ALL the most valuable things are dearly won. Scientific discoveries lie at the summit of a hill which no man reaches without hard climbing. A nation's liberty costs treasure, toil, and blood; it is paid in widows' tears and consecrated graves. What so precious as a soul's redemption? Yet by one price only could it be secured—the "blood of the LAMB without blemish or spot."
When Christ offered the rewards, and enforced the duty of discipleship, he put in the careful injunction to "count the cost." The man who would not bear a cross for him and follow him "is not worthy to be my disciple." Let me remind you, my friend, what you must reckon upon if you attain that pearl above price, a Christian character. Count the cost; what is it?
1. Count on a fearful stubbornness in your own heart. It is by nature at enmity with God. There is a rebel Richmond in every unconverted man, that nothing but God's grace can conquer. Paul had to give battle without quarter to the "old man" of sin unto the last; so must you. Every sin-insurrection must be met with vigilance and prayer.
2. There are many unwelcome truths in the word of God for you to swallow. The Bible is sent to save you; not to please you. It has no mercy on the sinner's sins; but it has unbounded mercy for a sinner's soul. When an ungodly man takes the vivid lamp of Bible-truths down into the dark vaults of a depraved heart, it makes terrible exposures. But the sooner they come the better. Sooner find out your sin by that light than by the lightning-flash of God's wrath at the judgment seat. God will not compromise with you. Count the cost of submission. He demands the whole heart; but he offers in return a whole Heaven.
3. If you expect to follow Christ, you must deny your selfishness, and take up every cross that Christ appoints. Count the cost! The simple, inexorable rule is, Give up nothing that is innocent and right; but give up every thing that is wrong. You now love to have your own way; you must consent gladly to let God have his way. You have favorite pleasures that are sinful; find a higher pleasure in abandoning them. Count the cost of loving God more than you love money. Count the cost of offending some of your friends. Christ is a better friend than they. Count the cost of quitting "profitable" sins. Count the cost of some sneers, of a great many hard knocks, and still more hard work. Count the cost of a noble, prayerful, unselfish, godly life. It will cost dearly; but, thank God, it pays!
When you get to be a Christian, you will find that50the clearer and stronger you are, the happier will be your conscience. But the better you are, the more dearly you will pay for it. Study in your Bible what it cost Paul to become all he was. He gloried in every tribulation that burnished his piety, and brought honor to his Redeemer's name. The best part of a Christian's character is that which costs the heaviest price. Patience, for example, is a beautiful trait; but it is not oftenest worn by those who walk life's sunny side in silver slippers. It is the product of dark nights of adversity, and of many a cross-bearing up the mount of suffering. The "trial of your faith worketh patience." The bruised flower emits most fragrance. And the bruised Christian puts forth the sweetest odors of humility and heavenly-mindedness.
4. Let me offer you four brief encouragements. I drop them as diamonds in your pathway to the cross. Here they are: The service of Christ pays a magnificent percentage of usefulness. A working Christian never can be wretched. He gathers his sheaves as he goes.
Secondly, a man is always happy when he is right. He is happy in doing right—happy in feeling that he has done right, and happy in the approval of his Master's heavenly smile. Impenitent friend! you have never felt this!
Thirdly, God will sustain you, if you try to serve him. His grace is sufficient for you.
Finally, there is a Heaven at the end of every faithful Christian's journey.
Our knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But 'tis enough that Christ is there,
And we shall be like him.
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 eternal death. Count the cost. Sit down, and make the 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 into 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?"