Mark 4:7

THE THORNS OF PROSPERITY

‘And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.’

Mark 4:7

Here we have an illustration of what may be the distressing effect of worldly prosperity upon the spiritual life.

I. ‘No time.’—One of the chief dangers of a state of general prosperity, especially when that prosperity is in a growing state, is the constant tendency to the entire occupation of time with merely secular duties, which rightfully should be devoted to the care and cultivation of religion.

II. Increase of pride.—Worldly prosperity invariably leads to an increase of pride, and thus the growth of the Christian virtue of humility is choked.

III. The love of luxury.—This generally follows increased wealth, and self-denial, which is demanded of the follower of Christ, finds no room for development.

IV. A worldly life.—Men become more and more ‘of the world’ as their fortunes increase.

Beware, then, of the thorns of prosperity.

Illustration

‘These Easter lily bulbs were the gift of a dear friend. I planted them in two rows, seventeen in all, to form a background for the other varieties. Two years after I saw one in the row nearest the fence falling short. I gave it a little extra care, dug about it, and enriched it a little more. Still it pined. At last its leaves grew sallow, and then they fell off altogether. It was indeed time to investigate the cause. So I dug carefully down, searching for grubs, for mole-tracks, for all-thought-of enemies. None of these were there. At last I found the bulb, sound, but shrunken, held fast captive in the meshes of another life. A wild clematis had sprung up at an adjacent post, and I had allowed it to remain that it might trail its dark-green leaves and wealth of bloom along the somewhat unsightly fence. But, though not shading the lily, or apparently crowding it above, the roots below had crept along instinctively to the richer soil around it, and at last encircled the bulb. There were the multitudinous golden fibres, each only a slender thread, but counting as they must have done by thousands, and all of them closing round and round the struggling bulb, until at last it was choked.’