EVERYTHING is to be viewed in relation to the world to come, and eternity, and not to the present transitory order of things. Hence David prayed: “So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Ps. 90:12). It cannot be wisdom to act on the principle of Esau, who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage; yet, alas! how many are doing this today. Things of infinite and eternal value are sacrificed for the enjoyment of the pleasures of sin for a season; the soul for the gratification of the body; eternity for the evanescent joys of time; God for self; heaven with all its wealth of blessedness for the possession of earth, though it leads to an eternal hell.
When the Son of God was here, He viewed things in relation to that kingdom of glory that He would in due time set up; and declared that those who knew and followed Him, would have a place with Him in that kingdom and share in His glory.
Is that a small thing in your eyes, beloved reader? Are your eyes so blinded by the vain-glory of this world, and your heart so captivated with its joys and pleasures, that you cannot see how great the glory of the kingdom of God’s Son will be, and how enduring will be its joys and pleasures?
The Lord Jesus said: “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?”
Let those words sink down into your ears.
Then He goes on to say: “For the Son of man shall come (or is about to come) in the glory of the Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works” (Matt. 16:26-28).
Perhaps you will say, “I am profited,” Yes; you surrender your soul to Satan for the moment, and what do you gain? You gain, it may be, riches that fade and pass away; pleasures that leave an aching void; honor that becomes a burden to you in the end; the praise of men which is but a snare for your feet; sins unnumbered, too, which on your death-bed will sting your conscience, for “the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law” (1 Cor. 15:56); and after death, what then?― “the judgment”― “hell”― “outer darkness”― “weeping and gnashing of teeth”― “the lake of fire, which is the second death” (Rev. 20:11-15, 21:8).
Is this profit? Is this gain? You gain the world, the whole world if you please, but you lose your soul for eternity. It is the Esau principle of action the present for the future; time for eternity; self for God; the chains of Satan for the liberty and joy that is found in Christ, and a place in His glorious kingdom.
Friend, act on that principle in life, and you will find when you come to “the swellings of Jordan” presently, that you have in reality gained nothing, but lost everything. Your soul will be lost! LOST! LOST FOR ETERNITY!
Reader, as you love your own soul, reverse, I pray you, the principle of your life’s action. Say, Soul, I must think of your value―that you are God-given, that you exist for eternity, that there is a hell to lose and a heaven to gain. Come, friend, let us put all of this world, its very best, into the scales, and see how it stands―the world with its pleasures, honors, riches, and glory, on the one side; and your soul, and Christ, and salvation, and suffering for Christ, and eternal life, and a place in the kingdom of the Son of man, and a homo with God forever, on the other side. Let the hand of the Almighty hold up the scales, and, soul, you watch their movement. The side your soul, and Christ, and salvation are in, goes down, and the side that the world, with its boasted all, is in, goes up, and compared with the other is as the small dust of the balance.
In its moral worth it is as light as a feather compared with the infinite value of Christ and your soul.
Friend, can you barter away your soul any longer? Fling to the winds, I beseech of you, the Esau principle of action; reverse the order of your life; be converted to God, and—
“Lose not thy soul for earth’s vanities,
Lighter than air.”
Then says the Son of God, “or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” The Saviour’s meaning is plain. He means that it is of such infinite worth that the possession of the world would be as nothing to the value of the soul. Its value is beyond computation, and the world is as a little heap of dust compared to a mountain, miles high, composed of purest gold.
There is but one place where you obtain a proper estimate of the value of your soul. It is not in the round of pleasures of this world, but it is in the presence of that scene of all scenes, that sight of all sights― “the death of the cross.”
At Calvary you see the price that God puts upon your soul. Witness who it is that hangs there: the Son of God. See the agonies of that blessed Holy One. Hear that heart-rending cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “See, the nails have rent those hands and feet that were ever wont to perform deeds and run on errands of love. And behold the spear thrust into His side, and the water and the blood flowing forth. And on this, amid that scene of darkness and death, hear the dying Victor’s cry, “It is finished!” and He drops His holy head and dies.
And what is this?
It is the price that God puts upon your soul.
Again do you ask: Why all this woe and suffering for One so holy and so divine?
IT WAS TO SAVE YOUR, PRECIOUS SOUL.
O friend, in reaching the cross, and Him who hung there, but is now risen and glorified, and “is about to come in the glory of his Father with his angels,” you reach a Saviour indeed. If you have not gone to Him before, go to Him now, today, and tell Him that you want to be saved, and He will cave you. He will not cast you out. He will receive the worst of sinners, even the devil’s castaways. Come, then, at once. Do not miss the grand opportunity of being saved now, and the privilege of suffering for Him in this world where He is rejected, and a place in the glory of His kingdom by and by. Let it be said in that day that you were not ashamed of Him and His words in the midst of this wicked and adulterous generation, but that you confessed Him and did not deny Him.
Better far to go unnamed and unnoticed here, and have a place in the glorious kingdom of the Son of man, than to possess all here — crowns and kingdoms and wealth that pass away―and lose your soul in hell forever. Byron, with all that he possessed and enjoyed of this world, said at the close of his life―
“My days are in the yellow leaf,
The flower, the fruit of life is gone,
The worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone.”
Awful reflection! Oh, “What dual a man, give in exchange for his soul” (Matt. 16:20).
E. A.