The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1885-02-26

When Jacob went upon his journey to.
ward the country of his own kindred, he
was naturally surprised, not to say aston
ished, to behold his uncle and father-in-
law Laban coming with a pursuing par
ty. When the old man was through with
his examination of the baggage Of the fu-
gitives, as he considered them to be- Ja-
cob demanded to know why he had thus
pursued him, and searched his effects
also calling Laban's attention to his CIa-
cob's) long service to him. Fourteen
years had Jacob served for his two wives
and other years had he tended the f1ocks
Of his master. To this fact did he call at
tention, and to the manner in which his
work had been done. He had made good
out of his own pocket, all losses of ami
mails from any cause. Yet Laban de-
clared that "these wives are my children,
and these children are my children" Still
he proposed to Jacob to make covenant
OF friendship. Each party gathered
stones and made a heap, as described in
the text They called this heap "Galeed'
~ iAesiiO VI tlllo upU Uttu
ed down to the present day correctly, or
men have willfully perverted both it's
spelling and it's meaning.
Many man who has had business
transactions with his fellow-man, has la
bored for long years in collecting this
heap. Ry care, industry, and seeming
honesty, he has collected, one by one, the
St, that info
through the years the building went on,
until at last time came for making cov-
enant-settling up their business affairs,
in fact, naming the heap. 1t may be
called by different names. No matter
whether it may have been called Jegar-
sahadutha, or Called, or by any other ii
tie. He finds upon close examination
that the proper name for it is "Greed."
One may meet man-as often one
does, in this world so full of deception
who holds out fine inducements to join
him In business enterprise. Suppose,
dear friend, you join your fortunes to his
and launch out upon the business sea;
through the years that follow reasona-
BILE measure of success and happiness may
be yours; your voice, with that of your
business associate, may be frequently
heard in the songs, the prayers and the
Testimony" of the chapel; to outward
appearance, and so far as the world may
see OF know, you are both living with one
grand central object and aim-the living
of Christian lives, thereby clarifying the
name of the Divine Father; the daily
walk and conversation of both may be
Godlike, and your pathway through life
be indeed pathway of beauty; you go
along down the years honored and re-
spected by the community about you; so
implicit is your trust, each in the other.
that no thought of the posi-
bility of anything like unfairness is per
mitted to find a ludgment in your minds
yet, after long years of friendship and
trust, it suddenly occurs to you that you
have been building "heap of witness. ~
as the work of your long years of friend
ship, and when you come to examine
the hieroglyphics that both of you have
been painting by slow process, as the
years won, they spell-not the name
which Laban gave to his heap so long
ago, but the modern appellation, "Greed' .
We start out in the world with a conf
dence in humanity. We feel that we are
moved only by the noblest impulses. We
''love our neighbor as ourself." A
like confidence is reposed in us, in return.
This is the time when the stone-gathering
begins, when the foundation for the heap
is laid. We may earnestly desire to use
in the erection of this monument only
the spotless pebbles of truth and honesty.
Yet away down in the depths of our souls
lie pebbles which in the nature of the
gathering, must go into the heap, and
which, no matter how they may be ar
ranged, will spell the tell-tale ''Greed," all
along the structure, from bottom to top.
When the structure is finished there
rings in our ears with startling and omi.