Why Do We Fail?

WHY DO WE FAIL? BY ELDER ALBERT R. LYMAN, SUPERINTENDENT Y. M. M. L A. S'AN JUAN STAKE OF ZION. We have our cheri?hed hopes and ambitions which we long to realize. There is something we would like to do, or become, and oft times we spend sleepless nights and weary days worrying and fearing that it is not within our power. Often we undertake amd fail at so many things, that we lose confidence in ourselves, and each new hope is associated with the memory of past failures, until it also becomes tainted with doubt, and in time the faculty of hope becomes a source of despair. This process destroys the chances of success. Men in the latter years of life often speak of what they could have done, but now the hope of youth has passed through all the stages of decay; it is gone. There are young men galore who see the possibilities of life, and have discovered within their natures the talents God has given them, but they lack the initiative or the faith to grasp these opportunities. They do not make the start; there is no achievement to recommend their powers to their judgment, and their hope and faith are passing; they will soon join the hopeless multitude who "might have been," but are not. This little article does not presume to treat of many success essentials, but merely to touch upon one phase of the subject, for the encouragement of the humble toiler. When the Creator made man, he pronounced him, along with other creations, 'Very good." But good for what? we may ask. We are told that the earth "filleth the measure of its creation,"

394 IMPROVEMENT ERA. and we have no reason to doubt that plant and animal life has done as well. These things being made but for man, he must be the most excellent creature among them; fully as well qualified as they to fill the measure of his creation, to accomplish the particular task for which the Creator took the trouble to give him existence. Not that he always does it, but he is able to do it. We may judge with some safety of what plants and animals were meant to do, at least in this world, but as to man, we dare place no limit to his good works. He must have been intended to reach "all heights and depths;" to "comprehend even God." But there is a secret is such advancement, and in the light of such scripture as, * 'Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect, ' ' we are justified in terming it the ethics of Godliness, for how shall we reach his perfection without knowing how it is done? Is it to be supposed that when the heavenly Father laid the foundation of the earth, he doubted in the least his ability to finish and complete it as 'first designed? We are told, on the contrary, that he knew ' 'the end from the beginning, ' ' and there are strong indications that the details were planned long beforehand. Adam "prophesied whatsoever should befall his posterity to the latest generation," and never have any of God's purposes failed. How could he begin his great labors, knowing that £eons would be required to finish them, and still feel no uncertainty whatever of the outcome? Why could he continue on, and on, without a fear or doubt, but declaring with all assurance, "My purposes never fail." The Lord is governed by laws which have all to do with his success. We are told that he "can not lie," and that he is "bound" to keep his promises. Sin might prosper in the world for a time, but with him truth is the all-powerful factor, it always prevails. The heavenly Father labors to do only that which is in harmony with eternal truth. He knows, by eternities of experience, that truth may be implicitly relied upon; that it sweeps away all opposition; that it has a power and prestige and force which its enemies can never master. He has become so attuned to, and in harmony with, it, that his plans are suggested and promoted by its inspiration. He knows it to be a sure avenue to success.

WHY DO WE FAIL? 395 Nor is the fact of the undertaking being right, the only thing necessary to its accomplishment. He has full faith in himself; full confidence in his own powers, having never forsaken the labors which truth inspired him to undertake. He has learned that whatever he does, he must attend; that to its benefits or necessity he must be fully converted; that however many appliances are at his command, and however many mighty ones are in full sympathy with his effort, his own labors devolve on him; that however easy or difficult, he must apply himself diligently; must go squarely against each obstacle and strike with force. We are the children of God, and have inherited godly attributes, though they may be in such a crude, undeveloped form as hardly to be recognized. The law that everything brings forth after its kind has not been suspended in our case; we are his children, and in the place he has prepared for us. Man is the important creature among the creations, ' 'and it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man." Our heavenly Father is not only willing but anxious that we shall advance and develop sufficiently to receive every favor that man may enjoy. He has made a world especially for us; he has tempered it to our welfare, and prepared it with everything we need. He has sent truth anew from heaven relating to our past, present and future; and as to us, we come of parents pronounced "very good." Surely we must be worthy, or able to become worthy, of anything we can desire in righteousness. Yet, with our confessed knowledge of talents and opportunities, we worry, and doubt, and wonder on sleepless pillows, what consolation there will be in life when our cherished hopes have miserably failed. Now, there is one of two things the matter; but whichever it be, the fault is with us: either we have aspired to the wrong thing, or, having aspired to something lawful, we have not been converted, and determined, and possessed of sufficient faith. In other words, our aspiration has not been strong enough. The Doctrine and Covenants speaks of those who shall "return again to their own place, to enjoy that which they were willing to receive, because they are not willing to enjoy that which they might have received." This perhaps refers to the rebellious, but it may be applied also to the believing, who do not exercise