The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-03-02
THE RICH AND THE POOR
Topic of Home Mission Superintendent
in Holy Trinity Church.
PREACHED By DIX. WHITTEkER
Not What q Man Has. but What lie
Is, Controls Mans Destiay-ue
Mus, BE Worthy of Gods
Good Graces.

Rev. DIR. j. T. Whitteker, superin-
| tendent of home missions and of the
general council of the Luteran church,
occupied the pulpit of Holy Trinity
Lutheran church, Adams avenue and
Mulberry street yesterday. Dr. Whit
tekers home Is in Easton, but his work
takes him throughout the United
States. He was Il professor or Thlel
college for fourteen years, and mas
been Il pastor of II large Lutheran
church in Rochester and of old ST.
Johns in Easton. He is an unusually
gifted pulpit orator
DR.. Whitteker's morning sermon IL
lustrated the parable of Lazarus and
| the rich man. The text was from st.
Luke, xix, ~. 20: There was certain
rich man. There was a certain beg
gar" DR.. Whitteker said:
Jesus often taught by coupling
things strikinsly similar or strangely
| contrasted. 1t gave his teachings a pc
culiar effectiveness readily catching the
mind. fixing the attention and touch
ing the heart. A case of strong con-
trast is that of this rich man and the
beggur
"'rhe rich mans luxurious mode of
living Is expressed by the inspired
There was a certain rich man, who was
! clothed in purple and fine linen. and
who Jared sumptuously every day. The
distressing state of Lazarus Is pictured
IN language equally graphic: for he
was covered with sores. and desired
the crumbs which. fell from the iich
mans table. And the dogs came ANA
licked his sores
NyIIn \lnI-I n L,vrIIA NrL' pI Art,S
'There are dogs that live on dam-
ties; but who would exchange places
with them-natures as well as modes
of living" Man is more than AN an
imal to be fed and clothed. God
breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life and man became IA living soul.
What is the life of IL mans heart?
That is the one great question.
''rhe defect Of the rich man did not
lie in his riches but in his character
He was Il selfish man. He scattered
his wealth, but he scattered ii for his
own enjoyment. He Jared sumptuous-
ly: but he turned away from that poor.
sick, starving creature who lay at his
gate and asked only for the filthy
crumbs which he had polluted with his
own srasping hands. The virtue of the
poor man did not lie i'm his poverty, but
in his contentmcnt; for Goodness with
contentment is great gain But death
overtakes them both. and in death they
find II common level. While all the
contrast that marked their life in the
body, marked their death and the dis
posal of their bodies; still. the rich
man left behind his riches and the poor
man lef. behind his poverty. and then
comes Il now contrast which brings into
review the very heights of heaven and
the very depths of he'll.
PICTURES WITH LESSONS.
These two strong pictures are set
before us for Il purpose; they each have
their lessons. The great question of
life is not one of condition but char
acter. Riches is not the best thing
II man can have, nor poverty the worst:
in the light of eternity. a rich man
may be very poor and poor man very
rich. But poverty is not means of
grace. Lazarus didn't get radiant
robe in eternity because he wore Il gar
m.nt of rags here. The poor man i'm
spite of his poverty was good at heart:
the rich man in spite of his riches was
bad at heart. and it was their cOndi-
tiOn of heart which determined the
eternal veal of one and the eternal woe
of the other. The one great sin against
which this parable warns Is the sin of
selfishness and rich and poor alike are
guilty of it. We are not to estimate Il
man by what he has or has not, but by
what he is. A selfish man Is not neces-
sarily a miserly man. He may scatter
his money, but i'm doing so he looks
only to his own pleasure. Whatever is
his own. he takes care If: what is not,
he is willing to let starve.
ha hA
church does not get an equal share
Of crumbs even with the dOgs-indeed.
with many, the dogs come first, the
church last. or not at all. 1t is claimed
as. an actual fact-a fact backed up by
figures s-that 1t costs more to feed the
dogs that roam over these United
States. than it does to supply all the
churches of the land with the preached
Word.
TWO MEN CONTRASTED.
Look at the lot of these two men:
The rich man. blessed with every lux
ury that the world can give, living on
the very heights of human pleasure:
the poor man, sick and starving, drag
ging out u wretched existence i'm the
very depths of misery But how diff
fcrent when death stood before them!
For the one, he was the king of terrors.
stripping him of all that gave him
pleasure i'm time. and dragging him
down TO all that could give him pain
throughout eternity. To the other he
was a welcome visitor in the guise of
angels. releasing him from all that
made him wretched here and lifting
him up to all the bliss of heaven.
Are you rich? Don't allow your
wealth TO bar the gates of heaven
against you; don't let it harden your
hearts against the appeals of Chrst's
church or the pleadings of Chlist's
poor. Are you poor? Don't imagine
that poverty is passport to heaven;
of that poverty is in any sense or
under any circumstances a substitute
for Diety. Rich or DOOR Ii matters not
-lle heart Is the mau and ont of IL ar.