HAVE you ever sat down and seriously considered the fact that you have a soul? Have you asked yourself how much it is worth?
At what price does God value it? It is of greater value than the whole material world, He says, for “what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul” (Mark 8:3636For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36).) Nothing can be found precious enough to barter for it, since He adds, “or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Nor can “silver and gold” suffice to redeem it, for nothing corruptible can equal its price (1 Peter 1:1818Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; (1 Peter 1:18)).
From time immemorial it has been known that men have souls, and that they are of intrinsic and eternal worth. Why did the Egyptians and other nations bestow such care on embalming and entombing the dead? Because they believed in the soul returning to the body; a representation of this may be seen in the British Museum — a winged soul revisiting a mummied body — the copy of a picture or papyrus found in Egypt. In the same room is another remarkable cartoon from the same source. Among other scenes we may behold the soul of a man named Ani being weighed in presence of the false god Osiris, the judge of the dead. It may remind us of Daniel’s message to the impious king, “Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.” How solemn it is to think of standing before the true “God, the Judge of all”! Soul and body will be together then.
But again let us ask, What is the worth of a human soul? Have we any means of knowing? If anyone has ever paid a ransom or redemption price for a soul, that would give us some clue to determining its worth, would it not? The Psalmist says (49) that man cannot do this: “None can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him; for the redemption of their soul is precious.” Indeed it is! It costs so much that only God can pay the price, and he goes on to say, “God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave.” What men cannot do, God has done. “I have found a ransom,” He has said, “He will deliver his soul from going down into the pit” (Job 33). So that we may say that souls have been redeemed by God, “purchased with the blood of His own Son.”
It is a marvelous story. The price that God has paid to redeem from sin and death and hell such poor vile sinners as we are is the blood of His beloved Son! Who else could have wrought such a redemption — could have conceived such a plan?
Many years ago a rich man of the world was pleasing himself by conducting a recent acquaintance over his estate. As they were returning to the house the visitor remarked, “You have a nice place here, but tell me, ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’” Ah! his soul — he had not given much time to thinking of that — he had prided himself on being all right, and he was very religious too. But that night he entered into what the feelings of that other rich man would have been had he known that God was about to say to him, “This night thy soul shall be required of thee,” and when morning dawned he was a saved — a newborn soul. Someone — God’s Son — had paid the ransom price for him too!
“Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe.”
Not far from the village where the rich man dwelt, and near about the same time, in another village, there lived a wretched character, belying in every way the rural and beautiful scenes of nature around him. Do you remember the story of the man under Satan’s power (Luke 8) who “had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house”? Yet he had a soul (and Jesus knew its value), and so had the wretched character who so very closely resembled him. Henry Cox (or Hen Cox, as he was familiarly called) rarely did any work, and unless sitting in the public-house, seemed to pass his time in wandering about, often with an open knife in his hand, to the terror of all the children of the neighborhood. It is needless to go into details concerning his miserable life. Suffice it to say that apparently no one ever dreamed of doing him any good, and that his degraded appearance and tattered garments caused most to shun him. But there was one who had recently come to reside in the village who began to pray earnestly for him. She realized that poor Hen Cox had a soul, and she knew something of its worth — hers had been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ — has yours, dear reader?
So one Sunday afternoon she sallied forth to seek Hen Cox. She turned her steps towards his mother’s cottage, for there he lived, if indeed you could say that of a man who more often slept under a haystack than in a bed. For several Sundays she searched in vain, and when at last she succeeded, oaths and brutal ways were her only reward, for truly he was more like an animal than a man. But she was not weary in well-doing — you must remember she was working for love — she loved the One who loved her, and had done so much for her, and whose blood had washed her sins away.
“I would not work my soul to save,
For that my Lord hath done,
But I would work like any slave
From love to God’s dear Son.”
By degrees poor Hen Cox used to watch for her coming. At first he may have had only the vague feeling that somebody cared for his welfare, and gradually he began to wash and clothe himself in readiness for her visits, but by-and-by he listened as she read and talked to him of Jesus as you would to a child, and there was joy in heaven over the lost sheep that was found. Then Hen Cox was seen at a gospel meeting, and in time he was heard to pray at a little village prayer meeting. To the children who had been wont to flee at his approach, it was at first somewhat difficult to sit calmly in the same room with him, but soon they realized that he whom no man had been able to tame was now “clothed and in his right mind.”
“Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.”
Both Hen Cox and his dear benefactor are now with the Lord — he as a brand plucked out of the fire, showing indeed “how great things” God can do, while she will shine like a star forever to His praise. She turned poor Hen Cox and yet many others to righteousness. May we follow her faith! (1 Cor. 11:11Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1).)
Dear reader, once more — your soul — is it saved!
H. L. H.