Do you hear this, young man? It is in your power to make your father glad, and God expects you to do it. Here is an object for your ambition, here is an investment that will ensure an immediate return. Come now, make your choice. Whether you will try to please these fools who banter you here, or to gladden your father's heart that is yearning for you there? . . . These companions that come between you and him--what have they done for you, and what would they do for you to-morrow, if you were in distress? They have never lost a night's rest by watching at your sick bed, and never will. But your father what has he done, and yet will do? The command of God is that you gladden your father and not grieve him. Your conscience countersigns that command now. Obey.--_Arnot._ _MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 2. THE COMPARATIVE VALUE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND RICHES. +I. Wealth when lawfully gotten is profitless for many very important things.+ Death is mentioned in the text, it has no power over that in any form. 1. _Wealth will not deliver you from the daily dying, which is the lot of all men._ It has been said that as soon as we are born we begin to die, and we know that it is certain that as soon as men have attained their prime, their outward man perisheth day by day (2 Cor. iv. 16). The richest man cannot purchase exception from this law with all his wealth. 2. _Neither can wealth prevent the death which we call premature._ Man of vast fortunes are often brought down to an early grave; the seeds of disease within them hasten the operation of the law of death which has passed upon the whole human race. A galloping consumption cannot be held in check even with _golden_ reins. 3. _Treasures of wealth will not insure a man against sudden death._ The morning finds the rich man looking over his vast acres, or counting up his dividends, and saying "I have much good laid up for many years;" and before the sun sets another has entered into possession of all his riches. 4. _Lawfully-gotten wealth will not only not deliver from premature death, but may sometimes bring it on._ Wealth is very apt to produce very mistaken views in a man's mind. When he has amassed a large portion of this world's goods, and is in a condition of moral bankruptcy, he is very prone to imagine that he is secure in the enjoyment of all that he has acquired, and that nothing can come between his riches and himself. Then God may read him a lesson by saying, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee" (Luke xii. 20). Had the man in the parable been a poor man he would not have died so soon; his wealth not only could not deliver him from death, but it hastened his end. And many men walking in his footsteps have been brought to their graves in a similar manner and for a similar reason even when the wealth has been honestly gained. We have no reason to think that the rich fool amassed his riches dishonestly; his sin consisted, not in his