowls or golf club, the Conservative club, or the Rotary. Their women are members of the Townswomen’s Guild, the Women’s Institute, or the tennis club. This suburb seemed a friendly, happy sort of place. But was it, really?

How much striving after vanity was there?

How much competitiveness for material goods?

A few specific case histories were cited.

A husband said: "As soon as next-door knew we’d got a washing-machine, they got one, too. Then a few months later we got a fridge, so they go a fridge as well."

A housewife reported how a neighbor bought a refrigerator because she did. She said: "It seems to worry her if we have anything new. When she got a fridge she made a great fuss of showing that she could make ice-bricks, too."

Cars were found to be constant objects of rivalry. A woman, whose neighbor had recently bought a new car, reported that she and her husband were getting a better one. "That’ll be a knock in the eye for them!" she exclaimed.

Yes, these people had more than the people in Bethnal Green, which is "working class." But, like those who are far more "successful" in society’s eyes, it is never enough. The more they have the more they want. And when they get it, it only makes them the more discontented because some neighbor has even more.

Perhaps the prize example of all history is that of an ancient king, who strove hard, accomplished much, gained fabulous wealth. He experimented with every pleasure, to see whether it brought happiness.

This man said to himself, "Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself."

Continuing to describe his experiment, this man wrote: "I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine - my mind still guiding me with wisdom - and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good." I wonder if this man would have bought a book circulated a few years ago in Hollywood. It was captioned " HOW TO SIN IN HOLLYWOOD." Had it been entitled "How to be righteous in Hollywood" no one would have bought a copy. But tell people how to SIN and you win a big sale!

This ancient king was young enough to try to really enjoy life. He could afford it, too. He was one of the wealthiest men who ever lived - with the resources of a nation at his command. If there was not enough money for a project he dreamed up, he simply raised the taxes.

So, as he continued writing of his experiment in finding happiness and success, "I went in for great works." Stupendous national works and projects. "I built mansions, planted vineyards, laid out gardens and parks for myself, in which I planted all manner of fruit trees, making pools to water the trees in my plantations. I bought slaves, both men and women, and had slaves born within my household. I had large herds and flocks, larger than any before me. I amassed silver and gold, right royal treasures; I produced singers, both men and women, and many a mistress, man’s delight. Richer and richer I grew, more than any before me in my country ... Nothing I coveted did I refuse myself; I denied my heart to enjoyment - for my heart did feel pleasure in all this - so much I did get from all my efforts.

"But," he concluded, "when I turned to look at all I had achieved and at my efforts and trouble, then it was all vain and futile ... all was VANITY, and a striving after wind. Nothing in this world is worth while."

"Utterly vain, utterly vain, everything is VANITY," wrote this king, after his life of experimenting, All it led to was striving - yes, always striving - and for what? "After WIND," he concluded. All that a life-time of hard work, vigorous application, material accomplishment brought him, he concluded, amounted to no more than A HANDFUL OF WIND!

This man was called the wisest man who had ever lived. He was King Solomon of ancient Israel. But in all his costly experimenting he never found the true values - the meaning of true and lasting SUCCESS!

And WHY?

Simply because, with all his wisdom, this man sought pleasure - happiness - success - his own way, in materialism. In the beginning the Eternal Creator designated and set in motion living laws for the very purpose of producing happiness, abundant living, pure and continuous joy, in all humans who would follow them. These are the seven great laws of SUCCESS. King Solomon, like nearly all the world’s "successful" men, applied diligently the first six - but without the seventh, he started out in the wrong direction. The more he strove, the farther he went - in the direction away from true and lasting success.

He knew this seventh law. The Eternal God had spoken to him directly and personally, twice. God had revealed and explained His laws. But, "Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Eternal,... he did not keep what the Eternal commanded. Therefore the Eternal said to Solomon, ‘Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my rules which I commanded, I will surely tear the kingdom from you’" (I Kings 11:6-11).

Now let me tell you the experience of a modern king. He is a close personal friend of another king, King Saud of Arabia, to whom I have been personally presented. In the news recently was the story of the sudden wealth that came to Sheik Ali of Qatar (pronounce "gutter").

Qatar is a little Arabian country jutting into the Persian gulf. The big oil boom just recently came to Sheik Ali’s little kingdom. It paid the country of 35,000 population 50 million dollar a year, of which 12 ½ million went personally to old Sheik Ali, age 69.

Now what would you do with it, if you suddenly came into 12 ½ million dollars a year?

The answer, in all probability, is that you would not do what you now think you would! That much money, coming suddenly into one’s hands, usually changes one’s ideas completely. That’s what it did to old Sheik Ali.

