By the Editor the Tragedy of the Soul
EVERYONE has a soul—an immortal soul. Bodies decay, souls live. When the complex machinery of our being ceases its action, when heart and pulse are still, and the “earthly house of our tabernacle is dissolved,” the soul still lives, and will live through eternal ages. More than one thousand million immortal souls are in this world today. Every year millions pass from time to eternity, to spend that eternity either in happiness or misery. Our individuality never perishes. Adam and Eve still live, and every one of their descendants. Generations pass away—the world is a vast sepulcher—and the seas hold their millions of dead. And beyond the barriers of time, century after century, countless millions have made their way, borne onward by a force they could not control, the moving of the years, slow and irresistible, but unceasing. This vast progress of the human race from time to eternity has never been stayed from the moment Adam and Eve left Paradise until now, and it never will until Time shall be no more. Eternity like a mighty magnet draws all to its embrace, and the power of its drawing can never be held back one moment.
As a boy that eternity so possessed me that I wept when I was told that at every tick of the clock a soul in China went into eternity. It seemed as if the passing of that mighty host of souls cast a shadow over my soul, and that a cry rang across the seas to me in England to go and tell them of the Saviour. I cried to God to let me go, but I could not, God had work for me at home. But the “regions beyond” stretch away before us vast and illimitable, and the pitiful petition appeals, or should appeal, to every Christian today, “Come over and help us.” They seem to say, many of them, from the darkness of their condition, “We have no Bible, no Saviour, no hope.”
Yes, the greater part of the world is unevangelized yet. I have heard in the East the Muezzin’s cry, calling Mohammedans to prayer. I have heard the service drums sounding from morning to night in Buddhist Temples. I have seen priests tearing flowers to pieces in the Temple of Vishnu, and watched the worship of the Japanese at their Shinto shrines. Oh! the tragedy of it all. Millions upon millions without Christ. I have stood on Olivet, and thought of the Saviour weeping over the unbelief of Jerusalem. I have stood on Calvary and thought, of the tragedy of that lonely death of the “Man of Sorrows—the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” At Bethany I have lingered and thought of His ascension into heaven and the message He left behind Him, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
How has that mandate been obeyed? We read with wonder of the vast missionary journeys of Paul—the man who loved the Gospel more than any, I think, save his Master. Are there not millions today, who, dying in darkness, and living in the gloom of ignorance, could say, “no man cared for my soul”? Have we spoken of Christ in our homes-in the street in which we live? Have we made a missionary journey across the road to bring a sinner to Christ? And yet the pierced hand is outstretched over the world today. “Go and preach” is the Master’s word.
Perhaps some sinner may have to say of us on their deathbed, “You knew I was unsaved! Why did you not drag me to the Cross and make me see my Saviour? God was love, and you never told me of it. Christ Jesus died, but you never told me He died for me. You never cared for my soul, or you would never have left me alone.”
God have mercy upon us for our lukewarmness where immortal souls are concerned. Oh! for a Peter to bring Pentecost to the world today. Oh! for a Paul to charm men with his glorious testimony to the love of Christ. Who is to tell of the Saviour but the saved? What are many of the saved doing today? They are busy with controversies—and the world wants Christ.
The pride of intellect, and the strife of tongues will not save mankind. The tragedy of the human soul is a real thing and it is all around us. We cannot shirk our Christian responsibility to the unsaved. Some tell us, “God will save His own without preaching.” Then why did the Saviour say “Go and preach,” unless He meant men to preach? Why then did Paul say, “For Christ sent me... to preach the Gospel”? Why did he say to Timothy, “I charge thee therefore, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His Kingdom: Preach the Word...”? and to the Philippians “that they were to hold forth the Word of Life”? Why was Peter’s sermon and its result on the Day of Pentecost recorded?
We may seek to make ourselves as comfortable as we can in our silence, and perchance opposition, but God will hold us each in our measure responsible for the souls around us. Think of the awful need of the souls of men today—think of the spreading of anarchy among the nations!
Think of the impossibility of a soul being saved without faith in Christ. Think of the value of the soul. A soul won for Christ becomes a power in the world for the Saviour.
There is a want in every city and town and hamlet for Christians to meet together to pray for the unsaved around them. Many a far-reaching revival has been begun by the believing prayers of two or three. The Word of God must be circulated far and wide, not only at home, but across the seas.
If we realize the solemnity of the days in which we live, we shall never rest until the Lord sends us forth to work for Him.
The Lord is coming; at any moment we may be in heaven. The last Gospel Call is going out to the world. Vast movements of evil are passing across the earth, but the power of the Spirit of God is engaged in filling heaven with sinners saved by grace.