"2. Again, all faith in God is destroyed within us, by our most abundant prosperity. We are heaped with the means and appliances of self-indulgence. The Giver is lost in his gifts. No observation is more common. Nothing does experience more abundantly attest. We are carried along by the rich full stream of the Divine Bounty, far away from its source; and we lose, as we go, all sensibility to generous emotions. Even natural affection and common humanity die away from our hearts. We lose faith in God and man. How little do the self indulgent care to quit their luxuries, and follow the guidance of self-denying duty! How deaf are we to the cry of our suffering brother! It is not of necessity that prosperity should have this effect upon us. But it does have this effect. It makes men so hard and selfish, that one feels as if he were committing an impertinence in suggesting to them the claims of humanity. The very stones in the streets, will cry out in answer to those claims as soon as they. Where common human sympathy has ceased to be, it is in vain to seek God."
Blessings
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