SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9166, 22 September 1888, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

LOSS AND GAIN.

[by THE REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D.] " What shall it profit a man, if ho shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"— viii., iW. I am accustomed to stand before an audience of bargain-makers. There may be men in all occupations before me, yet the vast majority of you are engaged from Monday morning to Saturday night in the store. In many of your families across the breakfasttable and tea-table are discussed questions of loss and gain. You are every day asking yourself, " What is the value of this? what is the value of that?" You would not think of giving something of greater for that which is of lesser value. If you had a property that was worth £15,000, you would not sell it for £4000. You are intelligent in all matters of bargain-making. Are you as wise in the things tnat pertain to the matters of the soul? Christ adapted His instructions to the circumstances of those to whom He spoke. When He talked to fishermen, He spoke of the Gospel net. To the farmers He said, " A sower went forth to sow." To the shepherds he told the parable of the lost sheep. And am I not right, when speaking to an audience made up of bargain-makers, that I address them in the words of my text, asking, " What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? I propose, as far as possible, to estimate and compare the value of

TWO PROPERTIES. First, I have to say that the world is a very grand property. Its flowers are God's thoughts in bloom. Its rocks are God's thoughts in stone. Its dewdrops are God's thoughts in pearl. This world is God's child —a wayward child, indeed; it has wandered off through the heavens. But about 1888 years ago, one Christmas night, God sent out a sister world to call that wanderer back, and it hung over Bethlehem only long enough to (jet the promise of the wanderer's return, and now that lost world, with soft feet of light, comes treading back through the heavens. The hills, how beautiful they billow up the edge of the wave white with the foam of crocuses! How beautiful the rainbow, the arched, bridge on which Heaven and earth come and talk to each other in tears, after the storm is over ! How bright the oar of the saffron cloud that rows across the deep sea of Heaven ! How gently the harebell tolls its fragrance on the air ! There may be grander, swarthier, larger worlds than this; but I think that this is a most exquisite world mignonette on the bosom of immensity! "Oh, 1 ' you say, "take my soul! give me that world ! lam willing to exchange. It is so beautiful a world, so sweet a world, so grand a world !" But let us look more minutely into the value of this world. You will not buy property unless you can get

A GOOD TITLE to it. After you have looked at the property, and found that it suits, you send an attorney to the public office to examine the books of deeds, of mortgages, of judgments, and of liens. He decides whether the title is good before you will have anything to do with it. There might be a splendid property, in every way exactly suited to you: but, if you cannot get a good title, you will not take it. Now, lam here this morning to say that it is impossible to get a good title to this world. In the very year I settle down upon it as a permanent possession, I may be driven away* from it. Aye, in five minutes after I give up my soul for the world, I may have to part with the world ; and what kind of a title do you call that? There is only one way in which I can hold an earthly possession, and that is through the senses. All beautiful sights through the eye, but the eye may be blotted out; all captivating sounds through the ear, but my oar may be deafened; all lusciousness of fruits and viands through mv taste, but my taste may be destroyed; all appreciation of culture and of art through my mind, but I may lose my mind. In courts of law, if you want to get a man off a property, you must serve upon him a writ of ejectment, giving him a certain time to vacate the premises. But when Death comes to us, and serves a writ of ejectment, he does not give us one second of forewarning. He says, " Off of this place ! You have no right any longer in the possession." We might cry out, " I gave you one hundred thousand dollars for that propertythe plea would be of no avail. We might say, We have a deed for that property;" the plea would be of no avail. Death is blind ; he cannot see a seal, and cannot read an indenture. Your next question is ABOUT INSURANCE. You would not be silly enough to buy a large warehouse that could not possibly be insured. Now, I ask you what assurance can you give me that this world is not going to bo burned up '! Absolutely none. Geologists tell lis that it is already on fire ; the heart of the world is one great living coal; it is just like a ship on fire at sea, the dames not bursting out because the hatches are kept down. Astronomers have swept their telescopes through the sky, and have found out that there have been thirteen worlds, in the last two centuries, that have disappeared. At first they looked just like other worlds. Then they got deeply red ; they were on fire. Then they got ashen, showing that they were burned down. Then they disappeared, showing that even the ashes were scattered ; and, if the geologist be right in his prophecy, then our world is to go in the same way. And yet you want me to exchange my soul for it. Ah, no; it is a world that is burning now. Suppose you brought an insurance agent to look at your property for the purpose of giving you a policy upon it; and, while he stood in the front of the house, he should say, "That house is on fire now in the basement," you could not get any insurance upon it. You may talk about this world as though it were a safe investment, as though you could get some insurance upon it, when, down in the basement, it is on fire.

