Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1893-08-10
Us IT WORTH LIVING /?
REv. THOMAS DIXON ILLUSTRATES
BY JAY eoULo's LIFE.

Missionary.
CAPE CHARLES, Va, July SO.-Rev.
Irhomas Dixon. Jr., preached at Cobb's
ISLAND today the fifth sermon of the
series on Money" The subject to-day,
WAS Jay Gou' DIS Life Worth Living
The text chosen was Matthew xvi. 26,
f'For what shall man be profited if he
Shall gain the whole world and forfeit
his life"
In view of our discussions of the in
trins;c value of money and its relations
to men and its desirableness the ques-
ton arises. Is it worth a mans while to
give his life. his genius, in the mere get
ting 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. If ever man personified the
modern commercial spirit, it was Mr..
Jay Gould. With much of the personal
abuse heaped upon him by enemies, men
who had axes to grind at his mill and could
not grind them because he was a sharper
man than they were-with this abuse, l
say, have no sympathy. Such personal
abuse is worth little either for or against
a man. 1t is usually given by those who
have personal enGs 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
a certain number of laborers. Person
ally he was temperate and industrious.
He cared for his family. He was not a
hypocrite. He gave S10,0 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 were 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 vast for
tune-a millionaire's fortune-estimate
on an auction basis at $75, 900, 600 On a
gold basis it is certainly worth, as prop
erty is generally estimated. more than
500, 10000 He was the most thor
oughly hated man in America. These
are substantially the facts of his life.
He died at an early age He had scarce
ily turned his fiftieth year. For years
before he died he was compelled to live
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 it is,
Judged
First-Patriotically.
Breathes there a man with soul so dead
That never to 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
immunity which gives it value is viola
tion of the fundamental principles Of
true business A man wh grows rich
i'm 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. 1t 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 was born.
TEACHER OF ANARCHY.
. So far from such a 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
lin more recent times.
The drift of the ages is toward the re-
,ieving 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, conferred upon
self. And the love of country and hu-
manity in its broader sense are irrecon-
cilable utterly with such a principle of
action. He lived thus for himself. and
he died in himself In his will he left
not a 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
|physicallyg What shall it profit man
If he gain the whole world and forfeit
his life:
The modern business world in which
Mr.. Gould moved was great furnace
in which the nerves of men are burned