The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-01-14

it not an Improbable career in which,
though he has gained the whole world,
he has lost his own body, all its ener-
gies, faculties and comfort. But how
much more terribly does this expert
ence come to those who have spent
their better natures and squandered
their finer feelings while they have
been doing the work of this world.
Just as man may lose his body in the
struggle for the prizes of this world, so
he may lose his own soul-all its better
life, its capacities for enjoyment, its
power to feel ard to act. The only diff
ference is that body can be totally
lost and a soul cannot. But we may
lose what we may also still recover, and
it is in this sense that Jesus uses the
term. A lost soul is one in which the
true life is perverted, abused and re-
dueed to its least possible energy. A
man loses his soul when he loses those
traits which are most characteristic of
a soul. A lost soul is not one which is
thrust into place called hell to suffer
forever and ever. That is poor, an
tiquated conception. The lost are not
reserved for future state of woe. They
are natures that to-day and here are in
such condition, suffering the torment
of influenced passions, shut in with
doubts and despair, flung into the con-
Stunning fires of selfshness and brutal
desires. They are those who have
parted with the heart of trust, and the
sweetness of love. They are those on
whom we call in vain for pity, for char
ity, for thoughtful tenderness and high
endeavor. In them the SOULS best and
highest life is sunk in baseness and in
self. Oh, you may meet them by scores,
on the city's crowded street, their faces
craven with the lines of selfshness, of
lust and of hate. And when one looks
upon them and sees in every such face
the signs Of inward misery, Of unhap-
piness, of corroding passions, though
they be the faces of those who have
great possessions, who hold the reins
of power, or who are the admired and
the petted of this world, one instinct
lively says within himself, "After all,
what hath it profited them to have
gained the whole world and lost that
which is more precious than all ?''
There is no more tragic and terrible
sight in this world than to see man
standing in the midst of the things he
has heaped together without the power
to enjoy them, without the power to
enjoy anything except the mere exer-
else of getting and getting, and forever
getting, consumed by the craving which
will not be satisfied, slave to this
world and its drudging business, beg
CARED and cheated of his best life, pal
sled in all his best powers. Verify,
"What shall it profit man if he shall
gain the whole earth and lose his own
soul ?" hope and pray that as you all
survey the year now gone you may find
that it has been a year of great profit
and little loss. And if you have been
making the inward gains which consti-
tute character, and have grown in faith
and hope and love, you will find that
you have really closed the year richer
than you began it. You may be poorer
in purse, weaker in health, less success
full in business you may look on va.
cant places by your firesides, or behold
the ruin of fond and tender loves. But,
Notwithstanding all these things, if
your heart has grown larger and your
spirit entered more fully into the spirit
of Jesus Christ; if you have gained in
courage, hope, purity, tigh thought and
affection, then the balance is in your
favor. You have acquired profit on
your years toll which will stand for
ever to your credit in the heavens. But
if, on the other hand, you see with
shame that you enter this new year on
lower plane than that on which you
began the last, with weakened char
acter, a wavering purpose, scared con-
science, then beware. Take good
thought as to your future. Do as you
would if you saw your business suffer
ing -retrench, stop the wastes of moral
energy, discharge your thieving vices,
keep sharper watch ON the whole con-
duct of your life, consult the wise adj
visers who will counsel you with heav-
ems own truth; foresee the evil and
save yourself from the peril of moral
insolvency. 1t will be bad year for
you if it see your heart despoiled of any
of its graces. God save you from such
year. But circuit of the sun, all of
whose days behold you gamer in grace
and godliness, whatever fortunes it may
bring in other tbings, can never fail to
be in the highest sense Happy New
Year."
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IT WAS foretold by the Evangelical
prophet concerning the ngathering of