The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-09-30


wealth destroys the possessor and is like
the wrecker's handful of coin, cleaned from
the beach to which he has beeuiled an
argosy; is like the camp followers bum
die OF iags ,tolen from the breast of men
slain IN battle; it like the coin of Judas
only blood money paid to buy a potter
field wherein liberty and justice and pros
perity shall at last be buried IN the grave
Of dshonor. Way back in the Old Tesla
ment we have Moses saying: Thou shalt
not have diverse measures in thy sane
tuary" The words call up for us a scene
from that far off time. There are booths
With baskets OF figs and grapes and golden
wheat and bottles of oil and silks and
cloths, and the merchant has two sets OF
scales-one scale, with large pam, IN
which he buys the grapes from the hus-
bandman, and another, with small pan,
in which he sells the grapes to the house
wife. Ard the King begins to pay, his
men in debased coin and honesty and In
tegrity and justice are being extermlnat-
ed, and there is growing up people with
lying King and lying merchants and false
words. The old prophet rises IN his anger
and says: "a false measure is an abom-
nation unto the Lord" Any falsehoooo in
commerce at last poisons the very foun-
dation of civilization. The city and the
nation and the individual man who have
forgotten God and His laws do not stand
for long time in the world of commerce.
The laws of wealth are the laws Of
righteousness. II you would become rich.
if you would attain prosperity, ii you would
multiply houses and lands and banks, II
you would make desert place bloom as
the rose, let Christ be your teacher. Seek
first the kingdom Of His Righteousness and
all these things shall be added unto you"
What is knowledge? How do we gain
knowledge? There sits Thomas Carlyle,
the lonesomest man N England, and one
of the poorest, feeding his shaggy intellect
on French revolution, storm of modern
ages. When he speaks we call him our
greatest prophet and scholar. And his
message is: Il have found God reigninng
us the laws of divine retribution which
run through the nation. Like the old
Scandinavian Titan that he is, he drinks
the liquid fire of divine wrath out of the
skull of persisted empire. And he smacked
his Puritan lips as though it was savory
wine. knowledge is finding out divine
laws. There is Charles Dickens He is
not satisfied to meet people on the street
as we do and shake hands with them and
learn then, names. But, looking into their
hearts and homes and haunts and sins
with sympathy, with pathos and with rar-
est humor, he writes his books. These
books become sort of Bible of the SUBJ
merged tenth of society, and in them we
find written down the great divine laws
which govern action and conduct and char
acter He is the poor mans prophet, be-
cause he found on the heart of the poor
man the handwriting Of God All knowl-
edge is revelation.
Seeking the way God made the stars go,
Kepler became an astronomer. Seeking the
way the world was made. Wallace became
a scientist. Seeking the mysteries ana Sc
crets of the human soul and Gods doing
therein, Kant became philosopher. Seek
ing to find out how God wrought upon hui
man nature, Shakespeare penetrated into
mona, Richard, Henry and Lear, and
transcribing into words what he found
written there, he has given us his great
dramas. Loi the dramas of Shakespeare
are almost another book of God in which
we find written the divine law of retribu-
ton and forgiveness and sacrifice and re-
demption. Augustine comes and his one
word is law, but it is the law of God.
Browning comes and his one word is in
spiration, but it is the inspiration of God.
And Beecher and Phillips Brooks come and
their one word is love, but it is the love
of God. Save he bring us word OF God,
the wisdom of the scholar Is fooishness.
Have you ever seen the shimmering of
q lake when the sun was playing in its
surface? Have you seen the CLEANS OF sun
light dancing like angels on the water!
You know the glory was in the sun, not
in the water. The sun was the source; the
waters were clothed in borrowed glory.
If you have ever stood in a great valley
surrounded by mountains, and heard the
echoes repeated from mount to mount,
some loud, some soft, some distant, some
near at hand, you know the voice was not
in the mountains. The mountains only
carried the voice. So great scholars are
only waters and mountain peak. 1t IS
God Almighty who speaks. 1T is His glory
that shines. There is a difference in men.
The difference between great men and lit
tie men always consist in this-the great
man is always listening for the voice of
God. The little man is taken up with the
sound of his earthly on-going. The Jews
heard sound and said: at Numbered"
Jesus standing with them knew sit was an
angel that had spoken unto Him" Wis.
dom is revelation. There is no other way
if you would be scholar, if you would
wear a scholars crown and have schol- |
ar's power, you must seek and know face
to face and to find out His ways, which |
are above our ways, and His words, which |
are above our words. Here is the prescrip- |
ton for all scholarship: Seek first the
Kingdom of God and His Righteousness
and all these things shall be added unto !
you"
In every age men believe that fame can |
be bought for a price, and so they tear
down their warehouses and build larger.
So they multiply their fleets until their
white sails cover every sea; so they get for |
themselves houses and lands and stocks |
and bonds When they die the market |
drops down for day or a week and then |
the world goes on. You do not know the !
names of any rich men in Athens or Rome |
or Thebes or Babylon. You may know the
name of some orator or some scholar who
had wealth, but you do do not know the |
name of any man who had nothing but |
wealth. There was man who laid the
of his fortune in the days of |
the Stuarts. He was a powder manufac. |