Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-18
SACRAMENTO MEN
HEAR GOOD Sermon
BURDETTE TALKS ESPECIALLY
FOR THEM
Takes "Permsnent Investmentv as His
Topic, and Bases His Address
on the Parable Of the
Rich Man

The majestic strains of the great
Temple organ as It responded to the
touch of Prof Bruce Gordon Kingsley
charmed almost a hundred eacutsion-
lists from Sacramento who went to the
Temple Baptist church last night to
hear DR. Burdette preach them spe-
cial sermon on Commerce. Prof.
Kingsley played an offertoire OF Wely.
Mrs Bessie Ives Harrison sang Howells
by the Waters of Babylon" in the
morning. and at the evening service
sang a duet with Miss Harriet Long
street. The chorus rendered Sullivan's
anthem, "Oh, Gladstone Light" with
force and beauty.
Having in mind his special guests Of
the evening, DIR. Burdette preached on
the topic "A Permanent Investment"
He said In part:
Jesus one day told a parable about
a man who in his life was probably the
most envied man of his town. A clever
man, a shreWd man, a worldly wise
man. Not a dishonest, greedy grasp
ing. avaricious, skin-flint of a man, but
a successful mana man who watched
the market with good common sense
and caught it on the right turn every
time. Nothing wrong about that. He
bought real estate on the right side of
the right street and let go of 1t at
boom prices just before the bottom fell
out. You couldn't send him to jail for
that. You'd be more apt to send him
to the egislature-which, in California,
would be about as disgraceful.
Climbed to the Top
This man climbed until he got about
to the top. He decided to retire from
active business, live on his assured In
come and enjoy life. Soul he said,
to what he called his soul, Thou hast
much goods laid up for many years;
all your wealth is safely put into per-
manent income bearing investments.
Take thine ease; eat, drink and be
merry
And the next minute he discovered
that his permanent investments would
not last twenty-four hours. Year after
patient year, all his active life, he had
schemed and wrought and toiled with
untiring industry and persistent pur-
pose. He had builded a massive struc-
ture on slight foundations, resting on
treacherous ground. Year by year he
had builded his fabric of worldly sue
cess; he has added on another story
and another wing until his fortune out
grew his industry, and now he must
tear down and build anew on larger
plans. He would begin tomorrow-not
to add to his fortune, but to take care
of what he had, for he had all he
WdHIcu-du he WOulQ ever want, ne
said. I am wise and rich,' he said. I
have lived and wrought with wisdom
and prudence.
"And God called to him, Thou fooii'
Nobody had ever called him that be-
fore. Men may have said he was grasp
ing, avaricious, a hard man in a bar
! gain. But nobody ever said he was
fool. Indeed, he was held up to young
men as model of business shrewdness
/ q urls cna bn
hadn't dealt with God enough to know
what God thought about him.
Nothing for the Soul
"T will say to my soul, said tho
man. And again the voice OF God
| laundering into his communings with
himself: Thy soul! Thinei 1t is not
yours! 1t never was yoursi I breathed
that germ of Immortality into your
body and brain. You held it in trust
for its Creator-for me-
"'Thou hast much goods laid up the
man went on. 1T hasn't a. thing In
the world that it can take with it,
cried the voice of God. Not thing!
You have clothed and fed your body all
these years. You have laid up much
good for this little life. You have not
prepared one thing for your soul that
will go on into eternity without one
thing provided for it.
For many years. the man con-
tinued. For many years?' God calls
to him, This night thy soul shall be
required of thee And when the morn
ing dawned the warehouses stood; the
barns and the home, and the business.
And there was neither man nor soul
to enjoy them.
"And the soul? 1t was facing God
and eternity, naked, ste wed, poor. An
eternity to live through; nothing to live
on. And 1t might have gone to God SO
rich that in all that eternity it could
not count, it could not measure. 1t
could not spend it's wealth. 1t isn't
easy to make money. But, oh, it's so
easy to get rich! Lay not up for your
selves treasures in heaven or upon the
earth, where moth and rust consume
and where thieves break through and
steal; but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust doth consume, and where
thieves do not break through nor steal:
for where your treasure is there will
your heart be also.'"