Gold Nugget 308 - A Delicious Pleasure

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      With abundance in our possession, it is easier to indulge the appetites that to deny them.  Yet the higher life can only be developed at the expense of the lower. …

      When from our visible stores every felt need can be supplied, we are prone to forget the unseen Giver.  Most men may well thank God that the temptations of wealth dwell not under their roofs. …

      The millionaire soon forgets the days of poverty and struggle – forgets the Friend who succoured him in his extremity – kicks away the ladder by which he rose.  Riches naturally encumber and stifle the flame of religious feeling. … We find a delicious pleasure in hearing our own skill and sagacity praised.  The tide of natural feeling sets strongly towards self-trust. …

      In the days of poverty we did not object to be accounted singular; but in the time of wealth we aspire to do as others do.  It is arduous to have to think for one’s self, to rely upon one’s own judgments, to pursue a course which men will ridicule.  If others bow down to their on net, or rear a popular idol, we too must bow down and worship it.  Wealth has given us prominence, set us on high, and we must not risk our new reputation.  It is easier to drift with the stream than to stem it. …

      Every nation and every individual shall “go to his own place.”  From the summit of earthly magnificence to the lowest pit of misery, there is often a single step.  “I saw,” says Bunyan, “that there was a way to hell, even from the gate of the celestial city.”  “Be not highminded, but fear.”  Rishces make a slippery descent to ruin. 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Deuteronomy p. 160, Deuteronomy 8:7-20, (D. Davies)

 

Gold Nugget 308

A Delicious Pleasure

 

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