"heavier by taking advantage of his necessity to increase your property. Look carefully, Brother S. You are making fearful losses for earthly gain. You are losing manly integrity and heavenly virtue, in the hour of temptation. Is this gain or loss? Are you richer or poorer for all such increase? To you it is a fearful loss, for it takes just so much from the treasure you might have been accumulating in heaven. 3T 249.1"
"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
Both passages discuss the danger of prioritizing earthly gain over spiritual well-being and the potential loss of one's soul in the pursuit of material wealth. The EGW passage directly echoes the sentiment of Matthew 16:26.
Every opportunity to help a brother in need, or to aid the cause of God in the spread of the truth, is a pearl that you can send beforehand and deposit in the bank of heaven for safekeeping. God is testing and proving you. He has been giving His blessings to you with a lavish hand and is now watching to see what use you are making of them, to see if you will help those who need help and if you will feel the worth of souls and do what you can with the means that He has entrusted to you. Every such opportunity improved adds to your heavenly treasure. But love of self has led you to prefer earthly possessions even at the sacrifice of the heavenly. You choose the treasures that moth and rust corrupt rather than those which are as enduring as eternity. It is your privilege to exercise tender compassion and to bless others; but your eyes are so blinded by the god of this world that you cannot discern this precious gem—the blessing to be received by doing good, by being rich in good works, re…
"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:"
The EGW passage elaborates on the concept of laying up treasures in heaven, directly referencing the idea of depositing 'pearls' in the 'bank of heaven' and contrasting it with earthly treasures that are subject to decay. This is a clear thematic parallel to Matthew 6:20.