THE NAME VANDERBILT is a familiar one and always associated in the mind with great wealth. Cornelius Vanderbilt, who accumulated a vast fortune while engaged, first in Steamboat, and later in Railroad enterprises, died in New York in 1877, the possessor of wealth estimated at the enormous sum of $100,000,000.
Shortly before his death, he was supposed to be the richest man in the world, and his heirs divided the largest fortune ever bequeathed in the United States up to that time.
It is most significant and striking to learn that when at the point of death, and hearing Joseph Hart’s hymn, “Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,” mentioned, he exclaimed, “Yes, yes, sing that; I am poor and needy!”
Most weighty words surely, uttered under such circumstances. It is evident that what some men value most here, is absolutely worthless in eternity. “For when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away” (Psa. 49:17).
“Were the vast world our own,
With all its varied store,
And Thou, Lord Jesus, wert unknown,
We still were poor.”
Hart’s hymn, already referred to, clearly indicates how all men, rich and poor, may become possessed of true riches, and thus enter eternity in the consciousness of having been enriched by our Lord’s poverty, as the Apostle teaches in 2 Corinthians 8:9: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though HE was rich, yet for your sakes HE became poor, that ye through HIS poverty might be rich.”
Three stanzas of the hymn follow:
“Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore,
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love, and power:
HE is able,
HE is willing, doubt no more.
“Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream,
All the fitness HE requireth,
Is to feel your need of HIM.
This He gives you,
’Tis the Spirit’s rising beam.
“Come, ye weary, heavy-laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall:
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all;
Not the righteous—
Sinners Jesus came to call.”
Dear reader, how is it with YOU? Are YOU wealthy?
Our Lord once said, “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15), and immediately added the parable of the rich fool. This man, apparently honest, economical, careful and industrious, gradually accumulated so much that his storehouses became inadequate for his riches. On resolving to build new and larger ones, to provide for many years to come on earth, God claimed his soul. He had made the huge blunder of leaving out all thoughts of God and His claims in all his calculations, so, unprepared to meet Him, he was a fool indeed.
Are you poor in the world’s estimation? You will be infinitely poorer still in eternity, if you have not Christ.
Rich and poor alike will be paupers eternally if unredeemed by the precious blood of God’s dear Son. What is Christ to you?
Your eternal bliss or woe depends on the answer. To many of earth’s poor, and to some of the rich, He excels in moral beauty the fairest of ten thousands, He is the One “altogether lovely” (Song of Sol. 5:16), their Savior and Lord.
“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9).
—E. H.