166. If I Gained The World

If I gained the world, but lost the Savior, were my life worth living for a day?  Could my yearning heart find rest and comfort in the things that soon must pass away?  If I gained the world, but had no Savior, would my gain be worth the lifelong strife? Are all earthly pleasures worth comparing for a moment with a Christ-filled life?

2.

Had I wealth and love in fullest measure, and a name revered both far and near, Yet no hope beyond, no harbor waiting, where my storm-tossed vessel I could steer; If I gained the world, but had no Savior, who endured the cross and died for me, Could then all the world afford a refuge, whither, in my anguish, I might flee?

3.

O what emptiness! without the Savior ’mid the sins and sorrows here below!  And eternity, how dark without him!  Only night and tears and endless woe!  What, tho' I might live without the Savior, when I come to die, how would it be?  O to face the valley’s gloom without him!  and without him all eternity!

4.

O the joy of having all in Jesus! What a balm the broken heart to heal!  Ne’er a sin so great, but he’ll forgive it, nor a sorrow that he does not feel!  If I have but Jesus, only Jesus, nothing else in all the world beside, O then ev'rything is mine in Jesus; for my needs and more he will provide