But just in proportion as we multiply the 'attractions of earth' - is the danger of our making it our all and leaving heaven out of sight.
This is now affecting the church, and the godly and self-denying spirit of our practical Christianity is in danger of being weakened, and of degenerating into a
soft and sickly wastefulness.
Elegance, extravagance, luxurious entertainments and expensive feasts, are beginning to corrupt the simplicity that is in Christ.
And amid our sumptuous homes, gorgeous furniture, costly dress, and mirthful decorations, - professors of religion are setting their affections too much upon things upon earth, and turning away from the glory of the cross...to the vanities of the world!
Akin to this, is a continually augmenting desire after amusement, for which droves are constantly yearning.
A love for pleasure, diversion and recreation, is an ever-increasing appetite - and there are those who are ever ingenious and ever busy to supply its demands.
Men are continually inventing new kinds of diversions and endless devices, to blot from the mind all considerations of eternity.
The people, it is affirmed, must have recreation.
Be it so...but let it be of a healthful kind - a taste for wholesome literature, quiet home enjoyments, and, above all, the sacred delights of true piety.
Who will call them off from these 'painted nothings', and make them feel how vain are all these things?
Who will set up a barricade against the billows of this ocean of worldly-mindedness, and guard the piety of the church from being entirely swept away
~John Angell James~