Bartering for Eternity

“Buy the truth, and sell it not.” — Proverbs xxiii., 23.

CHRIST never forgot the occupation of the people to whom he spake. Ilis metaphors and illustrations were apt to be drawn from the every-day business of the people whom he addressed. Speaking to the fishermen, he said, “The Gospel is a net let down into the sea.” Addressing himself to the farmers, he said, “A sower went forth to sow, and some of the seed fell on good ground, and some on thorny ground.” That he might attract the attention of the shepherds, he tells the parable of the lost sheep, and how the shepherd went out in the wilderness to bring it home to the fold. In order that the plainest woman that ever mixed bread might not be in doubt as to what he meant, he said, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, or yeast, which leavens the whole lump.” Indeed, there were no learned allusions, there was no profound disquisition, there was no acute analysis, in the addresses of Christ. They were merely a plain talk from a heart overflowing with love for the people, in a way that all the people understood.

There is hardly a style of mind that is not susceptible to illustration. One Sabbath I was preaching on an Indian reservation to an audience of Indians. I was trying, at that time, to impress upon them the fact that childhood generally indicated the character of manhood. They did not seem to understand until I told them that a crooked young tree makes a crooked old tree, and then their eyes flashed with

When my text says, “Buy the truth, and sell it not,” it employs an illustration which ought to attract the attention of all those directly or indirectly engaged in merchandise. Would to God that we were all as wise in mana2;in2: the matters of the soul as we are in worldly traffic! I want, this morning, to give soine of the characteristics of a wise spiritual merchant.

In the first place, I remark that the wise spiritual merchant loill not neglect to take an account of stock. We are coming on toward the 1st of January, and all our business men will be absorbed. They who ordinarily go over at eight or nine o’clock in the morning to business will go at seven; and if you happen to be on the street some night at eleven or twelve o’clock, you will meet them; and if you ask, “Why are you coming home so late?” they will say, “We are taking an account of stock.” Every wise business-man does that. Once a year all the goods must be bandied, and every shelf must be ransacked, and the remnants must be unrolled, and the dusty bundles unwrapped, and every thing in the store must be upturned. Once a year the business man wants to know how things stand. He reviews the books, writes them up, and draws out on a fair balance-sheet all his worldly circumstances; so many goods, so many liabilities; so much capital that is comparatively worthless, so much that can be easily turned into cash; so many debts; so many bills out that are perfectly good, so many that are doubtful. In other words, he looks over all the affairs of the year, and knows just what position he occupies. Now, my friends, ought we not to be just as scrutinizing in the matters of the soul? The Rothscliikls or the Stewarts never did a business of such infinite importance as that going on in the heart of every man and woman in this audience. There are the goods — the faculties and energies and passions of your soul. There are the liabiUties — to temptation, to danger, and death. Can it be that we have never taken an account of stock? Can it be that we have been running this tremendous business for eternity, and never drawn out our affairs on a balance-sheet? I know such a review is not pleasant. Neither does any merchant find it agreeable to take an account of stock. You all put the day off as long as you can. You do not know what it may reveal to you. You say, “There may come up something in review that I don’t want to know, and yet, after all, I must, as a business -man, attend to it.” And though you put it off as long as you can, yoa after a while say, “Boys, we’ll go and take an account of stock.” Many a man has been surprised, at the close of that operation, to find how poorly he was off. Ah! it is just as unpleasant to review our spiritual condition. The fact is, we are insolvent, “We owe debts we can never pay. We have been running this business of the soul so poorly that we have got to be wound up. We can not pay one cent on a dollar. We can not answer for one of ten thousand of our transgressions. There has never, in worldly affairs, been such a miserable failure in Wall Street or State Street as we have made in spiritual affairs. We owe God every thing. We have paid him nothing; some of us have never tried to pay him any thing.

