WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE IN EXCHANGE FOR YOUR SOUL? Mark 8:36
“No man can describe the loss of the soul as he should. No man can paint this dreadful picture in its true colors. You and I will never fully understand what it means to lose one’s soul until we pass through the valley of death and wake up in eternity. Then, and not until then, shall we know the value of the soul. “The value of things will change greatly in that day. The hour is coming when money, bank notes, and bonds will be worth no more than waste paper. The day is coming when our diamonds, silver and gold will be as dust in the streets. The day will dawn when houses and lands will be as worthless as a child’s worn out toys. In that day the fame, honor, and glory of this world will be worth no more than faded flowers and withered grass. “In that day a man will be willing to trade all that he knows and can imagine for the privilege of hearing one Gospel Sermon, one hour of prayer, or one verse of Scripture. In that day a man will be willing to trade all the world for one grain of faith. He will curse the day he was born! Oh, in that day of God’s wrath, what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” –Anon. Whoever said the above, how it fits the day in which we live, the day of “CHANGE”; and how it should speak to the hearts of Gospel Preachers. We should preach as “dying men to dying men, and as though we should never preach again.” Our preaching should be more fervent, our appeals more affectionate, and our importunity more urgent. We are but a few steps from the shore of eternity. Surely it is our UNBELIEF that makes the difference! It is unbelief that makes the preacher so cold in his preaching, so slothful in witnessing and so remiss in all his sacred duties. It is unbelief that chills the life and constrains the heart. It is unbelief that makes a preacher handle eternal realities with such irreverence. It is unbelief that makes him ascend with so light a step to “that awful place called the pulpit,” to deal with immortal beings about heaven and hell, and I must say this does not exclude me. Hear the appeal of an ancient divine: “I have been ready to wonder, when I have heard such weighty things delivered, how people can forbear crying out in the congregation; much more how they can rest till they have gone to their ministers and learned what they should do. Oh that heaven and hell should work no more upon men! Oh that everlastingness should work no more! Oh, how can you forbear when you are alone to think, what it is to be everlasting in joy or torment! I wonder that such thoughts do not break your sleep; and that they come not in your mind when you are about your labor! I wonder how you can almost do nothing else; how you can have any quietness in your minds; how you can eat or drink or rest till you have got some ground of everlasting consolations!” “What would you give in exchange for your soul? Oh, if today God should call you away What would you give in exchange for your soul?”
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