He Left a Large Property.
This is the closing sentence of a recent obituary, and it suggests some reflections. What a pity he was obliged to leave it! He had taken great delight in accumulating it. As he added field to field, and farm to farm, he had looked with pride upon his extended domain, conscious that he was the largest land-holder in his district. His cattle, if not wandering upon a thousand hills, ranged over more than that number of acres of rich pasturage. Stocks, notes, bonds, and mortgages crowded his safe. And it was all the fruit of his own industry, energy, and good judgment. The rust of usury and the canker of extortion had not scarred any of his gold. It was well and fairly earned, and he loved it all the more because it was so. It grieved him to leave this large property, to depart from the world as poor as he came into it, and to enter the other world utterly destitute of the wealth he so much loved in this. But he had to leave it, every farthing of it. He might have taken it with him. Rather let me say, he might have sent it forward in advance of him. As the capitalist, who contemplates removing to a foreign country, converts his property into drafts, and remits from time to time to the land of his future residence, he might have made remittances to that undiscovered country, so that on his arrival there he would find abundant treasures laid up in Heaven for him. Every pound which he had given (consecrating it with true prayer) to assist in carrying the glad tidings of salvation to the ends of the earth; every contribution in aid of the many Christian enterprises for the glory of God and the good of man; every cup of cold water given to a disciple in the name of a disciple; every tear of pious sympathy for the suffering; every gift of kindly charity to the needy, would have added to the store of his "durable riches." He might have been rich towards God, and a joint heir with Jesus Christ, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. If it was sad for him to leave that large property, how much sadder that he sent none of it before him. It is much more pleasant to go to, than to leave, a large property. The man who, poor in this world's goods, but rich in faith, closes his eyes upon this life, goes to take possession of a large property. He owned not a foot of land on earth, but for him "sweet fields beyond the swelling flood stand dressed in living green." His food here was coarse, perhaps scanty; but there he will eat freely from the tree of life, which yields twelve manner of fruits. His garments here were plain and poor; but there he shall be clothed in white robes, washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. He associated here with those who are despised and rejected of men; but there his companions will be an innumerable company of angels, and the general assembly and church of the first born. Who would not rather go to a large property than to leave it?—Southern Cross.