Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-04-10

| dTmS dDOub MS DOOy 10 TeVlF0 ClrCuIablOn
on some January morning. But if 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 insertion,
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 a grander
eternity than many a man who had on
earth, before his name the word Honor
able and after his name Ii. D. and F.
r. S. Christ said, in Luke vi. that in
/ Heaven some who had it hard here
would laugh there. And think laugh
of delight and congratulation will run
around the heavenly circle when this
humble one of whom 1 spoke shall go
up and take the precedence of many
Christians who in this world felt them
selves to be of 80 per cent more i'm
portance.
The simple fact is that the world has
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. They have ac-
cumulated 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
their contribution 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 per 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
a 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.
But thank God that we are having
just now an outburst of splendid benefi-
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 villages? 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 execu-
tors and administrators?
After putting aside enough for their
own families flor ''he that provideth
not for his own, and especially those of
his own household, is worse than an in
fdel''), they are saying: "What can
do, not after l am dead, but while liv-
ing, and in full possession of my facul-
ties, to properly direct the building of
the churches, or the hospitals, or the
colleges or the libraries that design
for the public welfare, and while yet
have full capacity to enjoy the satisfac-
ton 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 yet alive, their sur
plus accumulation. 1t is being helped
by the fact that so many large estates
have, Immediately after the testator's
death, gone into ligitation. Attorneys
with large fees are employed on both
sides, and the case goes on month after
month, and year after year. and after
court and is decided in the opposite Ci
rection, and then new evidence is found,
and the trials are all repeated. The
who at the fathers funeral
seemed to have an uncomfortable grief,
after the will is read go 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: SIN
the name of God, amen. /, being of
sound mind, do make this my last will
and testament"
A &,1, Id -,
twelve years of age and went to Pitts
burgh. He looked around for work and
became an engineer in cellar, then
rose to become telegraph messenger
boy, then rose to position in railroad
Office, then rose to place in telegraph
Office, then rose to be superintendent of
a railroad, then rose till he became an
iron and steel manufacturer, then rose
until he opened free libraries in his ma
tive land and last month free library |
in Allegheny City and now offers 81, OOO,- |
900 for free library in Pittsburgh. |
This example will be catching until the |
earth is revolutionized. How majestic |
such men in comparison with some. l |
wot of, who amasses wealth and clutch |
it with both hands until death begins |
to feel for their heart strings and then |
they dictate to an attorney 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 win
ters and all through these long years
from needy and suffering world and
would keep it longer if 1 could, but 1
must give it up, take it and much good