If I Gained the World

A favorite hymn that we will sing tonight (tune)–

If I gained the world, but lost the Saviour,
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 Saviour,
Would my gain be worth the lifelong strife?
Are all earthly pleasures worth comparing
For a moment with a Christ-filled life?

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 stormtossed vessel I could steer;
If I gained the world, but had no Saviour,
Who endured the cross and died for me,
Could then all the world afford a refuge,
Whither, in my anguish, I might flee?

O what emptiness!— without the Saviour
‘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 Saviour,
When I come to die, how would it be?
O to face the valley’s gloom without Him!
And without Him all eternity!

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.

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