56 The True Riches.

him it is worse than dross. Very soon will
the poor old man be forgotten, and what he
has laid up it is more than likely that a
spendthrift’s hand will scatter, and thus a
double curse will rest ; upon the accumulat-
ing and the spending of his wealth.

Many of my readers can recollect how,
within the last few years, a young noble-
man, with ample resources at his command,
resolved to try what Solomon had tried
before and found a failure. Trusting in his
wealth, he rushed into scenes of gaiety and
excitement, and, from one step to another,
rapidly ran the gauntlet of a “short life and a
merry one;” and, dying at an early age, all
he possessed was dispersed by the auctioneer’s
hammer, begetting the exclamation from
many lips, “Poor man!” Would that he
had known the unchangeable Friend, and
trusted in Him rather than in his riches,
which “ made to themselves wings and flew
away!” More frequently the spirit of
worldliness in connection with wealth takes
the shape, not of spending, but of grasping.
Never satisfied: a little more! only just a
little more! is the cry; one more venture,