The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1877-11-29
NO. "a
The Vanderbilt Will.

| Rev. Mr.. Talmage devoted most of his last
Friday nights lecture to the Vanderbilt will.
| He said -
| First let your wife nave at least two-thirtis
and your children share and share alike. If
you have sle0to bequeath don't give s95 of
it to one boy and S. to your wife and the
other children. If you have 100000 don't
give $1,000 to one child and $500 to the rest
of the family. That family is awfully askew
when the son receives more than the wife.
When man takes a wife she ought to be
made queen-frst in every ambition, first
Tin every provision-and when a man does
| not act in that way l conclude that he is
| cursed with very poor wife Or that she is
cursed with very mean husband. Laugh
teri The two-thir1s spoken of in the law
are none too much for one who has to be
your counsel and has helped to build up
that estate, besides hunting up your slip.
pers and sewing on button in hot haste
and sitting up till midnight waiting for you
to come home from the club. In nine cases
out of ten the wife has as much to do with
prosperity as the husband 1t is a gigantic
injustice to give her $500, 1000 and sos, 0Oc, 900
to sBill." [Laughter.l The worst family
feuds are created by inequalities of inheri-
lance.
1t is often the case that one of the family
coddles to the old man in his last days and
prepares mustard plastcrs for him and tucks
him up in bed with reference to the inherit
ance, so that eventually he gets paid for his
services at the rate of 800 per mustard plas-
ter and $50 per tuck. [Laughter.l PARTIAL
ity on your part is sin agains God ass we'll
as against your children, except in those
cases where there are physical or mental de-
fects, and then the child should get more,
for he will be less able to help himself.
If your children start life with two hands
and two feet and a healthy brain they have
grand fortune to start with. Look out for
those who enter the battle of life already
MANNED. The Surrogate's record Of wills is
often a story OF appalling injustice. BY the
square of Gods eternal justice let your will
be measured and let your children share and
share alike.
Again, having made provision for your
families, look out for the cause of God and
humanity. Out OF the 100000, 900 of Mr..
Vanderbilt's estate how much was given to
religious objects? The amount is so small
comparatively that 1 cannot recollect. New
York and the world groaning, bleeding,
starving, agonizing for help, and yet, what
miserable pittancc. In this nineteenth
. Mi In,
the name Of the Almighty God, no man has
the right to be worth sle0, 100000! lap
plause.l All the money man has God
gives him as steward. Would Joseph have
a right to keep the corn cribs Of Egypt shut
while the nation were dying for bread? Oh,
you say, Mr.. Vanderbilt sung in his last
hour, 'Come, ye sinners, poor and needy
-[laughter]- he did not change his will.
If he had done SO, and then sung that hymn
it would have made better music, and the
want, hunger. ignorance and woe of New
York would have joined ia the chorus. Com
pared with the infinite stinginess of that
death bed look at George Pea. ody giving
s3.500,000 for the education of the people of
the South in this country. Look at the
others who have been their OVID executors,
not waiting till their death to give away
that which they could not keep any longer,
but in the days of their health building their
monument in nations honor and the
Church's triumph. | charge you in the
name of Christ when you make your will
give something if possible to the blind and
lame and ignorant and for the reformation
of the lost. 1t will make your dying pillow
the softer, and it will give an easier swing
to the gate of Heaven opening to your ran
somed soul.