Immediately he began to build big gaudy pink, green and gold palaces in the midst of malodorous mud hovels. They were air-conditioned, ultra-modern, even equipped with push-button windo-curtains! And now the newly wealthy sheik could avoid the 120 degree bake-oven summers of the desert.

He chartered whole airlines and took with him a retinue so large that this newly purchased palatial villa on Lake Geneva could not hold them all, and they overflowed into various resort hotels.

Then Sheik Ali indulged in the $1,000,000 purchase of a magnificent mansion overlooking Beriut - and the beautiful Mediterranean. When King Saud paid him a royal visit, he presented the king with 16 automobiles. One was embellished with gold. Old Sheik Ali became so generous in his self-indulgences, that his debts, over and beyond his fabulous income, soon mounted to 14 million dollars!

The new stories filtered around the world of how Sheik just simply could not make ends meet on a mere 12 ½ million dollars a year! About the 1^st of November, 1960, he abdicated in favor of his son Ahmed, age 40. A new advisory council arranged to pay old Ali’s debts, and give him a pension large enough only to provide for a mere handful of servants and a few wives.

What, then, is the first law of success? Before stating even the first law, let it be said that I am not considering here such general moral and spiritual principles of character as honesty, patience, loyalty, courtesy, dependability, puctuality, etc., etc., etc., except as these are automatically included in the first, second, and seventh rules. We may assume that one cannot become a real success without these principles of character.

But on the other hand, many are honest who have never practised a single one of the seven laws, specifically. Many may be loyal, have patience, extend courtesy, be punctual, who are unsuccessful because they have not applied a single one of these seven definite, specific rules. Even so, each of these laws covers a vast territory.

Not just any goal. Most of the "successful" men I have mentioned had a goal. They drove themselves relentlessly to its accomplishment. But making money, becoming "important" in the eyes of people, enjoying the passing pleasures of the five sense, has literally strewn the pathway of history with fears, worries, heartaches, troubled consciences, sorrows, frustrations, empty lives and death.

These things may be had and enjoyed along with true success. But they alone do not bring success. The true goal includes something more.

In other words, the very first law of success is to be able to define success! Once you have learned what success is, make that your goal in life.

Do you know that most people go on through life without any GOAL at all? In fact, most people, as I’ve said before, do not know, and do not apply a SINGLE ONE of the seven laws of success!

Most people just never seem to think of having a PURPOSE in life. They simply are not going anywhere, in particular.

If you have saved up money for a trip to Paris, or Rome, or London for your vacation or holiday, you spend a lot of time in excited anticipation PLANNING your trip - but you DO have a definite DESTINATION - and all plans are laid to take you to that particular destination - the GOAL. You know where you are planning to go. Otherwise, how would you expect ever to arrive there?

As I said once before, most people have no aim - they are merely the victims of CIRCUMSTANCE. They never planned, purposefully, to be in the job or occupation in which they find themselves today. They do not LIVE where they do by CHOICE - that is, because they PLANNED it that way. They have merely been buffeted around by CIRCUMSTANCE! They have allowed themselves to drift. They have made no effort to master and control circumstances.

And so, likewise, if you are to arrive at SUCCESS in LIFE, you must first set your goal, and then comes the PREPARATION to achieve that goal.

So, the SECOND law of success, in time-sequence, is EDUCATION, or PREPARATION.

How can one expect to accomplish his purpose unless he has the know-how?

One thing we need to know about life - and many do not - is that humans do not come equipped with instinct.

To this extent, the dumb animals have a certain advantage over us. They do not have to learn. They never need weary their brains with book learning.

The newborn calf does not have to be taught how to walk. It starts immediately to get up on its somewhat infirm and uncertain legs. It may fall down on the first or second attempt, but in a matter of a few moments it stands, even if a little unsteady at first. It does not require a year or two - not even an hour or two - the little calf starts walking in a few minutes! It does not need to reason out any goals. It requires no textbooks, nor teaching. It instinctively knows its goal - dinner! And it knows, also instinctively, the way. On its own four feet it proceeds immediately to the first meal!

I have repeated so many times: birds build nests - by instinct. No one teaches them how. Five generations of weaver birds, isolated from nests or nest-building materials, never saw a nest. When nest-building materials were made accessible, the sixth generation, without any instruction, proceeded to build nests! They were not crows’ nests or eagles’ nests. They were the same kind of nests weaver birds have built since creation. They had no minds to think out, imagine, design, and construct a different kind of nest.

Of course dogs, horses, elephants, and some other animals can be taught and trained to do certain tricks. But they cannot reason, imagine, think, plan, design and construct new and different things. They do not acquire knowledge, perceive truth from error, make decisions, and employ WILL to exercise self-discipline according to their own reasoned wisdom and decisions. THEY CANNOT DEVELOP MORAL AND SPIRITUAL CHARACTER.

