Danger in Prosperity
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In the Valley of Humiliation
It is not the empty cup that we have trouble in carrying; it is
the cup full to the brim that must be carefully balanced. Affliction
and adversity may cause much inconvenience, and may bring great
depression; but it is prosperity that is dangerous to spiritual life. Unless
the human subject is in constant submission to the will of God, unless
he is sanctified by the truth, and has the faith that works by love and
purifies the soul, prosperity will surely arouse the natural inclination
to presumption.
Our prayers need most to be offered for the men in high places.
They need the prayers of the whole church, because they are entrusted
with prosperity and influence.
In the valley of humiliation, where men depend on God to teach
them and to guide their every step, there is comparative safety. But
let everyone who has a living connection with God pray for the men
in positions of responsibility,—for those who are standing on a lofty
pinnacle, and who, because of their exalted position, are supposed
to have much wisdom. Unless such men feel their need of an Arm
stronger than the arm of flesh to lean upon, unless they make God their
dependence, their view of things will become distorted, and they will
fall.—
The Review and Herald, December 14, 1905
.
A Perversion of an Original Faculty
The desire to accumulate wealth is an original affection of our
nature, implanted there by our heavenly Father for noble ends. If you
ask the capitalist who has directed all his energies to the one object
of securing wealth, and who is persevering and industrious to add to
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his property, with what design he thus labors, he could not give you
a reason for this, a definite purpose for which he is gaining earthly
treasures and heaping up riches. He cannot define any great aim or
purpose he has in view, or any new source of happiness he expects to
attain. He goes on accumulating because he has turned all his abilities
and all his powers in this direction.
There is within the worldly man a craving for something that he
does not have. He has, from force of habit, bent every thought, every
purpose, in the direction of making provision for the future, and as he