Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-31

many centuries ago-bctter is small facut
actively used than great talent unemployed
DEXTER is a living dog than dead llon.
The simple fact is that the world has been
and the world is now, full of dead lions. The
are people OF great capaclty ana large oppol
! society, nothing for the overthrow of evil
nothing for the salvation of souls. Some o
them are monetary lions. They have accumu
lated so many hundreds of thousands of dollar
that you can feel their tread when they wall
through any street or come into any circle
They can by one financial move upset tn
money market. Instead of the ten per cent o
their income which the Bible lays down as tn
proper proportion of their contribution to tn
cause OF God, they do not give five per cent. o
three per cent. or two per cent. or one per cent
or half per cent, or a quarter per cent.
EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY TREASURES
That they are lions, no one doubts. Whel
they roar, Wall street. State street, Lombard
street and the Bourse tremble. In a few year
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 in
dictate where their dust lies, but for all use tc
the world tha; man might as well have never
| lived. AS an experiment as to how much he
| can carry with him. put 10-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 l0cent piece. \ lion! Yes
/
! earth, and has no treasures in heaven. What
shall the stone cutter put upon the obelsk
over him? 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 dead lion."
| But thank God that we are having Just now
an outburst of splendid beneticence that is to
increase until the earth is girGIed 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
frnn rio hr,iI rhnir
| native village? Have you not seen how men of
| large means, instead of leaving great phllan-
thropies in their wills for disappointed heirs to
| quarrel about, and the orphan courts to swamp,
are becoming their own executors and admins
J traitors? After putting aside enough for their
| families for ''he that provdeth not for his own,
| ana especially those of his own household. is
worse than an infidel''). they are saying Nv hat
can do. not after / am dead, but while living,
and in full possession of my faculties. to prop
erly direct the building of the churches or the
hospitals or the colleges or the libraries that 1
design for the public welfare, and while yet
have full capacity to njOy the satisfaction of
seeing the good accomplished" There are bad
fashions and good fashiens and, whether good
or bad, fashions ale mighty.
One of the good fashions now starting will
sweep the earth-the fashion for wealthy men
to distribute, while yet alive their surplus ac-
cumu ation. 1t is being helped by the fact
that so many large estates have, immediately
after the testators 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 de-
cided in the opposite direction, and then new
evidence is found, and
THE TRIALS ARE ALL REPEATED.
The children, who at the fathers funeral
seemed to have uncomfortable grief, after
the will is read so 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 bis money to the
Bible society, and the missionary society, or
the opening of free library is proof positive
that he was insane, and that be knew not what
he was signing when he subscribed to the
words: I'm the name of God amen. L being
of sound mind do make this my last Will and
testament"
The torn wills, the fraudulent wills, the
broken wills have recently been made such
spectacle TO angels and to men that all over
the land successful men are calling in archi-
tectS and saying to them: How much would il
cost for me to build picture gallery for our
town." or What plans can you draw me out
for concert hall?" or, II am specially inter-
ested in the incurabes,' and how large build
ing would accommodate 300 of such patents?n
or, THE Church of God has been a great help
to me all my life, and L want you to draw me a
plan for a church, commodious beautiful. well
ventilated. and with plenty of windows to let
in the light; want you 10 get right at work in
making out plans of such building, for,
though / am well now. life is uncertain and
before / leave the world want to see some
thing done that will be an approximate acknowl-
edgment of the goodness of God to me and
mine: now when can hear from you?'
in our own city we have many examples of
this, What grandeur of benefcence has our
fellow-citizen, Mr.. Pratt. demonstrated, build
ing educational institutions which will put their
hands the nineteenth century, and the
twentieth century, and all the centuriesi All
honor to such mani Do not say SO when he
is dead say it now. 1t would be a good thing
if some of the eulogies we chisel on tombstones
we're written on paper in time for the philan-
thropists to read them while yet they are alive.
Less post-mortem praise and more ante
mortem!
ANDREW CARNEGIE'S EXAMPLE.
A poor Scotch lad came to America at II
years of age and went to Pittsburg. Helooked
around for work, and became an engineer in a
cellar, then rose to become a telegraph messen-
ger boy. then rose to position in a railroad
office, then rose to place in a telegraph Office,
then rose to be superintendent of railroad,
then rose till he became an iron and steel
manufacturer, then rose until he opened
free libraries in his native land, and
last month free library in Allegheny City, and
now offers 100000 for a free library in Pitts
burg. This example will be catching until the
earth is revoutionized. How majestic such
men in comparison with some / wot Of who
until death begins to feel for their heart
strings, and then they dictate to an attorney a
last will and testament in which they spite
some daughter because she married against her
fathers wish. and fling few crusts to God and
suffering humanity, as much as to say: Il have
kept this surplus property, through all these
severe winters and through all these long years
from needy and suffering world, and would
keep it longer if | could, but as / must give it
up take il, and much good may it do your |
NJ. hoo nd
is living dog than dead lion."
Who would attempt to write the obituary of |
the dead lions of commerce. the dead lions of |
law. the dead lions of medicine, the dead lions |
OF social influence? Vast capacity had they, |
and mighty range, and other men in their pres |
ence were as powerless as the antelope or 1
heifer or giraffe when from the jungle Nu- |
indian lion springs unon It's prey. But they |
get through with life They lay down in their |
magnificent lair. They have made their last |
sharp bargain. They have spoken their last |
hard word. They have committed their last \
mean act. When a tawny inhabitant of the |
desert rolls over helpless, the lioness and |
whelps fill the air with shrleks and howls, and |
lash themselves into lamentation, and 1t is a |
genuine grief for the poor things. But when |
this dead lion OF monstrous uselessness expires
there is nothing but dramatiZed woe, for bet |
ter is a living dog than dead lion." My text |
also means that an opportunity of the living |
present is better than great opportunity |
passed. We spend much of our time in say |
ing; IF only had" We can all look back
done great deed, or might have effected an |
important rescue we might have dealt a |
stroke that would have accomplished a vast |
result Through stupidity or lack of apprecia- |
tion of the crisis, OF through procrastination, |
we let the chance go by. How much
TIME WE HAVE WASTED
in thinking of what we might have said or |
might have done! We spend hours and days |
and years in walking around that dead lion.
We cannot reSuScitate it 1t will never oman /
its eyes again. There will never be another |
in its Dead Gelit,a .f |