But humans have it not quite so easy. humans have to learn, or be taught. Humans have to learn to walk, to talk, to eat or drink.

We don’t come to these basic accomplishments instinctively and immediately like the dumb animals. It may take a little more time. It may come a little harder. But we can go on to learn reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic!

Then we can go further, and learn to appreciate literature, music, art. We can learn to think and reason, to conceive a new idea, to plan, design, construct.

We can investigate, experiment, invent telescopes and learn something about outer space and far-off planets, stars, and galaxies. We invent microscopes and learn about infinitesimal particles of matter.

We learn about electricity, laws of physics and chemistry. We learn to use the wheel, construct highways, and roll over ground faster than any animal. We learn to fly farther and faster than any bird. We learn how to take nature apart and make it work for us. We discover and utilize nuclear energy.

But we have to LEARN - to STUDY - to be EDUCATED - to be PREPARED for what we propose to do.

One of the first things we need to learn is that we need to learn!

Once you have learned enough to CHOOSE A GOAL, the second step toward successfully accomplishing that goal is to LEARN THE WAY - to acquire the additional education, training, experience, to give you the know-how to achieve your goal.

Most people fail to set any definite goals. Having no specific aims, they neglect the specialized EDUCATION to make possible that attainment of their purpose.

Now all these men whose case-histories I have recounted had goals. They had the over-all purpose of acquiring possessions, becoming important, and enjoying the passing moments. As a means to this objective , they had the specialized goals of succeeding in banking, industry, politics, acting, writing, or whatever. They all EDUCATED THEMSELVES for their particular profession or calling. They were broad enough to realize that education included not only book learning, but personality-development, leadership, experience, knowledge from contacts and associations, and from observation.

Yet these "successful" people were not really successful. They not only chose an over-all goal that led them in very opposite direction from the permanent happiness they sought, they also failed to equip themselves with the RIGHT education to make possible that REAL SUCCESS.

We are physical beings. The mind and the body form the most wonderful physical mechanism we know - the human being. But man is made of matter. He is 16 elements of organic, chemically functioning existence.

He lives by the breath of air - which is the breath of LIFE itself. If the bellows we call lungs do not keep sucking in and blowing out the oxygen-containing air, man won’t live to achieve any goal. You are only one breath away from death! As the lungs pump air in and out, so the heart pumps blood through an intricate system of veins and arteries. These must be supported by food and by water.

And so man IS just what he eats. Some of the most famous physicians and surgeons have said that 90% to 95% of all sickness and disease comes from faulty diet!

Most people are in utter ignorance of the fact that it does make a difference what we eat! Most people, and the customs of society, have followed a regimen of eating whatever tasted good to the palate.

People are babies grown up. Observe a nine-month old baby. Everything that comes into his hands goes to his mouth!

My youngest brother may not like to read this in print, but I remember when he was about nine months old, and had managed to creep into the coalbin. We found him trying to eat little chunks of coal - his mouth and face was blackened!

You may laugh at babies trying to eat silver cups and chunks of coal. Would you laugh at Red Chinese, dipping small mice into a sauce, and, holding them by their tails, dropping them as a delicious delicacy into their mouths?

If you do, the Chinese will laugh back at you. They will tell you that mice eat clean grain and clean foods, while you dip slimy slithery oysters and other scavenger sea-foods into cocktail sauces, and consider them a delicacy!

You think adults have actually LEARNED any better than nine-month old babies? Go to your fancy grocer’s and you’ll find on his shelves canned eel and canned rattlesnake.

Why? As I said, humans know nothing at birth! We have to learn! But most of us do not know that! And, again, what we don’t know , we don’t know that we don’t know! And somehow, ever since babyhood, most humans seem to have grown up putting everything into the mouth. Most have grown up eating just whatever seemed to taste good -and whatever they saw others eating. There has been little education or even study about WHAT we ought to eat.

Most degenerative diseases are modern diseases - penalties for eating foods that have been demineralized in food factories - usually an excess of starch, sugar (the carbohydrates) and fats. Others are caused by a type of malnutrition - lack of needed minerals and vitamins in foods. Then people try to put the "vitamins" back into their systems by buying pills at the drugstore!

Of course there are other laws of health - sufficient sleep, exercise, plenty of fresh air, cleanliness and proper elimination, right thinking and clean living.

