“In America, with its vast abounding wealth, its grand expanse of prairie, its reach of river, and its exuberant productiveness, there is danger that our riches will draw us away from God, and fasten us to earth; that they will make us not only rich, but mean; not only wealthy, but wicked. The grand corrective is the cross of Christ, seen in the sanctuary where the life and light of God are exhibited, and where the reverberation of echoes of the great white throne are heard.”
R. S. Storrs (1821-1900) American Congregationalist clergyman in Forty Thousand Quotations, Prose and Poetical, compiled by Charles Noel Douglas (London: George G. Harrap & Co., 1917) 1504.
Is this what you have witnessed in our society? Does our own “exuberant productiveness” both draw us from God and “fasten us” to this earth? Have riches made Americans a “wicked” people? Father in Heaven, forgive us our sins, for allowing your material blessings to stop with us and spoil us rather than flow through us to bless others for your glory. Correct our path, realign it to the cross of Christ by your Holy Spirit, we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.