AT this period, the question of the Philippian jailer, "What must I do to be saved?" takes on a new significance to the average mortal, who is not so much concerned about salvation which is supposed to deal largely with a future life as with the pressing demands of the present hour. He asks what he shall do to be saved from limitation, lack, and possible failure, and this opens up the subject of vocation and leads him to inquire what he is best fitted to do. No one, however, is really fitted to tell what he can do until he knows what man is, what are his capabilities and possibilities as the expression of infinite Mind. In proportion as this is seen, one is measurably prepared for worthy achievement in any line of endeavor to which he may be guided, and the thought of divine guidance is a thousandfold more important than any other, for the Mind that creates all knows all, "from a blade of grass to a star" (Science and Health, p. 70), and can make no mistakes.
As we read in the Bible of those who sought guidance from God alone, we may well wonder that any should be oppressed by uncertainty and should seek direction from "the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators" against whom Isaiah warned the people of his day. In the story of Joseph we are told of a youth whose purity and goodness did not turn aside either the poisoned shafts of envy on the part of his brethren, or the fierce assaults of vice in Potiphar's household. We read of years of unjust imprisonment with apparently no prospect of any means whereby his manhood could find expression; but there was one thing which outweighed all else,—"the Lord was with Joseph,"—and whatever the seeming barriers to progress, no matter how great the trials and temptations, his whole career meant the unfolding of Life's perfect idea, until at length the proud ruler of ancient Egypt said there was none like him, "a man in whom the Spirit of God is," and the people cried out before the passing of his chariot, "Bow the knee." He who had been a lowly son of the soil, and later a bond-servant in Potiphar's household, became a wonderful financier and statesman. In his youth he was called a dreamer, but he became an astute and far-sighted man of affairs, with a symmetrical development of character. It is not likely that Joseph ever thought of honors and wealth as his portion, but he was loyal to his high ideals, true to his father's God, and to the trust reposed in him by all who knew him; and dare any say that these qualities are of less value today in the sight of God and men?
The wisest of the world's thinkers have said that the one who is in doubt as to what he should do, had best do the thing that lies nearest him; and if this be done with the attainment of perfection as his real aim, he will soon find himself called to higher and consequently more difficult tasks. Failure, in the true sense of the word, means that the character of the worker is not being unfolded into the likeness of perfect manhood, that there is deformity instead of symmetry, and this because the true idea, the divine model, has been lost sight of. The one who thus fails to win success may have amassed great wealth and gained prominence in the world of affairs, but if he were to be judged, or to judge himself by what he actually is, as a man, the handwriting on the wall might be, as in Daniel's day, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting."
