p. 91 | Rich for a Moment

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 6, 1870

Rich for a Moment.

The British ship Britannia was wrecked off the coast of Brazil, and had on board a large consignment of Spanish dollars. In the hope of saving some of them, a number of barrels were brought on deck; but the vessel went to pieces so fast that the only hope for life was in taking at once to the boats. The last boat was about to push off, when a young midshipman went back to see if any one was still on board. To his surprise, there sat a man on deck with a hatchet in his hand, with which he had broken open several of the casks, the contents of which he was now heaping up before him.

“What are you doing there?” shouted the youth, “Don’t you know the ship is fast going to pieces?”

“The ship may,” said the man; “I have lived a poor wretch all my life, and I am determined to die rich.”

His remonstrances were answered only by another flourish of the hatchet, and he was left to his fate.

We should count such a person a madman, but he has too many imitators. Men seem determined to die rich at all hazards. Least of all risks do they count the chance of losing the soul in the struggle, at any moment at all. And yet the only riches we can hug to our bosoms with joy, in our dying hour, are the riches of grace through Jesus Christ, which we must make ours before the dark hour comes.