He will bring
our plans to nought. Whomsoever he may let prosper in sin, He will
not let those who have heard the message prosper in it. Whatever
nation He may let become great by covetousness, and selfish competing
and struggling of man against man, He will not let England grow great
by it. He loves her too well to let her fall so, and cast away her
high honour of being a Christian nation. By great and sore
afflictions, by bringing our cleverest plans to nothing, He will
teach us that we cannot worship God and Mammon at once; that the sure
riches, either for a man or for a nation, are not money, but
righteousness love, justice, wisdom; that this new idol of selfish
competition which men worship nowadays, and fancy that it is the
secret cause of all plenty, and cheapness, and civilisation, has no
place in the church of Jesus Christ, who gave up His own life for
those who hated Him, and came not to do His own will, but the will of
His Father; not to enable men to go to heaven after a life of
selfishness here; but by the power of His Spirit--the spirit of love
and fellowship to sweep all selfishness off the face of God's good
earth. By sore trials and afflictions will God in His mercy teach
this to England, and to every man in England who is deluded into
fancying that he can serve God, and selfishness at once, till we
learn once more, as our forefathers did of old, that He is the Lord.
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