treasure lay; but though
often near it, he never fell on it until that day when he fell to the
ground near Damascus. Felix was near it when, shut in between his own
sin and God's righteousness, he trembled at the sight of the
judgment-seat, like an angel with a drawn sword right before him on the
narrow path. Agrippa was near it when, caught and carried away ere he
was well aware by the close, clear reasoning of a true preacher, he was
almost persuaded to be a Christian. Still men may be walking near the
treasure of eternal life,--walking over it, and yet miss it: the
treasure that they trod upon remains hidden, and they remain poor.

3. The hidden treasure is at last found. It is noticed by all students
of the parables, that on this point there is a marked distinction
between the experience of the man who found the hidden treasure, and
that of the merchant who found the pearl of great price. It is probable
that this man was not aware that there was any treasure in that field:
he seems to have been neither looking for it nor expecting to find it.
He was probably employed in some other work, and prosecuting some other
object. He may have been a labourer toiling there for his daily bread;
or he may have been engaged in making a road or digging for the
foundation of a house, when the treasure, concealed in a troubled time,
was exposed to view. He found what he was not seeking: he was seeking a
bit of bread, and stumbled upon a fortune. The merchant, on the
contrary, who fell in with the precious pearl was travelling with the
express purpose of discovering goodly pearls and buying them. He
obtained what he was seeking; but obtained a pearl of greater value than
he had previously seen, or expected ever to see.

Outwardly at least, and on the surface, a similar distinction seems to
obtain between one man's experience and another's, in regard to the
manner of finding the treasures of divine grace. Some seem to find the
Saviour when they are not seeking him; and some, after deliberately and
consciously seeking him long, are rewarded at length. It is the former
of the two classes with whom we are more directly concerned in the
exposition of this parable. Looking abroad upon the past history or the
present experience of the Church, we observe that some suddenly
stumble, as it were, upon salvation, when they neither expected nor
desired to find it. Not a few have come to laugh, and remained to pray.
Many authentic cases are reco