able. The moment we have them we find that they are empty babbles, and cannot make us feel content. And, worst of all, when we possess this world's good things, to the utmost bound of our desire, we cannot keep them. Death comes in and separates us from all our property for ever. Naked we came upon earth, and naked we go forth, and of all our possessions we can carry nothing with us. Such is the world, which occupies the whole attention of thousands ! Such is the world, for the sake of which millions are every year destroying their souls !
The loss of the soul is the heaviest loss that can befal a man. The worst and most painful of diseases — the most distressing bankruptcy of fortune — the most dis- astrous shipwrecks — are a mere scratch of a pin compared to the loss of a soul. All other losses are bearable, or but for a short time, but the loss of the soul is for ever- more. It is to lose God, and Christ, and heaven, and glory, and happiness, to all eternity. It is to be cast away for ever, helpless and hopeless in hell !
What are we doing ourselves? Are we losing our souls ? Are we, by wilful neglect or by open sin — by sheer carelessness and idleness, or deliberate breach of God's law — compassing our own destruction? These questions demand an answer. The plain account of many professing Christians is this, that they are daily sinning against the sixth commandment. They are murdering their own souls !
We learn, in the last place, from our Lord's words, th^ guilt and danger of being ashamed of Christ and His words. We read that He says — " Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of Him shall the Son