Eton your Flesh like Fire

I spent a little time in Eton this summer, the rather small, upmarket town across the Thames from Windsor. The place oozed wealth, not least because of the famous public (ie private) school that dominates its skyline. Eton charges up to £48,500 per year, but for that princely investment, your child is likely to do rather well in life. That said, if you can spare that kind of cash each year, your child is likely to do okay wherever he is schooled. Twenty British Prime Ministers have been educated there, including our current one, as well as Prime Ministers from France and Thailand. A whole of heap of dukes, earls and marquises have darkened its doors as well as the heirs of global royalty and the scions of international oligarchy.

While mooching about, I went to find a public convenience. In the relatively grotty carpark to the toilets' rear, was a rather nonchalantly parked Rolls Royce. I, being both poor and vulgar, felt the urge to photograph it. How its wealthy owner, peering down from a nearby building, must have smirked with satisfaction.

James warns in chapter 5:

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire.

I would prefer not to have a Roller if it meant it wasn't a witness against me at my trial. If only those privileged young men and their wealthy families knew what little good their educations and possessions will do them when Christ calls them to account!

Poor King Henry VI, who founded the posh school back in the fifteenth-century, lost both his crown and riches only five miles from our chapel.

He who trusts in his riches will fall,
But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf. Proverbs 11:28