The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 373

• The eoul of man, JehoV&h'e breath, It keeps two worlds in strife; Hell works beneath its work of death, Heaven stoop, to give it life." f. The.full force of the question. What, then, we may repeat, shall it profit a man, if he shall gRin the whole world-and yet all the gain any man can expect is infinitely less than that-and lose his own soul or higher heavenly life? What shall it profit him, if he shall make a little sordid gain, but lose his soul? What shall it profit him, if he shall indulge some degrading passion, and thereby lose his soul? What shall it profit him, if he gratify some vile lust, and by it lose his soul? What shall it profit him, if he swallow a few more intoxicating draughts, and in the end lose his soul? What shall it profit him, if he gratify a few more lusts of the flesh, and lose his own soul? What shall it profit him, if be enjoy a little longer the society of evil com- panions, or even the smile and favour of the great ones of the earth, and lose his soul? What will it profit him, if he have a few more pleasures of any kind-pleasures that last so short a space, and satisfy so very little while they do last-and in lieu of them lose his own soul? Who is not, on due reflection, prepared to answer any such questions with the strongest negative? The angels in heaven, and the spirits of the just made perfect that are already there, if asked the same question, would declare, in tones of loudest earnestness and solemn emphasis, "Nothing, nothing I" Lost souls in hell, if malice prevented not, would assert the same. God the Father, who sent his Son to save the soul; God the Son, who suffered on the cross to redeem it; God the Spirit, who came to sanctify it; the Almighty undivided Three in One, would answer their own question in this passage by a negative that neither man nor angel, fallen nor unfallen, would gainsay, and that would wake an echo both in heaven above and in earth or bell beneath. Vill. EXTENT OF THE Loss. 1. This is an entire loss. The loss in question is an entire and unqualified loss. When Francis L lost the important battle of Pavia, he described it by saying, " We have lost all but honour." And thus, though the disaster was overwhelming and the loss exceeding great, yet there was one qualifying circum- stance-the preservation of honour intact and unsullied. Not so with the loss of the soul : there is nothing to qualify it, nothing to mitigate it. It is the loss of losses, the death of deaths-a catastrophe nnequalled in extent, and unparalleled in its amount through all the universe of God. 2. .A loss without compensation. The loss of the soul is a loss for which there is no compensation. The great fire of London consumed six hnndred streets, thirteen thousand dwellings, and ninety churches, and destroyed property to the amount of seven and a half millions of pounds sterling. Yet that calamity was in some sort changed into a blessing; for the rebuilding of the city, in a superior style of architecture, and with more regard to sanitary arrangements, banished for ever the fearful plague which had previously made such havoc in that populous place. 'Jhere is, besides, a well-known compensatory principle in the providence of God, so that, when a man loses his sight, the sense of bearing becomes more acute, and the perception of sonnde more exact and accurate. The deaf mute, again, is said to have the sense of sight quickened; while the man both blind and dumb gains a more exquisite sense of touch. But the lose of the soul is a calamity for which there is nothing to compensate, and which nothing can countervail so as to make amends for it. 3. The loss is irreparahk. Other losses may be repaired. The friend you love as your own soul may take an umbrage; he may misunderstand you, or you may be misrepresented to him;- " Angry words will soon step in, To spread the breach that words begin." But let a proper explanation be given, and hi11 friendship may be regained; or, if he continue obstinate, other and even better friends may 6Upply his place. You may lose yonr health; you may be like the poor woman who had suffered so much from, and expended s, much OD, physicians without an.l'. ~mprovement; but, under the b!e~sing of Providence OD the skill of yet another phys1c1an and the use of proper med1cmes, or by the intervention of the great Physician apart from any means, or when all means have failed. you may regain that inestimable blessing. You may lose your property, CB. vm. 1-38.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 371