NO END OF TROUBLE. I remark, also, that this world is a property with which everybody who has taken it as a possession has had trouble. Now, I know a large reach of land that is not built on. I ask what is the matter, and they reply that everybody who has had anything to do with that property got into trouble about it. It is just so with this world; everybody that has had anything to do with it, as a possession, has been in perplexity. How was it with Lord Byron ? Did he not sell his immortal soul for the purpose of getting the world? Was he satisfied with the possession ? _ Alas! alas! the poem graphically describes his case, when it says :— Drank every cup of joy, Drank every trump of fame; Drank early, deeply drank, Drank draughts which common millions might have quenched, Then died of thirst because there was no more to

drink. i So it has been with men who had better i ambition. Thackeray, one of the most j genial and lovable souls, after he had won | the applause of all intelligent lands through ! his wonderful genius, sits down in a res- ; taurant in Paris, looks to the other end of | the room, and wonders whose that forlorn | and wretched face is. Rising up after j awhile, he finds that it is Thackeray in the ! mirror. Oh, yes, this world is a cheat. : Talk about a man gaining the world ! No I man ever gained it, or the hundred-thou- ! sandth part of it. Here is a man who has ; had a large estate for forty or fifty years, j He lies down to die. You say, " That man i is worth millions and millions of dollars." | Is he? You call up a surveyor, with his | compass and chains, and you say, " There is | a property extending three miles in one | direction, and three miles in another direction." Is that the way to measure that j man's property? No. You do not want j any surveyor with his compass and chains. That is not the way you want to measure that man's property now, It is an undertaker that you need, who will come, and put his finger in his vest pocket, and take out a tape-line, and he will measure five feet nine inches one way and two feet and a-half the other way. That; is the man's property. Oh, no, I forgot; not so much as that; for he does not own even the place in which he j lies in the cemetery. The deed to that j belongs to the executors and the heirs. Oh, j what a property you propose to give me for my soul! There is the world now. I shall say no i more about it. Make up your mind for j yourself, as I shall, before God, have to j make up my mind for myself about the : I value of this world. I cannot afford to j 1 make a mistake for my soul, and you cannot i

afford to make a mistake for your soul Now, let us look at , ' r 0111

THE OTHER PROPERTY, the soul. We cannot, make a bargain with out seeing the comparative value Th~ sou How shall 1 estimate the value of it* well, by its exquisite organisation It the most wonderful piece of mechanism ever put together. Machinery is of value in rim portion as it is mighty and silent at tv same time. .You look at the engine and tii» machinery in the Mint, and, as you see * performing its wonderful work, you will i! surprised to find how silently it goes. \i e chinery that roars and tears soon destrmt itself; but silent machinery is often mnlf effective. Now, so it is with the soul "? man, with all its tremendous faculties-', moves in silence. Judgment, without a -iv racket, lifting its scales ; memory, witlW any noise, bringing down all its treasure, conscience, taking its judgment seat with, i any excitement; the understanding and will all doing their work. Velocity, m a ;L h 6 might; but silence—silence. You listen J; the door of your heart. You can hear , sound. The soul is all quiet. It is so locate an instrument that no human hand touch it. You break a bone, and Jit! splinters and bandages the surgeon sets it the eye becomes inflamed, the apothecar-r ! wash cools it; but a soul off the track f 3 balanced, no human power can readjust it" With one sweep of its wing, it circle -' universe and overvaults the thrm,.. - God. Why, in the hour of death the ii" so mighty, it throws aside the bodv though it were a toy. It drives hack mp t* cal skill as impotent. It breaks through' th circle of loved ones who stand arounV ♦> dying couch. With one leap it sprint h!f yond star and moon and sun, and chasms f immensity. _ Oil, it is a soul superior to material things ! No fire can consume it no floods can drown it ; no rocks can crush it; no walls can impede it; no time can it; no walls can impede it; no timg can r-\ haust it. It wants 110 bridge on which t cross a chasm It wants no plummet with which to sound a depth. A soul .* 0 m-hrv so swift, so silent, must be a priceless soul ' "MY CUP runneth OVER.'

