Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-24

to stand up bravely and say 90. And you
think for moment that this year you will
take that step-that this week or this dav
you will enroll yourself among those who
want to live higher Ii 9. But wait. Con-
slider q little. What is the hurry? Why
won't next year do as we'll? Put svay the
half-formed resolution. Live 'or your body;
live for this life only; and as for your soul.
let that take care OF itsel'-and IL you do
not lose your soul, then fire will not burn
your hand, and falling over a cliff will not
orulse you, and all the other Interchangeable
laws OF the universe of God will prove false
AN UNALTERABLE LAW.
My friends, here is a law inevitable and
universal. 1t is not in the Bible only; it is
not in the words OF the religious teacher
only; 1t Is just as plainly in the principle
with which impartial science deals; it is
just as visibly in the irresistible conclusions
OF our human reason that we are warned
that we may lose our souls. If you are
doing nothing for your soul, if you are
neglecting prayer and worship and holy
thinking and religious living, if you are
not caring for the culture OF all that part Of
you which will alone survive the change Of
death, if that which is temporal is filling
up your life, so that that which is eternalis
being crowded out, there is no need for me
to tell you what will happen. You know
yourself. Use your soul, or you will lose
your soul.
=, NOW TINS soul of yours, this most precious
tnlng OF all tnat you possess; this precious
possession, so delicate and sensitive that if
you DO not care for it, 1t will die, like q
tender plant; what would you rather have
than 1t? What will you sell it for to the
devil?
1 have read fable Of one who sold his
soul to the devil with this condition; That
II ever he wearied of his bargain, he might
get somebody else to change places with
MIN, II he could. And after years of that
round o. fiendish pleasure, which is described
so viVidly in the strange story o. DR.. Faustus.
and the equally strange story OF DIR. JekYll,
ne did grow weary of his bargain, and he
offered to take the place of anybody who
would take his place, and give his soul to
the devil in his stead. He went to beggar.
ana offered wealth uncountable; to the con-
demned murderer and offered lie and liberty:
to the sick, distressed, tortured, diving, and
offered health and happiness If they would
only sell their souls. But nobody would do it
No human creature could he find who, for
any promise whatsoever, would barter his
immortal soul.
PAwNING THEIR SOULS.
Yet men and women do sell their souls for
next to nothing; even give away their souls
Tor nothing at all. Yes; but never directly,
never driving any conscious bargain with
the devil; never saying: "Give me so much
money, so much sinful pleasure, so much
careless ease, and take my SOUL" The old
Legends were not quite true to life when
they painted people trading away their
souls. They would have drawn closer to
the miserable truth had they represented
Satan as a merchant keeping store at the
sign OF the three gilded balls, and men and
women coming and not selling their souls
not that-but putting them in pawn, and
feeling very sure that after they had used
up so many dollars, or so many sins, or so
many thoughtless years, they could redeem
them. People are every day pawning their
souls. They just let the devil take care of
their souls Tor a little while, If you are
not taking care of your soul the devil is
taking care of it for you, he mas it in his
pawnshop, and what shall a man give in
exchange lor his soul?
The day will come when all that goes to
make llle pleasant, all that seems desirable
In 1T, will appear in com Darison with our
soul, as worthless as bags of gold in sinking
ship in comparison with loaves of bread.
You remember how two boats got parted as
SuAP "eS sOinS uV"n, dnN Dy some accl-
lent one had all the gold on board and the
,ther all the bread. And as the distance
Tidened between them a man stood up in
,ne boat, holding in his hand bag of
bullion, and shouted, FIFTY thousand dol
ars for loaf of breadP' 1t was bread he
santed then, not gold.
1t is the possession of good conscience,
nd the remembrance of a religious life,
nd soul full of faith and hope, which we
Vill want one day more than all the world
'eside. Then, if never before, the soul will
'e everything, and all else as nothing. On
nto the other life will pass the soul lust as
t is, the undying and unchanging soul, and
What that other life shall be will depend
lpon the soul alone.
GEORGE HODGES,