Lost for Eighteen Pence

There was a shipwreck on our coast some time ago. A ship struck upon a sunken rock, and the lifeboat put out to rescue the crew. The lifeboat drew near that sinking ship, and got all in safely except the captain and first mate.

“Get aboard,” said the captain to the mate.

“Wait a minute, captain,” and he dived down the companion ladder to fetch something from the cabin. The captain saw the folly of the act, and jumped into the boat, which pushed off at once, just as the vessel was submerged. The mate who had gone down to the cabin went to the bottom. All the rest were saved.

A few days after divers went out to see what could be done with the vessel, and they found the corpse of the mate in the cabin. In his right hand was something tightly grasped. They brought him on dock and unclasped his clenched fist. His purse fell out. They opened it. It contained—eighteen pence! Had that man lost his life for a paltry eighteen pence? Ah! you say, What a fool! But what are you risking your soul for? It may mean pounds in your case, but, mark, your soul is at stake. Money may be your God here, but it will be no company for you in hell. Lucre may be your object now, but it will give you no consolation in the lake of fire.

God grant that you may find the true riches—“the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8). “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37).

If you receive Christ as your Saviour the true riches will be yours—riches that moth and rust cannot corrupt, nor thieves break in and steal.

“‘Not to condemn the world’

The ‘Man of Sorrows’ came;

But that the world might have

Salvation through His name;

That ‘Whosoever will believe

Shall everlasting life receive.”

W.T.P.Wolston

The Gospel Messenger 1921, p. 37