The age-herald., 1902-05-11

| ed by the Rev. Frank De witt Ialmage
 in Jefferson Park Presbyterian church, i the supreme folly of bartering away ones l eternal welfare In exchange for wealth, ambition and pleasure or whatever else the world can give Is convincingly shown.
 The text is Mark viii 36. What shall it
 profit a man if he shall gain the whole
 world and lose his own soul?'
 most magnificent text, especially easy of interpretation at the present time.
 This is pre-eminently a commercial age. Everywhere man Is struggling after the mighty dollar. Capital strives to beat down every obstacle, that its rivers of
 gold may grow into oceans. Prove to a man who has money that by cer-
 tain investment he can make more money. and there is no trouble to per suade him to invest Why does real estate speculator buy land? To make money. When examining a piece or
 property, he says to himself If buy, shall be able to sell at an advanced price? Is this suburban region going to
 be built up? Will the electric cars come out here? Shall the future residents have easy access to the city? Shall be able
 to make enough out of my bargain to warrant the output of cutting this farm up into streets and building lots-enough to pay my taxes in the meantime?' The merchantman's chief thought is to de-
 crease his expenses and thereby increase
 his profits. To have the maximum of re- turns for the minimum of output he sends his buyers to Europe. There they can 1 buy the cheapest He has wires strung | round the store so he can dispense with 1 his cash girls. He pays promptly Tor ms l goods to avail himself of the discount. l To woo more trade he has his delivery l wagons stationed in the neighboring l towns. His customers are thus accommo- I dated. They do not have to carry their l bundles home.
 To increase the profits and decrease ex-
 penses the large corporations are being 1 formed There are the steel trust the oil trust, the tin trust, the sugar trust, 1 the tobacco trust, the coal trust, the hour trust, the meat trust. A trust is pri- | marily -ormeo to regulate the selling
 prices: but. secondarily, trust is formed to lessen the cost of production.
 A Community of Interests.
 Thirty or forty men in the same line of business come together. They say to each other: What is the good of trying to financially cut each others threats? Why not have a community of interests? ? Instead of having many different offices we can have ono big central office. In- stead of having thirty or forty different presidents and secretaries and treasurers and cashiers and superintendents and general managers we can have each de- partment under a single head. If we are in the brick business. we can have the brickyard which Is nearest to the site Of the proposed building make the bricks and thus save the expense of carriage The tie which binds the leader of great corporation is not one of sentiment, but one of profit. Christ, in my text, talks to his auditors as though they were a col lection of business men. He practically says: Before you settle the question of your eternal destiny 1 want you to enter into some gospel mathematics l want you to put down upon piece of paper all the riches of the world Place there the value of the gold of countless mines l and of the cattle on a thousand hills Place there the value of the palaces of l the kings and queens The value of the | great commercial interests of the world. l Put all these values down. Add the fig
 ures up. Then from that aggregation | number substract the value of your inn
 mortal soul and behold what you have
 left"
 Mathematics can lie Two and two l always make four. Ten times ten make l 100. Twelve divided by four alweys gives | three. Five rom five leaves nothing | Come, let us try to solve the greatest of all problems. What shall it profit a man ! if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul"
 He who solves this gospel problem
 must realize that he can only get a life interest in the world and not a title t.a purchaser of a home is very careful about the title deed. When man is about to buy house, he has his own lawyer go to the county building and look up the records. The attorney traces the history of that land from owner back to owner until he comes to the original settler who bought the land from the government or the Indians. If there is any flaw in any deed. the would be buyer refuses to pur- chase. He says to himself: T am afraid that I might be involved in future liti- gations. My children may have this prop erty taken from them after l am dead. I will not buy. The title is not perfect" Within a short distance of my old Brook lyn home there was tract of land that was called Jackson's Hollow. It was in the very center of the city. We'll paved streets ran through 1t. The drainage pipes were all there. The city grew The houses were built up for miles and miles beyond this location Jackson's hollow was uninhabited for fifty years, except by few poor families. who had erected shanties. These poor families were squat ters. We boys would play ball in those vacant lots, Jacksons Hollow, in Its status, existed because there was flaw in the title to the land. No man would build there a house until he was positive about his ownership A few years ago the civil courts render ed Q favorable de- cision concerning the title deeds. Thcn
 the masons and carpenters came in swarms. Jacksons Hollow disappeared
 forever from public view.
 A Life Interest in the World.
 But" says some one, ito possess a | life interest in the world means a very ] great deal Think of owning all the mon ey stored away in the vaults of the i United States treasury! Think of pos
 sessing the royal jewels of England and
 uermany and Russia and Spain Think of having your wardrobe filled with the
 costLest of dresses now being made n the large establishments of the Parisian
 modistes. Think of all the new bonnets