Count the Cost | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 17, 1865

Count the Cost.

My friend, are you ready to follow Jesus? Count the cost. But I warn you tenderly, that, if it costs much to be a Christian, it will cost infinitely more to live and die a sinner. Religion costs self-denial; sin costs self-destruction!

To be a temperate man costs self-restraint; to be a tippler costs a ruined purse, a ruined character, a ruined soul. The sensualist pays for going to perdition by living in a sty. The swearer must pay for his oaths, and the Sabbath-breaker for his guilty contempt of God's law.

To lead a life of impenitence costs a dying bed of remorse. Count the cost. To go up to the judgment-seat without Christ will cost you an eternity of despair. Count the cost. Sit down, and make an honest reckoning. Put into one scale, life; into the other, death. Put into one scale, Heaven; into the other, hell. Weigh them well. Weigh for eternity. And, while you sit weighing anxiously, Christ whispers in your ear the thrilling question, "What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" What shall a man give in exchange for his soul.—Independent.