I calculate the value of the soul a bo laits capacity for happiness. You cannot test the full power of the soul for happiness in this world. How much power the soul In - here to find enjoyment in friendships! but" oh, the grander friendships for the soul iii the skies! How sweet the tiowers here! but how much sweeter they will be there' Christ is glorious to our souls now, but how much grander our appreciation after a while! A conqueror comes back after the battle! He has been fighting for us. He comes 111,011 the platform. He has one arm in a slinu and the other arm holds a crutch. As he mounts the platform, oh, the enthusiasm of the audience ! They say, " That man fouLrhc for us, and imperilled his life for us;'' and how wild the huzza that follows huzza' When the Lord Jesus Christ shall at last stand out before the multitudes of the redeemed of Heaven, and we meet Him face to face, and feel that He was wounded iu the head, the hands, the feet, the side for us methinks we will be overwhelmed. We will sit some time gazing in silence, until some leader amidst the white-robed choir shall lift the baton of light and give the signal that it is time to wake the sons of jubilee; and all Heaven then will break forth into,' "Hosanna! hosanna! hosanna! Worthy is the Lamb that was slain."

I calculate further the value of the soul by the price that has been paid for it. In St. Petersburg there is a diamond that the Government paid two hundred thousand dollars for. " Well," you say, " it must have been very valuable, or the Government would not; have paid two hundred thousand dollars lot it" I want to see what your soul is worth, by seeing what has been paid for it. For that immortal soul the richest blood that was ever shed, the deepest groan that was ever uttered, all the griefs of earth compressed into one tear, all the sufferings of earth gathered into one rapier of pain and struck through His holy heart. Does it not imply tremendous value? A soul so bought, so equipped, so provided for, must be a priceless, a majestic, a tremendous soul.

WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES. Now, you have seen the two properties— the world, the soul. The one perishable, the other immortal. One unsatisfying, the other capable of ever-increasing felicity. Will you trade, trade even ? Remember, it is the only investment you can make. If a man sell a bill of goods worth 5000dols, and he is cheated out of it, he may get oQOOdols somewhere else; but a man who invests his sou!, invests all. Losing that, he loses all. Saving that, he saves all. In the light of ray text, it seems to me as if you were this morning offering your soul to the highest bidder; and I hear you say, "What is bid for it, my deathless spirit? What is bid for it?" Satan says, " I'll bid the rid." You say, " Begone ! that is no equivalent. .Sell my soul for the world ? No I .Begone! But there is someone else in the audience rot so wise as that. He says, " What is bid tor my immortal soul ?" Satan says, " I'll id the world." " The world Going at that, going at that, going! Gone!" Gone for ever!

Well, there are many who s?r, " I will not sell my soul for the world. I uiul the oriel is an unsatisfying portion." What, then, will you do with your soul? Someone whispers here, "I will give my soul to Christ." That is the wisest resolution you ever made. Will you give it to Christ? When? To-morrow? No; now. I congratulate you, if you have come to such a decision. Oh, if this morning the eternal Spirit of God would come down upon tins audience and show you the vanity of this world, and the immense importance of Christ's religion, and the infinite value of your own immortal souls, what a house this would be! what an hour, what a moment; this would be ! JESUS DIED TO SAVE T'S ALL. I was reading of a sailor who had just got ashore, and was telling about his last experience at sea. He said " The last time I crossed the ocean we had a terrific time. After we had been out three or four days, the machinery got disarranged, and the steam began to escape; and the captain, gathering the people and the crew 011 deck, said, 'Unless someone shall go down, and shut off that steam, and arrange that machinery at the peril of his life, we must all be destroyed.' He was not willing to go down himself. No one seemed willing. The passengers gathered at one end of the steamer waiting for their fate. The captain said, "I give you a last warning. If there is no one willing to imperil his life, and go down and fix that machinery, we must all be lost. 1 A plain sailor said, ' I'll go, sir;' and he wrapped himself in a piece of coarse canvas, and went down. He was gone but a few moments, when the escaping steam stopped, and the machinery was corrected. The captain cried out to the passengers, ' All saved ! Let us go down below and see what has become of the poor fellow.' They went down. There he lay dead." Vicarious suffering ! Died for all ! Do you suppose that those people on that ship ever can fonret that poor fellow? "No!" they say: "it was through his sacrifice I got ashore." The time came when our whole race must die unless someone should endure torture and sorrow and shame. Who shall come to the rescue? Shall it be one of the seraphim? Not one. One of the cherubim? Js'ot one. Shall it be an inhabitant of some pure, tinfallen world? Not one. Then Christ said, " Lo ! I come to do Thy will, 0 God;'' and He went down the dark stairs of our sin ana wretchedness, misery and woe, and He stopped the peril, and He died that you ana I might be free. Oh, the love, the endurance, the horrors of the sacrifice ! shall not our souls this morning go out toward Him, saving, "Lord Jesus Christ, take my soul. Thou art worthy to have it. Thou hast died to save it." God help you tins morning rightly to cipher out this sum m Gospel arithmetic : "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, ana lose his own soul?"

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