Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1870-01-22
Mr.. Anderson's Column.
Relative Benehcence.


and to hold In the highest honor the person
who does a really benevolent thing. Newspa-
pers love TO get the names of pbilanthropists,
and make sensational articles about them
Preachers make use of their deeds in the way
of illustration. Statesmen hold them as ex-
amples. We have lately seen that nations love
to do honor to such men.
Our day is witnessing good many such In
stances among men and women of great wealth.
We are dazzled by the brlliancy of their phil
anthropic gifts. Such men arc the generals of
divisions, leading off in glorious achievements
in the way of benefcence,-an our breath is
almost taken away as we read of the enormous
sums that they give away. Our little and in
significant gifts are sunk out of sight by the
side of such sums of money as we never saw,
still less ever handled or expect to handle.
Mr.. Cornell OF Ithaca N. Y, gives. $500,000
for college, and 100000 for IA public library.
MIR. Vasser, of Poughkeepsie, N. " follows
suit with another 100000 for female semi
nary. Judge Parker of Bethlehem, Pa, gives
another $500,OOo for a college in his town.
Mr.. Drew, of N. Y, gives another $500000 for
a Methodist Seminary, and Mr.. Crozier of Pa,
gives $270,000 for Baptist Seminary. Miss
| Burdett Coutts, "the richest woman in Eng
| land" has built market and dwelling houses
| for the laboring classes at fabulous cost. Mr..
| Stewart has in process some such magnificent
| thing in his immense tract on Long Island
Mr.. George Peabody, besides such works in
England as that of Miss Coutts, has given mil
lions of dollars to educational purposes in
America.
These are only few of the many who are
doing just such deeds of benefcence, and we
catch our breath as we try TO conceive of such
vast sums-wo who must stop and plan of re-
| trenchment, of denial of relative worthiness
in the object, before we give away our dollar.
They are grand and it is wise that these peo
pie should see to the appropriation of their i'm
mense fortunes while they live, rather than to
leave them for litigation, and possible mal-ap-
preparation, after they are dead.
do not want to detraot from the good done
by these people with their immense gifts and
it would seelh hard if l should even allude to
the fact that the illustrious man, now dead and
receiving national honor both in England and
America, was not in sympathy with our ma
fluence of his immense wealth into the scale
of the South and against freedom to the slave.
Time is to show If the bestowment of that
wealth overtops in good the evil that was done
during the process of its accumulation. Tho
the more than regal wealth of Vanderbilt and
Fiske do stand side by side with the ghosts of
ruined suicides and though the lockwood
hnugp iS nluppl N tn bp fpnn
ment rooms where the widows of these ruined
men huddle their shivering children about the
few embers which go to make palmer the cold
of this winter-weather yet l wish that these
men, too, would become executors of their
own wealth TO benevolent purposes that the
money might do some good to the poor.
But the thing want to say is, that these are
not the only ones, nor do they represent the
only class, who are doing just such vast works,
(as relates to their own sclvesD In the way of
beneticence. God, who owns whole mines of
gold, does not measure the gift by its actual
size, but by its relative size. He who out of
millions gives half or the whole, or he who out
of hundreds gives half or the whole, may not
be essentially different. But the giver of the mil
| lions becomes the nations idol, and the giver
of hundreds becomes the idol of the neighbor-
hood 1t makes one think of words that were
spoken by the mouth of the Emmanuel Eye
have received your consolation" Nuke vi. 24)
Take heed that ye do not your aims before
men to be seen of them otherwise we have no
reward of your Father which is in heaven"
(NIatt. vi ~ "Vcrily 1 say unto YOU, they
have their reward" lib. 2) 1t makes one
think of the words of Abraham, "Son, remem-
Der, that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy
good things" Uuke xvi. 25)
| do not make judgment that these men were
actuated by any evil motives which would
bring them into the class that are comprehend
ed in these words, but only say that the laud-
ing of their gifts brings us to remembrance
of these words that makes us tremble for such
men in Gods sight And we can't help think
ing that so many people always do suffer where
one man gains such untold wealth in business.
1t makes one think Of poor Buell. of Cleveland,
and of the many poor fellows who are in in
sane asylums to-day, but who had clear heads
year ago.
1t calls to our minds the story that is told in
the Bible, Mark xii. 4l-44, Luke xxi 10y
"And Jesus sat against the treasury and behed
the people cast money into the treasury and many that
rich cast in much. And there certain poor
widow. and she threw in two mites which make far
thing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith
unto them, Verify say unto you That this poor widow
hath cast more in than all they which have cast into
the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abun
dance but she of her want did cast in all that she had
even all her living"
OF such an act as this Christ says, "Where.
soever this gospel shall be preached In the
whole world, there shall also this, that this
woman hath done, be told for memorial OF
her" Matt xvi 49,
Now we get encouragement to look at some
OF the very acts that otherwise we might lose
sight of, because they are not brilliant in huge
figures, nor will they. ever have large relebri'
ty nor will those who Ito them ever be widely
known and honorcd because of them, Posi-
bly, God sees them with different eyes than
ours, and they look larger to him.
knew of poor, bed-ridden girl, suffering
patiently, who laid awake Of nights thinking
OF another poor girl who was suffering too
and trying to plan how, out of her poverty
she could extend relief By.andlby the though