If I Gained the World

Verse 1

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?

Verse 2

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 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?

Verse 3

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, 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!

Verse 4

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.