The Progress., 1893-08-05
Is 1T WORTH LIVING .
REV. THOMAS DIXON ILLUSTRATES
BY JAY GOULO'S LIFE.
Plain Words about "a 3Ian Whose Thoughts
Centercd oh Seif-Contrast with the Men
Who ToiIcd for Humanity-The Western
Missionary.

ho AOilth bulnanltN-1nc W
Missionary.
CAPE CHARLES, Va. July 30.-Bev.
Thomas Dixon. Jr.. preached at Cobbs
island today the fifth sermon of the
series on Money The subject today
WAS Jay G.u.d's Life Worth Living
The text chosen was Matthew xvi. %.
For what shall Il man be profited if he
shall gain the whole world and forfeit
his life"
In view of our discussions of the in
trinsic value of money and its relations
to men and its dcsirablcucss the ques-
ton arises. Is 1t worth Il mans while To
give his life. his genius, in the mere get
ing Of money: This question can best
be answered by an analysis of the life
of one of the most distinguished Ameri-
cans who was the incarnation of this
problem. II ever man persOnifed the
modern commercial spirit. it was Mr.
JAY Gould. With much of the personal
abuse hcaped upon him by enemies. men
who had axes to grind at his mill and could
not grind them Lecause hcwas a sharper
man than tney were-with this abuse.
say, have 10 sympathy. Such personal
abuse is worth little either for or against
a man. Ii is usually given by those who
have personal clos to serve. and its
value to the student is less than nothing.
NOT A HYPOCRITE.
There are some things that can be said
about Mr.. Gould that do not call for
condemnation. He gave employment to
.to1,, IL. n
ally he was temperate and Industrious
He cared for his family. He was not
hypocrlte. He gave $40, zoo to missions
He did not have any religion to speak Of,
and he did not pretend to have any-that
is, so far as | have ever heard.
Hehad plain business notices by which
he lived and in which he died. Those
notices We're the standards of success in
this age of money getting They began
in self and ended in self. and his charity
was the charity that began at home and
staid there.
The simple facts are he lived for him
self, he worked for himself. he died for
himself. He accumulated a vast for
tune-a millionaire's fortune-estimated
on an auction basis at $75, 200, 600. On
gold basis it is certainly worth, as prop
erty is generally estimated, more than
500, 100000. He was the most thor
Oughly hated man in America. These
are substantially the facts of his life 1.
He died at an early age. He had scarce /
ly turned his fiftieth year. For years
before he died he was compelled to live
a most abstemious life, to eat the SIM
plest foods and deny himself the simplest
pleasures.
Is the life of such man worth living?
1t does not seem to me that il is,
judged
First-Patriotically.
Breathes there a man with soul so dead
That never 10 himself has said
This is my own, my native land?
The community is the source of
wealth. The essence of wealth is in the
community which gives it birth, and
therefore any use of money which does
not advance the interests of the COM
munity which gives it value is. viola
ton of the fundamental principles of
true business. A man who grows rich
in money should recognize the fact that
the value of his money comes from the
country in which it is made. If the
great man of whom we speak ever gave
evidence of the fact that he lived in
America rather than in Africa, the
world never knew it. Ii was left to
other men to build our monuments. to
build our institutions of learning, to for
ward great national enterprises and to
bless the communities which gave them
birth and from which their lifeblood in
wealth YVES born.
a TEACHER OF ANARCHY.
So far from such life blessing the
country, the nation, it directly contrib
uted to feed hatred among classes. Such
a life does more TO educate in anarchy
and the more desperate principles of
socialism than any force that operates
in more recent times.
The drift of the ages is toward the re-
lieving of the distress of the masses, the
millions. There have arisen men who
have recognized this fact, men who
possessed enormous wealth, and who
have used that wealth for the purpose of
healing the arrangements of classes, of
elevating the masses of their kind All
this might have been the work of Mr..
Gould, but nothing could have been
farther from his genius-so far as we
know. His life was the life of the sue
cessful business man, centered upon
self. And the love of country and hu-
nanity in its broader sense are irrecon- !
cilable utterly with such principle of
action. He lived thus for himself, and
he died in himself. In his will he left
not dime to the community from which '
he drew it. 1t was left to his offspring '
IN trust, for their sole benefit. '
SOLD HIS BODY. {
Seconds such life worth living
physically? What shall it profit man
f he gain the whole world and forfeit ,
his life?