J. C. Ryle quoted Whitefield about the social effects of the gospel:

The gospel keeps many a person from going to jail and from being hanged, if it does not keep him from hell (Thoughts For Young Men, Kindle edition, locations 632-633).

True.

But what needs to be stressed today, especially for young preachers is this: Yes, but as soon as the gospel is preached mainly for these temporal ends it will lose even that power.

Only by keeping the eternal goal of the Gospel primary do we keep the temporal goals at all.