The average person has never stopped to realize that it is not natural to be sick. Sickness and disease come only from violation of nature’s laws of body and mind - the physical LAWS of health. Most people have not learned that there are any such laws! They suppose that occasional illness or disease is natural in the course of life. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Sickness should not be taken for granted. Some authorities go so far as to say that we do not catch a cold - we eat our colds and fevers! They explain that a cold or fever is merely the unnatural and rapid elimination of toxins and poisons stored up in the glands, resulting from improper diet.

Now what about the great and the near-great of the world? They usually do not know all there is to know about the laws of good, vigorous health with clear, alert minds. But, compared to the average of the population, they know a great deal. They have, as a rule, enjoyed, shall we say comparatively good health!

As an example, the President of the United States always has a White House physician who is condition. A President is virtually required to get in certain exercise. President Eisenhower played golf frequently. President Kennedy took a daily swim. President Taft had a physical trainer who watched the over-weight President daily.

Yet, there are many things that even these important people do not know about the causes of sickness, disease, debility.

One factor I think has worked universally in favor of such men. Mental attitude does have considerable influence on physical condition. Most "successful" men - as the world evaluates success - do think constructively, positively, in a mental attitude of confidence. They do not allow themselves to think negatively or assume an attitude of fear, worry, or discouragement. They do not allow themselves to get into uncontrolled moods of griping, complaining. And, mindful of the responsibilities on their shoulders, they probably put more restraint on dissipation than most people.

A person may have chosen his goal. Having it may have aroused tremendous ambition to achieve it. He may have started out educating and training himself for its accomplishment, and he may even have good health and still make little or no progress toward its realization.

After all, success is accomplishment. They say any old dead fish can float down-stream, but it takes a live one to swim up. An inactive person will not accomplish. Accomplishment is DOING.

Now comes an all-important law.

The fourth success-law, then, is DRIVE!

Half-hearted effort might carry one a little way toward his goal, but it will never get him far enough to reach it.

You will always find that the executive head of any growing, successful organization employs drive! He puts a constant prod on himself. He not only drives himself, he drives those under him,else they might lag, let down and stagnate.

He may feel drowsy, and hate to awaken and get up in the morning. But he refuses to give in to his impulse.

I remember the struggles I once had with this situation. It was during one of my "Idea-Man" tours as a magazine editorial representative at age 22. I was having quite a struggle with drowsiness. Yet I acquired the habit of sleepily answering the morning telephone call and promptly going back to bed and to sleep. Then I bought an alarm clock which I carried with me. But I found myself arising to turn it off, then plunging back in bed. I was too drowsy to realize what I was doing. I was not sufficiently awake to employ will power and force myself to stay up, get under the shower and become fully awake and alerted. It had become habit.

I had to break the habit. I had to put a prod on myself. I needed an alarm clock that couldn’t be turned off until I was sufficiently awake to realize what I was doing, and get going for the day.

So one night in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I called a bell-boy to my room. In those days the customary tip was a dime. A half dollar then had about the same effect that a $5 bill would have today. I laid a silver half-dollar on the dresser.

"Do you see that half-dollar, boy?" I asked.

"Yas SUH!" he answered, eyes sparkling in anticipation.

After ascertaining that he would be still on duty at 6:30 next morning, I said, "If you will pound on that door in the morning at 6:30, until I let you in, and then stay in this room and prevent me from getting back in bed until I am dressed, then you may have that half-dollar."

I found those bell-boys would, for a half-dollar tip, even wrestle or fight with me to prevent my crawling back into bed. Thus I put a prod on myself that broke the morning snooze habit, and got me up and going!

Many workmen never rise about whatever job they may have because they have no drive. They slow down, work slowly, poke around, sit down and rest as much as they can. In other words, they must have a boss over them to drive them, or they would probably starve. They would never become successful farmers - for a farmer, to succeed, must get up early and work late, and drive himself. That is one reason so many must work for others. They cannot rely on themselves - they must be driven by one of more energy and purpose.

Without energy, drive, constant propulsion, a person need never expect to become truly successful.

One night suppose that if he had a goal- and with it the ambition to achieve his purpose - if he then became trained, educated, and experienced in pursuing it, kept in good health, and constantly drove himself relentlessly toward his objective, that he would be bound to accomplish it.

Important as these four laws are, they are not enough.

Life constantly encounters hazards, obstacles, unexpected problems or setbacks. You may be proceeding along right on schedule, when BANG! - out of nowhere comes an unexpected complication. Some sudden circumstance arises which seems to stop you completely, or at least set you back.

So, to meet these constantly arising problems, you must have:

The Emergency Law #5 - RESOURCEFULNES!

When complications, obstacles, unexpected circumstances appear to block your path, you must be equipped with RESOURCEFULNESS to solve the problem, overcome the obstacle, and continue on your course.

