How to be Rich

VI. The Element of Personality, 111

VII. Life’s Decisions, 131

VIII. Some Acquired Essentials of Success 149

IX. Working with the Master Workman, 167

X. The Ultimate Result, 191

I. The Sources of Wealth

“This world’s no blot for us,

Nor black; it means intensely, and means good;

To find its meaning is my meat and drink.”

—Browning.

“Give me health and a day and I will make

the pomp of emperors ridiculous.” —Emerson.

“The Lily’s lips are pure and white

without a touch of fire;

The rose’s heart is warm and red

And sweetened with desire.

In earth’s broad fields of deathless bloom,

The gladdest lives are those

Whose thoughts are as the lily,

And whose love is like the rose.”

The Sources of Wealth

The strongest appeal of this age to many is on the commercial side. So richly has nature and the God of nature endowed us as a Nation that we are rich beyond the dreams of the ages. So lavishly have we used, and in many instances wasted, our resources that huge fortunes are a common thing, and the dream of wealth haunts us day and night, and is so persistent that we area prone to forget everything else. So strong has become this tendency that a balance-wheel or safety-valve is very much needed in order that we may not run away with ourselves and miss the true wealth which we seek.

When we pause a moment and take time to think, we know that money is not wealth, but only the medium of exchange by means of which we obtain those things which really enrich us .A man may possess millions and yet be so poor [p9] and miserable as to end his life by suicide; or on the other hand, with but a scant supply of dollars be so rich in life as to want to live on forever.

It is these larger and more fundamental things, therefore, to which we ought to devote the best of life. Yet, how often our higher life fails to draw out the treasures of its environment.

I heard a group of girls talking one day of companion, a girl of sixteen. They said she had run the whole round of pleasures and exhausted all there was in life, so that nothing interested her any more. Poor thing! How narrow must have been her range of vision! and how cheap her taste of existence! When we think of the flood of treasures that a beneficent and bountiful Creator has poured around this old world, we can not but conclude that those maidens were only wading in a little frog pond, dreaming all the while that it was the ocean.

There is a life worthwhile, rich beyond all [p10] the dreams of the soul, if we have all but the spiritual instinct to discover it.

The marvelous personality that God has given us finds expression in a many-sided and complex life. Some would have us believe we have only a physical existence; and still more—who believe better—act as if this were true. Many give all their time and thought to the merely animal part of there being. Others would teach that the mind is all there is of us, and let the body suffer and die because of a silly and immoral fad. Then we find, too, saints—so called—who would have us take up an abnormal spiritual existence as the only thing pleasing to God.

Utterly false are all such conceptions of life. If we would take life naturally as it unfolds, and seek the best development of every phase of it, we would be truly rich.

But, what do we mean by such a life and training? [p11]

The child is conscious at first only of physical need, and its pleasures consist in those things that satisfy and bring comfort to the body. As soon as it grows a little older it comes to enjoy mother’s fairy tales and the recital of simple stories. Its mental life is opening to the great world o literature and mind. Instruments of music bring delight, and still another realm is opened to its expanding vision. It comes to love pictures, the society of its companions, and other sources of enjoyment. These all contribute their share to the enlargement of the life. The thing we should never forget is that every side of this life is God-given, and should be God-used.

As the wealth of the field and orchard lies in their fruitfulness, so the true wealth of his life of ours lies in what it is able to make out of the raw materials of its existence. That life only is rich which is productive—which utilizes its experiences in the world, and weaves them into the richer fabric of the soul.

There are many sources outside of self for [p12] the enrichment of our being—for the building up of that life which is worth the living.

Nature, which is the visible expression of the thought of the eternal Mind, is one of these. Rich, indeed, is that lie which is lived in touch with the heart of the world. If young people would seek an acquaintance with the natural world so full of wonder and charm, they would find it much easier to keep away from those things that are undesirable.

The many phases of our contact with other minds is invaluable, and one of the richest sources of life. Especially is this true of that aspect of it which is afforded by the world of books—too much liable to neglect in these days. The great works of literature are the medium of the world’s highest inspiration, and its great reservoirs of mental and spiritual power. Poor beyond expression is that life that has not learned to keep company with the greatest men and women of the ages through those books which are the best product of their souls.

But the chief and final source of the life [p13] that would be really rich must be found in the subtle fellowship of the human spirit with that intelligence which lies back of all things.

These things must become or own in a very real sense. We can not be enriched by that which dos no become a part of ourselves.

