By Anil Melwin Machado
Matthew 16:26 For 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?
How little attention does this infinitely important subject gain in the world! How few consider the salvation of their precious souls, as the great business of life! You who are reading these lines, did you ever consider it? Did you ever lay it to heart, and are you acting accordingly? If this is the case, the following language will express your heart-felt convictions:
" I have a soul as well as a body. My soul must live for ever in happiness or misery. It is capable of pain or pleasure inconceivably greater than my body. It is a matter of comparitively little importance whether I am in abject poverty or the greatest affluence, during the few years I am to continue in the present world; whether I am respected or despised by my fellow mortals; whether my body is sickly or healthy, painful or at ease. These are matters of small consequence; death is certain, is near. 'Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust,' must soon be pronounced over my lifeless body. In a dying moment, if I could call the whole world my own, what good would it do me? What comfort could it afford me?
But whether my soul is to be happy or miserable; the companion of angels and saints made perfect around the throne of God, or doomed to weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, with devils and damned spirits in hell, where the worm never dieth and where the fire never will be quenched; this is the momentous inquiry I ought to make. To escape from the wrath to come, and secure an inheritance among the saints in light, ought to be my great concern. Is it so? Which world is most in my thoughts, this or the next? What am I most anxious about? Am I not often inquiring, what shall I eat, what shall I drink, or wherewithal shall I be clothed? But when did I seriously inquire, 'What shall I do to be saved?' If I have no prevailing concern about my soul, I may be certain my state is bad, and its danger awfully great."
How little attention does this infinitely important subject gain in the world! How few consider the salvation of their precious souls, as the great business of life! You who are reading these lines, did you ever consider it? Did you ever lay it to heart, and are you acting accordingly? If this is the case, the following language will express your heart-felt convictions:
" I have a soul as well as a body. My soul must live for ever in happiness or misery. It is capable of pain or pleasure inconceivably greater than my body. It is a matter of comparitively little importance whether I am in abject poverty or the greatest affluence, during the few years I am to continue in the present world; whether I am respected or despised by my fellow mortals; whether my body is sickly or healthy, painful or at ease. These are matters of small consequence; death is certain, is near. 'Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust,' must soon be pronounced over my lifeless body. In a dying moment, if I could call the whole world my own, what good would it do me? What comfort could it afford me?
But whether my soul is to be happy or miserable; the companion of angels and saints made perfect around the throne of God, or doomed to weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, with devils and damned spirits in hell, where the worm never dieth and where the fire never will be quenched; this is the momentous inquiry I ought to make. To escape from the wrath to come, and secure an inheritance among the saints in light, ought to be my great concern. Is it so? Which world is most in my thoughts, this or the next? What am I most anxious about? Am I not often inquiring, what shall I eat, what shall I drink, or wherewithal shall I be clothed? But when did I seriously inquire, 'What shall I do to be saved?' If I have no prevailing concern about my soul, I may be certain my state is bad, and its danger awfully great."
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