An accomplished barrister sat at his desk scanning the pages of an important “brief.” He had to appear before the court and “defend” the case of a wealthy client. While thus engaged, he received a message that an aged relative of his was supposed to be dying, and greatly desired to see him. Leaving his room, he hastened to catch the last coach for his native town, where he arrived late, and just in time to see his aged friend in life. Grasping his hand tightly, the lips of the dying lady moved, and bending down he heard the words― “Henry, I beseech you, do not lose your soul.” These were the last words she uttered; in a few minutes she was in Eternity. Henry passed a restless night; he could not dismiss the dying whispers of his aged friend, whose voice he would never hear again on earth. In the still hours of the night the words― “Henry, I beseech you, do not lose your soul”―sounded again and again in his ears, as from the eternal world. He reviewed his past life. There was nothing outwardly wrong; no glaring sin, no debauchery or ungodly living. But it was all for self. His business, his pleasures, his enjoyment of the world filled it up. There was no time for God, or his soul, or eternity. He was making money, his name was prominent in his profession, his gifts were acknowledged, he was gaining the world, but without doubt he was losing his soul. And there are thousands doing the same. They Jive for self; they die at ease; they wake up in hell. Yes, if God speaks the truth they are damned forever. Why? Simply because they lived for self, for the world, and forget God. They cared not for Christ, they had no time, no desire for eternal things. So they passed into eternity as they lived in time, without God, and without a title to heaven.
Next day the barrister stood in his accustomed place, dressed in his robe, his brief in his hand, pleading his clients case. But his thoughts were on another scene. He was thinking of that coming day when he would stand before the Judge of all the earth, with no one to plead his cause. During an interval, he sought a quiet room, and there alone with God in these strange surroundings, he cast himself as a guilty sinner upon Christ, and was saved for eternity on the spot. When he appeared again in the court, a new luster sparkled in his eye; the burden had rolled from his heart, he stood before God accepted in Christ, and at peace. The same day he boldly and firmly took his place before the world, as a son and saint of God, cast in his lot with a few despised and lowly followers of the Lamb, and when it became known that the accomplished lawyer had been converted, there was great wonder among the townsfolk. For several years he continued witnessing for Christ among his former associates, and publicly preaching the Gospel to large crowds, and then he relinquished his profession and gave himself with all his energies to the spread of God’s Gospel. What the accomplished lawyer needed, you need my friend―that is Salvation. Without Christ and His gift of life eternal, you are poor enough, and in the end you wil1 be an eternal loser. I would ring the dying woman’s message, the words that aroused the young lawyer, in your ears this day — “Do not lose your soul.”