The Pearl of Great Price.

N one of His parables, our Lord Jesus Christ represents a jewel-merchant as setting out in search of "goodly pearls." At length he finds "one pearl,"

a "pearl of great price." Resolved to obtain it, he goes and sells all that he has and makes it his own. Who is this merchant?

One, we reply, who yearns, like every man on earth, for true happiness, but who, unlike vast numbers, cannot be content with anything low, or mean, or trifling. What he wants is something worthy of his nature-something which will both delight and elevate him. He tries various things; but he finds nothing which fills his heart and makes him really happy till he finds "the kingdom of heaven."

Let us notice a few of the "goodly pearls" which men have sought.

"Give me books," says one; "the works of the great masters of thought; and with the books time to read and study them, and I should desire nothing more." Another devotes himself to the pursuits of science. A third seeks his pleasure in art. We do not undervalue any of these sources of enjoyment; but we do say that not any one of them, nor all combined, can fill the soul with true and lasting blessedness.

In ancient times thoughtful men went from city to city, and from land to land, in quest of truth; and such men, it is said, often went to Jerusalem, inquiring after Israel's God. Men do not need to do that now. Whatever is likely to be of interest to only a small class of people is printed and published; and the earnest inquirer can ask from his books, "What is truth?" So numbers of thoughtful minds are inquiring to-day. They are "seeking goodly pearls."

One day some missionaries in India were surprised and delighted by a deputation from a tribe which lived several hundred miles up the country. They had heard that the missionaries taught a better religion than their own; and

they wanted to have some one sent to tell them what it was. They, too, were "seeking goodly pearls."

And may not the description be further applied to every man who, feeling that he is a sinner, needing salvation, asks eagerly that great question, "What must I do to be saved ?"

Happy they of all men the happiest-who, thus seeking, find the "pearl of great price." It is a joy to know that no man who seeks it with all his heart seeks it in vain.

But what is the pearl? The kingdom of God, or, in other words, the salvation offered to lost men in the Gospel. That salvation is "treasure in heaven," "the true riches," "the unsearchable riches of Christ."

Think for a moment what salvation is, and you will see how fitly terms like these are used to set forth its worth. As soon as a man repents of his sins, and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, all his sins are blotted out for ever; the Holy Spirit renews his heart, so that the love of sin is overcome; God calls him His adopted child; and, looking beyond the grave, he can say, "The Lord has prepared for me there an inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled, and which fadeth not away."

But observe what the merchant thus found was 66 one pearl of great price "—the only one of its kind. There is only one "kingdom of heaven," only one sacrifice for sin, only one Advocate with the Father, only one Saviour who is " able to save to the uttermost." "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ." The question is put and left unanswered, to show that it is unanswerable. "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ?" If you do not find this "pearl," you will be poor, and wretched, and lost for ever.

When the merchant found this pearl, he "went and sold all that he had, and bought it."

Does this mean, then, that we are to buy salvation? If

we cannot.

we could buy it, even by the payment of all we have, it would be the wisest purchase we could possibly make. But The blessings of everlasting life are God's gracious gifts bestowed upon us, "without money and without price." So we are to "take the water of life freely," and that word "freely" means without any payment whatever. The pearl becomes our own simply by putting forth our hand to receive it ; and the hand we so put forth is the hand of faith, which receives the priceless boon of salvation as the free gift of God.

This is what is meant: When we sell a thing we give it up entirely. It is no longer our own in any sense whatever. There are certain things, then, to be given up, if we would enjoy God's salvation. In no sense whatever do they purchase the salvation; but in the very nature of things it cannot be enjoyed unless they are relinquished.

Then what is there to be given up?

First, we reply, all sins. The Lord Jesus Christ came not only to secure for us pardon, but to save us from our sins-to break their power, and to make us holy. So, at the very outset, the inquirer after salvation is met by the requirement of repentance. “You must hate all your sins," says the Gospel, "and you must resolve, by God's help, to forsake them." Thus, when the young ruler went to Jesus, our Lord saw that his darling sin was covetousness, and he applied to him a test which proved its power : "Sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." Blessed be God! the Lord Jesus is now exalted to give us repentance, as well as the forgiveness of our sins.

All other grounds of hope must be given up. Whatever it be on which any man is resting-his own good works, any scheme of religion, anything at variance with the simple testimony of the Gospel-all must be abandoned. If any man had ever a ground of hope on which he might have relied apart from Christ, that man was surely the Apostle Paul. Yet when he once saw the worth of "the pearl of great

price," he gave up all, "counting all things but loss for the excellency of Jesus Christ his Lord."

Then, again, we must forsake all pursuits and all schemes of happiness which interfere with the entire surrender of our hearts and lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our love of books, our study of science, our pursuit of the beautiful in art--these and other things which we might name—all of which are good and right in themselves, must still be sacrificed in so far as they interfere with our love to the Lord Jesus Christ, and with the service we owe to Him. There is to be a continual selling of everything throughout life, if we would make the pearl wholly our own. To refer to another precept which expresses the same thought, if we would be the Lord's disciples we must take up our cross daily and follow Him.

But then, in the present joy which springs from salvation, there is an abundant recompense for every sacrifice; and there awaits the believer in Jesus an everlasting blessedness in heaven.

Thank God, reader, that the pearl is offered to you. not delay to make it your own.

Cheerfulness in Age.

Do

Is oft as I hear the robin redbreast chant it as cheerfully in September, the beginning of winter, as in March, the approach of the summer, why should not we (think I) give as cheerful entertainment to the hoary frosty hairs of our age's winter as to the primroses of our youth's spring? Why not to the declining sun in adversity, as (like Persians) to the rising sun in prosperity? I am sent to the ant to learn industry; to the dove to learn innocency; to the serpent to learn wisdom; and why not to this bird to learn equanimity and patience, and to keep the same tenor of my mind's quietness as well at the approach of calamity's winter as of the spring of happiness? Warwick.

And now the Levites' sandalled feet

Are moistened by the river's edge, Which curls and breaks, with murmur sweet, Amid the bending sedge.

Yet pause they not; with heart of prayer

And faith-supported strength, they bear

That which the torrent shall not dare

Submerge or mar with angry tide: They know not how, but know that there God will a way provide.