Matthew 13

Matthew 13:44

Treasure Trove The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field.—Matthew 13:44. Not long since some of us were very much interested to read about the wonderful treasure that had been discovered on Mr. Balfour’s estate at Whittinghame in East Lothian. On the side of a hill is an old camp, and for some years men had been digging on this camp to find out what traces had been left by the men who occupied it more than fifteen centuries ago. And one day they came upon a pit which contained a most marvelous treasure—the most wonderful treasure that has ever been found in this country. It consisted of silver vessels of all kinds—bowls, and plates, and chalices, and flagons, and spoons, along with many old coins. Some of the vessels seemed to have been stolen from monasteries on the Continent and the whole treasure had evidently been hidden there by pirates who in some way were prevented from returning.Such finds are rare in this country, but they are fairly frequent in Palestine.Every now and then we hear of the discovery there of strange old vaults and tombs which have lain buried for hundreds—even thousands—of years.

We read of old urns and vases being upturned, of chests of gold coins being found under the soil.There is more than one reason why Palestine is so rich in treasure. It was a land frequently visited by earthquakes, and in the upheavals much that was valuable was hidden and lost.

Again, in ancient times it was often invaded, and there were also many quarrels between tribe and tribe. The safest bank was Mother Earth, and in times of disturbance men concealed their treasure in the ground. Very often these men were killed or died in exile, and their secret died with them. Ages later some fortunate ploughman tilling the soil came upon the golden store.It was of such a man that Jesus spoke in His parable of the hid treasure. A poor ploughman was one day busy in his master’s field. Suddenly his ploughshare struck something hard. It was an old chest containing precious coins. What a grand discovery—a discovery that would make him rich beyond his wildest dreams!

It was worth while giving up everything he possessed to make it his. So the man went home, and sold all that he had to buy the field in order that all it contained might be his.Now seeking for earthly treasure is not always a good thing. It has sometimes awakened the worst passions of men—greed, covetousness, jealousy, hatred. Men have killed each other to get gold; men have sometimes taken their own lives when they had spent their last penny in a vain search for treasure.And the quest for gold has often caused great misery. Away back in the Middle Ages gold was discovered in Bohemia. And do you know what happened?

Many of the peasants gave up farming for mining, and as there were not enough people left to till the soil, there were frequent famines in the land. Don’t you think, to these peasants, gold would be a poor exchange for bread?But there is one Treasure that can do us only infinite good.

It lies near to all of us and it is so precious that if all the world were ours it would be worth giving up that, and much more, to gain it. Yet although this wonderful Treasure has been so close beside us for years, although it is ours for the taking, some of us have not yet discovered it, and some of us have heard about it but have not tried to make it ours because we have not realized its preciousness.Have you ever heard the story of how the Koh-i-noor diamond was lost and found again? It was once the largest diamond in the world, and it was presented to Queen Victoria by the East India Company. When it was first received it was given into the keeping of Sir John Lawrence. He was rather an absent-minded man, and, being busy and anxious at the time, he slipped the little box which contained the jewel into his waistcoat pocket. Then he went on his way and forgot all about it.Six months later, a message came from Queen Victoria ordering that the gem should be sent to her at once.

Then Lawrence remembered his carelessness.He called his native servant and asked him if he had found a little box in one of his pockets some months before. Oh yes, the man had found the little parcel and put it in one -of the Sahib’s boxes.

Search was made, and the parcel was found. But what do you think the old servant said? He had not in the least realized the value of the jewel he had had in his hands. “It is nothing, Sahib,” said he—“nothing but a bit of glass.”Have you guessed the name of the wonderful Treasure that is offered to us all? It is the Treasure of Christ’s love. It is ours for the taking, but some of us have not yet realized how very precious it is, and we throw away this wonderful jewel as if it were “a bit of glass.”Will you go back for a minute to the story of the parable? What would you have thought of the ploughman if, when he found the treasure, he had said, “Oh, it’s not worth bothering about; why should I sell my belongings to possess it?” What would you have thought of him if he had covered it up, and gone on with his ploughing, and remained a poor laborer all his life?Well, that is what some people are doing with Christ’s Treasure.

They think it is not worth troubling about, or that they would have to give up something they like very much to possess it.And there are some things we must give up if we would follow Jesus. We must give up everything mean, and dishonest, and unworthy; we must give up bad companions, and bad habits, and bad thoughts; but He will help us to give them up, and He will pay us back a thousand times for all we renounce for His sake.And now I want you to think what Jesus gave up to win His treasure.

For Jesus has a treasure too—the treasure of our souls—yours and mine. To gain them He left His beautiful home and came down to earth to live among men and to suffer with them. To gain them He endured a shameful death upon the Cross. He bought them with a price—the price of His love, and life, and death. But He cannot possess them unless we yield them up. Are we going to deprive Jesus of His treasure?

Matthew 13:45

The Pearl Goodly pearls.—Matthew 13:45. The stone usually given to October is the opal; but unfortunately the opal is not mentioned in the Bible, so we shall have to find a gem to take its place. What do you say to the precious stone of the sea—the pearl?Pearls have always been treasured by man, and a pearl is the very first jewel mentioned in the oldest writings we know. A Chinese dictionary which is over three thousand years old has a word which means “pearl.” When you come to think of it this is quite natural, for a pearl is a ready-made gem. It does not require the cutting that other gems do before they look brilliant. It is lovely without any help of man. In olden days they had not the instruments we have for cutting and polishing precious stones, so they prized the pearl as the queen of gems, and put it at the top of the list.History tells us that it was because of the pearls which abounded in its rivers, that the Romans came to Britain.

