d came into this sin-cursed world to suffer and die
that he might redeem us from death.
The Church of to-day needs a new vision of the worth of a soul. We need
to stand beside Calvary and see the price that was paid there for human
life.
John Keble, the poet-preacher of the English Church, said that the
salvation of one soul is worth more than the framing of the Magna Charta
of a thousand worlds.
It was meditation upon the words of the memory verse of this study that
fired the souls of Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier with a holy
enthusiasm to rescue the perishing multitudes. Had their successors and
disciples been, filled with the same enthusiasm, and kept themselves
free from the machinations of politics, they would have long since
evangelized the world, and Jesuitism would not have been "the scandal of
Christianity."
STUDY VI.
THE DEATH OF A SOUL.
Memory Verse: "Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from
the error of his way shall save a soul from death."--(James v, 20.)
Scripture for Meditation: Luke xvi, 19-31.
What is death--the death of a soul? What is it to die eternally? In the
passage for meditation our Lord gives us a glimpse into the realms of
death. Surely the Son of God is not trifling here; nor does he speak to
confuse. For a moment the curtain is drawn, and we see what is actually
transpiring in the future world. In these days there is a disposition in
some quarters to make light of the future punishment of the wicked. Some
preachers are dumb upon the awful punishment of sin, or preach only half
a gospel, saying, as Bishop Warren puts it, "You must repent, as it
were; be converted, in a measure; or you will go to hell, so to speak."
But Christ did not speak with any uncertain sound about the future
punishment of the impenitent. He is authority. Take your Bible and read
such passages as Matt. xxv, 41, 46; Matt. viii, 12; Luke xvi, 23; John
v, 29.
In the light of these words, we must see that the death of a soul means
eternal separation from God, from mercy, and from heaven.
And yet how indifferent we are concerning the unsaved multitudes all
about us who are drifting into a hopeless eternity. The Church needs a
vision like that of the little lad in Olive Schreiner's "Story of a
South African Farm," who, waking at midnight, sees multitudes drifting
over the precipice into eternal night, and throws himself on his face on
the floor, crying out in the agony o
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