A—, a light-hearted, merry girl of about seventeen, was asked to go and hear an evangelist who was visiting the town of P—. She made excuse, that as it was Easter Monday she did not intend spending it in that fashion. However, after much entreaty, she reluctantly consented to go. The preacher spoke that evening from Mark 8:36, 3736For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 37Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36‑37)— “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” He said, “I will ask you a question, What is your soul worth?” A— sat and listened. She had been brought up from infancy in the fear of God, but now, at the age of seventeen, she meant to go in for the world, which, in all its alluring brightness, was opening up before her. She meant to enjoy life cost what it might, gain a position, and go in for the riches of this world; therefore, as the words of the text rang out through the silence of the meeting, she closed her heart against them. The meeting over, A— went home, apparently as light-hearted as usual. She laughed and talked at the supper table with a great show of fun and mirth, but underneath that laughter there was an aching void, and she tried to conceal it. You may possibly know, my unsaved reader, what it is to try to laugh off the effects of some word which God has sent home to your conscience. Oh, the hollowness of such mirth!
A— tried that night to satisfy conscience by kneeling down and “saying prayers,” but it did not answer; for in the stillness of the night came the words, “What is your soul worth?” She tried to forget them in sleep, but only to awake with a start to hear again, “What is your soul worth?” She thought, “This is terrible. Am I never to get rid of this?” Still, in the silence of the night, came the words, “What is your soul worth?” “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” The crisis had come. “I cannot stand this any longer,” she said to herself. “This question has to be faced. I must decide now, either for Christ or for the world. Which shall it be?” Alone there with God, A— looked beyond the narrow limits of time out into the boundless ocean of eternity, and as she gazed onward she plainly saw there was nothing to be compared with the worth of her soul. Alone there with God she accepted His Christ, and found in His love that satisfying portion which all the world cannot give.
And now, my reader, have you faced this question, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” What is your soul worth? For what are you selling it? Is it for a little passing pleasure? Is it for money? What is it? Girl of fashion, do this world’s latest fancies stand between you and the Saviour? Consider, I beseech you, whether any of these things will avail you on your deathbed. The fashion of this world passeth away. Man of business, do your plans for profit keep you from Christ? If called hence today, will money pay your passage into heaven? Never! There is one price for your entrance there, and that is a price far above the value of anything you can offer God, even the precious blood of Christ. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” But, thank God, the blood has been shed.
Think, therefore, what that soul of yours is worth when Christ would pay such a price for its redemption, even His own lifeblood.
Despise that blood, and you must perish forever. There is no other way into eternal life. If you reject God’s way of salvation now, will the ill-chosen, trifling things of time afford you any satisfaction, as, in a lost eternity, you look back upon them? May God help you to face this question, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
R. M.