Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-04-03

snow from his shoes. and threshing his
arms around his body to revive circula-
tion, on some January morning. But il
he should die tomorrow there would
not be o hundred people who would
know about ii. He will never have his
name in the newspapers but once, and
that will bo the announcement Of his
death, il some one will psy 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 q higher
seat and better mansion and grandel
eternity that many man who had on
earth, before his name, the word honor
able, and after his name LII. d. and f.
K. S. Christ said in Luke, the sixth
chapter, that in Heaven some who had
1t hard here would laugh there.
And ! think a laugh of delight and
cengratulation will run around the
Heavenly circles when the humble one
OF whom / spoke shall go up and take
the precedence of many Christians who
in this world felt themselves to be of
ninety nine per cent. more importance.
The whisper will 60 round the galleries
OF the upper temple: Can it be possi-
BILE that that was the weigher in our
storef" Can it be possible that that
was the car driver on our street," Can
it be possible that was the sexton of our
church," ~Oan it be possible that is
the man that heaved coal into our
cellar?" Il never could have thought
it. What reversal of thingsi 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 social position q
mile higher than he had, we had in
Vulnerable opportunities more than he
had, but it seems now that he accom-
plished more with his one talent than
We did with our ten;" while Solomon,
standing among the thrones, overhears
the whisper, and sees the wonderment,
and wild, with benignant and all-sug-
gestive smile, say, "Yes, it is as told
the world many centuries ago-better is
small faculty actively used than great
talent unemployed, better is living
dog than dead lion.'"
The simple fact is that the world has
been, and the world is now, full of dead
lions. They are people of great cspac-
ity and large opportunity, doing moth
ing for the improvement of society,
nothing for the overthrow of evil, moth
ing 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 upset the money
market. Instead of the ten per cent. Of
their income which the Bible lays down
as the proper proportion OF the contri-
button to the cause of God, they do not
give five per cent, or three per cent,
or two per cent, or one per cent, or
half Ger cent, or a quarter per cent.
That they are lions, no one doubts.
When they roar. Wall street, State
street. Lombard street, and the Bourse
tremble.
In few years they will lie down and
die. They will have great funeral,
and long row of fine carriages, and
mightiest requiems will roll from the
organ, and polished shaft of Aberdeen
granite will indicate where their dust
lies, but for all use to the world that
man might as we'll have never lived.
As ON experiment as to how much he
can carry with him, put ten cent piece
in the palm of his dead hand. and five
years after open the tomb, and you will
find that he has dropped even the ten
cent piece. a lion! Yes, but dead
lionl He left all his treasures on earth,
and has no treasures in Heaven. What
shall the stone cutter put upon the
obelisk over him? I suggest, let it be
the mans name, then the date of his
birth, then the date of his death, then
the appropriate Scripture passage,
Better is living dog than o dead
lion"
But thank God that we are having
just now an outbust of splendid benefi-
cence that is to increase until the earth
is girdled with it. It is spreading with
the speed of an epidemic, but with lust
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 exc
ting aside enough for their families (for
AAO eHdb pTOFAuotu uOJ IOr HIS own,
and especially those of his own house,
hold. is worse than an infdel"), they are
saying: What can I do, not after am
dead, but while living and in full pos
session of my faculties, to properly di-
rect the building of the churches, OF the
hospitals, or the colleges, or the libra
ries that / design for the public well
fare, and while yet have full capacity
to enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the
good accomplished" There are bad
fashions and good fashions, and,
whether good or bad. fashions are
mighty.
One Of the good fashions now starting
will sweep the earth-the fashion for
wealthy men to distribute, while vet
alive, their surplus accumulation. It is
being helped by the fact that SO many
large estates have, Immediately after the
testator's death, gone into litigation.
Attorneys with large fees are employed
on both sides, and the case goes on
month after month, and year after year,
and after one court decides it ascends to
another court and is decided in the op-
posite direction, and then new evidence
is found, and the trials are all repeated.
The children, who at the fathers funeral
seemed to have an uncomfortable grief,
after the will is read 60 into elaborate
process to prove that the father was
crazy, and therefore incompetent to
make will; and there are men on the
jury who think that the fact that the
testator gave so much Of his money to
the Bible society, and the missionary
society, or the opening Of free library
is proof positive that he was insane, and
that he knew not what he was signing
when he subscribed to the words: !" In