But sometimes, when a man is thoroughly cornered in business matters, and he says, “I must stop payment,” while he is sitting in his store or office thoroughly discouraged, there is a rap at the door, “Come in,” he says; an old friend enters. He says, “I bear you are in great difficulty; how much money will get you out of this embarrassment?” “Well,” you say, “live thousand dollars would.” He says, “Here it is” — bank, pay so and so. The man is delivered from all his commercial distresses. Just so, while we are sitting down disheartened on account of our sin, and feeling that there is no hope, there is a rap at the door of the heart; it is Jesus coming in. He says, “What do you want?” We answer, “We want pardon, we want peace, we want the eternal salvation of the Gospel.” Jesus says, “There it is.” The debts are paid, the obligations are canceled. Now, we do business on an infinite capital. Now, all the banks of eternity are ready with their loans. Now, we have on paper the name of the King. There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.

“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no, never, no, never forsake.”

I remark again, the wise spiritual merchant will be on his guard against burglars. How long it takes you to lock up your store at night! You put your valuables in the safe, you shove the door to, you turn the lock; you try it afterward to be sure it is fastened; you bolt and rebolt your doors. You have a watchman, perhaps, at the store. You charge the police, when they go up and down, once in a while to look in. In addition to that, perhaps, you have a burglar-alarm, so that the opening of a window or door in the night with a great rattle will wake up the watchman. Perhaps you have a watch-dog under the counter, who feels the responsibility of the store resting on his shaggy neck, his mouth down between his paws. If there be the least sound, be lifts one ear, be lifts bis bead, be rises up, and then lies down again with a growl, as much as to say, “I wish it bad been somebody.” Would to God that we were as wise in regard to spiritual burglaries! There are a thousand temptations around about our soul ready to blow it up; ready to blast it; ready to sbove the bolt and steal the infinite and immortal treasure. The apostle says, “What I say unto one, I say unto all — watch!” That is, look out for burglars. Here comes a thief stealing our Christian belief, and it is very easy to lose it, but it is not so easy to get it back again. Let it once be gone, and all the detectives on earth can not fetch it back. Alas for the man who, once believing in Christianity, now rejects it! He tries to be satisfied, and he tries to make you believe he is satisfied; but the most doleful thing on earth is a religion without Jesus Christ in it. If there are any pries at the door of your heart, if any of those burglars are trying to break in the windows of your soul, you had better fly at them with infinite vehemence, and ask the Lord God to help you in the arrest.

Here is another trying to break in and steal your patience. It puts something explosive in your temper, and tries to blow it up. Here you have a casket of diamonds made of daj-s and hours and months of precious time. Oh, how many burglars there are around trying to steal those diamonds! Temptations to pride, temptations to self-indulgence, temptations to neglect the great things of eternity, make up a gang of desperadoes that have broken out of the jail of hell, and are prowling around our soul trying to steal this treasure; and, in the name of God, I bid you, arm against them. They have taken many of the spoils already, and I cry, “Stop thief!”

“My soul, be on tbj’ guard,
Ten thousand foes arise,
And hosts of sin are pressing hard
To draw thee from the skies.
“Ne’er think the victory won,
Nor once at ease sit down.
Thine arduous work will not be done
Till thou hast got thy crown.”

I remark, again, that the wise spiritual merchant will watch the state of the markets. When the business man takes up the paper in the morning, he does not first look at the marriages and deaths or the editorials. He looks at the price-current. Before ten o’clock merchants all know whether gold has gone up or down, whether the goods they have on the shelf have increased or decreased in value. A man might say, “It is nothing to me how others do business, or what prices others get; I shall go straight on without any reference to any body else in business.” You know that would be the precursor of bankruptcy. He watches the markets; he can not afford to be indifferent. Now, I say we ought to be just as alert in looking at the spiritual markets. We ought to know M’hether the cause of God in the earth is going up or down. No m.an can be independent of the general state of morals and of religion in the communit3 For this reason, every intelligent Christian will be examining the churches, the schools, and the benevolent organizations. The failure of a crop in Russia, or of a bank in London, or the breaking-out of a war in India affects prices in the New York market; and the conversion of one soul in Central Africa ought to leave its impression on every intelligent Christian in Brooklyn. It is my business this morning to proclaim to 3’ou the state of the spiritual markets, and I tell you the cause of God is advancing. The people are buying the truth, and are not so disposed to sell it as they used to be. The ships of Tarshish are coming into the harbor of God, and the gold and frankincense and myrrh are showering down at the feet of Jesus. The religion of the Lord Jesus Christ is rising. The nations are bidding for this Gospel, and the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver.

