Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-09-15
NEW YEAR
RABBI v e

VI ~ OkAAl
Go OF II what | can. What few days
are mine | shall use TO good advantage.
Nay. because they are few | shall
crowd them with good work, because
they are short. / shall labor with
more strenuousness. For me as for
Joshua the sun will not SCI until my
days work is as well done as | can do
1t. | shall make my short life long in
achievement and my few days many
with performance. Let time fly and
oeath come. | fear it not. ThoAh the
grass wither and the flowers fade, the
word OF oar God shall stand for ever.
In Him trust. TO Him | dedicate my
life. My ali is this. 1 am His. Let
the morrow bring what it may.
1t is a tremendous. a magnificent. a
vital lesson friends to learn from the
melancholy a solemn thought OF the
brevity OF life and the certainty OF
Death, but it is a strengthening and an
encouraging lesson as we'll. For wh.le
Ii makes death no less certain in COM
ing, while It delays the final call per-
haps not a moment, while it concerns
itself with a topic often tabooed in
sensitive society, it yet draws the
necessary line between the temporal
and the eternal. Shows US the On
trast between the momentary and the
everlasting and demonstrates the pro-
cess whereby the maximum OF good
J can be achieved with the minimum ot
complaint and worry. The grass with.
ers up. and the flower fades up. but
and here the vital issue is drewn-the
word of God endureth forever.
| wonder what moral suggestiveness
these words of the great Isaiah
brought to mind by his New Years
Day. have ever had for you. OF course
originally they were expressive OF but
an actual physical truth. q truth to
which this very season of the year
bears eloquent testimony. The grass
is vitbering, and the flower is fading.
The trees are shedding their beautiful
summer garb. stripping themselves to
: cover the earth. The summer is over.
Soon winter will be here. and We shall
look in vain for the bright and beauti-
ful and animated life that nature has
shown us. 1t Is gone-Gons as the sea
son that resurrected it is gone. Gone
,s the year now ended is gone; gene
/ as everything temporal goes 10 make
way for the eternal. Gone, yes. but
truth remains and life remains and God
remains. 1t is enough.
81 much for the actual literal aspect
Of the problem. | 1eed not have mem
toned it because the season itself
teaches it to those Slao care to see. But
here is another aspect to the problem
to which but few give heed IL modern
day conditions prove anything. OF that
aspect | wish to speak TO you briefly
this morning.
1t is an old story that msteria.ism
IS rampant. Wherever you go and
whereyvr o turn men are trying to
make Noney, originally Of course. 10
make both end meet. Then to aecum-
ulate something for a rainy day and
finally TO enlarge that accumulation.
To put it in a word, every poor man
IS trying to become wealthy and every
wealthy man to become w%eaithier.
Now | have no objection in the world
to offer 10 a mans trying to make
money. The silly twaddie that so often
finds vent in the foundations of
] wealth finds at my hands but little
sympathy. Money, like anything elsc.
can be abused. 1t can be unjnstly got
ten and wrongly used. But money
honestly earned il q tribute to a man.
and points to qualities Of thrift, indus
try, patience, OF which anyone might
be proud. What is more, money in
itself is scarcely injurious. A piece OF
wood may be carved into a beautiful
ornament. 1t may form part OF q beau
i tiful.y constructed home. 1t may also
be used as a club. with which TO brut-
ally infict punishment or kill. / have
no word OF condemnation for men who
have honestly made money. providing
they rise to the responsibilities OF their
changed position; | have no word OF
condemnation for the pursuit OF wealth,
providing 1t be an open, honest and
fair pursuit and be not continued at
the expense OF the truer and better
things OF life. But | have a word OF
advice to offer to all who Join in the
pursuit with every faculty conferred on
one end, getting rich quick and no care
for the means employed. | have a
word for those to whom mopethelsm
means moneytheism, whose only God is
Manmon, and who would sacrifice
every virtue, yes, and every human
being'on earth for the almighty dollar.
| have a word for those who in their
eagerness to accumulate money forget
their wives and children, forget them
selves, forget their manhood. To those
I nave but this to say: The grass
withereth and the flower fadeth, so
wealth passes away. However it goes
II cannot be everlasting. 1t is but tenn
poral, a shifting foundation OF quick
sand that will n day sink and carry
you with it un,ess-mind the condition
unless in its pursuit, you have not
lost character and soul and manhood.
At all hazards, keep these. They will
prove your salvation. They will be a
protection to you always. For they
come OF God. and though the grass
withers and the flower fades, Gods
word endureth forever.
Now take it that the craving for
wealth in it's first stages Is usually the
product of a desire for pleasure.
Whether men wish to use their money
in identifying their homes. In travel
irg. in developing their talents, or in
other direction, / take it they wish to
do these many things because from
them they think they will derive pleas
u1e. Now l certainly do not object to
the pursuit of pleasure. Indeed it
would be not only silly in me to do so
but it would be somewhat inc 1nais-
tent too. Because in the first place
pleasure certainly plays its legitimate