Week 31- Beware of Prosperity  

Scriptures:

Helaman 12

General Conference Address:  

“Prayer” Elder Henry B Eyring CR 10/2001

Thought:

In a BYU address, Gordon B Hinckley quoted Brigham Young: “The winter of 1848–49 was quite cold. Many people had their feet badly frozen. . . . As the days grew warmer the gold fever attacked many so that they prepared to go to California. Some said they would go only to have a place for the rest of us; for they thought Brigham Young too smart a man to try to establish a civilized colony in such a “God-forsaken country,” as they called the [Salt Lake] valley. . . .It was at this time of gloom that President Young stood before the whole people, and said, in substance . . . : “This will become the great highway of the nations. Kings and emperors and the noble and wise of the earth will visit us here, while the wicked and ungodly will envy us our comfortable homes and possessions. Take courage, brethren. I can stand in my door and can see where there is untold millions of the rich treasures of the earth—gold and silver. But the time has not come for the Saints to dig gold. . . . For if the mines are opened first, we are a thousand miles from any base of supplies and the people would rush in here in such great numbers that they would breed a famine. . . . People would starve to death with barrels of gold. . . . It is our duty to preach the gospel, gather Israel, pay our tithing, and build temples. The worst fear that I have about this people is that they will get rich in this country, forget God and his people, wax fat, and kick themselves out of the Church and go to hell. [That is a quotation!] This people will stand mobbing, robbing, poverty, and all manner of persecution, and be true. But my greater fear for them is that they cannot stand wealth; and yet they have to be tried with riches, for they will become the richest people on this earth.” [See Life of a Pioneer: Being the Autobiography of James S. Brown (Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon & Sons, 1900; New York: AMS Press, 1971), pp. 119–23, cited by Preston Nibley in Brigham Young: The Man and His Work (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1936), pp. 126–28] https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/gordon-b-hinckley_noble-pioneers/

Misc:

Stoic maxim (common in Roman Stoicism): “Adversity is the training ground of virtue; prosperity is its test.”

The Stoics were unanimous: prosperity is the real danger zone for the soul. It’s easy to be virtuous when you have nothing to lose—much harder when you have everything to protect. (Grok Summary of the topic)

Invitation: 

Do not let prosperity blind you. Find ways to remember his goodness and mercy toward you. Pride and ego are the greatest saboteurs of this work and this people. Strive to counter it, always. Write down something everyday that came from God as a gift and then thank the giver in your actions, words and prayers!  Be a gracious and humble human!