p. 16 | EXPENSES | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 13, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 24.

EXPENSES

of a Millionaire

Master John Jacob Astor, four years old, who is unable to live on less than $75.60 a day.

Since his birth he has been allowed $20,000 a year out of the income of the estate of his father, John Jacob Astor II, who died in the Titanic disaster. He has petitioned the New York Surrogates' Court, through his mother, Mrs. Madeline Force Astor, for an additional allowance. Mrs. Astor showed that in addition to her son's allowance of $20,000, she had to spend $7,590 of her own funds on her child's behalf last year.

Since the little millionaire's birth, he has been receiving his allowance from the $150,000 a year income of the $3,000,000 trust fund left him by his father. Such conditions were graphically pictured 1900 years ago, by the apostle James (James 5:1-9), when he declared that in "the last days," fortunes would be "heaped" together by kings of finance. And the wanton pleasure attending opulence is vividly portrayed in the words, "Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts."

The characteristics of the last days are in bold evidence, when the demons are making the nations of earth mad, preparatory to the great Armageddon that lies ahead. It is folly to think that the thousands of floating fortresses in the form of battleships, and millions of men under arms, will keep the world at peace. The only hope for permanent peace is in permitting the Prince of peace to change the hearts of men, not that men should build more battleships and create larger armies.