The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1903-04-02

yard: take up your residence in my house;
what is mine shall be yours, and 1t snail
be nv care that you and yours do not SUI.
| fc, want" If YOU really believed IN that
man and trusted him, there couid De no
| further anxiety on your part. ,OnlE as lar
| YOU distrustei his honor or his generosity
could YOU be anxious. Now the rlchest
beinr in the universe. God who owns 1t
! all, has laid Himself under obligation to us
bv bringing us into the world. God has
! duties, As every moral being must have;
| IF father or a mother has duties toward
an offspring God must have duties 10,
ward Us. He has invited us to come ana
| live in His house. yea. has br0ugnt us he:
whether we would or not. and lie mas s"iu
in effect that ii we will do as we'll as we
can He will care for us. 1t is Only as far
as we distrust the providence OF God: or
disbeicyc in Hi: providence .!I,I tnst anAaeH
can find place in our lives: why are ye
ANXIOUS" asked Jesus. IF God clothes
the grass OF the field and cares Tor the
| birds OF the air. shall He noG much more
care for YOU. o We of little faith:
But this is only onehalf of PauIs secret.
He had learned how to be abaSed. but ne
had also learned how 10 abound. lie ha9
| learned to face adverse circumstances, anu anu
he had also learned to face. prosperity. we
must all have known people VINO came u;l'
scathed through adversely, and were ai!er-
Auence of good fortune they become con-
ceited. arrogant and selfish. More people
have been spoiled by wealth than by pow
erty: I have come to feel that no greater
| evil can befall a young man or woman
| than to be rich through the effort OF father
or grandfather, and so be freed from the
blessed necessity of winning ones own way.
Those who struggle from poverty to afhu-
ence bv learning first how to be abased al
terward learn how to abound. But those
who begin in abundance are frequently
spoiled by possessing without effort whae
we are apt to call the blessings OF lie.
Wealth may be blessing: but poverty IS
oftener so. Jesus said: blessed are the
moor" Now poor man is not blessed be-
cause he is poor. If that were so how easy
for any one of us to secure blessedness.
But poverty urges to effort and effort opens
the door to large attainment:
How. then. may one cultivate and pre-
serve such admirable qualities of charac-
ter, the true riches OF the soul, while fac
ing prosperity!
() Let him in the first place take ;es-
son in humility. We are apt to say OF a
wealthy nan, "He is independent 1t IS
a false saving. No man who lives in civ
ilized community is indebendent. The oHiy
really INDEPENDENT being is the savage man
who lives BY himself in the wilderness;
! dressing in the skins ot wild beasts anc
eating roots. The moment he EXCHANGES
| his bear skin for a blanket he places him-
self under obligation to the man who raises
! the sheep, the man who cuts the wool, the
man who spins the yarn, the man who
weaves the blanket. The moment he eE.
changes his diet of roofs for one OF bread
he njaces himself under obligation to the
farmer who raises the wheat. the reaper
who cuts it. the miller who grinds 1t, and
to thousands Of others whose busy bralns
and hands have constructed the lnstru'
ments which make these processes possible.
This truth is extremely far reaching. Not
only for material wealth are we under oo-
legations to our fellows, but also for our IN,
| tellectual wealth. Others have labored e1.d
we have entered into their labors. 1t IS
creditab!e for a man to study and possess
the wisdom of the ages. But let him tenn
per his pride in the abundance OF his intel
iectual possession with the thought that
every great truth he learns has been dis
covered bv another. Our abundance OF in
teIlectual riches has been dug out OF the
solid rock by the men Of the past who Ia
bored with bleeding hands. -, :,
And this is Just as true Of those spiritual
|
how much has it cost in the suffering and
mighty courage o. men who have long sine.
gone to their rewarG9 The environment OF
onr lives which conduces to purity OF heart,
how much did it cost in the struggle of our
ancestors out OF a beastiy state into &C.
| ccrcy of living? Lei us rot be wise IN or
own conceit. but in the midst of our abaaG-
ance let us think humbly, soberiy. accoId-
inr rs God has given unto us, through the
ministry OF our fellow men. the measure
OF all things which we possess.
f2l Then IS we face abundance. even as
when VIC face want. let us endeavor to ap-
preciate the relation of values. Is the man
who possesses wealth better than the man
who Possesses nothing? Perhaps. But not
because he possesses wealth is the unlvcT-
sity pradrate. the man who possesses intel
Iectual riches. better than the man wno has
never been to school? May be. But rot rot
because he is university graduate. ihe
man who possesses much and ls stingv ls
worse than tie man who possesses little
and is stincv. because there may be an eX-
cuse for the stinciness of the man who has
only crust and faces starvation, but there
! is no excuse for the nan who goes on add
inr barn to bara or thousands oi dollars to
other thousands. while his reighhors hun
ger. There NAV be excuse for the lgnor-
! ant man for not trying to advance the IN
teliectual standards of the community IN
which he lives He has nothing to give. no
! canital to work with. But there j: no eH,
c,,ss to be made by the rI2a who has had
all the advantages that the colleges afford,
for doing nothing for the world. He has
power and should use it.
The only riches worth while are in the
! character Use Your abundant possessions
to help build the kingdom of God. az the
workman uses his too,s to construct
wall or to build a bridge. So shall your
dollars be transformed into character. ard
your intellectual, achievements minister to
ethical attanments.
(3) Finally learn to face prosperity by
continually acknowledging that what you
seem to possess YOU do not really possess
at all You ere only a trustee of portion
of the estate which belongs to God. l
possess so many golden dollars. How beau
tiful they are how substantial, how en-
during. See me clutch them. They are
mre. 7 will hold them. Nothing. shall
rob me of them. Nothing? Wait. Shortly
this land of mire which clutches so firmly
shall be pa,sied in death and later crumhle
to dust. The grasp upon the gold shall be
loosened. Mine? 1t was never mine. Ont
of Gods earth it came. In Gods earth no
human power can prevent Its ultimately
returning. "NaEed came / into the world,