The field of ripened grain is rich and precious, not be what was in the soil of the field, but only by that part of it which was woven into the very structure of its own being. That which can not be so used it worthless. The rose is red and sweet with its own characteristic perfume because it wrought into itself just those elements which would produce such results, and rejected what was foreign to its purpose. Gold is made less and not more valuable by the dross incorporated with it. So that only is true wealth which is so used as to enrich the lie itself and make it more worth the living. Money and the other god things of the world of a materials sort may be so used as to contribute largely to this end, or they may be so used as to give an opposite result. So in themselves they can not be [p14] regarded as riches. True wealth consists not in dollars, but in the life which dollars may contribute their share toward enriching. It is only through the uses to which they may be put that dollars become a part of our real wealth.

The declaration of every individual should be, “What I want is not a rich living, I want only a rich life.”

Because of these truths our discussion in the little book must deal not with money, or its equivalent, but with this many-sided life. Here, or not at all, must be find the riches of existence, the wealth of the universe. [p15]

[p16]

II. Natural Wealth

[p17]

“In the woods we return to reason and faith.”

—Emerson.

“The sky is a drinking cup,

That was overturned of old,

And it pours in the eyes of men

Its wine of airy gold.

We drink that wine all day

Till the last drop is drained up,

And are lighted off to bed

By the jewels in the cup.”

—Richard Henry Stoddard.

“A man must have quiet and solitude in order to find himself

—one of the great ends of human seeking.”

“The fruit of the orchard ripens through long days and

quiet nights; and the spirit of man must ripen under like conditions.”

“There is no medicine so potent as the sweet breath and

the sweeter seclusion of the woods; there is no tonic like free

life under the open sky.” —Hamilton Wright Mabie.

[p18]

NATURAL WEALTH

No ranker heresy was ever uttered than the old and oft repeated statement, made by those who thought themselves strictly orthodox, that “This world is a desert drear.” It is a desert only to those whose souls are shrunken and shriveled, or who have been sadly misled by false teaching.

Well do I remember how in boyhood days my soul revolted from that thought. I hated and despised the very worlds with which it was expressed. Hw utterly false it was to all my experiences. How I delighted in the blessed insights of the barefoot boy as he touched, after the simplest fashion, the good things of life. The tickle of he grass on his bare feet in springtime; the lying under the apple trees as they rained their blossoms upon him, and delighted the air with their uncloying sweetness; the blue [p19] of the sky with its floating clouds, and the mystery of space and time, lie and eternity; the rustle of the corn and the ripple of the brook; the delightful aroma of the muskmelon and he peach; the gold of the pumpkin, the crimson of the strawberry, the purple of the grape, and the brilliant hues of the flowers; the flavor of the berries, and the wild plums of the thicket; the fellowship of the little creatures of the woods and fields, —all these, and more of their kind, made this world to me a place fit to spend eternity in.

How delightfully sane and sensible is James Whitcomb Riley when he plunges into “The Old Swimmin’ Hole,” or wades “Knee-deep in June.” How sweet the memories awakened by words like these:

“Tell you what I like the best —

‘Long about knee-deep in June,

‘Bout the time strawberries melts

On the vine, —some afternoon,

Like to jes’ git out and rest,

And not work at nothin’ else.

“Orchard’s where I’d ruther be—

Need n’t fence it in fer me— [p20]

Jes’ the whole sky overhead,

And the whole airth underneath.

“tumble round and souse yet head

In the clover bloom, er pull

Yes straw hat acrost yer eyes

And peek through it at the skies.”

How rich the life that can revel in such simple luxuries; and how true to fact is the poet when he sings:

“O the world is full of roses, and the roses full of dew,

And the dew is full of heavenly love that drips for me

And you.”

How true also to the normal, healthy life are the words which Browning puts into the mouth of David as he sings to the trouble soul of Saul:

“O the wild joys of living. The leaping from rock

up t rock.”

The strong rending of boughs from the fir-tree, the

Cool silve shock

Of the plunge in a pool’s living water, the hunt of the bear,

And the meal, the rich dates yellowed over

with gold dust divine,

And the sleep in the dried river channel where

bulrushes tell

That the water was wont to o warbling so softly

And well. [21]

How good is man’s life, the mere living; how fit

To employ

All the heart and the soul and the senses forever

In joy.”

What untold good would be wrought if this song cold be sung effectively in the hearts of all men.

