NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
Three Cents. 
24 Pages 
MANCHESTER, MASS., SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20551907: 
Fortune Building 
Fortune Building was the subject of 
Rev. L. H. Ruge’s sermon at the Con- 
Manchester, last 
_ Sunday morning. His text was “‘ Lay 
up for yourselves treasures.’ (Matt 
6:20). He spoke in part as follows: 
~ “TI want to say right here that I have 
absolutely no quarrel with riches or the 
rich, and a lot of this tirade against 
riches and the rich is cant pure and 
simple. 
“In fact, I love riches. There are 
 thi.gs we love more, far more, that we 
would not give for all the wealth of the 
world, and this higher, holier love 
neutralizes the evil that may spring from 
the love of riches. Why not let us be 
thoroughly honest with ourselves in this 
matter. If it is acrime to be rich, then I 
ever saw anyone, Saint or sinner, who 
wasn’t perfectly willing to commit the 
rine. 
“There is a pleasure, a satisfaction, 
| sense of security in the possession of 
iches,—I do not speak from experience 
but from observation and intuition—for 
you can see it in the faces and whole 
bearing of the rich never seen in the 
faces and bearing of the poor. 
 “‘Tlike the rich, and when I hear 
“Sneers against the rich I feel sure it is 
caused by unadulterated envy. 
ot hate or despise a man just because 
he is rich, it is unjust and inhuman. [ 
like the rich for the beauty and _ refine- 
ment they bring into life. It is true that 
many, newly enriched, make a crude and 
gar display of their wealth, but giving 
the architects, gardeners, decorators and 
upholsterers some credit for artistic tastes 
and we shall find some charm surround- 
ing even the vulgar rich. 
If I have a quarrel with anything in 
_ gregational church, 
= 
erty. I hate poverty with a_ perfect 
hatred. Carnegie says that poverty is a 
blessing. He got rid of the blessing as 
fast as he could. One of the leading 
Politicians of the country is also lauding 
the blessing. It is a safe policy, I sup- 
pose, for Carnegie and others to preach 
Let us: 
this world and its affairs it is with pov- 
poverty as a blessing, but no one believes 
the ‘Bonny Scot. ’ 
; “* The greatest tragedy in life is the 
hand to the mouth’ existence. The 
more I see and feel the misery of 
poverty, the more I dread it, the more I 
shudder at it, the more I hate it, the 
more my soul goes out in a great 
sympathy for the man pursued by the 
gaunt gray pack of wolves forever at his 
heels. Feeling the hot breath and the 
red tongues of want and woe and 
wretchedness forever behind him a man 
may develop some fine fibre and _sterl- 
ing Courage within but the pack behind 
him is none the less blond thirsty. So a 
man may develop some noble character- 
istics in poverty but that does not make 
poverty any less a curse to the world. 
““ Let me then c arge everyone—‘ lay 
i 
exc: Pastor Preaches on Wealth and Riches. Wo Crime to be Rich. 
| 
2 
up for yourselves treasures;’ build a 
fortune. 
“* Riches and poverty are largely self 
made. Let me illustrate. Here are 
two young men. One is industrious, 
the other is indolent. One keeps his 
eyes and ears open for the coming and 
call of fortune, the other looks only for 
the opportunity to gratify desire. While 
one young man is bending over his in- 
vestigations the other young man is for- 
ever sprawled over a pooltable. Allthe 
time one young man is getting richer, 
the other young man is getting poorer. 
All the time more doors are opening be- 
fore the one and closing before the 
other; the powers of one developing, the 
other’s degenerating; the limitations of 
one widening, the other’s contracting; 
the one becoming more the master, the 
other becoming more the slave; the one 
climbing nearer the mountain top, the 
other falling deeper into the abyss. All 
the time one is a wealth ‘producer, the 
other a want producer. Which one is 
right? Well then, build a fortune. | 
But you say the text also says, ‘Lay 
not up for yourselves treasures.’ Read 
on. It means simply, don’t be a miser, 
don’t hoard. It means keep your riches 
in circulation among the needy. Do 
CARD 
PRS fF fm retreenw. 
good with the fortune you build and so 
these riches may become the very germ 
out of which shall spring the eternal 
riches. 
““ The fortunes selfishly indulged are 
the evil fortunes. The fortune made 
by driving a man to the wall in his mis- 
fortune, or taking advantage of his ig- 
norance, and by underhanded methods 
filching his possessions, is evil. 
““ The fortune made by ‘bulling and 
bearing’ the necessities of the people is 
evil. No man-eating savage has more 
degenerate bowels than have the men 
who monopolize a people’s provisions 
and fix arbitrary and exhorbitant prices 
upon them. They not only ‘ devour 
widows’ houses,’ they devour frail 
women and growing children and dam 
back and destroy the vital forces of a 
nation. 
‘“ The combinations between the rail- 
roads and big shippers is piracy and 
plunder on the commercial seas in which 
the small dealer and the consumer walk 
the plank. 
‘ The piratical finance that loads upa 
people’s public utilities, like a traffic 
system, with 90 percent of fictitious cap- 
ital, immorally packing the men, women 
and children together so they can’t move, 
compelling them thus to contribute en- 
ormous earnings on fictitious capital, is 
criminal fortune building more danger- 
ous than highway robbery from which 
we keep an expensive force of police to 
protect us. 
‘* Build a fortune on principles that 
will bear not only the investigation of an 
earthly court of inquiry, but that will 
bear the inquiry at the bar of God. 
“* And now I call the word of God to 
witness that I redeem these words from 
any misinterpretation, by saying, build 
the moral and eternal fortune of the 
soul. The only treasure vault where 
moths do not corrupt and where thieves 
do not break through is the treasure 
vault of character. This is a treasure 
not of silver and gold, not of stocks and 
bonds and coupons and mortgages, not 
of houses ‘and lands and crops and barns, 
but a treasure of pure thoughts, noble 
Continued on page 4 
