The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1911-05-05
Wealth and True Greatness.

tempiating the works OF God and ador
ing and honoring the great Creator
thus increasing its own and its Maker
felicity. But all earthly riches ar,
merely material substance. Hence, tn,
question Of Christ, For what is mar
Iproited if he shall gain the whole worlC
and lose his own soul?" is clearly very
pertinent even from the standpoint o.
relative values. For one soul is worth
more than all the universe of insensatt
worlds. Material things and the soul,
at bottom, are antipodal; and intense
commercialism is perilous to high intel
lectual or moral development. Hence,
the more we strive to amass wealth, the
likely are we, through greed, neglect
and material contact, to debase and
dwarf our diviner attributes and facul-
ties OF soul--to sink the real man. "A
rich man shall hardly enter the king
dom Of Heaven" no, nor a poor one
that covets to be rich. But even the
church to-day is calling to us to make
all we can and give it to her; but | be-
lieve Christ never made such a call;
nay, we should consider the lilies. The
giving, however, is not apt to be over
done.
Who well develops the nobler powers
of his higher self does himself, the
world and his Creator a great service;
he thereby becomes capable of sub
Inner pleasures, and a source of light to
the world and Of glory to God; thus
meeting the chief aim of his own Gre
alton. And history proves that this can
best be accomplished in state free
from wealth and luxury; and all great
teachers of the world, from Socrates
even to the late Tolstoy, recognizing
this fact have striven to bring people to
simple way of living and lofty way
of thinking and acting. 1t is also true,
] believe, that the wiser and more Gull
tured people are, the less they value
mere riches and display, and the more
highly they estimate wisdom, learning,
probity and the higher pursuits and
achievements What does Scion care
about the vast treasures of foolish
Croesus2
True greatness consists in large en-
dowment, good development and noble
use of the intellectual and moral facul-
ties, and that opulence is poor soil for
such endowment-or at least for such
Developments attested to by the fact
that nearly all the towering leaders in
the worlds intellectual, ethical or re-
ligious movements have come from the
ranks of the middle or poor classes of
people. But very few really wealthy
parents have ever had the pleasure or
the glory of giving us true sons Of high |
renown, but many poor toiling mother
has rocked the cradle rude Of mighty
genius
The Savior was born in manger,
and during all His ministry He had not
where to lay His head Moses, pre-
eminent among all law-givers, was the
son of Hebrew bondwoman. Homer,
the father of poetry, and one of the
loftiest of all the bards, was it seems an
object Of charity. David, the warrior,
king and poet, went from the sheep
cote to the throne. SHAKESPEARE, the
greatest figure in English literature, was
no child of luxury. Burns. in his Cot
ter's Saturday night, knew whereof he
sang. Bunyan was the son of tinker
Luther, great among the greatest, be-
onged to peasant family Michael
Angelo was of lowly birth; and Beeth-
oven, the Shakespeare of music com
oosers, was of mean extraction.
And if we will examine our own Hall
IL Fame we shall see that most OF the
names enrolled there belonged to men
Who were born in the vale of poverty
ind obscurity. Franklin, Webster,
Jlay, Lincoln, Grant, Beecher and Asa
tray are names thas rank among the
,roadest of all ages and all countries.
And Emerson, Longfellow, Bryant,
hawthorn and Irving were far from
children of wealth and opulence. So it
S that most of the mighty spirits, that
read with majestic step the vast inn
,erial hall of fame of the ages, have
ONE from the humber paths of life.
Oh mother, in INDECENT circumstan-
tances, despair not! In that low era
lie, with that tired hand, you may be
ocking one of whom you and the world
hall one day be justly proud. None
hould justly bemoan the lack OF large
rather perhaps should they
hank God that such lack is their
ortune. The battle for life's necessities
egets industry, courage and self-reli-
nee, tends to suppress pride, to en-
ourage a wholesome humility and G
OF soul; while simplicity Of \
t-s,,or rriuoo fraar eao,,o g. AL L.,