A missionary once told me of watching a little orphan girl in Angola being auctioned off as a slave. Tribal law required surviving children to be sold as slaves when both parents died. What a pathetic sight! The little girl with downcast eyes fearfully waiting while the village headman called for bids. A villager offered a few escudos; others bid various articles. Finally, one man offered a pig. This was the highest bid. A human being was exchanged for a pig! Could the cost of a 5014! be reduced to less? The thought is hideous, repulsive. But do we, even as Seventh-day Adventist Christians and ministers, really comprehend the value of a soul? Says Ellen White, "I saw that God's people are on the enchanted ground, and that some have lost nearly all sense of the shortness of time and the worth of the soul." — Early Writings, p. 120.
What is a soul really worth in the eyes of God? Do we appreciate and understand the price that Heaven paid? "Well you know that it was no perishable stuff, like gold or silver, that bought your freedom. . . . The price was paid in precious blood, as it were of a lamb without mark of blemish — the blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18, 19, N.E.B.).*
Can we compare the worth of a soul to that which human beings consider most valuable? Can we find enough diamonds or gold or currency of the nations to buy a single soul?
If we collected all the gold and diamonds ever mined and all the crowns of all the ruling monarchs that ever reigned on earth, and added all the currencies of the nations of earth, and stacked all of it up in one huge heap, and placed on the other side the little orphan girl from Angola, which would be of greatest value in the eyes of God? There is no question. The wealth of the world dwindles into insignificance when compared with the worth of a single soul for whom our Lord died.
Why is it, then, that we spend so much of our time on "perishable stuff " and so little working to save souls for eternity? Should there not be—for most of us— some drastic changes in our priorities?
Obviously, human life is more valuable than material things; even non-Christians recognize this. The wealthiest person on earth will gladly exchange all his riches for life. It is said that Queen Elizabeth I cried out on her deathbed, "All my possessions for a moment of time!" A physician or a mother will stay by the sickbed of a child day and night to preserve its life. Rescue teams will perform heroic deeds to save human life from disaster. Seventh-day Adventists abstain from everything that shortens life and will eat almost anything they think will lengthen life! Nothing is too costly, no regimen too rigorous, to preserve life for a few more years in this sinful world.
But the value of the soul far transcends this. We will go to almost any length to save someone from death, but how much more is it worth to save a life that will measure with the life of God? Why is it that we do so much for this little, insignificant span of life, this mortal body, and so very little to save souls for eternity?
Certain men and women, who have stood close to God, have seen more clearly than most of us the value He places on the eternal salvation of one human being. After Israel's great sin at Sinai, Moses ascended the mountain again to plead for the people's lives. "And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written" (Ex. 32:31, 32). With the exception of Christ in Gethsemane. and on Calvary, no other on earth has ever dared put his own eternal life on the line that human souls might be saved. Moses, I believe, understood heaven's evaluation of a soul. His heart beat in unison with the heart of his Saviour for sinful mankind. Even if it meant eternal separation from the Father, both were willing to pay the price. No wonder it is said of Moses, "And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend" (chap. 33:11). This common love for the lost becomes the closest bond between Christ and His workers on earth. "The more closely we resemble our Saviour in character, the greater will be our love toward those for whom He died."—Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 167.
Finally, if we are to understand the true value of a single soul, we must look to Jesus on the cross. We must keep - trying to plumb the depths of the waters crossed and measure the denseness of the darkness He passed through to find the sheep that was lost. "The value of a soul, who can estimate? Would you know its worth, go to Gethsemane, and there watch with Christ through those hours of anguish, when He sweat as it were great drops of blood. Look upon the Saviour uplifted on the cross. Hear the despairing cry, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'"— Christ's Object Lessons, p. 196.
What was it that wrenched from Christ's soul that anguished cry and the bloody sweat? It was His Father's wrath against sin, the withdrawal of the divine presence, the Son of God suffering the eternal separation from God for every living soul on earth. This is the price that none of the ransomed will ever know. It is true that our finite minds cannot fully estimate the worth of a soul, but if we come to the cross and try to understand what Jesus suffered, dying eternal death in our place, then we may more accurately estimate how much each soul is really worth.
As the cross of Calvary speaks this truth to our hearts, how will we respond? How much longer must the Saviour lavish on us His incalculable love before this earth and all it considers valuable fades into insignificance? How long until the winning of one more soul for heaven shall have top priority in our life?