The Latin name for the pearl was margarita. From that we take the name Margaret.

So you see there are quite a number of pearls here today.Long ago people thought that pearls were drops of dew made solid. They said that these drops of dew fell from heaven, but how the dewdrops got into the oyster shell they could not quite explain.Nowadays we know better. We know that when an oyster or mussel shell is open a little grain of sand floats in. The oyster feels it horribly gritty and uncomfortable, just as we do if we get a particle of something in our eye. And it does what we do in the same circumstances, it sheds a tear. But the oyster’s tears are not like ours—a mixture of salt and water— they are liquid carbonate of lime, and this carbonate of lime hardens into a layer of what is known as nacre or mother of pearl, the same material as that with which the oyster has already lined its shell.

The creature is not content with one covering on the top of the grit. It deposits covering after covering till there is a glistening knob fastened to the shell, and you have what is known as a blister pearl.The perfectly round pearls are made in a slightly different way.

It is not a grain of sand but a tiny worm that is the cause of them. This impertinent little worm is floating around in the water looking out for a comfortable home, and when it spies an open shell, in it pops, and immediately begins to bore its way into the poor oyster’s body. The oyster’s only way to protect itself is to enclose it with pearl, so it sets to work, and later you have a perfect round, the most valuable sort of pearl.The Chinese have taken advantage of this habit of the oyster. They make little flat tin images of Buddha, open a shell, and thrust one in. After a time they open the shell again, and the little tin image is now a shining pearly idol.The finest pearls are found off the north-west coast of Ceylon, but some lovely specimens come from our own Scottish rivers. These last are mussel pearls, and you can recognize them easily, for they have a pinkish-bluish hue very much like the color of a soft evening sky.

You see pearls are not all creamy. There is even a black pearl; but it is very rare.

Pearls are of all sizes, from those like a tiny pin head, known as “seed” pearls, to the great pearl in the South Kensington Museum in London which measures two inches in length and four and a half round about. But it is not size only that counts. Shape and sheen count too. And the shiniest pearl is the loveliest. That is why the most beautiful pearl in the world is said to be one in the Moscow Museum. It is so exquisitely sheeny that one to rival it has not been found.One particularly lovely pearl lies, they say, buried beneath the waters of the canal at Venice, and its story makes us think of Christ’s parable of the merchantman and the pearl of great price.

This pearl was found in the sixteenth century by a certain Venetian Jew who was a merchant of pearls. He went to the East to look for them, and after wandering many years and undergoing many dangers he returned to Venice with a number of fine gems.

He sold them all except one pearl of immense size and extraordinary beauty on which he set so high a value that nobody was willing to buy it. Finally he invited all the gem dealers in Venice to meet him on the Rialto. There he offered them for the last time his glorious jewel. The dealers, thinking no doubt that he would lower the price, once more refused to buy. What was their horror and amazement when the Jew turned round and threw the pearl into the canal? He preferred to lose it rather than cheapen it.The pearl’s message seems to me to be as beautiful as the pearl itself.

I think it says to us, “Be a pearl-maker.” That is just another way of saying, “Be a peacemaker.” A peacemaker goes about trying to smooth away all the roughness and the disagreeableness that he meets. You don’t need to wait for a quarrel to be a peacemaker.

You can be a peacemaker or pearl-maker in so many different ways.1. Be a pearl-maker to yourself.—There are lots of disagreeable tasks and duties that come to us day by day. The more often we meet them the less we like them. Well, it is no use kicking against them; you have to do them, and the easiest way is to throw over them a pearly covering of imagination. Say to yourself, “I’m going to pretend this is the very nicest job in the world.” You’ll be astonished to find how bearable the hateful duty is in its pearl dress. Try the same plan with your worries. It is as good for them as it is for the disagreeable duties.2. Then be a pearl-maker for others.—Smooth away their difficulties.

Cover them with a coating of your pearl solution. That is to say, do what you can to help them out of their troubles.Be a pearl-maker when you come across a quarrel. Smooth industriously at that quarrel till you have turned it into a pearl of peace and love.Be a pearl-maker when you hear a nasty story or an unkind word about another boy or girl. Bury that story deep as the oyster does the worm, under layer after layer. Never let it see the light again. Be like the little girl I read of the other day.

As her mother was tucking her into bed at night the comfy way mothers do, the little maid said shyly, “Mommy, I was a peacemaker today.” “Were you, dear?” said mother. “Did you settle somebody’s quarrel?” “Oh no,” said the little girl, “I wasn’t that kind of peacemaker. I just knew something and didn’t tell.”Boys and girls, there’s nothing finer.

Start making pearls this very day. (The texts of the other sermons in this series are Genesis 2:12; Job 28:19; Proverbs 3:15; Jeremiah 17:1; Ezekiel 1:26; Ezekiel 27:16(2), Ezekiel 28:13; Revelation 21:19-20 (2).)