Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1903-05-22


a million dollars for your two legs, and
all the rest OF your earthly days have
TO be wheeled around as cripplef
Would you be willing for a million dol
lars TO exchange your good lungs for
those of consuuiptiyeT NO" said
the laborer, IL would not" Then"
said the minister "you owe to God
gratitude and service to the amount Of
at least $3.000,000 capital for good
health"
We have all followed with intense
interest the operation which the IA
NOUS Vienna surgeon, DR.. Lorenz. per-
formed on the little daughter of a
Chicago millionaire. Twice has the
great doctor crossed the seas within
Il few months TO visit his little patient.
II has been said that for each trip he
was paid $4,000. oh you say, "let
that Chicago father pay 100000, pay
anything. if he can only have his Grip
pied daughter cured" Then, my broth
err, do we not owe God Il greater debt
than Mr.. Armour owes to DIR. Lorenz?
Have we no debt TO pay because we
were born with two straight legs and
have had for years the blessing OF good
health?
A big debt. for food and clothing and
house rent. l find charged against us
in the divine ledger. A noted French
statiStician has compiled the following
summary of how an average man.
fifty years of age. has spent his past
life: He has slept 6,0o0 days; played
4,0O0 days; was eating 1900 days and
has been sick 500 days. During his
1880 days of feeding. he has eaten
whole car load of breadth, 900 pounds;
whole car load of meat-1G000
pounds; 1900 pounds Of vegetables,
eggs and fish, and has drunk 1000 gal
Ions of liquids. He has worked only
6.5OO days out of the 1920 days which
he has lived. In other words, he has
slept nearly as long as he has worked
Then when you further estimate all
the expense of mans clothing and
cost OF travel during his life, you can
to some extent compute the financial
value OF the food and clothes with
which God has endowed one of his
children up TO the half century mile
stone.
Friend of Infancy.
But though the divine debt for food
and raiment may be very great are
you going TO try to cancel it by merely
estimating. dollaf-for dollar. how much
the beefsteaks and the chops and the
potatoes and peas and barrels of apples
and the garments have cost? Oh, no.
That would not be right. You, strong
man, with the earning capacity you
now have, owe to God financially more
than that. You have n moral debt as
well as a financial one. II 1 should
come to you in business crisis OF
your life and help you, you would
never forget il. If 1 should say: "Mr.
So-and-so. l hear the banks are begin
ming to push you. Never mind. will
see you through this crisis. Bring your
notes TO my office, and / will indorse
them," what would be tho result?
Tears would come into your eyes. You
would perhaps cry like little child.
You would say 10 me: IL can never for
get your kindness. 1t means more to
me than money. II any trouble ever
comes TO your home. you can always
count upon me as your friend"
Suppose your father and mother died
thirty years ago and left you penniless.
Suppose at that time / should have
gone to- a foundlings' home and found
you and broughtyou into my house and
adopted you and reared you as my son,
what would be the result? Would you
estimate the sacrifices l have made for
you by the dollar and cent measure Z
BY how much | spent for your clothes
and board? Oh no! You would esti-
rna hn Of
would give back 10 me more than mon.
ey. You would feel that all you are
and all you have you owe TO my pater.
nal Kindness and that / have claims
upon you that all your devotion cannot
repay. What, then, are your obliga-
tons 10 God for all the comforts YOU
have enjoyed? II you give yourself &c
him, body. mind and soul. Is that more
than your duty? We must remember
all the days ne has cared for us in our
infancy Think how he has guided and
protected us all through the struggle
of life. We must pay installments on
that bill by caring for Gods helpless
children, by feeding Gods hungry and
clothing Gods naked and bending over
Gods sick
We can never get away from this re-
sponsibility. One day n gentleman
stood waiting for n friend at the New
York entrance of the Brooklyn bridge
While standing there he saw a little
street urchin 30 up TO an ash barrel
and pick out Of the refuse a piece of
bread and begin 10 eat it. The gentle
man turned TO an old woman who was
tending an apple stand near by and
said, Have those little boys nobody to
care for them at allT' mo one" grim
ly answered the old woman, except
God, and he does not always seem to
be around" Yes, as we look ut dis
tress unreiieved, at lives in which
there is no brightness, il does seem as
If God We're not always around. But
has that thought no message for us !?
Are not these very cases opportunities
placed in our way OF repaying some of
our obligations TO him? We cannot
pay him, but when as his children we
relieve the destitute or lift the burden
from the weary shoulders we are act
ing as his almoners and are doing his
work. We should care for others in
Christ's name because God has so long
cared for us.
- Champion OF Human Rights.
A big bill for church privileges find
charged against us all lin the divine
ledger. Why all? Because the church
Of Jesus Christ is not, as some people
suppose, small building dedicated
for few weddings and funerals and
place in which are to be gathered a
| few Sunday school scholars. 1t is not,
as great preacher once described it,
merely an ecclesiastical Flying Dutch
man." with dead minister in the pull
pit and dead hearers in the pew and a
dead deacon passing the collection
! plate. The church of Jesus Christ is a
great gospeliZing, vitaliZing, intellec-
tualiZing and liberty producing institu-
ton IL is the mightiest protecting
| power we have today back or the pres
ident OF the United States. 1t teaches
man to- live right as well as to die