The old Slow Train Through Arkansas (I read the book years ago) encountered a cow lying across the tracks ahead. The train could not proceed toward its destination until that obstacle was removed.

When we drove the old Model "T" from Iowa to Oregon in 18 days back in 1924 we met repeated emergencies of motor troubles, flat tires and blowouts. We had to solve the difficulties by patching tires, putting "boots" in the casing, or doing our own repair work by the roadside when the motor stalled.

I learned a lesson in determination and resourcefulness on my first visit to Niagara Falls. It was on December 25^th, with a silver thaw. I strolled out on Goat Island, which divides the river just above the falls. At one point there was a huge rock. It appeared as an impassable barrier to that rapid-flowing river, racing to its destination, down over the falls, into the rapids below and on to Lake Erie.

I watched, intrigued. Did the rushing waters stop, quit, give up? Not on your life! I was thrilled as I watched the water swirl around the huge boulder - splash on over it, even find a hole through it, dashing, crashing, roaring on toward its goal!

The IBM people have put out a famous card, found in many offices, which says "THINK!" - and sometimes they deliberately spell it "THIMK!"

When sudden emergencies arise, then of all times you need a clear mind, calm nerves, rapid thinking, sound reasoning!

You need RESOURCEFULNESS!

You need a cool head, to quickly get all the facts and make a wise decision.

Do you keep calm in emergencies, or lose your head and go to pieces? Do you think rapidly, yet clearly and logically, or do you freeze up and go dead?

To succeed, you need to cultivate the ability, and the habit, of remaining unexcited, yet leaping to action on high tension, reaching the right decision, then acting on it!

Among the case histories recounted in the beginning pages was that of the president of a major automobile manufacturing corporation. He had utilized the first five of these laws - that is, except he had the usual goal that leads in the wrong direction. Yet in the flash depression of 1920, when he lost his personal fortune (and possibly his job), he committed suicide.

This man had reached the point where he was, to all appearances, through! During life he had resourcefully solved emergencies and problems that arose. But now, suddenly, it seemed that everything had been swept out from under his feet. Everything he had accumulated. Everything he had set his heart on! There was NOTHING left! He was washed up-finished! So it seemed to him. There might have been a material smash-up at the same time - I never knew his private life.

He gave up! He committed suicide.

So near success, yet so far!

Yes, nine in ten, at least once or twice in a life-time, come to the place where they appear to be totally defeated! All is lost! - apparently, that is. They give up and quit, when just a little more determined hanging on, just a little more faith and perseverance - just a little more STICK-TO-IT-IVENESS would have turned apparent certain failure into glorious success.

Law #6, then is PERSEVERANCE - STICK-TO-IT-IVENESS!

I know! I have reached that point more than once! I, too, had everything swept out from under me in that flash-depression of 1920.

I had been making an income, still in my twenties, equivalent to $25,000 or more per year on today’s dollar-value. But some 90% of it came from five or six big mid-western corporations. Most of these great corporations "went under" - that is, they went into "receivers" hands.

Later, in 1926, an advertising business I had started on the west coast was wiped out from under me by an association decision made in the east. A million-dollar project was dashed to oblivion by the stock-market crash and depression of 1929. But I did not quit or give up living. THAT was when my life-GOAL was changed!

Even the first two years of the operation of Ambassador College stared constant defeat in the face. Nearly everybody thought we were through - we had failed! WHY, the wondered didn’t I realize it and QUIT? In those days I had to listen to associates around me talking constantly about "when this college folds up."

Well now, it would certainly seem that if one follows these SIX laws of success, nothing more should be required.

But still, these "successful" men I have described followed these six principles. They gained their goals. They made money. They became important. They enjoyed the passing pleasures.

Still their lives were empty - they were never satisfied - they were discontented, they never found lasting, permanent, enduring happiness - they did not take their acquisitions with them when they died, and their fame died with them!

What they lacked - what ALL lack who fail of REAL SUCCESS, was application of Success Law #7 - the most important law of all!

I have placed this all-important SEVENTH Law last in time order - last, but not least! I have done this, because the seventh Law is the very LAST one that men will acknowledge or apply.

Did you ever notice that in case of illness, people seek first the human physician. They rely on human knowledge and skill - on material drugs, medicines and knives. Finally when the doctor shakes his head and says there is no more he can do - it is now in the hands of a Higher Power - then, at last, people turn to the Creator GOD for divine help. Usually, however, this is done in desperation, with no real expectation of receiving what they tearfully ask

Men will ignore any idea of divine guidance and help all their lives - until they find themselves helplessly afloat on a foodless and waterless raft after a plane wreck in mid-ocean. But then, at last, they seem to believe there really is a God! Then, at last, in desperation they cry out to Him whom they have denied, ignored, and rejected all their lives.