Recently in my reading I cam e across this base slander on the Almighty:

“Since all the riches of this world

May be gifts from the devil and earthly things,

I should suspect that I worshiped the devil

If I thanked my God for worldly things.”

Any one living in God’s beautiful world who has eyes and heart to se in it only the work of the devil, is not only lacking in gratitude to the Giver of all food, but is incapable of having fellowship with Him in many of His most marvelous manifestations. That one who dos not enjoy he simple, artless beauty of woods and fields, and who does not delight at times in getting away from the artificial glamorous and sham of society, has something in his makeup that is abnormal and to be dreaded. He very [p22] mush needs sanity and balance, and the capacity to know the good when he sees it.

It is high time the Christian world were getting away from the old monkish notion that this world is in itself evil. It is nly the man who has gotten out of harmony with nature and with nature’s God of whom hat can be said. If any part of God’s workmanship is to be despised, it is he who by his own choice of evil has lost the divine imprint from his soul. If any taint of evil is to be found in nature it is on his account, and will speedily be remedied when he is again set right with God, and once more finds himself in league with the forces of righteousness.

When we hear of any one disparaging the work of God in nature, we have much the same feeling as a friend of ours who took a young lady up to see the splendid view from a high hill near his home. A magnificent stretch of country spread out in every direction. Soul inspiring and thrilling as was the scene, she gave it a momentary glance and went on with her cheap twaddle of [p23] conversation, with no more appreciation of it than the cattle grazing on the hillside. She fell far in the estimation of our friend, and deservedly so. His ideal in her was shattered. He was disgusted at the revelation of he smallness of soul.

How immeasurably richer the one who can say with the poets of old: “Speak to the earth, and it shall teach three.” “Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.” “Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.”

God has given us all things to enjoy, and with which to enrich our lives. He has given us both the world without and the world within, and both alike are His domain. He expects us by using the one to enrich the other and become great. He put man in the garden “To dress and keep it;” and He intended him by gaining dominion over it to prove his kinship with the divine. This world, which saints of a former age thought to be evil only, is on further study found to be an essential part of [p24] God’s good gifts, to develop and train man in order that he may be truly great.

The new interest and delight that men and women have recently been taking in nature studies, and the pleasure taken in such writings as those of Thorough, Burroughs, John Muir, and a host of others, is a most encouraging sign of the world’s return to sanity and health.

Through the ages nature has been one of the mighty levers by means of which God has lifted man to higher and diviner levels. From the standpoint of material wealth, nature is man’s best friend. Not to speak of gold and jewels; not to mention the wealth of agricultural products: in a more subtle sense nature enriches by awakening the minds of men to a knowledge of the treasure producing qualities of their environment.

In order to be at his best—to be really rich—man must have greatness of mind, goodness of heart, and the power or achievement. This natural world in a large and important sense is [p25] the platform upon which God sands to project these qualities into the minds and hearts of men.

What a blessing it is to the race that after God has filled the world with things of priceless worth, He has not put a fence around them and said, “Hands off!” What a glorious thing it is, too, that He has made it forever impossible for man himself to do that with those things that are most indispensable. If it could be any possibility have been done, man through his monopolies would ere this bv gobbled up the air and the sunlight and the beauties of the landscape, and have doled them out in starvation measure to his fellow-beings at an exorbitant rate.

By far too many men are like Thoreau’s farmer, who lived on the shore of one of the beautiful New England lakes; “who loved better the reflecting surface of a dollar or a bright cent, in which he could see his own brazen face; who regarded even the ducks which settled in it as trespassers; his fingers grown into crooked and horny talons from the long habit [p26] of grasping; who would carry his God to market if he could get anything for him.”

Many of nature’s riches are enjoyed by the simplest minds without thought and without effort, but others, such as the discovery of the laws of nature and life, and the control of such forces s those of steam and electricity, have come into the possession of men only after they have gained intellectual strength to acquire domination over them.

Still others of earth’s riches we have every reason to believe yet lie about us undiscovered. There are heights and depths in the wealth of God’s workmanship here in this world which we have not reached nor of which we have even dreamed. As some one has said, “Glimpses of shadow flit now and again over our mountain peaks of attainment, revealing to us the presence of birds as yet too near the sun for our feeble vision.”

When men first cam to inhabit the world, their life, their thoughts, their methods of work must have been very simple and primitive, [p27] indeed. But they found the world around them stimulating to inquiry and suggestive of progress.