THE WORTH OF A SOUL.

Memory Verse: "For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world,
and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul?"--(Matt. xvi, 26.)

Scripture for Meditation: Luke xv, 1-10.


What is a life worth? What is your life worth? What is the life of your
son or daughter or mother or wife worth? What would you take for a life?
But if the life of a dear one be worth so much to you, what must be its
value in God's sight, who sees to what depths a soul may plunge and to
what heights it may rise? It may be a small matter to you that in yonder
saloon is a man dissipated and drunken. But what if he were your father
or brother or husband? It may be a very small matter to you that the boy
whom you met on the street is puffing a cigarette and wears already
upon his face the marks of an evil life. But what if he were your boy or
your brother? Yet, in God's sight, his life is as valuable as if he were
your boy or your brother; and every soul is of infinite worth.

Jesus Christ set a high estimate upon human life when he left his
Father's throne and came into this sin-cursed world to suffer and die
that he might redeem us from death.

The Church of to-day needs a new vision of the worth of a soul. We need
to stand beside Calvary and see the price that was paid there for human
life.

John Keble, the poet-preacher of the English Church, said that the