Some people who had acquired wealth, tasted luxurious living, and then lost all, have finally turned to God in their economic distress. Most people will never turn to God Almighty, or the Christ who gave for them the most important life that ever lived, until they feel helpless and in desperate NEED of Him! Even then, their motive usually is selfish.

Yet, in actual fact, the very FIRST thing everyone needs is the guidance and help of GOD! Somehow men of otherwise intelligent minds are too stupid to know that!

The ALL-IMPORTANT seventh Law is having contact with, and the guidance and continuous help of GOD!

Now look back over our case histories again. WHAT WAS WRONG? Why were even the supposedly successful actual failures?

Look again at the very first Law, as I listed these Laws in MAN’S time-order: Choosing the right GOAL!

The successful of this world had their goal. But what was the goal? It was a wholly MATERIAL goal. They sought happiness in material acquisitions, activities and pursuits - in vanity through social contacts with other people. Their goal, almost in every case, was making money, acquiring material possessions, being regarded as "important" by society and in human contacts, enjoying the passing pleasures of the five senses.

They drove themselves relentlessly toward this materialistic goal. Yet it was, as Solomon observed, a STRIVING after WIND.

The life-long habit of striving in this WRONG direction left its wake a trail of fears, worries, apprehensions, disappointments, heartaches, troubled consciences, sorrows, discontent, empty lives, frustrations, and finally, DEATH!

As I have stated before, there were, of course, passing moments of pleasure, times of excitement, periods of enjoyment. There were probably some thrills, some temporary sensations of delight. But always there was a hangover. Always they were followed by periods of depression. Always they returned to that gnawing soul-hunger, the EMPTINESS that sought constant satisfaction and gratification in these thousand-and-one events in the world’s whirl of material excitement. This never satisfied the hunger. It never filled the void. SPIRITUAL hunger is not satisfied by material good.

Once again, the very FIRST LAW of real success is to DEFINE WHAT SUCCESS IS! Once you have learned WHAT success really is, then that is the only RIGHT GOAL!

Look again at Law number ONE! It is choosing the RIGHT GOAL - not just any goal - not the wrong goal! The goal sets the direction of your life journey. It is your destination. SUCCESS is where you finally arrive - even though true success includes a happy and enjoyable journey.

Is there, after all, a PURPOSE in life?

If we were put here by a Creator we were put here for a REASON. And the Creator made available every tool, ingredient and facility to fulfill His PURPOSE! Men cut off from God have no knowledge of that purpose. They are spiritually blind and ignorant, groping in the dark. They fail to seize the proper tools, ingredients and facilities.

The time when we need DIVING GUIDANCE, ENLIGHTENMENT, AND HELP, is at the very BEGINNING - at the time when a young man or woman chooses that RIGHT GOAL.

Without divine guidance the wrong goal is always set.

Success begins with a little real intelligence! Those who fancy, in their intellectual vanity, that they are the educated - the advanced - the intelligent and the superior fold, are in actual fact the MOST IGNORANT! They are the more to be pitied. perhaps their minds do function more alertly. But they are stuffed with falsehoods, fables, myths,palmed off a higher knowledge.

The drunk, when sternly told of his condition, only grinned stupidly and said, "Hic - Yesh, so’m I." He thought the other fellow was drunk! Solomon said that the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. The Hebrew word used is that of a silly, foolish person. David wrote that it is the fool who has said in his heart, "there is no God." The Hebrew word used in this Psalm is different, meaning a vile, or wicked person. Yes, to the materially wise, the very existence of God, of PURPOSE, of LAWS set in motion by the Creator that regulate success or failure - all this appears foolishness. They have no perception of spiritual things.

Yet the very PRINCIPLES of right living are those of a SPIRITUAL LAW - summed up in the Ten Commandments.

Life has a PURPOSE God has sent in actual, inexorable motion definite. LAWS to PRODUCE for man every happiness, security, and GOOD thing he desires - THE WAY OF LIFE that will fulfill God’s PURPOSE for our being!

LOOK! THINK! An automobile was designed and built by its human makers to transport passengers, and do it more speedily and in more comfort than the old horse and buggy. Would it not be ridiculous if the automobile had a mind and free volition of action, and it would say: "That’s silly ! I don’t think I was made to transport people. I think I was made for some other purpose. I refuse to transport people. I want to be an instrument for viewing the stars in heaven."

Apparently it is only stupid, foolish man - with POTENTIAL mind-power and CAPACITY for intelligence beyond any creature God has created - who says "WHY have you made me thus?"

