It is very difficult for us to conceive of the magnitude of evils which sin has wrought in our nature. In addition to everything that properly belongs to sinfulness, it has wrought horrible effects in the direction of deformity and foolishness. There are many things in us which are more properly speaking deformities more than direct sinfulness, and this should lay a broad basis for charity. And then in a thousand ways sin has made us foolish, and as on the ocean after the storm has passed, the disagreeable waves still roll on, so after sin, properly speaking, has been removed from the soul, the effect of its foolishness is still perpetuated in the mind. This lack of well balanced wisdom and depth of spiritual discernment is almost universally manifested in the fact that a little prosperity on any line, spiritual or temporal, seems to upset us, and draw the heart away from God. There is nothing on earth more ruinous than uninterrupted prosperity, that is, using the word prosperity in the human sense; and the very persons who insist that success does not hurt them, are the very ones most ruined by it. The greatest fool is the one who will not admit his foolishness. There is a danger not only in outward prosperity of health and finances and social standing, but the principle is just as true when applied to religious experience; that is, having no trials or crosses to sink the soul in self-abasement.

Prosperity is not always a token of God’s favor There is an awful meaning to the words of the Holy Ghost in speaking of persons who have things cozy and prosperous when he says, “Thou hast already received thy reward.” Can there be a darker curse in eternity than the one couched in those words? And yet millions not only of sinners, so-called, but professed believers are intensely eager to grasp the fulfillment of those awful words. When prosperity is given us of God it is mostly because he condescends to our childish weakness, because he sees we have not the strength to endure hardness; and what people call success is often permitted to us of the Lord because of our infantile weakness of faith.

It requires great inward strength of heart to endure great losses and privations, and what seem to others sore failures, and to be cut off from all creature comforts and consolation, and yet all the while be tightening the hold on God, and sinking into self-depreciation, and believing that God is doing every thing for the best. Temporal success has a wonderful tendency to weaken our faith, because it attaches our trust to creatures and circumstances, whereas adversity shuts our faith up to God above. God becomes dear to us in the same proportion that we are shut up alone to him. Again, prosperity gives us a false estimate of ourselves, by a growing conviction that it was our skill or wisdom, or righteousness of character that brought it to us. Like the ancient king we say, “Is not this great Babylon which I have built?” with an emphasis on the “I.” Prosperous people, by an unavoidable law of comparison, must note the contrast between themselves and the vast multitudes who fail on the very lines where they succeed; and seeing only the operation of natural causes, they are led imperceptibly to form a very high estimate of their faculties, or their industry, and to secretly pride themselves on their advancement; and this leads to a host of vices such as self-conceit, self-righteousness, impatience with persons of less success, and a lack of charity for those of less attainments. Hence it develops a habit of esteeming people as to their real worth by their amount of success; and just in the same proportion as prosperity gives us an over-estimate of ourselves, it gives us an under-estimate of others who are not so prosperous; and this corrupts the very fountains of character. This is why prosperity in a thousand ways lays the foundation of its own ruin. This principle is true when applied to individuals, or families, or churches, or nations. There never has been known a nation, or a church, or a family since the fall of Adam, that prosperity has not proved in the end its degeneration, and in most instances its utter downfall. There is a fascinating mist that success brings to the eyes, which blinds people to the very causes which produce success. These causes are humility, perseverance, sobriety, self-denial, painstaking, and consideration for others; but success causes the soul to forget these very things, and to cease their practice, and as there comes a gloating over the effects, there is a simultaneous neglect of the cause. Many a preacher begins his lifework in humility, much secret prayer, self-denial, searching of God’s word, and after these things have brought success, he neglects the Bible for philosophy, neglects secret prayer for conversation, self-abasement for the receiving of honors, and loses all his power, and becomes an empty figure-head. Even when God blesses a believer with great spiritual joy, and bright visions of heavenly things, there is a subtle tendency in the mind to lean on its spiritual blessings, and to call in the sentinels from picket-guard.

Hence Satan watches God’s children to make an onslaught upon them just after a spiritual banquet. Eternal vigilance in the prince of liberty, and this is true in the spiritual life as in the political. In most cases the absence of chastisement in one’s life is anything but a proof of God’s love, for he himself declares, “As many as I love I rebuke and chasten.” The soul learns things under God’s chastisement which it is utterly and eternally impossible for it to learn otherwise; and those who disagree with these declarations are of a light and superficial experience and mostly of a trifling mind. Prosperity makes people shallow, in their thinking, praying, self-knowledge, in their Scripture insight, and in their interior knowledge of God, so that what is popularly called prosperity, is in most cases real failure; and what mankind looks upon as utter failure, turns out to be with God, and in eternity, in many cases, the grandest kind of success. We shall never know who have made the greatest achievements till all the human race render up their account before the great white throne. Only see how a little success makes people dictatorial, and critical, and overbearing toward others. This proves a terrible danger. At the very time that thousands of people insisted on making Christ a King, and when his popularity was at the highest pitch, he withdrew himself that same day from everybody and spent the night alone in the mountain praying to his Father. Here we see infinite wisdom. For every wave of success, he sought a deeper self-abasement, and more complete solitude with the Father. Here is the pattern for all believers. If for every little touch of prosperity we have, we seek in some way to deny ourselves and get closer to God, and sink in deeper humility, and strip ourselves of every thought of self-merit; this would save us from the danger of prosperity; it would preserve what blessings we have acquired, and yet keep us in heart so detached from those blessings, and so broken and poor in spirit, that our Father could safely increase his benefactions. If we had the wisdom to practice this, there is no telling how much God would bless us. We are worth more to God than the blessings he bestows upon us, and if those blessings are going to wean us from him, and make us play the fool, then his infinite wisdom compels him to take them from us, for just as soon as God’s blessings begin to take the place of God, they become a curse, and just as soon as prosperity lifts us up, it prepares the way for our failure. Will we ever learn to intensely and continuously and increasingly love our God for his own sake, and to secretly, with a supernatural discernment, despise other things in comparison with him?