A woman in Tel Aviv recently disposed of two old mattresses to a junk dealer who drove past her house.
Fifteen minutes later she remembered that her life's fortune was hidden in one of the mattresses.
She dashed to the police, who found the dealer, slit open the mattress, and pulled out 1,300 Israeli pounds in cash, besides gold rings and other jewelry.
While the actions of this thoughtless woman makes news abroad, and people everywhere may shake their heads at her carelessness, they fail to notice a far greater folly that is perpetrated every day.
We refer to the millions who sell their priceless souls for naught— like Esau who sold his birthright for a mess of potage, never to regain it.
The Israel woman succeeded in retrieving her earthly fortune from the old mattress she had sold for a song; but when death closes the door upon a lost soul, it is lost forever.
"What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" is the weighty question posed by the Lord Jesus.
To lose your wealth is much,
To lose your health is more;
To lose your soul is such a loss
As nothing can restore.
"Every soul not already won to Jesus is lost already."