Success is Costly[1]

Success in any field is costly, but the man who will pay the price can have it.

The concert pianist must become a slave to hi instrument: four hours, five hours each day he must sit at the keyboard. The scientist must live for his work. The philosopher must devote himself to thought, the scholar to his books. The price may seem excessively heavy, but there are some who consider the reward worthwhile.

The laws of success operate also in the higher field of the soul--spiritual greatness has its price. Eminence in the things of the Spirit demands a devotion to these things more complete than most of us are willing to give. But the law cannot be escaped. If we would be holy we know the way; the law of holy living is before us. The prophets of the Old Testament, the apostles of the New and more than all the sublime teachings of Christ are there to tell us how to succeed.

If we would progress spiritually we must separate ourselves into the things of God and concentrate to the exclusion of a thousand of things the worldly man considers important. We must cultivate God in the solitude and silence; we must make the Kingdom of God the sphere of our activity and labour in it like a farmer in his field, like a miner in the earth.

[1]A.W. Tozer. We Travel an Appointed Way.