t
gone before it. We need and get not only different pictures of the same
objects, but also the same pictures repeated in different colours and on
different grounds. One eye may be more touched and taken by this colour,
and another by that, although the outline of the objects be in both
cases essentially the same. Thus, the conception of a treasure found may
convey the meaning more impressively to one mind, and the conception of
a pearl purchased may convey it more impressively to another; and so,
although the lesson of the second parable had been more nearly identical
with that of the first than it is, it would not have been expedient to
dismiss it with a cursory notice. By a full examination of the principle
under the picture of a precious pearl, we shall obtain the advantage
which in moral questions, as in material operations, is often
unspeakably great, of a second stroke on the same spot. The usefulness,
and even the necessity of this method is acknowledged by all teachers,
in whatever department they may be called to exercise their office. The
same reasons, moreover, which induced the Master to reduplicate his
lesson demands that we should also reduplicate ours: it is our part both
in matter and in method to follow his steps.

Pearls seem to have borne a higher value in ancient times than they bear
now, both absolutely and in comparison with other kinds of jewels.
Romantic ideas prevailed regarding their origin and their nature; but it
is well worthy of remark that the parable passes in silence all that was
false or fanciful in the ideas of the ancients regarding the production
and the medicinal virtue of pearls. There is not a word about their
origin in a drop of dew, or the colour imparted to them by the
brightness or darkness of the heavens at the moment of their conception:
the only circumstance regarding the pearl which the Lord employs in his
instructions is its high price. He seizes the obvious and universally
known fact, taking no notice of the fanciful theories with which it was
connected.

This fact possesses a value in relation to Apologetics which intelligent
students will readily appreciate. It is instructive and suggestive to
compare the Scriptures on such subjects with other books both ancient
and modern. Take, for example, a passage from the comment of Benjamin
Keach, which gives both the conceit of the ancients and the endorsement
of it at a comparatively recent era. "Pearls," naturalists tell us