Omaha daily bee., 1910-09-10
\ Royal Inheritance.


An inheritance may be of great vaiue 10
the one to whom 1t comes, or IL may be a
curse, according to the spirit in which It is
received and administered. Certain II is that
IL brings added responsibilities to the one
who receives 1t; responsibilities for its
proper use and safeguarding. An inherl-
| tance that represents the life blood OF the
/ toll OF another cannot be lightly sauandered
without grave fault II Tot crime. Again an
Inheritance may come Unexpectedly where
none has been looked for, or may fail to
materialize after long years OF patient ex-
pectatlon.
Two men died a few years apart on a
charge where l was one time pastor. The
first had lived with his family on a little
tract OF land in tho outskirts OF the city
in very humble circumstances One day he
fell over dead and the neighbors said: IF
he left the family enough to bury him
they may count themselves fortunate"
When the undertaken was preparing the
body for burial he discovered a belt around
the dead mans waist, which on examina-
ton, was found to contain between $1,000
and $1,000; money that his wife even did
not know that he had in his possession
Ihus the heirs came into inheritance
that they had not expected and which
seemed truly magnificent to them
A few years later the other man died
also He had been reputed to be a man of
wealth and 1t was found that his will be-
queathed $4,000 each to two relatives and
smaller amounts to others. But when all
the dead mans assets had been located
ana all Just claims against the estate--very
small in the aggregate-had been met II
was found that the entire estate was worth
between $1,000 and 81, 600 or about the same
amount found IN tha 90 a..
one who was supposed to be worth nothing
To the grief OF the heirs was added the
schock Of disappointment over the scanty
returns from the expected inheritance
wish TO write concerning a royal in
herltance that came to the people called
Methodists" from the founders OF our
church. What a field of investigation this
opens up to the student of Methodism
mink OF the many things we inherited
from the Wesleys and their coadjutors
such as our distinctive doctrines, our rich
| hymnology, our distinguishing social SER
vices, our characteristic polity and our
name But 1t is of none of these that
VIII wish to speak. delightful as il would
be to do so, but Of Methodism's attitude
toward Christian education Let me lust
say IN passing that the church whenever
IL mas Followed divine leading has been the
! friend OF higher learning, not for the
glasses only, but for the masses In the
response of the church to the appeal of the
race Tor educational ADVANTAGES will he
round one test of its responsiveness to the
voice of God. Indeed 1 think that this
test should be placed alongside of its
evangelistic zeal and missionary endeavor
intesung the attitude of the church to-
ward God and man. -, ~
Early Methodists and their preachers
were sometimes credited with being an TO-
norant and noisy set. Fifty years ago a
young lad said to his Scotch Presbyterian
rather Father l wish to go to the Metho-
dist academy at Wilbraham." His father
| replied, Robert, Robert, hev naethin' to
DO with the Methodies. They are a bad
lot. They are like an empty wagon runnin'
over frosty road. They make lots of
noise, but there is not much In them"
Through the assistance of his mother Rob
ert went to the Methodist academy and
college and for forty years has been one
| or the foremost educators in our church
| However, much of the polish Of the schools
| some OF the early Methodist itinerants may
have lacked they were not ignorant rattle
| boxes, but were the equals, and in many
cases the superiors of the people to whom
| they were called to minister. They were
possessed of a "saddle-bag culture ready
wit and humility that made them men to be
reckoned with. They were able to adapt
themselves to the conditions confronting
them and generally proved themselves
equal to any emergency they CHANGED to
meet.
1t has been asserted that our attitude
toward education is not as 1t should be as