The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1890-04-05

than he Ind, Ne mad . th6dsand times NOR,
| money than he had. We had A40ciAl position
| a mile higher than he had. we had tnnumera.
BILE opportunities more than. he had. but i
seems now that he accomplished more VIII
this one talent than we did with our ten
while Solomon standing among the thrones,
| oyerhenrs the whisper and sees the wonder
ment, and will, with ~benignant and oil sug.
gestive smile, shy, YES, it is as told the
world many centuries ago-better fs smal
faculty actively used. than great talent unem.
ployed, better is q living dog b q lead
lion
The simple fact is that the world has been,
and the world is now, full OF dead mons
They are people of great capacity and large
opportunity, doing nothing for the improve
ment of society, nothing fortbe overthrow OF
evil. nothing for the salvation OF Souls.
Some of them are monetary lions. Iney
have accumulated SO many hundreds o.
thousands of dollars that you can feel their
tread when they walk through any street CT
come into any circle. They can BY one
financial move upset the money market. In.
stead of the 10 per cent, OF their income
which the Bible lays down ns the proper pro-
portion of their contribution to the cause Of
God, they do not give 5 per cent, or 3 per
cent, or 2 per cent. or 1 per cent. or Q hall
per cent, or q quarter per cent. they are
lions, no one doubts. When they roar,
Wall street, State street, Lombar street,
and the Bourse trembie. In a few years tney
will lie down and die.
They will have a great funeral, and q long
row offne carriages, and mightiest requiems
will roll from the organ. n polished shait
of Aberdeen granite will indicate where their
dust lies, but for oil use to the world that
man might as well have never lived. AS an
experiment as to how much he can carry
with him, put a 10-cent piece in the palm OF
his lead hand, and five years after open the
tomb, and you will find that he has dropped
even the 1O-cent piece. A lion! Yes, but q
dead lion! He LETT all his treasures on the
earth, and has no treasure in heaven. what
shall the stonecutter put on the obelisk over
him? ! suggest, let it be the mans name,
then the date Of his birth, then the date OF
death, then the appropriate Scripture pass,
age, "Better is a living dog than a dead
lion." te.s.-@t >s
But I thank God that we are having just
now an outburst o. splendid beneficence that
is to increase until the earth is girdled with
it. 1t is spreading with the speed of an cpl
demic, but with just the opposite effect of an
epidemic. Do you not notice how wealthy
mon are opening free libraries, and building
churches in their native village? Have You
uOU Se0u now uIeu " large ueuN6, lIStCdu VI
leaving great philanthropies in their will for
disappointed heirs to quarrel about. and the
orphan courts to swamp, are becoming their
own executors and administrators? After
putting aside enough for their families(for
che that provideth not Tor his own, and es.
pecially those of his own household is worse
than IN infdel'), they are saying: "sWhat
can I do, not after I am. dead, but while liv-
ing, and in full possession of my faculties, to
properly direct the building of the churches,
or the hospitals, or the colleges, or the libra.
ries that l design for the public welfare, and
while yet I lave iuli capacity to enjoy the
satisfaction of seeing the good accomplish
ed? There are bad fashions and good fash
ions, 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 surplus &C.
cumulations. 1t is being helped by the fact
that so many large estates nave, Immediate
ly after the testator's death. goEeinto litiga-
ton. 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 opposite direction, and
then new evidence is found, and the trials are
oil repeated. The children, who ut the fathers
funeral seemed to hav an uncomfortable
grief, after the will is e 20 into elaborate
process to prove that b efather was crazy, and
therefore incompetent to make a will; and
there are men on the jury who think thatthe
fact that the testator CAV SO much ofhis mon
ey to the Bible society, n the missionary So
ciety, or the opening of a free library ia
proof positive that he was insane, and that
he knew not whathe was signing when ,.hesub-
scribed to the words: TN the name OF God.
amen. ], being ofsound mind, do make this
last my will and testament"
The torn wills, the fraudulent wills, the
broken wills have recently been made such o
spectacle to angels and to men that all over the
land successful men are calling in architects
and saying to them: How much would it
cost for me to build a picture gallery for our
town." or, what plans can you draw me for
a concert hall?'. or, Il am especially interest
ed in the ineurables, and how large n build
ing would accommodate 800 such patients?''
or, "The Church of God has been q great help
a plan for a church, commodious, beautiful,
we'll ventilated, and with plenty OF windows
to let in the light; ! want you to get right at
work in making out plans of such a building,
for, though | am well now, lie is uncertain,
and before. l cave the world | want to see
something done that will be an appropriate
acknowledgment OF the goodness of God to
me and mine; o when q / hear from
your"
A poor Scotch lad came TO America at IL
years of age, and went to Pittsburg. He
looked around for work, and became an en-.
gineer in a cellar, then rose to become O
telegraph messenger boy, then rose to a po-
sition in a railroad Office, then rose to q po-
sition in a telegraph Office, then rose to be
superintendent of a railroad, then rose until
he became al iron and steel manufacturer,
then he rose until he opened free libraries in
his native land, and last month q free libra
~ IN Allegheny City, and now offers 2,OOO.-
900 for q free library in Pittsburg. This ex-
ample will be catching until the earth
is revolutionized. How majestic such
men in comparison with some I wot OF, who
amass wealth, clutch it with both hands I'M
til death begins to feel for their heart-strings,
and then they dictate to an attorney q last
will and testament, in which they spite some
daughter because she married against her
fathers wish, and fling O few crusts to God
and suffering humanity, as much MS to say:
y have kept this surplus property through
all these long years, from q needy and suffer
ing world, and would keep it longer if /
could, but as ! must give " up, take II, and
to understand the text, BETTER IL q living
dog than asdead iion.
Who would attempt to write the obituary
OF the lead ions OF commerce., the dead lions
oflaw, the dead lions OF medicine, the dead
lions of social influence? Vast capacity had
Jney, Int mighty range, and other men In
their presence were as powerless as the an.
tilope or heifer OF giraffe when from the jun.
gle q Numidians lion springs upon 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 q
tawny inhabitant of the desert rolls over
helpless, lioness and whsips fill the air with
shrieks and howls, and lash themselves into
lamentation, and it is a genuine grief for thu
poor things. But when this dead lion q
monstrous uselessness expires there is moth.