Milford chronicle., 1906-09-07

might not be so. bad II you could come
to greed and say: Here, greed. here
is my soul. here is my love of God
Now eat and be filled" But greed is
a glutton Greed is a gormand. Greed
is a huge monster with voracious ap-
% tite, and the more you feed him the
larger he will grow. and the greater
will become his desire for food. He
will swallow down a mans religion.
He will keep on swallowing down
houses and banks and lands, and still
this demoniac monster greed will keep
lrying; Il am hsngry; give me more
10 eat. More to eat. | say Give me
morel Aye, give me more than you
have. and still can eat it and not be
satisfied l am growing bigger all the
time Food, food! / must have more
food for my omnivorOus appetite" +"
That is only another way of Illustrating
the Biblical truth Of my text, which
SAYS. "He that loveth silver shall not
be satisfied with silver. nor he that
loveth abundance with increase"
You never saw a person who selfish
ly lived for what he could get who was
satisfied with what he had. More.
more" is always the slogan of greed.
"Give me more. Give me more" do
yoH see that sofa?" said a gentleman
some years ago to friend. "Well,
that one sofa almost ruined me. 1t
took me years and years to recover my
self I have always kept that sofa as
an object lesson for my children. When
1 was a young man we We're living in
humble street and in n small but
comfortably furnished house. ] was
working my way along and would In
time have come out all right. But one
day my wife was at an auction sale,
and she was able to buy that sofa very
cheap She bought It, but no sooner
did she put it in our parlOr than it
made all the rest of the furniture look
shabby. Then we decided to get new
parlor set to match the sofa. No soon
er did we fix up the parlOr than we had
to buy new furniture for the dining
room. and so we went on fixing the
house. Then, after we had refurnished
the house, we decided that the house
itself was not good enough for the fur
niture. so we moved into a larger house
on a better street. Then, when we
moved into the better street, we found
out that we had to have better clothes.
Thus we went on increasing our ex
penses and our Outgo. while our income
remained the same. Then the first
thing l knew the bills kept piling up,
and 1 was a financial wreck" "Ah.
yes," l said to myself when I heard
that story. how true that is about the
unsatisfyng result of selishly living
for what we can getl When we live
for self the more we have the more we
want. Greed has an OmnivOFous appe-
tite. Greed is a gluttOn. Greed keeps
crying: More, more. Give me more.
must have mOrer" My friend, is not
this the personal history Of your greedy
life?
Growing Rich but Selfish.
NV brother, how old are you? For
IT," How are you getting along in
business? "Oh," you say, "splendidly,
splendidly! My business was never
better than now" Are you making
any money outside of your businessE
yes" you say. II do not tell this to
everybody, but 1 will to you. Last
week closed one deal alone whereby
made on one piece of land a net
profit of S10,6O0." Indeedl 1 suppose
you inherited a good deal Of money
from your father to start in business? ?
Inherited! Indeed, / did not. Why,
father never had anything to speak of.
l was brought up on a farm. made
my own way alone. Why, when l first
came to this city my wife and I used
TO live in two rooms. Then l often
said to her, If the time ever comes
when we have an annual income of
1880 and a little home Of our own
we will be satisfied" Then you laugh
to yourself and say, "Thank God, we
have a good deal more than our little
home now and $1,500 year income"
Is that so, my friend? Then l sup
pose, as your money is increasing, you
are giving more and more to God and
to your fellow men. suppose, as your
capital enlarges, you do not grind your
clerks down to a mere pittance and
that you give them more time off for
rest. l suppose that every year, as
your financial income enlarges. your
benevolences enlarge also. You look
at me moment Then you drop your
eyes as you slowly say: "NO; ought to
do this, but I do not give as much now
as did twenty years ago. The strange
fact is that financial success inevitably
encourages selfshness. The more I get
the more want and the less l give IN
proportion to my success. This is a
selfish world. and am each year like
most rich men, becoming more and
more selfish" God pity you, o Chris
tian migrate! God pity you. I say
again, because as you grow Weather
you do less and less for others.
know one fact is true-the more you
get the less enjoyment you derive out
of your own selfish successes. "He
that Ioveth silver shall not be satisfied
with silver, nor he that loveth abun-