On March 21, 1947, police received an anonymous phone tip that a man had died inside a boarded-up house. Unable to force their way in through the front door, they entered the house through a second story window. Inside they found the corspe of Homer Collyer on a bed clutching the February 22, 1920, issue of the Jewish Morning Journal, even though he had been blind for years. Homer and Langley Collyer were sons of a respected New York doctor. Both had earned college degrees. Homer had studied at Columbia to become a lawyer. When Dr. Collyer had died in the early part of the century, his two sons inherited the family home and estate. The two sons, both bachelors, were left financially secure. Although wealthy, the two brothers lived in almost total seclusion. They boarded up the windows of their house and padlocked the doors. All their ultilites, including water, were turned off. No one was ever seen coming or going from the house. From the outside, their house appeared empty.
When the police broke in that day, they found the house full of broken machinery, auto parts, boxes, appliances, folding chairs, musical instruments, rags, assorted odds and ends, and bundles of old newspapers. An enormous mountain of debris blocked the front door. Investigators were forced to continue to use the upstairs window for weeks while excavators worked to clear a path to the door. Nearly three weeks later, as workman were still hauling heaps of refuse away, someone made a grisly discovery. Langley Collyer’s body was found buried beneath a pile of rubbish some six feet away from where Homer had died. Langley had been crushed to death in a crude booby trap he had built to keep intruders out.
The garbage eventually removed from the house totaled more than 140 tons. The Collyer’s had an inheritance that was more than sufficient for their needs, but they lived their lives in unnecessary, self-imposed poverty.
Many believers are spiritually rich but are living as spiritual paupers. They have been given a personal title deed to a heavenly mine, but they have never worked it out. They have never experienced or enjoyed all the wealth that their salvation has given them.