The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-03-08

a king might go to Westminster abbey and be crowned. They would gladly go if they could only bribe their way there by a million dollar check. But they are not willing to be suppliants after the Bread of Life when their own granaries arc full of winter supplies and their thrashing floors crowded with the thrashers beating and bruising the grain.
 Rich man, l would like to speak q few plain, blunt words to you. There are csr- tain blessings that money cannot buy First. 1t cannot buy health. Money may enable the consumptive to live among the flowers, and 1t may proIong an in valid's earthly life. but. in the broad sense. money cannot buy health. If money could buy health, William Mckinley would never have died. If money could buy health, the late Cornelius Vanderbilt would never have struggled on as help. less invalid and been carried out U tho tomb when yet a young man. If money was all powerful, that Broadway mer- chant would have recovered his sight when, a few years ago, he offered H,O00,- 900 to any surgeon whose knife would cut his curtain of the night in twain.
 Love Cannot Re Bought.
 Neither will money buy love. Money may buy sycophancy. It may make ser wants and so called friends bow and cringe before us but the songstress of love is not hireling who sings her seraphic strains to the 1ingling accom- panIment of golden coins. True love Is won by the heart, not by the purse. Truo love is found smiling as winsomely In a cottage as in a palace. Neither, rich man, can you with money buy your way into heaven. If you have no time to seek God in His house on earth. you will not be able to find Christ in mansions in the skies. If you do not honor your Saviour before men, neither will Christ honor you before the angels, who are now assem- bled about the great white throne of the celestial city. How much did he leave?' asked a gentlemen In reference to cer- tain deceased rich man. He left every thing" was the answer. His shroud had no pocket so far as I could sec" So, rich man, you will take before the judgment seat of Christ not what you now hold in your hand, but what you have in your heart Therefore, it is very important that you do not with fatal self complacency as to your wealth and social prestige and your ownership of mortgages and bonds and land titles blind your eyes to the im- portance of going to the gospel banquet
 But another knock is heard at the front door of the good mans house. A second
 
 goes something like this: My dear friend, I know you have made great preparations for me tonight, but cannot come. I am a small farmer and have just bought a yoke of oxen to do my spring blowing, and I must go and do it." Or the letter will read as follows: My dear friend. I cannot come tonight. have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I in- tend to hire myself out to the different farmers to help them do their spring blowing. We must make money while we can. And even If I could get through my work in time to come I would be so tired that I could not enjoy your good things. I pray thee have me excused" In other words, that stock purchaser was going around as the modern owners of some baling machines go from farm to farm to pack the hay, or as the owners of some of the modern thrashing machines in the rural districts cut down their neigh bors' grain upon percentage basis
 Whom in modern life does this stock owner represent? He symbolizes the prac- ticing doctor or lawyer or small merchant or manufacturer or mechanic or salarled employe engaged in a daily struggle for a livelihood He represents, as Matthew Merry well wrote, the man with "the inordinate care and concern about this world which keep him from Christ and his grace" He represents the fathef and husband who Saturday night says: Well, I have worked hard all the week. I am too tired to go to church tomorrow and do Gods work. It is all we'll enough to think about religion, but the sinple fact is, in this strenuous earthly life I must look after it all the time" He repre- sents the business man who at first does not intend to do wrong, but little by lit 'ic, he allows his business to crowd out his duties to Christ. First, he gives up prayer meeting on account of business; then his daily reading of the Bible; then his Sunday services Little by little he allows himself to drift away from God until at last the invitation to the gospel banquet falls upon unheeding ears.
 The inordinate desire for accommodating wealth has destroyed many and many immortal soul. few ss re years ago a steamer crowded with passengers was pushing its way over the waters of the Mississippi river. Upon the deck were d great number of California miners return ing from the gold fields of the west. Sud denly that steamer struck a sunken wrecs and immediately began to sink The woui- en and the children were taken off in lite boats. The men were compelled to leap into the water and sling to the floating spars until they could be rescued. Just before the steamer foundered a man rush. ed up to the deck and leaped into the water and clung to floating spar But instead of floating like the rest Of the men he sank like lump of lead. Afterward his body was recovered, and the reason 'of the sinking was explained. While the other passengers of the sinking vessel were preparing rafts and putting on life