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How soon does the verdure wither away!
(From Octavius Winslow's, "The Coming of the
Lord in its Relation to Nominal Christianity")
"The cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of
riches, choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful."
A season of prosperity often proves fatal to a
'profession of godliness'. Divine Providence smiles,
riches increase, and with them the temptations
and the snares, the luxury, indulgence, and worldly
show, which are inseparable from the accumulation
of unsanctified and unconsecrated wealth.
And what are the results?
In most, cases, the entire relinquishment of the
'outward garb of a religious costume'. Found to be
in the way of the full indulgence of the carnal mind,
it is laid aside altogether; and thus freed from all
the restraints which consistency imposed, the heart
at once plunges deep into the world it all the while
secretly loved, sighed for, and worshiped.
Oh! what a severe, but true, test of religious principle
is this! How soon it detects the spurious and the false!
How soon does the verdure wither away!
"The prosperity of fools shall destroy them."
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