Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-04-22
THE LESSON FOR SUNDAY
Great Teaching Of the Bible About
Poverty and Riches.
WARMING IS given AGAINST GREED

MY PTlenQS.-
Our lesson for the coming Sunday, is,
think, one Of the most. interesting
subjects that we have had for a long
time 1t deals with poverty and wealth.
The subject might be divided into three
sub divisions as follows:
1. Unsatisfied Wealth
2. Unjus: Wealth.
3. Unkind Wealth.
We find the Scripture lesson for Sun
day in Isaiah 5:S-10; Amos 8: At;
Luke 16: 1926. Let us proceed with
the reading Of the lesson:
The Scripture Lesson.
Isaiah 5:S., Wee unto them that join
house to house, that lay field to field,
till there be no room, and ye be mace
to dwell alone in the midst OF the land!
8. In mine ears saith Jehovah of
hosts, OF truth many houses shall be
desolate, even great and fair, without
inhabitant. =,
10. For ten acres Of vineyard shall
yield one bath, and a homer OF SEED
shall yield but an cpha.
Amos 8:4. Hear this, We that
would swallow up the needy, and cause
the poor Of the land to fail,
5, Saving, When will the new moon
be gone, that we may sell grain? and
the sabbath, that we may set forth
wheat, making the epha small, and the
shekel great, and dealing falsely with
balances of deceit; .
6. That we may buy the poor for Sill
yer, and the needy for pair OF shoes,
and sell the refuse or the wheat?
7. Jehovah hath sworn by the excel
lency Of Jacob, Surely l will never Tor
get any Of their works.
Luke 16: 10. Now there was q GER
tain rich man, and he was clothed In
purple and fine linen, faring sumptu-
ously every day:
90. And certain beggar named
Lazarus was laid at his. gate, full OF
sores,
21. And desiring to be fed with the
crumbs that fell from the rich man
table; yet, even the dogs came ana
licked his sores.
%. And it came to pass, that the
beggar died, and that he was carried
away by the angels into Abraham
bosom: and the rich man also died, and
was buried.
23. And in Hades he lifted up his
ewes. being in torments, and seeth
Abraham afar off, and Lazarus In his
BOSOM >,
"a. And he cried and said, Father
Abraham. have mercy on me, and seno
lazarus, that he may dip the tip OF his
finger in water, and cool my tongue;
for I am in anguish in this flame.
rs, But Abraham said, Son, remem-
ber that thou in thy lifetime receivedst
thy good things and Lazarus IN ike
manner evil things; but now mere ne
is comforted, and thou art In anguish.
Denunciation of Greed
What a scathing denunciation OF
greed, my friends, is that first verse or
this lesson. Those whose ruling pas
sion was greed and hatred and envy
were as numerous in the day of Isaiah
as they are today. Go back into the
Old Testament and you will find many
passages calling attention to the sins
Of greed and 'covetousness. At the
outset Of this lesson the Great Jehovah
sounds warning against these sins
"Of truth many houses shall be
desolate, even great and fair, without
inhabitant."
Christ during his ministry upon earth
preached against it and one of his
first commands to his disciples after
the band had been organized, you re-
member, was that they should be with
out money.
And yet we cannot get around the
fact that it was through greed and
coyetousncss that Christ lost his life
upon earth because Of Judas lscariot.
Suppose Amos Were Here Now.
What, my friends, would have been
the effect If the Prophet Amos could
have lived on earth during the recent
Orgy of profteering through which we
have just passed and the tail-end OF
which so to speak, we are living in
now. Amos, a farmer of Tekoa, south
OF Bethlehem. prophesied in Bethel,
north of Jerusalem in the Upper King
dom, about B. C. 793. He dared to go
to the Northern Kingdom and condemn
its wlckedness publicly. The third and
concluding part of his prophecy con-
sists Of a series of five visions, each
foretelling Gods judgment on the
wicked Northern Kingdom. These
verses Immediately follow and rein
force the vision of a basket of sum
mer fruit, the word for which in the
Hebrew is similar to the Hebrew word
for end, and the vision meant that God
would soon make an end to the North
ern Kingdom because of it's evil deeds.
And my friends, had 1t ever occurred
to YOU that possibly the United States
is in danger from the same cause; for
the reason that his prophecy is true Of
any nation that practices such ini-
uuity as Amos describes?
He denounces those. who would take
advantage Of the poor and hold them
in virtual slavery because OF their
poverty. 1t is often done, my friends.
Do YOU not in your own experience
know Of more than one case where
man or q woman is virtual slave be-
cause of hard luck or misfortune that
made him or her go to some other per-
son for necessities which were obtained
under terms that put that person into
bondage?
Ic al fI,nt of3