John Wesley labored mightily and fruitfully for revival in eighteenth-century England, but he recognized a bittersweet aspect to spiritual awakening: Revival generates a new work ethic, which in turn generates riches, which in turn threatens revival. As the American Puritan Cotton Mather expressed it, “Religion begat prosperity and the daughter devoured the mother!”1

I fear, wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion. Therefore I do not see how it is possible, in the nature of things, for any revival of religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot but produce riches. But as riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of the world in all its branches.2
 
Footnotes:
 
1  Quoted in Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints: The Puritans as They Really Were (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), 63.
 
2  John Wesley, quoted in Robert Southey, The Life of Wesley: And the Rise and Progress of Methodism (London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1889), 516.
 
article adopted from Karios Journal

First Baptist Church of Perryville is located at 4800 West Pulaski Hwy., Perryville, MD.