|
Themes: "Fleeting Riches, Money Doesn't Bring Happiness, Value of Eternal Life MDR If you ever travel to Newport, Rhode Island, you will probably tour some of the magnificent mansions that were built by the wealthiest people in the United States. The most stunning of these mansions is the Breakers, a house built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II.
The Vanderbilts lived the so-called American dream. Commodore Vanderbilt came from poverty and was able to amass an incredible fortune in steamships and railroads. He admitted that he was "insane on the subject of money all his life," and when he died, he was the world's richest man.
What happened after that to the richest family in the world is a story of money, glamour and scandal. The American dream became a nightmare for the Vanderbilts when they discovered what they could do with the money and what it could do to them.
Cornelius Vanderbilt II was heir to the vast fortune amassed by his grandfather. He built the Breakers as a summer home, and it still stands as one of the most remarkable pieces of architecture in the world. His wife wanted it to be the biggest house in Newport, and it was. It had four stories, seventy rooms, thirty baths with hot and cold fresh water, and salt water piped from the sea. It had thirty-three rooms for servants. It was surrounded by eleven acres of land, and the grass was imported from England.
Entire rooms of the Breakers were constructed in France and shipped overseas in huge crates. The interior was crammed with incredible artwork and treasures from all over the world. It took two thousand workers, laboring day and night two years to build the Breakers, and all work was done by hand, by pick and shovel, and using horse-drawn carts. It cost seven million dollars to build this summer cottage, and Cornelius Vanderbilt only lived in it one summer.
You see, if you go to Newport, the guide will probably tell you that for all the glory of the house, it did not yield happiness and true prosperity. Cornelius Vanderbilt II died a very unhappy young man at the age of fifty-six. He was involved in a terrible feud with his oldest son, and refused to acknowledge him in his will. Another son lived decadently and died at the age of forty-five The daughter who inherited much of his fabulous wealth said, "Oh, God, riches make more unhappiness than all the poverty in the world. I only live at times. Most of my life is simply existence. I am young and longing for human love, and there isn't any for me. Tell me why am I rich-Oh if I could only be poor....When I die, no one will care, why should they? Not even the poor people because I will leave them my money. Money, money, money...!"
This is a powerful testimony to the fact that you can have everything, absolutely everything that this world has to offer, but if you don't have Christ in your life, you will never have true happiness and prosperity.
"What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Mark 8:36
Other pages in this section
|
The Music of Glorybound
