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 lost the Sav­ior

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 storm-tossed vess­el I could steer;

If I gained the world

but lost the Sav­ior

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 Sav­ior

’Mid the sins and sor­rows here be­low!

And eter­ni­ty

how dark with­out Him!

Only night and tears and end­less woe!

What

though 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!

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 ev­ery­thing is mine in Je­sus;

For my needs and more He will pro­vide.