WHAT, then, is the PURPOSE for which we were put here?

Of this, mankind has totally lost all conception. To people spiritually drunk on the false material concepts of our day, the statement of that purpose would appear strange, absurd, impossible, It SO FAR transcends anything conceived by humanity in this blinded world that the statement of it would prove too great to be grasped and accepted.

Suffice it to say - and I shall leave it to other articles to explain - man was put here for the PURPOSE of being conformed to, and finally stamped with the exact perfect CHARACTER of Jesus Christ! Christ is now stamped with the identical CHARACTER IMAGE of God, as well as the shining, glorified appearance of God!

For a mortal human to be transformed into that perfect spiritual image means that we must be CHANGED!

The Bible pictures God as the Master Potter - us as the clay. Indeed we are, literally clay images of God - composed of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). As we now bear only the physical image of the "earthy" we shall, when changed, bear the spiritual image of the heavenly - of GOD (I Cor 15:47-49). So we are clay images with human minds that are free moral agents. They may submit, or they may rebel. They have power of will, and of decision.

And so God, the Master of Potter, has laid two alternatives before us. One is the way of rebellion against Him. It is the carnal, self-centered way of materialism - of competition, strife, getting, vanity. This is the natural way of human nature. It leads to curses all through life, and its destination is DEATH! The other is the way of intelligent submission to God. It travels GOD’S way - the way of His inexorable spiritual Law. It is the GOD- centered way of obedience, of LOVE, of exalting GOD, of humility in the power and strength He imparts. It is the way of GIVING, helping, sharing, serving. it leads to blessings in happiness all through life, and its destination is crowning SUCCESS, with the gift of ETERNAL LIFE through Jesus Christ our Lord!

These are the two basic WAYS OF LIFE.

God ordains that MAN MUST CHOOSE!

All humans, Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome, have sinned and come short of the GLORY OF GOD! Yet to attain to the GLORY OF GOD is the very PURPOSE of our being! That is a STUPENDOUS purpose! It is too glorious - too overpowering - for your mind fully to comprehend.

Though we have sinned - though the penalty is DEATH, yet the GIFT of God is held out to us - offered us freely - which is ETERNAL LIFE in this GLORY, through Jesus Christ our Lord! This means that, through Jesus Christ our Lord! This means that, through Christ’s DEATH, our guilty past may be cancelled - He paid the penalty for us. It means that, through the LIVING Saviour, we may be changed - turned around from our carnal rebellious way - started in the opposite direction toward the GLORY OF GOD! God means that we may be transformed by HIS POWER. If we CHOOSE His way - that is, set ETERNAL LIFE IN GLORY as our RIGHT GOAL - if we yield as plastic clay in the Hands of the Master Potter - then the LIVING CHRIST will mold and re-shape our characters into HIS divine IMAGE.

If THIS be our RIGHT GOAL, then we have the guidance and help of the Eternal High Priest in all that follows through a truly SUCCESSFUL LIFE - the proper preparation or education, the health, the drive, resourcefulness and endurance. And, in the end we shall be changed from mortal to immortal - this mortal shall put on immortality (I Cor 15:50-54). We shall share Christ’s Universe-govering GLORY for ETERNITY! We shall have found the way to peace, happiness, joy, interesting, absorbing, ABUNDANT living - and we shall live securely on in the happiness throughout eternity.

That ultimate TRUE Success is something you cannot attain to by yourself. The ingredient you lack is the GUIDANCE, the POWER and SPIRIT OF GOD.

First, it will completely alter your over-all major GOAL as I have just explained. Of course, you will have other minor goals - such as the profession or occupation to provide material needs, and HELP achieve the major goal. And these minor goals always must be compatible with and contributing to the major goal.

Your main goal, now, will be spiritual and not material. It will follow the WAY OF LIFE of the Ten Commandments. You will actually LIVE BY every Word of God - that is, the Bible!

Now re-examine the Second Law of Success.

Your EDUCATION and entire preparation will be DIFFERENT. You will seek to learn the TRUE VALUES of life - yes, of this life as well as the hereafter! This means your number one textbook will be the BIBLE. It will reveal to you the MIND OF CHRIST. This will provide your mental APPROACH in all education and practice.

Third, you will receive the KNOWLEDGE which God reveals about laws of HEALTH, and how and under what circumstances GOD actually heals when sick. The saving in doctor bills will be astonishing. Let me say here that we have had none in our family for sickness or disease since we learned of God’s Way 34 years ago.