If this religion of Christ is advancing in value, and must continue advancing, your business judgment will tell you the larger the investment you make in it, the better. Other values may have depressions. You might buy Michigan Central, perhaps, at 125, and it might drop to 120; you might buy Pittsburg, Fort Wayne, and Chicago for 85, and it might drop to 83, and you might be ruined. But these Gospel values always will be on the advance. Sometimes the Government comes on the marts of business and upsets the planning of the gold-gamblers, and vindicates justice and the rights of the people; and the Lord God Almighty is the mightiest of financiers, and he will scatter to the four winds of heaven all the plotters of iniquitj’, and he will vindicate his government, and make his own children the princes of eternity.

O these spiritual, values! Men do not know how to estimate them. You give a dollar to a Christian object, and say, “That’s gone; I’ll never hear of that again.” You give twenty-five dollars to worldly gratification, and you think you have made a good investment. Have you? Of the twenty-five dollars yolx gave to the worldly gratification you will hear nothing; but that one dollar has been an investment that will go on accumulating interest and adding compound interest until it will take the mightiest intelligence of heaven to estimate what is the value of that dollar rolling on through all eternity until the banking-houses of heaven can not hold the accumulation. We can not understand now God’s way of estimating things. The woman who sells in her thread-and-needle store one thousand dollars’ worth a year can not estimate the plans of a man who sells two millions of dollars’ worth of goods a year. God’s projects are too vast for us. We talk of one man buying a railroad, or of another buying half a citv. Why, the Lord Jesus Christ bought the whole earth, and paid for it in one day — paid for it in tears and agony and blood! You talk about vast corporations and moneyed institutions and powerful companies; but the richest company in all the universe is the company of Christ’s disciples, and the poorest one of them will be a milHonaire to all eternity. I take one of these bonds of the company, and I tear off just one coupon, and hand it to you, and you read on that coupon these words, “All are 3’ours.” If a man wants a better dividend than that, I do not know where he will get it.

Again, I remark that the wise spiritual merchant is careful to get a profit out of every thing that jJcisses through his hcmds. You go into the store. You see the roll of nankeen, or the barrel of sugar, or the string of bananas, or the coil of ship cable. Before the merchant lets them pass out of his hands, he will make a profit out of them. If he has paid ten cents a 3’ard for something, he will get twelve or fifteen; if he has paid twenty -five cents for a pound, he will get thirt^. Now, I say the wise spiritual merchant will get a spiritual advantage out of every thing that comes across him — from all sorrows, all perplexities, all vexations. He will take these harrows and furnaces of trouble, and from them get an everlasting profit. Affliction has flxiled of its object if it does not leave a soul worth more than when it came. It is very interesting to get into confidential conversation with a man who has gained a large property, and to have him tell you just how he made his money; but it is more interesting to get into the confidence of an old Christian, and have him tell you just how he accumulated his wealth of Christian character. He will say, “My property went down in 1857, but I came out of that trouble with infinite resources of spiritual comfort and strength.” He will say, “I was sick for three months, and could not do a stroke of work; and when I came forth I was as weak as a child, and staggered along the street; but, oh! my soul had the strength of a giant.” And he will tell you of the dark day that came in his household when a loved one was carried out, and he felt that every thing was gone with it; and on his way back from the cemetery Jesus met him and said, “Weep not, I will make up for thy loss; I wmII more than make up for it. Tlaose little feet are already bounding along the corridors of heaven. That hand is already sweeping the harp -strings of glory.” Jesus took that afflicted fiither to the verge of the grave, and bid him look down into it, and instead of a grave it became a chest of immortal brilliants. As he ran his hand up and down the gate of the sepulchre he found it hard, cold, rusty iron, but Jesus touched it and it became solid pearl — bars of pearl, bolts of pearl, hinges of pearl, and, lo! it was the gate of heaven. “All things work together for good to those who love God;” and I pray the Lord Almighty that, whatever misfortune, whatever vexation, whatever trial, whatever bereavements pass through our soul, we may reap from them a spiritual tariff that will make us richer while we live on earth, and glad through all eternity.

