The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-06-06
BESIRARILITY OF
HOUSE OF GOD
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wealth-producing power Of any people.
1t is noteworthy fact, that nowhere,
except in Christian lands, do we find
those partnerships in trade and COM
merce, so necessary to give property
its greatest development and highest
value. In pagan countries, we are told.
there are no associations for business
enterprises, for exchanging and bank
ing, for great public works Of utility
and benevolence. Why cannot heath
ems, as well as Christians, combine
their wealth, 80 as to give 1t greater
value, BY giving 1t greater power OF
accumulation? It Is because their
religion, or rather the want Of true
religion, forbids the exercise Of mu-
tual confidence, creating universal dis
trust, and making every man an ice
berg to his neighbor. Hence the
reason why their resources are Grip
pied, and the public mind is stagnant.'
Hence it is that their wealth lies
prey to the men who go out from the
lands where is the House Of God. l
am not indicating the organized
Iplunderers, but l am emphasizing the
fact that no heather people has ever
been able to get together for the pur-
pose of developing the resources Of its
land, while the ability to combine, and
to cooperate and associate Is COM
mon trait of those who dwell where
the House of God lifts its spire to
heaven and casts even a nominal infiu-
ence. Heathenism has never been
capable of prosperity and enterprise.
A churchless community has never
been marked for thrift and success.
How worthless was Sodom and
Gomorrah compared with Abraham's
plains of Mamre! In the days or
David and Solomon, when the House
of God was honored, the wealth of
Israel was enormous, but in the days
of wicked Ahab poverty and want and
famine stalked in the land. The in
trinsic fertility of the soil of Palestine
today is comparable only to the Yazoo
Delta or the limestone basin Of Mid
die Tennessee and Kentucky; and yet
an acre of the arid lands of the West
is worth a square mile of the fat plain
of Esdraelon, because Jerusalem is In
desolation, and the foot Of the Mo
hammedan is on the land which nat
! urally flows with milk and honey
! When France closed the House oil
l God, property greatly deprecated in
I value; and it was poverty more than
4 conviction which caused the opening
\ of the French churches again. What
4 shrewd business man of the world Is
y willing to make investments in those
! portions of the earth which are church
i less, except as he is supported by gov
n ernments whose people are under thu
u tuition Of the House of God? Th'
n English government supports thu
l church and missions for the sake o
empire and commerce.
Here, then, is an array of facts
% The House of God steadily in
structs and stimulates the worlds bus
mess conscience. (2) 1t proclaim
n the divine right of property, and file
all honest titles in the archives G
heaven. (3) Under it's influence me
combine their brain and energy an
capital and thus increase their wealth
producing power. ca Wherever, /
history, the church has disappeared
wealth has diminished and propert
has deprecated.
Such facts as these would seem I
justify the statement, that the churc
is the worlds most valuable asset.
iii. I have argued the desirabl
ness of the House of God from its Sc
vices to human civilization, and fro
its services to human wealth. con
now, in the third place, to plead i
services to human goodness.
ITO truly enjoy high civilization al
large wealth the units of society mu
be good men and women. A brut
man set in the midst Of culture al
refinement is as incongruous as
Jewel in swine's snout; and lar
wealth in the hands of a corrupt al
n pfofligate people but increases t
leverage of MISERY'S but an imp
ment of swifter doom. For the bles
ings OF civilization and wealth to fl
true appreciation and high servi
they must be laid in the lap of t
viruous and honest. Among all o
institutions the House of God ran
\ foremost as the House of Godnel
Il Among all the influences which pl
"A lupon the hearts and characters of I