Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1905-12-22
TREASURES IN HEAVEN.
BY Rev. Henry r. Cops.

by Rev. Henry r. Cope.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon the earth, where moth and rust
consume, and where thieves break
through and steal; but lay up for your
selves treasures in heaven."-Matt.
vi, 10, 20.
The great teacher is not denouncing
riches; he is discriminating between
two kinds. The passion for riches is
q normal one; it is part of our divine
discomfort. Satisfaction is stagnation,
Life compels growth. Each new hour
man either lives more or he lives
less; there is no standing still. The
strife Of business and the toll Of
daily life are more than efforts to
keep at a certain level; they are the
responses to our inward compellings
for improvement, for increase of life
A man seeks money-greater pronts,
Increased waSes-Uecause IL wAI sIVe
him larger opportunities, will insure
him more life. But i'll time he easily
learns to substitute the means for the
end, to think Of the money more than
the life; he begins 10 hoard yellow
dirt and to store up things and call
them treasures He gauges his life by
has goods, and when some disaster
sweeps all these away he counts that
life is lost.
1he danger of riches is that the tools
shall hacnu,a tho fran SurpS \Iummon L.
good servant but Il terrible master.
1t makes all the difference whether
your riches, be they small or great,
bear you, bless you with larger life,
or become load which, like beast
of burden, you must carry 1t is not
enough to make money; the money
must be made to make more manhood,
He is in a sure way to lose his treas
ures who becomes no more than their
bookkeeper, watchman and drudge.
But laying up treasure in heaven Is
more than storing up of sighs and
sorrows, Of crosses and complaints:
more than the investing of doubtful
dime in the collection in the expect
ancy of a dividend If many dollars in
glory. 1t is not a matter Of insuring a
competency there by exhibiting incom-
potency here; there is no promise that
the people who are too shiftless to
/ keep themselves shod here will own
the swiftest autos there.
Heavenly treasures are in the pres
nj 10 In
in futures. If you do not lay them up
now the chances are you never will.
They are not castles in the skies, far
distant and impalpable. Many life
has been spent in dreaming of man
sions in the skies that would have been
more profitable to itself and more
pleasing to its Maker had it been ap-
piled to a more substantial If less pre-
tentious edifice here.
1t is not the money itself; it is the
manner of its using that makes 1t
either heavenly and enduring or earth.
ly and corrupting. A dollar may be
either divine or devilish. 1t Is treas
ured in heaven if it is invested in that
which makes for the enduring life; If
1t lifts any life toward heaven 1t is It.
self lifted there. Whatever, whether
money, thought, love, or toll, serves
humanity, makes this earth more heav-
enly, is so much treasure laid up
where burglars and bankrupts are un-
known.
Love lays up treasures above; self
ishness buries them below. Treasures
of all kinds slip from our fingers and
are lost to us If they are guarded only
by greed. But regarded as seed to be
means Of multiplying ourselves in
service, as that with which we have
been intrusted that we make our Mas
ter's garden as fair and fruitful as he
would have it be, then have we that
which by its use and seeming loss Is
secured to us forever.
Your wealth in the heavenly ac-
counts does not depend on your bank
book here; there the use of manhood
counts for more than money. Charac-
ter Is above all the enduring treasure.
Your value to God depends on what
you are and on how you give your
self to the life about you. No man Is
really enduringly poor who is truly
useful. The rich life is that which
best attains life's end, the improve
ment of society by the perfect self as
its servant. You are successful In the
measure that you are savior Of soci-
ETY..
With this grand motive a man ought
to seek riches for the enlarging of his
life, to seek knowledge, money, influ-
ence, all that he may be better SER
want; all that he may live the life of
the largest usefulness; all that he may
learn the lesson of that great life Of