27 OCTOBER (1878)

The prosperous man’s reminder

‘I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.’ Hosea 13:5–6
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING (Spurgeon): Deuteronomy 8:11–20

I will put to you one question. Can you find in the word of God one instance of a man of God who was injured by his troubles? Do they not all, like Job, come out of the furnace of affliction much profited thereby? Let me then ask another question. Is it not almost a rule with us, though it ought not to be, that our prosperity is our loss?

David, when hunted like a partridge on the mountains, glorified the Lord his God, but David, when he abode in a palace, sinned again and again, so that the Holy Spirit draws a distinction between his earlier and his latter life, for it is written of Jehoshaphat that he walked before the Lord ‘in the first ways of his father David’.

Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, was not proof against prosperity. He had all he could desire, and then his earthly loves stole away his heart. Take one case which will give both sides of the matter.

See Hezekiah with Sennacherib’s letter, spreading it before the Lord in faith: he is then an example in history, a man of God to be envied for his prayer of faith. He is far fallen when his realm is at peace and his riches are multiplied, for he becomes boastful and displays to the Babylonian ambassadors all his treasures, and provokes the Lord his God.

I wish you great prosperity, but far more do I wish you great peace, that you may carry a full cup with a steady hand. There is need to pray for men who are going uphill lest they fall upon their high places. In our low estate grace will surely be given, for the Lord pities us, but when we are rising we have double need to pray, for ‘God resisteth the proud’.

FOR MEDITATION: (Our Own Hymn Book no.809 vv.2&3—John S.B. Monsell, 1863)
‘I knew Thee when the world was waste, and Thou alone wast fair,
On Thee my heart its fondness placed, my soul reposed its care.
And if Thine altered hand doth now my sky with sunshine fill,
Who amid all so fair as Thou? Oh let me know Thee still.’


C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 311.
27 OCTOBER (1878) The prosperous man’s reminder ‘I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.’ Hosea 13:5–6 SUGGESTED FURTHER READING (Spurgeon): Deuteronomy 8:11–20 I will put to you one question. Can you find in the word of God one instance of a man of God who was injured by his troubles? Do they not all, like Job, come out of the furnace of affliction much profited thereby? Let me then ask another question. Is it not almost a rule with us, though it ought not to be, that our prosperity is our loss? David, when hunted like a partridge on the mountains, glorified the Lord his God, but David, when he abode in a palace, sinned again and again, so that the Holy Spirit draws a distinction between his earlier and his latter life, for it is written of Jehoshaphat that he walked before the Lord ‘in the first ways of his father David’. Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, was not proof against prosperity. He had all he could desire, and then his earthly loves stole away his heart. Take one case which will give both sides of the matter. See Hezekiah with Sennacherib’s letter, spreading it before the Lord in faith: he is then an example in history, a man of God to be envied for his prayer of faith. He is far fallen when his realm is at peace and his riches are multiplied, for he becomes boastful and displays to the Babylonian ambassadors all his treasures, and provokes the Lord his God. I wish you great prosperity, but far more do I wish you great peace, that you may carry a full cup with a steady hand. There is need to pray for men who are going uphill lest they fall upon their high places. In our low estate grace will surely be given, for the Lord pities us, but when we are rising we have double need to pray, for ‘God resisteth the proud’. FOR MEDITATION: (Our Own Hymn Book no.809 vv.2&3—John S.B. Monsell, 1863) ‘I knew Thee when the world was waste, and Thou alone wast fair, On Thee my heart its fondness placed, my soul reposed its care. And if Thine altered hand doth now my sky with sunshine fill, Who amid all so fair as Thou? Oh let me know Thee still.’ C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 311.
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