Page:The Parochial System (Wilberforce, 1838).djvu/80

 who readily receives its testimony that he has attained a grace which our Blessed Master describes as so difficult and so rare?

But surely, on the ordinary principles even of religious men, the danger of riches cannot be so great and imminent. From all grosser temptations they rather exempt us. We can understand one part of the prayer of Agur, "give me not poverty, lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my in vain;" but where is the corresponding danger of abundance? Do not the rich throng our churches and our public meetings? Are they not amiable, kindhearted, and liberal? Is not a profession of religion very widely spread among them? and do we not generally find among them such a knowledge of the Gospel of Christ, that when we speak in common language of "the religious world," we mean almost exclusively certain portions of the middle and higher classes? All this is unquestionable, and, yet our 's words cannot be made void. "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of ." And it is because a certain measure of religion is so easy to the rich, and yet it is so difficult for them to be Christians indeed; it is, in other words, because there is so much room for self-deceit, that whoever has any measure of this world's goods should be doubly jealous, lest by any means he should lose himself. And surely, if he is not