Satan’s baits!

Today’s Puritan AUDIO Devotional:

Home, sweet home!
John Angell James, 3  minutes
LISTEN to audio! READ text Download audio

    ~  ~  ~  ~

Satan’s baits!

(John Angell James, 1785-1859)

“How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”Luke 18:24-25

Bring up your children with low notions of the importance of richesand worldly show, and of the power which these things have either to give respectability to the character, or to procure happiness.

Do not let them hear you magnify the value of wealth by your words–nor see you do it by your actions. Avoid a servile attention to the rich and great–do not point to them as the individuals most to be admired and envied. Do not have an undue solicitude about grandeur of abode or furniture. From the time that they are capable of receiving an idea or an impression, teach them that it is godly character that constitutes true respectability.

Remind them of the danger of riches, and that they are Satan’s baits to tempt men to love the world and lose their souls!

Not that you should produce a cynical disposition towards either riches or the rich; much less repress industry, and foster indolence. No, but encourage them to consider and seek wealth, rather as a means of usefulness, than a source of personal gratification.

“People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:9-10

   ~  ~  ~  ~