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1ER
M.
V31.1
FALLING
SHORT OF
HEAVEN.
127'
disappointment,
he shall
be
applauded,
in
the
face
of
angels,
as
the only
wise
man,
and shall
find
himself for
ever
happy.
The
5th,
and last remark;
is
this;
how
dangerous
a
snare
is
great
riches
!
They become
a
sore
temptation
(even
to
persons
well
-
inclined)
to tie
their
souls
fast
to
this
world,
and persuade
them
to
neglect God,
and
Christ,
and
heaven.
This
was
the case
of
the young
man
in my
text
;
he
went
away from
our
Lord melan-
choly and grieved,
that
he
could
not
join
Christ
and
the
world
together
:
he had
great
possessions, and
therefore
he
refused to
be
a
follower
of
Christ,
under the poor
and
mean
circumstances
of
his
appearance
among
men;
see verses
22, 23.
And
our Lord
himself
makes this
same
remark, How
hardly
shall
they
that
have riches
enter
into
the
kingdom
ót.
God?
that
is
as he
explains
it
in
the
following
verse,
because
it
is so
hard, for those
who
possess
great
riches,
not
to love them too
well,
and
to
trust
in
them
as
their chief
good.
How
many lovely
qualities
are
here spoiled
at
once,
by
the love
of
this world
!
and a
man
that
was
not far
from the kingdom
of
God, divided
from
Christ,
and
driven
to
a
fatal distance from heaven,
by
this
danger-
ous
interposing snare
!
.
A wretched chain, though
it
was
a golden
one,
that
withheld
his
soul
from
the embraces
of
his
Saviour.
He
was
young, he
was
modest
and
humble,
he had
a desire
to be saved,
and
he
went far in
the outward
forms
of
godliness
;
all these commands,
said
he,
have
I
kept
from youth, or
childhood; and he
had
a
mind
to follow
Christ
too But
Jesus
was
poor,
and
his
followers
must take up their
cross,
and share in
his poverty. This
was
the
parting point;
this
was
the
bar
to
his
salvation;
he
was
almost a christian,
but
his
riches prevented
him from being
altogether
so.
O
fatal
wealth,
and
foolish possessor.
It
became
our
blessed
Lord, the heir
of
all
things,
to
divest himself
of
wealth
and grandeur, and
to
renounce
all
the pomp
and glittering equipage
of
this world,
when
he came
to introduce
a religion
so
spiritual
arid so
refined
as
the
gospel was
:
and it
became him to
put
such a
test
as this to such as
pretended
to
be
his
disciples
;
whether
they
durst venture
to exchange the
present
world,
and
the
visible
enjoyments
of
it,
for glories
future
and invi-