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Written by the Proprietor of a Business to the Members of His Staff <p>Suppose that a man should send his young lady a diamond ring costing him five thousand dollars, and place it in a little velvet case which the jeweler threw in for nothing. Would he not think it strange if, on meeting her a few days later, she would say, "Oh, that was a lovely little velvet box you sent me. I am going to take every care of it. I promise to keep it wrapped up in a safe place so that no harm shall come to it."</p> <p>Such a thing is too ridiculous to be thought possible, yet is it not just as foolish for men and women to be spending all their time and thought on their bodies, which are but caskets containing the real self, the soul, that the Bible tells us will persist long after our bodies have crumbled to dust?</p> <p>In Revelation 6:9 we read, "I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne."</p> <p>Longfellow puts it thus: </p> <p>Tell me not in mournful numbers, <br>Life is but an empty dream, <br>For the soul is dead that slumbers, <br>And things are not what they seem.</p> <p>Life is real, life is earnest, <br>And the grave is not its goal, <br>Dust thou art, to dust returnest, <br>Was not spoken of the soul.</p> <p>Indeed it was not, for in Mark 8:36 our Lord Himself asks, "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?"</p> <p>So, in Christ's estimate, man's soul is some-thing incomparably more valuable than the whole world. My purpose is, therefore, to discuss with you some of the basic things that relate to your most valuable possession, your soul. For instance: </p> <p>Is there a God?<br>Is the Bible true?<br>Is man accountable?<br>Is there divine forgiveness?</p> <p>And a number of other problems that seem to perplex many when they turn from the transient things of life to face its eternal truths. So let us consider our first problem--</p> How may we know there is a God? <p