Paying the Cost by A. F. Schauffler

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 12, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 11.

Paying the Cost.

By A. F. Schauffler

If a bill is larger by a good deal than we had expected it to be, we always pay it with pain. If as large, but not larger, we pay quietly. If smaller than we had anticipated, we pay it with pleasure. Paul was ever counting that his bill could only be paid with his blood. So when less payment was demanded, he paid with pleasure. No groans and sighs and tears escape him. "I take pleasure in infirmities, in distresses, in persecutions," he says. This was largely because he had counted the cost, and was now ready to pay. Being ready for the hardest experiences, he easily went through such as were only hard. Ready for the superlative degree, the comparative was easy, and the positive light. So we find him in the midst of an excited throng the calmest of them all. From a worldly standpoint, if any one that day should have trembled with excitement, it was Paul. Yet all trembled but Paul. What a perfectly grand sight that was to see him calm, self-possessed, quiet, on the staircase, soldiers flushed, mob enraged, only he self-poised! Surely "forewarned was forearmed," and because he was prepared he was not overtaken.

Yet so it ever will be. The young disciple who says, "I am going to be a Christian, cost what it may. It will bring ridicule, evil speaking, and may cost me my situation. It may result in my having to leave my home; yet I am prepared for this, and for even worse things,"—that disciple has won half the battle before he has struck a blow. But that one who says, "I think I will try the Christian life. I hope it will not cost me very much," has lost the battle at the very start. Half-hearted beginning for Christ ends in whole-hearted return to the world. Teachers may as well state plainly to scholars at the outset, that the Christian's voyage is not all plain sailing. Storms must come, and, perhaps, hurricanes. He who sets out unprepared in spirit for such experiences will surely suffer shipwreck.

Yet we need not be discouraged, for if God would and did make Paul sufficient for these things, he is not less able to make us stand. All God's power and love are at the disposal of any one now just as truly as they were at Paul's disposal. We, too, may stand and face even death calmly for Christ's sake, if Christ strengthens us. If we want Paul's endurance, we need but "count the cost," and thus relying on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, we shall, like Paul, be able to "pay the cost."—Rev. A. F. Schauffler.