A tract by an atheist

(You will find it helpful to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)

It was while C.T. Studd was studying at Cambridge University in 1833, that he came across the following tract written by an anonymous atheist:

"If I firmly believed, as millions say they do, that the knowledge and practice of religion in this life, influence destiny in the eternal world--then religion would mean everything to me. I would cast away all . . .
  earthly enjoyments as dross,
  earthly cares as follies,
  and earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity.

"I would esteem one soul gained for Heaven, worth a life of suffering. Earthly consequences would never stay my hand nor seal my lips. Earth--its joys and its griefs--would occupy no moment of my thoughts. I would strive to look upon eternity alone, and on the immortal souls around me--soon to be everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable.

"I would speak to my fellow men in season and out of season; and as far as my influence reached, I would strive to save them from eternal doom.

"Yet, you Christians who profess to believe this truth, and who say that you have been saved from eternal damnation--you do nothing! You profess to believe that the unconverted are going to Hell, yet you are as unconcerned about your fellow men as if they were only brutes. If I believed what you claim to believe, I would not rest, day or night, until I had ensured that everyone I met heard and had the opportunity to be saved. My text would be: "What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" Mark 8:36

The tract's argument was that if Christians truly believed in the reality of Heaven and Hell, then their lives should reflect an urgent and relentless commitment to evangelism.

This tract had a powerful impact on Studd, and deeply convicted him about the urgency of evangelism. It reinforced his belief that he could not live for worldly comforts, while souls perished without Christ. It helped propel him into radical missionary work, first in China, then in India, and later in Africa.

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:19–20

"Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last!" C.T. Studd

(We have published a powerful new video on Noah's Ark.)