Two Money Makers

This blog came to me as I was previewing a book I offered to my oldest son to use for an assignment in his AWANA book. The assignment was to read a book about a missionary and write a short summary about them. The book I offered to him was given to me while I served as a summer missionary in Pennsylvania. It is entitled Borden of Yale by Mrs. Howard Taylor (Bethany House Publishers, 1988). The book is about a young, wealthy man, William Borden, who in the late 1800's had forsaken his life of big business to become a missionary to the unreached people of Kansu, China. He trained at two prominent theological seminaries, Yale and Princeton, and performed vital ministry at a respected organization with the initials Y.M.C.A. He sadly died at the age of 25 in Egypt.

Needless to say, this child who read all seven books in the Chronicles of Narnia series complained that the book was too long (207 pages) and didn't want to use it. He chose another shorter text while I gleaned a few passages from the discarded book. I saw two familiar names at the start of the seventeenth chapter and the author's commentary concerning the release of the last will and testament of both men.

The passage reads:

Two remarkable wills were probated within a few days of each other in the spring that followed Borden's sailing for Egypt, one his own, made in the fall of 1912, and the other that of J. Pierpont Morgan, who died possessed of almost a hundred million dollars. Though a devout believer, who prefaced his will with the statement, "I commit my soul into the hands of my Savior, in full confidence that having redeemed it and washed it in His most precious blood, He will present it faultless before the throne of my Heavenly Father." Mr. Morgan at the age of seventy-five left little more than half as much to the work of God as William Borden left at twenty-five.

The last sentence of the passage impressed me, but didn't surprise me. I saw that despite the shared beliefs of the two prominent gentlemen that the end goal of each was profoundly different concerning their investments. Borden looked to the needs of the less fortunate in China and reaped an outstanding testimony of service that inspired many to share the Gospel of Christ to the world. The other, J.P. Morgan, left a wealth that now our present government is foolishly trying to save due to unwise investments. What we invest is important, but what we invest IN gives the tell-tale sign of what we foresee the future should look like.

I want to conclude this blog with a quote from the first paragraph of chapter seventeen:

Who is there tonight who can always see the shadow of the Cross falling upon his banking account? Who is there who has the mark of the nails and the print of the spear in his plans and life, his love and devotion and daily program of intercession? Who is there who has heard the word of Jesus and is quietly, obediently, every day, as He has told you and me, taking up his cross to follow Him? -- Rev. Samuel M. Zwemer, D.D.

(Please read Luke 18:18-30)

-- Brian