*Pastor’s Note: A.B. Simpson was a very well respected Canadian preacher, theologian and author who lived from December 15, 1843 to October 29, 1919. My prayer is that you will be blessed and inspired by his poetry as much as I am.

WILL IT PAY?

There is no more common question

People ask of one another
As they meet in the busy marts from day to day,
Than the words that you can hear in
Every crowded place of concourse,—
How is business? Does it pay? Does it pay?

Men will think before they venture
To invest their earthly future,
Business chances are not lightly thrown away;
Yet they madly risk their future
On the chances of a moment,
Never asking, Will it pay? Will it pay?

Are you risking your salvation
For the sake of present pleasure?
Are you making life a fond and foolish play?
Are you trifling with God’s mercy
While your day of grace is flying?
O say, brother, will it pay? Will it pay?

Have you thought that soon your sweetest,
Fondest treasure will have vanished,
And how swiftly life is slipping fast away?
Have you ever tried to measure
What it means to live forever?
O my brother, will it pay? Will it pay?

Do you know the priceless value
Of the soul that dwells within you?
Yours, alone, the world itself would far outweigh.
Do you know the price that Jesus
Paid to win you? If you lose it,
Think, my brother, will it pay? Will it pay?

Will it pay to turn from evil
Giving up the world for Jesus
And with fixed and steadfast purpose dare to say,—
“I have closed the great transaction,
I have made my future yonder,
And I know that it will pay, it will pay.”

From Songs of the Spirit: Poetry by A. B. Simpson. Public Domain