Page:The Parochial System (Wilberforce, 1838).djvu/86

Such being the snares and temptations of this world's wealth, and our insensibility with regard to them, it is of His great mercy that our Heavenly Father teaches us from time to time our dependance upon Him, by the heavy chastisement of His hand. Sometimes by loss of property, and yet more frequently by bodily sickness and pain, or by anxiety and care for those whom we love, or by bitter sorrow over their graves, He teaches us that riches are a broken reed, on which if we lean we shall assuredly be pierced through with many sorrows. And hereby He shows the abundance of His long-suffering towards us; and His love, "which will not let the sinner lose his soul at ease." For this cause it may probably be, that when He permits that we should be tried by some great accession of this world's goods, He so often sends with them some deeply piercing sorrow, the messenger of His mercy, to humble us and to prove us, that He may do us good at the latter end. But if we would render such loving correction needless (and "He doth not willingly afflict"), or if we would secure that which is perhaps a still greater blessing, the full fruit and benefit of the wounds left by His pruning hands; then must we betake ourselves to that which is the appropriate remedy, the appointed antidote against the deceitfulness of riches; and this is abundant, liberal, self-denying devotion of our worldly substance to Christ's service and the benefit of the poor.