her to yourselves or to God. The title-deeds have been passed over
to "the world, the flesh, and the devil," but the purchaser has never
paid up. "Ye have sold yourselves for nought."

When a man passes himself over to the world he expects to get some
adequate compensation. He has heard the great things that the world
does for a man, and he believes it. He wants two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. That will be horses, and houses, and a
summer-resort, and jolly companionship. To get it he parts with his
physical health by overwork. He parts with his conscience. He parts
with much domestic enjoyment. He parts with opportunities for literary
culture. He parts with his soul. And so he makes over his entire
nature to the world. He does it in four installments. He pays down the
first installment, and one fourth of his nature is gone. He pays down
the second installment, and one half of his nature is gone. He pays
down the third installment, and three quarters of his nature are gone;
and after many years have gone by he pays down the fourth installment,
and, lo! his entire nature is gone. Then he comes up to the world and
says: "Good-morning. I have delivered to you the goods. I have passed
over to you my body, my mind, and my soul, and I have come now to
collect the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars." "Two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars?" says the world. "What do you mean?" "Well,"
you say, "I come to collect the money you owe me, and I expect you now
to fulfill your part of the contract." "But," says the world, "_I have
failed. I am bankrupt._ I can not possibly pay that debt. I have not
for a long while expected to pay it." "Well," you then say, "give me
back the goods." "Oh, no," says the world, "they are all gone. I can
not give them back to you." And there you stand on the confines of
eternity, your spiritual character gone, staggering under the
consideration that "you have sold yourself for nought."

I tell you the world is a liar; it does not keep its promises. It is a
cheat, and it fleeces everything it can put its hands on. It is a
bogus world. It is a six-thousand-year-old swindle. Even if it pays
the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for which you contracted,
it pays them in bonds that will not be worth anything in a little
while. Just as a man may pay down ten thousand dollars in hard cash
and get for it worthless scrip--so the world passes over to you the
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars