Scripture for Meditation:  Luke xvi, 19-31.

What is death—­the death of a soul?  What is it to die eternally?  In the passage for meditation our Lord gives us a glimpse into the realms of death.  Surely the Son of God is not trifling here; nor does he speak to confuse.  For a moment the curtain is drawn, and we see what is actually transpiring in the future world.  In these days there is a disposition in some quarters to make light of the future punishment of the wicked.  Some preachers are dumb upon the awful punishment of sin, or preach only half a gospel, saying, as Bishop Warren puts it, “You must repent, as it were; be converted, in a measure; or you will go to hell, so to speak.”

But Christ did not speak with any uncertain sound about the future punishment of the impenitent.  He is authority.  Take your Bible and read such passages as Matt. xxv, 41, 46; Matt. viii, 12; Luke xvi, 23; John v, 29.

In the light of these words, we must see that the death of a soul means eternal separation from God, from mercy, and from heaven.

And yet how indifferent we are concerning the unsaved multitudes all about us who are drifting into a hopeless eternity.  The Church needs a vision like that of the little lad in Olive Schreiner’s “Story of a South African Farm,” who, waking at midnight, sees multitudes drifting over the precipice into eternal night, and throws himself on his face on the floor, crying out in the agony of his burdened heart to God to have mercy.

Some one tells of a shepherd in the Far West who, on a dark, stormy night, found three sheep missing.  Going to the kennel where the faithful shepherd-dog lay with her little family, he bade her go to find the sheep.  An hour afterwards she returned with two.  When these had been put in the fold, he said, “One sheep is yet missing.  Go!” The faithful dog took one mute look of despair at her little family, then was off in the dark and the storm.  In two hours she had returned with the lost sheep, but was torn and bleeding, and, as she staggered toward the kennel, fell dead at the door.  But if a poor, dumb brute, with no immortal hope, be obedient, even unto death, what shall we say of men and women who know the destiny of the soul, and whom the King of kings has bidden seek the lost, yet are disobedient, indifferent, and thoughtless as to the dying multitudes about them?

STUDY VII.

The supreme motive.

Memory Verse:  “For the love of Christ constraineth us.”—­(2 Cor. v, 14.)

Scripture for Meditation:  1 Cor. xiii, R.V.

But the supreme motive in all our efforts to win others should be “the glory of God.”  Possessed of an undying love for him who first loved us, we will have an inspiration to seek the lost for whom he gave his life.  And all our efforts shall be, as Paul puts it in his letter to the Ephesians, “unto the praise of his glory.”