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The Peril of Prosperity, July 2
If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.
Psalm 62:10
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Among the greatest dangers that threaten the church is the love of
the world. Out of this spring the sins of selfishness and covetousness.
With many, the more they get of earthly treasure, the more they set their
affections on it, and still they reach out for more....
Satan employs every means which he can devise to overthrow the
followers of Christ. With marvelous skill and cunning he adapts his
temptations to the peculiar temperament of each. Those who are naturally
selfish and covetous he often tempts by throwing prosperity in their way.
He knows that if they do not overcome their natural temperament, the
love of mammon will cause them to stumble and fall. His object is often
accomplished. When the riches of the world are offered them, many
eagerly grasp the treasure, and think they are wonderfully prospered. The
strong love of the world soon swallows up the love of the truth....
If those who are thus prospered would lay their possessions upon the
altar of God, they might overcome their selfish, covetous spirit, and so
thwart the design of Satan. Worldly wealth may be made a blessing, if
rightly used. All who possess it should realize that is lent them of God, to
be employed in His service. By giving freely to advance the cause of truth
and to relieve the wants of the needy, they may be the means of saving
others, and thus bring a blessing to their own souls here, and lay up in
heaven a treasure that shall be theirs hereafter....
Many hardly know, as yet, what self-denial is, or what it is to sacrifice
for the truth’s sake. But none will enter Heaven but by the same path of
humiliation, self-sacrifice, and cross-bearing, that the Saviour trod. Only
those who are willing to sacrifice all for eternal life will have it, but it will
be worth suffering for, worth crucifying self and sacrificing every idol for.
The far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory will outweigh every
earthly treasure and eclipse every earthly attraction.
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