Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-20
WHEN A MAN IS RICH.
He May Possess ALI Africa's Diamonds
and Yet Be Poor Indeed.
APPRECIATION IS THE BASIS.
The Deep Lesson in st. Pauls First Letter
to the Corinthians.
CIRCUMSTANCES OF HIS WRITINGS
rwIITTEy FOR THE DIsPAToH.l

Jesus, that in everything ye are enriched
by Him"
st. Paul wrote that to the Corinthians.
1t stands at the beginning of his first letter
to them.
1t is hard to see how St. Paul could have
been very enthusiastically thankful for
those people at Corinth. They were rather
questionable Christians, good many Of
them. There were contentious among them,
and strife and envying and divisions. They
| were wrang1ing in the law courts, brother
with brother. They were stpuffed up" with
unseemly and ill-founded pride. They were
sceptical about the very essentials of the
! faith. Their behavior at the Lords table
was scandalous and shocking in the ex-
| treme And there were worse evils among
| them. St. Paul reminds them that they are
| a congregation of converted thieves, drunk
| ards, idolaters, impure and covetous per-
sons, revilers and extortioners. And the
conversion does not seem to have been o
very thorough one in the case of some of
them.
IT WAS A SOUR LETTER
This epistle is soolding letter, and the
Corinthians seem to have deserved 1t richly.
The pastor is shortly to return to his peo-
he may have to bring rod along with him.
he SAYS, "what will ye? Shall come with
q rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meek
ness?" 81 thank God always on you be-
halt" he writes here at the beginning; but
before he dips his pen in the ink again he
writes also, IT thank God that baptized
none of you" 1t seems hard that the apos-
tie could have been particularly grateful for
that Corinthian parish.
T 4hoEG Do,,I a.f&h
wise people who expect little, and so are
seldom disappointed. He knew what sort
of people lived in Corinth.- He was pretty
well acquainted with the Corinthian Chris
tians, and he knew what neighbors they
had, and what kind of air they breathed,
and what temptations beset them, and how
weak they were to meet them, and he was
glad to find any goodness there at all. st.
Paul was always looking on the best side Of
everybody, and was always trying to dis
cover good where there was any good dis
coverable- And he did see some spiritual
growth somewhere in Corinth, and it re-
joiced his heart. That divine charity which
St. Paul writes about to these same Corinth-
ians shows itself here. This is genuine
Christianity, this is the real following of
Christie be kind in Judgment, to be
quicker to find good than bad, to make all |
possible allowance.
HEAR MOST OF THE BAD.
No doubt but there were good people in |
that Corinthian parish. 1t is not fair to |
measure the whole congregation by the |
offenders who are reproved in St Paul's let |
ter. 1t is the bad people oftener than the |
good who are heard of, whose names get |
into the newspapers. 1t is the recording of |
the evil which fills most pages in the his
tories. Virtue has gentler voice than
vice. Scolding seems to need more words
than praising. Sometimes we look out over
the world in spirit of discouragement, and |
1t all looks bad enough. It seems as if the
whole world were but a multiplication of |
that reprobate congregation at Corinth.
But there is always reason for thanksgiv-
ing somewhere. There are always more |
good, honest, loyal, earnest souls than we
give credit for. And even the bad-God
alone knows their temptations and their
No doubt but there were q
good many genuine Christians even in
Corinth. Nevertheless it took a wide
charity and profound knowledge of the
lmitstions of human nature and large
of the spirit of Jesus Christ to look
over the communicate list of that Corinth
parish and say, as St. Paul says, "I thank
my God always on your behalf"
81 thank my God always on your behalf
for the grace which is given you in Christ
Jesus, that in everything ye are enriched
by him"
SECRET OF REAL RICHES.
st. Paul may have meant that potentially;
that is, he may have been thinking of the
privileges which the Corinthians had under
the gospel, rather than of the use they were
making of the privileges They we're all
rich; in everything they were enriched by
Christ Yes; but it is possible to be rich
and poor at the same time. To be really
rich is not only to have riches in possession,
but to be making the very best use of them
for the bettering and sweetening and up
lifting of life. 1t is not every rich man
who knows what to do with his riches The
spending Of money Is commonly accounted
one of the easiest of tasks, but it is one of
the most difficult things In the world to do
we'll A good many people who are masters
of the art of making money have never
learned the more delicate and more i'm
portant art of spending it. And SO they
are rich only in possession. They have
their wealth in their purses, and in their
houses, and in their business, and in the
bank, but they are not rich in their lives
Let us not call him rich who owns o library
Of richly-bound books which he cannot
read, or has his walls hung with lovely
pictures which he cannot appreciate. 1t
|
The finest and truest parts of q mans pos
sessions cannot be handed over counter,
nor added up in ledger, nor described in
. deed. We are really rich only in proper
ion to what we have in our minds and in
our hearts The secret of real riches is ap-
probation.
ceRINTH DIDN'T APPRECIATE
That Is true Of spiritual riches. The
were in everything enriched BY
Christ Christ had come into their lives,
ind whatever He had touched was turned to
yold. Treasures and blessings awaited them
IN every hand They dwelt in spiritual
palaces, and had angels for ministering SER
7ants. They belonged to the court of
Heaven. The King of Heaven was their
riend. And yet how miserably poor some
,f those Corinthians werei Because they
lad no appreciation of their privileges.
They did not know what to do with their
iches. There Is difference between hav-
ng blessing and making the blessing our
7ery own. It is the difference between
poverty and riches.
ire we really rich? In all things we are en-
iched by Him. What are we doing with
his spiritual wealth? Is it our own BY our
rood using of it? Or is it laid aside with
,ur Bibles, or locked up in the church?
What are we doing with it? The secret of
eal riches, said, isappreciation. Blessings
'ome only to the appreciative. The first
,reat need Of the spiritual life is real ap-
of spiritual riches. If we want to
,e really rich we must begin by recognizing ,
he value of spiritual riches
We all do recognize that, in a conyen- ,
ional way. Everybody knows what real