The Soul First
OF you have crossed the Atlantic in a mailsteamer, you may have observed how ready the captain was to come into the cabin on a quiet evening, and to minister to the pleasure of his passengers. But if you were suddenly to hear the loud tramp of hurrying feet across the deck overhead, and the hoarse brattling of the first mate’s trumpet to “haul in the jib,” and “close-reef the top-sails,” would you dare to invite the captain to a game of chess, or to listen to an operatic air’? No! The sturdy seaman would reply, “In an hour the hurricane may send two hundred souls to the bottom, if every thing isn’t made fast. I can’t play with you while the gale is playing with my ship.”
My unconverted friend, when your soul is saved you may talk about the price of gold.
or the ten per cent that offers to you in some new speculation, or the latest discoveries in the gold regions. Until then, your real business must be to flee from the wrath to come, and to lay hold on eternal life. What shall a man give in exchange for his soull
When your soul is saved, you may talk about building the new house, or adorning the present one with pictures and Parisian upholsteries; you may then discuss the new library, or the grand tour, or the series of evening entertainments for your friends. We do not denounce fine dwellings, or paintings, or Parians, or superb libraries, or foreign tours: all these things are to be settled by extent of purse, and the ability to possess them without robbing God or the claims of charity. What we insist is, that no one has any right even to think of such things while the soul is yet under the condemnation of unpardoned sin. What right have you to be planning a house when you have never thought of your soul’s dwelling-place through an endless eternity’? Why insure your property before you have insured your soul? Why so anxious about getting into “good society” for a dozen or two of years on earth, and yet not a moment’s thought about your soul’s everlasting companions? Why so ready to prepare for every thing else except to prepare to die?
The simple reason is, that you make this world every thing and eternity nothing. You do not expect to take up your abode in hell, but the business of securing heaven you propose to set about when you have nothing else to do. At present your whole heart is drowned in money-making, or in pleasure-seeking, or in getting, keeping, and enjoying what your heart most covets. If I come to you, Mr. A — , in your counting-room, and whisper that God has a claim upon your soul; if I come to you, young Mr. B — , in your study; or to you, Madame C — , with your bundle of invitations for a daughter’s fete beside you, — the prompt answer is, “Please don’t interrupt me. I am busy.” True enough: you are busy. So was Daniel busy; but he found time to pray thrice a day, and he served God in every thing he did. You are busy; but so was Wilberforce, who did five men’s work at once, and honored God in every act. You are busy, but only busy in the service of self and sin: if not a Christian, you are not busy in serving God. You do not fancy an interruption by one who longs to draw your soul to Christ. Well, my friend, death will interrupt you, one of these days. He will not stop to knock at the door of your counting-room, or your new library. He will not wait, perhaps, till the daughter’s fete has passed oflf. He will come when God sends him, and in that moment thy soul will be required of thee.
When Nehemiah was urged to quit the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and go down to a parley with his enemies on the plain of Ono, he replied manfully, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down to you.” Nehemiah was successful, because single-hearted. And so must you be, if you ever save your soul and serve your God. You must say to the world, when it clamors for your time, “I am doing a great work. I am seeking the pardon of my sins. I am settling the question of my everlasting destiny. God is calling me, and I am finding my way to him. The Holy Spirit is striving with me; and, if I grieve him away, he may leave me to die as callous as a rock. I have never yet prepared to live, much less to die; and I am determined not to give my attention to any thing under the sun, until I have given my heart to Christ.”
An earnest, resolute setting about the work of repentance, and of seeking God, seldom fails. Where God’s help is invoked, and where the aim of the seeking heart is to please God, it never fails. God is nigh to them who call upon him in spirit and in truth. “Ye shall seek me and find me,” he says, “when ye seek for me with all the heart.” He demands the heart. He demands the first place in that heart. He demands that his will be made the rule of your life. He demands that you be ready to deny self for his sake. He demands that you serve him to your dying hour from principle. He offers to you sustaining grace and an everlasting heaven.
This is a great v?ork, you confess; “but how shall I accomplish if?” God’s answer is, “Work out your salvation; for it is God that worketh in you.” “My grace is sufficient for you.” Yes, it is a great work; but Christ has done a greater, — he has died to make your salvation possible. It will be certain, when you give your heart to him. And when you so desire to be a Christian that you are willing to take up any cross and follow Jesus, when you so desire to be saved that you are willing to pray for it, and not only pray, but give up your favorite sins, and not only forsake sin, but to embrace the Saviour, then the work is done, and you have a right to all the glorious privileges of a child of God. If a child, then an heir, — a joint-heir to heaven’s inheritance. The soul must be first! And Christ first in the soul! Then “all’s well” for time and eternity.