Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1905-09-27
TIME FOR REPENTANCE.

possibilities or Rockefeller CONVEX
sion:
Governor La Toilette. my fellow
university student. has declared, ac-
cording to report. Rockefeller IS the
greatest criminal of the age. Miss
Tarbell has said he is money mad.
Taxing 1t for granted that his con-
duct has been correctly stated there
is not a doubt that money madness
has seized him through and through.
In that madness he has bitten
tens of thousands of youths and
grown up men. l cannot help be-
lieving that the graft madness SO
widely prevailing has an intimate
relationship to the baleful influence
he has so widely exerted. There are
insane persons and criminally in
sane characters. We make fund.
amental distinction between the
two. Which class of money mad
people does Mr.. Rockefeller belong
to? The ordinary insane person
has lost the faculty of judgment.
He cannot discern correctly. He
cannot distinguish between right
and wrong.
| believe Rockefeller to be men,
tally defective and color blind in his
makeup He is religious man.
He is a member in good standing
in the Baptist church. But he has
put religion in one compartment of
his being and business in another.
lie has seen no moral connection
between them. st. Paul's eyes were
opened to the fearful mistake he
lad been ignorantly making. From
being a red.handed murderer by
law be went to the front rank as
benefactor of mankind. But he
confessed his guilt, incurred
through ignorance. Let Mr.. Rock.
efelIer do the same. Let him bold
ly and at once say 1.-THE things that
l have done are wrong" Let him
use his immense wealth at the same
time in undOing that wrong as far
as possible and in blessing his fel. :.
lowmen. Fully forgiven, both by
God and man, he will rise at once
to be the st. John of the twentieth
century. No other man now living
has such an opportunity.
What prospect! Rockefeller repent
ant and endeavoring to atone for tht
sins of the past! And yet such a re
formation is not without parallel. Tit
conscience can do wonders when arous
ed. The heart is ever in search of peace
and it cannot find 1t except in the ICON
science void of offense toward God ani
man." Rockefeller is growing old; hi
realizes that he has but short time Il
live. He is believer in Immortality
and he is beginning to think more anG
more of that future life whose realities
he must soon try. When he was younger
he may have derived some pleasure from
bankrupting a rival. Even the suicide
of broken hearted competitor may
not have disturbed him, but be is sool
to meet some of his victims. Will HI
enjoy the meeting? Here he can sur
round his house with large yard ant
station some one at the gate to keeI
out intruders, but he may begin t.
doubt bis ability to secure an exclusiv,
lease of one of the many mansions"-
what then? Yes, what then?
The approach of death has mad,
many man ponder, and it may be tina
Rockefeller has reached the ponderlnl
period. His recent donations indicate
that he is beginning to put his affair."
in shape for the inevitable change. Blu
he cannot find peace by continuing hil
exploitation and then giving a percent
age of his ill-gotten gains to subsidiz
colleges and churches. Repentance
must come first. If he is a bible stu
dent he might fcd some instructiv,
reading in the sixth chapter of Micah
"Wherewith shall come before th
Lord and bow myself before the higl
God? Shall come before Him witt
burnt offerings, with calves year old
viii the Lord be pleased with thous
ands of rams, or with ten thousands o.
rivers of oil. Shall give my first borl
for my transgression, the fruit of m
body for the sin of my soul?
HE hath showed thee, o man, VIII:
is good; and what doth the Lord requir
of thee but to do justly, and to Low
mercy, and to walk humbly with tn,
God"
1t Mr.. Rockefeller reads the chapte
little farther he will find other verse
which may strike HIM as personal:
For the rich men thereof are full @
violence. and the inhabitants thereo
have spoken lies and their tongue is d.
ceitful in their mouth.
Therefore also will 1 make thee sic
In shifting thee, in making thee desc
late because of thy sins.
That [ should max