2-iO BARTERING FOR ETERNITY.

I remark, again, that the wise spiritual mercbant will not take any unnecessary rishs. Before the ship goes out of the harbor, application is made to the marine insurance company; the Board of Underwriters say it is all right; the insurance papers are signed and delivered. It is the only safe way to do. Twelve hours after the ship gets beyond the Hook, it might perish, and the whole thing be a total loss. A man will not take such a risk for himself. You have your store insured, you have your stock of goods insured. If the insurance runs out on Saturdaj’-, you do not wait until IMonday to renew it. You say, on Sunday the whole thing may perish in a conflagration. You can not afford to take the risk. Somebody shows you an operation by which you might make, perhaps, five thousand dollars; but you say, “Perhaps I might not. Perhaps I might lose that, and ruin my credit. I can’t take the risk.” So you do not enter into the enterprise. Oh that we were as wise in taking spiritual risks! AVe will, after a while, founder on the sea of death. What is the amount of our policy? How will we come out of that disaster? Suppose a man saj’s, “I am not ready now for eternity, but I mean to be.” Let us calculate the risk; not as a minister talks to the people, but as one business man talks to another, let us calculate the risk that man runs. The lungs may congest; the brain may be fevered; the foot may slip; a brick may fall from the workman’s hod; ferry-boats may collide; a frightened horse may dash over him; a pistol may go off accidentally; poisoned air may be breathed; the reason may topple; the heart may stop. The man who stays away from Jesus Christ, and makes no preparation for eternity, runs ten thousand risks, infinite risks, every day of his life. After Lord Byron died, they cut his heart out and put it in a beautiful case; and some people who were infatuated with him thought that there was in that heart in the case some wonderful charm; and the Greeks carried it out into battle, and it was lost — lost in the swamps, and never heard of. It was considered an ominous and a terrible loss. But, my friends, it was only a dead heart. What was that compared with the loss of a living immortal soul? Christ saw that soul from eternity, and, traveling in the greatness of his strength across all the ages, he comes to save it, and stands this morning in its presence. “Will you let him save it? Oh this soul that you have beating within your breast! — this soul of tremendous faculties; a soul that can soar higher than angel’s wing ever flew, or sink deeper than devil’s foot ever plunged; a soul that will soon weigh anchor for a ceaseless voyage; a soul for which all the armies of light with drawn swords, and all the battalions of the darkness with the artillery of death, are contending; and while the battle rages there are songs and curses, opening of gates of light and slamming to of prison doors. Lord God! have I such a soul? How shall I defend it? How shall I hide it? In what cave of the mountain shall I secrete it? Eather than surrender that soul, I must pass the stream; I must go through the fire; I must climb the rocks; I must station myself in some defile of the mountain, and with immortal courage and persistence fight against those influences that would capture my soul and destroy it.

Blessed be God, in Jesus Christ the soul is safe. There is no risk for that soul that is in Christ’s keeping. All other banks may fail, all other securities may prove worthless; but the greater the rush upon this bank, the wider the doors will open. As other gold depreciates, this treas-

11 ure will rise in value. After all earthly shares have failed, heaven will declare its largest dividend. Long after the last stock -exchange of earth has been disbanded, “the foundation of the Lord standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.” If you have made these spiritual investments, I congratulate you. They will increase in value while you live; they will be worth more in eternity than they are now. I bid you be of good cheer. Look out that none of your treasures are stolen.

Are there some here who have never bought the truth? or, after buying it, have you sold it? Let me say, you are not wise. The Indian who sells a thousand acres of land for one poor string of beads makes a better bargain than that man who wins the world but loses his soul.

“What is the thing of greatest price
The whole creation round?
That which was lost in paradise,
That which in Christ is found.”