San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-10-14
CONTRIBUTED SCRAPS.
Written for the LIGHT.

wears diamond breastpin, fares
sumptuously everyday, and goes
to church in all the "pride, pom D
and circumstance OF glorious"
wealth, is sinner! What miser-
able stuff! A rich man a sinner?
Poor men are your only sinners,
and it is an insult and an outrage
to catalogue a rich man, like j..
Wilson Skinflint, as a sinner.
These Jewellers are clean daft to
consider rich people as sinners
and to maintain they stand in
need OF repentance for their sins.
Why, the very preachers in the
pulpit do not really believe
that rich men and woman are
sinners and need repentance.
What sins have j. Wilson Skin
flint to repent Of? ask his parasites
and toadies, in a tone OF amaze
ment mingled with indignation.
Let US unmask this rich man.
He too needs too repent, in ashes
and sackcloth, of his haughtiness
and his bloated pride and his self,
ishness an d his hardness OF heart.
Did he not scrape his money to-
gether by grinding the faces of
the poor, by depressing and robbing
widows and orphans and by TAX
ing advantage Of the necessities
of his fellow men to fleece them?
These are a few of his sins.
But he has bsen hypocrite and
a liar all his life long. He is a
sham to the core.
Christ, in one of his parallels,
chronicles the fact of one Dives,
who was the j. Wilson Skinflint
of that day. Dives descended
down into hell. His riches could
not save him. But Lazarus, the
poor man, who had picked up
the crumbs that fell from the
table Of Dives, assembled into
heaven.
What must have been the
amazement of Dives, the rich man
when he found himself in hell,
and his modification on looking
up and beholding Lazarus the
pauper, in heaven! And what
said Christ to Dives?
ain yonder world, thou hadst
thy good things and Lazarus hadst
his evil things, but in this world
Lazarus hath his good things, and
thou hath thy evil things" So
you see there was an evening
up of matters, which placed Dives
in hell and Lazarus in the abode
of eternal bliss.
Do you mean to say the door
of heaven is locked and bolted
against the rich, as class? Oh
no. The door of heaven is open
to them, as it is to all men, pro-
vided, they will "forsake their
unrighteousness, do that which is
right in the sight of God and serve
Him in spirit and in truth"
The rich shut themselves out OF
heaven. In this world, they serve
"Mammon, the god Of unrighteous-
ness"-they bow down to and wor-
ship the gold N calf-they rely on
their riches to save them, hey
are chockful Of avarice, covetous,
ness, pride, haughtiness, selfishF
ness-they practise none of the
precepts of Christ, and laugh at
and despise the golden rule OF "do
unto others as you would have
them do unto you"
The truth is, such a man would
be misfit in heaven-would be
like fish out of water-a devil
in hell.
Christ himself declared it was
harder for camel to go through
the eye Of needle than rich
man to enter into heaven" Why?
Because riches render men covet-
GUS, selfish, proud, naughty and
oppressive, and lead them to
worship Mammon.
They possess the amplest means
for being charitable to the poor
and needy and the sick and affiict.
ed, but, in point of fact, they
regard an act OF charity as a piece
OF folly, which Is to be avoided
even by falsehood, IL necessary.
The majority Of rich men and
women never practise charity
they love money far too we'll for
that-and they look down on poor
men with scorn and contempt and
leave them to starve.
Rich people have little, or no
sympathy for their fellow crea-
lures, and no community of inter-
est with them. That is the newt
able result of the intense selfish
ness generated by the possession
Of riches and the love Of money
combined.