“That ain’t just the way I would put it,” said Mr Snow. “I would say that the man who expects his property to make him happy, will be disappointed. The amount he has got don’t matter. It ain’t in it to give happiness. I know, partly because I have tried, and it has failed me, and partly because I am told that ‘a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth.’
“Well, now, if that is so, will you tell me why there ain’t one man in ten thousand who believes it, or at least who acts as if he believed it? Why is all the world chasing after wealth, as if it were the one thing for body and soul? If money ain’t worth having, why hasn’t somebody found it out, and set the world right about it before now?”
“As to money not being worth the having, I never said that. What I say is, that God never meant that mere wealth should make a man happy. That has been found out times without number; but as to setting the world right about it, I expect that is one of the things that each man must learn by experience. Most folks do learn it after a while, in one way or other.”
“Well,” said Mr Green, gravely, “you look as if you believed what you say, and you look as if you enjoyed life pretty well too. If it ain’t your property that makes you happy, what is it?”
“It ain’t my property, sartain,” said Mr Snow, with emphasis. “I know I shouldn’t be any happier if I had twice as much. And I am sure I shouldn’t be less happy if I hadn’t half as much; my happiness rests on a surer foundation than anything I have got.”
He paused, casting about in his thoughts for just the right word to say—something that might be as “a fire and a hammer” to the softening and breaking of that world-hardened heart.
“He does look as if he believed what he was saying,” Mr Green was thinking to himself. “It is just possible he might give me a hint. He don’t look like a man who don’t practise as he preaches.” Aloud, he said,—
“Come, now, go ahead. What has cured one, may help another, you know. Give us your idea as to what is a sure foundation for a man’s happiness.”
Mr Snow looked gravely into his face and said,
“Blessed is the man who feareth the Lord.”