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Count the Cost, November 11
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose
his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For 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?
Mark
8:35-37
.
The Lord Jesus ... lifts up His voice to break the spell of infatuation
upon human minds and asks the momentous question, “What shall it profit
a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” ...
Disease and death are in our world, and how little we know when
our individual probation shall end.... How many, if now called to render
up their accounts, would do it with grief, regret, and remorse that their
God-given probationary time was so fully employed in self-serving! The
eternal interests of the soul have been fearfully neglected for unimportant
affairs. The mind is kept busy, just as Satan designs it shall be, with selfish
interests and nothing of any consequence, and time may be passing into
eternity without a fitting up for heaven at all.
What can be compared with the loss of a human soul? It is a question
which every soul must determine for himself—whether to gain the treasures
of eternal life or to lose all because of his neglect to make God and His
righteousness his first and only business. Jesus, the world’s Redeemer,...
looks with grief upon the large number of those who profess to be Christians
who are not serving Him but themselves. They scarcely think of eternal
realities, notwithstanding He calls their attention to the rich reward awaiting
the faithful who will serve Him with their undivided affections. He brings
eternal realities within the range of their vision. He bids them to count the
cost now of being an obedient and faithful follower of Christ, and says,
“Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (
Matthew 6:24
).
He would have every individual sense his responsibility to so use his
precious time here in this world that it will be fruitful daily in good works.
This is the only worthy aim of every living mortal—to employ his God-
given faculties with endless results in view
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14
Manuscript 45, 1890
.
332