Mark 4:7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. Life is a time for the getting of character, and for the trial and perfecting of it. The world is a moral furnace, in which God searches and tests us. One man He tries by adversity, another by prosperity. And the latter is the severer of the two. 1. A prosperous man has little time to spare for religion. Every effort is needed to ensure the continued success of his worldly enterprises. Accordingly, his spiritual life droops and withers. 2. From want of cultivation his taste for spiritual things abates. 3. Pride is apt to increase. 4. Self-indulgence creeps in, and the lower appetites obtain mastery in the heart. 5. The result is a thoroughly worldly life — a life occupied wholly with transitory things, a life in which religion has no part. These are some of the chief dangers which appertain to a state of prosperity. Beware of them in time. They encroach very gradually; and before you are aware of it, you may be swallowed up. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.WEB: Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. |
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