ffic in, but in one undivided,
indivisible, hitherto unknown and unimagined treasure.

4. It represents that the inquirer, the instant he discovers that this
one incomparable, all-comprehending treasure exists and is offered to
him, cheerfully, eagerly, unhesitatingly gives away all that he
possesses, in order to acquire it. That is, he gives all for Christ, and
then enjoys all in Christ.

Let me suppose myself a merchant, travelling in a foreign country in
quest of pearls. I have found and secured several lots that I count
good. I have still capital remaining sufficient to purchase many more; I
therefore continue my search. One day I meet a man who shows me a pearl
more precious than any that I had ever seen before. At a glance I
perceive that it is worth all I possess twenty times told. I say to the
owner, and say it with a beating heart, fearing that he will despise my
offer, "I shall give you all I possess for this pearl." He accepts my
offer; he gives me the pearl into my own hands, and I consign over to
him all that I have in the world: first, all the pearls that I have
bought in my journey; next, all my remaining capital; then houses,
lands, books,--all. I sign the deed with a throbbing heart, not from
fear, but from abounding joy. My act does not intimate that I value
lightly my possessions and rights: it intimates that my new portion is,
in my esteem, so greatly good, that it will repay all my outlay, and
give me a fortune beside.

So when I abandon my repentance, and my prayers, and my services and
gifts--when I sign away all my expectations on account of all religious
attainments, and accept Christ alone as my soul's portion--my act does
not intimate that I count little on the various graces of the Spirit in
a disciple's life: it means that in Christ and with him I have all good
things in measure infinite, in duration eternal.

If our suggestion regarding the cause and manner of the pearl's growth
is correct, the kingdom of God in the Gospel of his Son was generated in
the same way: the pearl and the pearl of great price have the same
natural history.

Some foreign, hurtful thing falls on the creature's life. Forthwith the
irritation which that invader produces causes the creature to throw out
and over the disturber that which forms a covering round it--hiding,
smothering, annihilating the originating evil, and constituting over it
and in place of it a gem of the tenderest, gentlest beauty--impenetrable,