The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1890-04-17

| paclty IS vastly useful. lie takes that
which God has given him and says:
"My mental endowment is not large
| and the world would not rate me
high for my intelligence, and my vo-
cabulary is limited, and my educa-
| tion was defective, but here goes
what have for God and salvation,
and the making Of the world good
and happy" He puts III word here
and word there, encourages faint
hearted man, gives scripture pas
sage in consolation to some bereft
street and helps him brush off the
dust and puts tive-cent piece III his
hand, telling him not to cry, so that
the boy is singing before he gets
around the corner,waiting on every
body that has a. letter to carry
or a message to deliver; comes into a
rail train or stage coach, or depot, or
shop, with u aosmiling face that sets
| everybody to thinking, eff that man
can, with small equipment III life, be
happy, why cannot [, possessing far
more than he has, be equally happy"
One day of that kind of doing things
may not amount to much, but forty
years of that-nO one but God him
self can appreciate it's immensity.
The simple fact is that the world
has been, and the world is now, full
Of dead lions. They are people of
great capacity and large opportunity,
doing nothing for the improvement
of society, nothing for the overthrow
of evil, nothing for the salvation Of
souls. Some of them are momentary
lions. They have accumulated so
many hundreds Of thousands of dol
lars 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 mar
lct. Instead of the ten per cent. of
their income which the Bible LAYS
down as the proper proportion of
their contribution to the cause of
God, they do not give five per cent,
OF three PEI, cent, OF two per cent,
on one per cent, OF Il half per cent.
OF quarter per cent. That they are
lions, no one doubts. When they
roar Wall street, State street, and
Bomse tremble. In few years they
will lie down and die. They will
have Il great funeral, and long row
of fine carriages, and mightiest rcqui-
ems will roll from the organs, and
polished shafts 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
an experiment as to now much he
can carry with him, put II ten-cent
piece III the palm of his dead hand,
and five years after open the tomb,
and you will find that he has dropped
even the tcn-centpiecc A lion! Yes,
but II dead lion! He left all his treas
urc on earth, and has no treasure in
heaven. What shall the stone cutter
put upon the obelisk over him? [
suggest let it be the mans name.
then the date of his birth, then the
date of his death, then the appropri-
ate scripture passage: "Bcttcr is Il
living dog than a dead lion"
But thank God that we are hay
ing just now an ontbmsts of splendid
bcniticcnce that is to increase until
the earth is girdlel with it. 1t is
spreading with the speed of an cpl
dcmic, but with just the opposite
effect of an epidemic. Do you not
notice how wealthy men arc opening
free libraries, and building churches
in their native village! Have you
not seen how men of large means,
instead of leaving great philanthro-
pies in their wills for disappointed
heirs to quarrel about, and the OF
phan courts to swamp, are becoming
Their own executors and administra-
tors? After putting aside enough
for thoir families for she that provid-
eth not for his own, and especially
those of his own household, is worse
than an inhdcl,') they are saying
"What can L do, not after [ am dead
but while Lying, and i'll full posses
sion of my faculties, to properly di-
rect the building of the churches, or
the hospitals or the colleges, OF the
libraries that / design fOr the public
welfare, and while | yet have full cn-
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 Elc
good fashions now starting will sweep
the carth-thc fashion for wealthy
men to distribute, while yet alive,
their surplus accumulation. tits be
ing helped by the fact that so many
large estates have, Immediately
after the tcstators 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