Sharp County record., 1890-04-17

there, encourages a lalnI-ueal Uou MANI
gives a Scripture passage in consola-
tion TO some bereft woman, picks up
child fallen in the street and helps him
brush off the dust and puts hVe-cent
niece in his hand, telling him not to
cry, so that the boy is singing before he
rets round the corner; waiting on every
body that has letter to carry or mes
sage to deliver; comes into a rail-traln'
or stage-coach, or depot, or shop, with
a smiling face that sets every body to
thinking; "Il that man can, with what
appears small equipment in life, be
happy, why can not l, possessing far
more than he has, be equally happy|
One dav of that kind of doing things
NAV not amount to much, but forty
wears of that-no one but God Himself
can appreciate its immensity.
There are tens of thousands OF such
people. Their circle of acquaintance is
small. The man is known over at the
store. He Is clerk, or weigher, or dray-
man, and he is known among those who
sit near him clear back in the church
under the galleries, and at the ferry
gates where he comes knocking the
snow from his shoes and threShing his
arms around his body to revive circula-
ton, on some January morning. But II
he should die tomorrow there would
not be a hundred people who would
know about it. He will never have his
name in the newspapers but once, and
that will be the announcement OF his
death, if some one will pay for the in
sertion, so much line for the two lines
But he will come up gloriously on the
other side, and the God who has watched
him all through will give him higher
seat and better mansion and grand
er eternity than many man who had
on earth, before his name, the word
Honorable, and after his name LID.
and T. R. S. Christ said in Luke, the
sixth chapter, that in Heaven some one
who had it hard here would laugh there.
And think laugh of delight and con-
graduation will run around the heaven
ly circles when this humble one OF
whom l spoke shall go up and take the
precedence of many Christians who in
this world felt themselves to be Of
ninety per cent more Importance. The
whisper will 90 round the galleries
of the upper temple: Can it be pos
sible that that was the weigher in our
store?" "Can it be possible that
that was the car.driyer on our Street?"
"Can it be possible that was the sexton
of our church," Can it be possible that
is the man that heaved coal into our
cellar?" 81 never could have thought
it. What a reversal of things! We
were clear ahead of him on earth, but
he is clear ahead of us in Heaven.
Why, we had ten times more brains
than he had, we had thousand times
more money than he had, we had So
cial position a mile higher than he had,
we had innumerable opportunities more
than he had but it seems now that he
accomplished more with his one talent
|
mon, standing among the thrones, over
hears the whisper, and sees the wonder
ment and will, with benignant and all
suggestive SMILE say: Eyes, it is as |
told the world many centuries ago-bet-
ter is small faculty actively used than
great talent unemployed" 'better is
a living dog than de ad lion"
But thank God that we are having
just now an outburst of splendid benef-
cence that is to increase until the earth
is girdled with it. 1t is spreading with
the speed of an epidemic, but with just
the opposite effect of an epidemic. Do
you not notice how wealthy men are
opening free libraries, and building
churches in their native village? Have
you not seen how men of large means,
instead of leaving great philanthropies
in their wills for disappointed heirs to
quarrel about, and the orphan courts to
swamp, are becoming their own exec
utors and administrators? After put
| ting aside enough for their families
! (for ''he that provideth not for his own,
and especially those of his own house
hold, is worse than an infidel"), they
are saying: "What can l do, not after
am dead, hIt while living, and in full
possession of my faculties, to properly
direct the building of the churches, or
the hospitals, or the colleges, or the
Libraries that design for tie public
welfare, and while yet have iall capac-
ity to enjoy the satisfaction Of seeing
the good accomplished? There are bad
fashions and good fashions, and whether
good or bad fashions are mighty.
The simple fact is that the world has
been, and the world is now, full of dead
lions They are people of great capaci-
ty and large opportunity, doing nothing
for the improvement of society, nothing
for the salvation of souls. Some of
them are monetary lions. They have
accumulated so many hundreds of thou
sands OF dollars that you can feel Their
tread when they walk through any
street or come into any circle.
They can by one financial move up-
set the money market. Instead of the
ten per cent. of their income which the
Bible lays down as the proper propor-
ton OF their contribution to the cause
of God, they do not give five per cent,
or three per cent, or two per cent, or