ween us, we are at peace"--rather
this, I say, than any such success as I have had, multiplied a
hundredfold, if it can only turn to conscience to be smitten by it.

I would have you succeed; and by success I mean, for the moment, what
the world means by the term. Why should you not? There is no
necessary connection between a straight life and failure to win the
kingdoms of this world. You can be clean and conscientious in your
methods, and you can succeed if you have it in you to succeed. If you
have not, scorn the trick of blaming honesty for what is really lack of
ability. There may be cases where honesty handicaps a man for a time,
but they are comparatively few and short-lived in their operation. But
lift the definition of success to higher levels, and I assert without
qualification that with the right to respect ourselves there can be no
failure, and without it there can be no success. That I do or do not
make money is a question of gift or the favour of circumstances; that I
am an honest man haps neither upon accident nor contingency. It is the
deliberate and responsible exercise of my own moral will. I may make
money or position and be a failure; I may do neither and be a success.

Let me counsel you to hold it true with the great President: "I must,
above all things, have the good opinion of myself." Look up to God and
pray: "Keep Thou me from secret faults"; then look in upon yourselves
and say: "By the help of God I will make it possible for God to give me
the help I ask." To thine own self be true. Put this estimate upon
yourself, and whatever price the world may put upon you, time will show
that you have no more valuable asset than your own self-respect. You
may not be able to command the declarative success upon which the world
places its emphasis, but you can always deserve it. He is the great
man who can say, and mean it, I would rather be beaten in the right
than succeed in the wrong.

Saul had ceased to respect himself, and this very probably supplies the
explanation of his being found in this questionable company. Bear in
mind who, and what, these so-called prophets were, and you gather the
force of the surprise with which it was asked: "Is Saul also, the king,
the Lord's anointed, in the company of men like these?"

For in this connection it suggests the influence of companionships.
There is a well-known saying that a man is known by the company he
keeps, and it is truer than many s