Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

—
—;
BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
interested so much in the passing pageants of the hour. We
would live, as we do not now, for the permanent and the
eternal.
283. A writer says that on a cold, windy day he stopped at
an apple-stand kept by a rough-looking Italian. He alluded to
the severe weather, as he talked with the apple-vender; but the
latter, with a cheerful smile and tone, replied : "Yes, pretty
cold; but by and by—tink of dat !" The thought of the time
of warm skies, flowers and singing birds being near comforted
him while the cold winds blew. Yes, my brother, it
may often be cold and cheerless in this life; but, by and by
think of that!
284. A couple of friends of mine in the war called upon
one of our great Illinois farmers, to get him to give some
money for the soldiers, and during their stay he took them up
to the cupola of his house and told them to look over yondei,
just as far as their eyes could reach, over that beautiful rolling
prairie, and they said, "That is very nice." Yes, and it was all
his. Then he took them up to another cupola, and said, "Look
at that farm, and that, and that." These were farms stocked,
improved, fenced; and they said, "These are very nice." And
then he showed them horses, cattle, and sheepyards, and said,
"They are all mine." He showed them the town where he lived,
which had been named after him, a great hall, and building-lots,
and those were all his, and, said he, "I came out West a poor
boy, without a farthing, and I am worth all this." But when
he got through, my friend said, "How much have you got up
yonder?" and the old man's countenance fell, for he knew very
well what that meant. "What have you got up there— in the
other world?" "Well," he said, "I have not got anything there."
"Why," said my friend, "what a mistake ! A man of your intelligence
and forethought and judgment to amass all this wealth
and now that you are drawing to your grave, you will have to
leave it all. You cannot take a farthing with you, but you must
die a beggar and a pauper ;" and the tears rolled down his cheeks
as he said, "It does look foolish." Only a few months after he
died, as he had lived, and his property passed to others.
Moody.
103
D. L.