Matthew 16:26
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose
his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
How little
attention does this infinitely important subject gain in the world! How
few consider the salvation of their precious souls, as the great
business of life! You who are reading these lines, did you ever consider
it? Did you ever lay it to heart, and are you acting accordingly? If
this is the case, the following language will express your heart-felt
convictions:
" I have a soul as
well as a body. My soul must live for ever in happiness or misery. It
is capable of pain or pleasure inconceivably greater than my body. It is
a matter of comparitively little importance whether I am in abject
poverty or the greatest affluence, during the few years I am to continue
in the present world; whether I am respected or despised by my fellow
mortals; whether my body is sickly or healthy, painful or at ease. These
are matters of small consequence; death is certain, is near. 'Ashes to
ashes, and dust to dust,' must soon be pronounced over my lifeless body.
In a dying moment, if I could call the whole world my own, what good
would it do me? What comfort could it afford me?
But whether my
soul is to be happy or miserable; the companion of angels and saints
made perfect around the throne of God, or doomed to weeping, and
wailing, and gnashing of teeth, with devils and damned spirits in hell,
where the worm never dieth and where the fire never will be quenched;
this is the momentous inquiry I ought to make. To escape from the wrath
to come, and secure an inheritance among the saints in light, ought to
be my great concern. Is it so? Which world is most in my thoughts, this
or the next? What am I most anxious about? Am I not often inquiring,
what shall I eat, what shall I drink, or wherewithal shall I be clothed?
But when did I seriously inquire, 'What shall I do to be saved?' If I
have no prevailing concern about my soul, I may be certain my state is
bad, and its danger awfully great."
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