Take the FOURTH LAW. If you are motivated by GOD’S WORD, you’ll have DRIVE. God commands that you do what you do with your might. Apply yourself! Whatever is worth doing is worth doing the very best you can! Nine Biblical passages command that you apply yourself with DILIGENCE! Ten other places in the Bible command us to BE DILIGENT. And 36 Scriptures command, or show the example of acting diligently! Many of these instruct us diligently to seek God’s guidance and help, several diligently to keep His commandments.

How about the businessman? "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before obscure men." (Prov. 22:29).

Now, Law number FIVE. No matter how intelligent, alert, or resourceful you may be YOU NEED GOD’S WISDOM AND HELP in solving the constant problems, meeting the recurring obstacles that beset life’s path. Whether it is in business, a profession, private life or what. The man who has CONTACT WITH GOD, who can take these matters - these emergencies - these problems - in the quietness of his private prayer room to the Throne of Grace and seek God’s counsel and advice IS GOING TO HAVE DIVINE GUIDANCE! That is, of course, provided he is submissive, obedient, diligent, faithful.

WISDOM comes from GOD.

May I give you a personal example? God has blessed His Work, and caused it to grow into a tremendous world-wide activity, with offices in Britain, Australia, Canada and soon, South Africa, besides the United States. God has set me in the position of human director and leader over this expanding enterprise, employing hundreds of people. We encounter problems of all kinds, constantly. It is not easy, smooth going - it is rough! I have problems to solve, obstacles to hurdle, policies to set, decisions to make which affect many lives - frequently involve thousands of dollars, even millions. It is a weighty responsibility.

Always - and I can remember it from at least age 5. I have desired to have UNDERSTANDING. But 30 years ago, when I was ordained to the ministry of God, I discovered that I sadly lacked, yet sorely needed WISDOM. Having dedicated my life to live, literally according to every Word of God - the Bible, I obeyed this command of God:

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God... and it shall be given" (James 1:5). I obeyed God’s command - He kept His promise. He has given me wisdom. Of course He has allowed me to make mistakes - but never a major mistake that could threaten His great Work.

Wisdom must be applied to every specific circumstance individually. I learned many years ago the need of getting all of the facts bearing on a case before making a decision. That I always try to do. But it requires more. God’s Word says that in multitude of counsellors there is safety. In any important decision I call in the most competent possible counsellors, specialists in the field involved. Usually the counsellors will be some of God’s top ranking ministers. We not only seek out all the facts from every angle, we take it to the Throne of Grace to receive special guidance and wisdom from God. While the final decision is mine, when those led by God’s Spirit are the counsellors, we always come to be of one mind and one judgment.

People trying to live without the living CHRIST in their lives are missing the most practical and valuable asset they could have. In the language of our day, "IT PAYS OFF!" Of course, we have to expend our own effort. We have to really THINK. We use all our own resources and natural resourcefulness. But we have that added SECURITY of divine GUIDANCE. Often God simply works out CIRCUMSTANCES. He literally gives us "the breaks"! IT PAYS!

Finally, now, look at Success Law Number SIX. Perseverance - Stick-to-it-iveness - Enduring- never quitting or giving up.

God’s Word seems full of this. Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed showed the four classes. All heard God’s Message. All were give the opportunity. Three classes GAVE UP. One never really got started. Two started out with joy and a great flourish, but let former friends, the cares of this material life, pleasures, choke them off, and discourage them. The other class of quitters simply did not have the depth or strength of character within themselves to stay with anything. They were just naturally quitters. Even of those who went on, and endured, some were more diligent, more resourceful, better prepared, more careful of health, and consequently developed farther in spiritual knowledge and character and acomplishment than others. Theirs will be the greater reward!

Jesus Christ said, plainly, "He that endureth unto the END, the same shall be SAVED."

Yes, these Seven Laws are the WAY, not only to business and economic success - they are THE LAWS that lead to SALVATION - to ETERNAL LIFE AND GLORY in the Kingdom of God.

Your BIBLE teaches them!

It teaches you to choose the RIGHT GOAL. It teaches you to STUDY, to show yourself approved unto God. It teaches you to acquire KNOWLEDGE, right and true education - preparation for success. It teaches you to watch your health, and go to God for healing when necessary. It teaches diligence - drive - dedication, persistent application. It teaches resourcefulness, and offers you divine help in applying it - and it teaches STAYING WITH IT TO THE END!

WHAT A HAPPY LIFE God has made available! What blessedness - what JOY! What SECURITY, this life of implicit living FAITH - reliance of GOD!

I know! I’ve been enjoying this life thirty-four years! It’s a BUSY life- but it’s interesting, thrilling, happy! And to constantly look forward to the OVER-ALL GOAL - an eternity in THE KINGDOM OF GOD!