DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Again, the kingdom of Hea ven is like unto a merchant, seeking good
pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold
all that he had, and bought it." Matthew 13:45, 46.
A MERCHANT endeavors to trade so as to make a profit. Whether he deals
in pearls or in grain, he does not hope to obtain riches by labor. He
leaves that to those who eat their bread in the sweat of their face. He
tries to get his by the sweat of his brain. He is dependent not so much
upon labor as upon knowledge, upon skill, upon the advantage which
superior acquaintance with the article which he deals in gives him.
Now, this merchant is, at the very commencement, in some measure, a
picture of the seeker after Christ. Christ and His salvation are not to
be earned–they are not to be procured as the result of labor. Christ
is to be had by knowledge. What says the Scripture? "By his knowledge
shall My righteous servant justify many," that is, through their
knowing Christ they become justified.
This is, indeed, another way of putting the system of salvation which
is stated thus, "How shall I hear without a preacher?" The work begins
with hearing the preacher. It then goes on to believing what you hear
and through believing you are saved. This is virtually knowledge–the
knowledge communicated by God's messenger or by God's Word–the
knowledge heard, the knowledge believed. So men come to the knowledge
of Him whom to know is life eternal, for when a man knows Christ and
understands Him so that he gives his heart to Him, then is he saved!
Inasmuch, then, as the merchant seeks his advantage by superior
knowledge, he becomes a type of the man who gets saved through
obtaining the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. I shall not, however, enlarge upon this analogy, but proceed at
once to speak of the merchant in this parable, for here we have a fit
emblem of many who lay hold on Christ and find Him to be their All in
All. Let us watch this merchant while he is doing four things. First,
seeking, then finding. Then selling and, fourthly, buying again.
I. First, then, we shall WATCH HIM WHILE HE IS SEEKING. "The kingdom of
Heaven is like unto a merchant seeking good pearls." It is different
from the man we read of just now who, by accident, discovered a
treasure while he was in the field. He was looking for something else
and came upon the treasure. That is the man whom God, in infinite
Sovereignty, saves, though He was heretofore indifferent and careless.
This is a person of a nobler sort. He is of a higher grade of mind. He
is of an altogether different mental constitution. He is seeking good
pearls–something good, not exactly seeking the one Pearl of Great
Price, for at first he does not know about it. But, still, he is
seeking pearls and he comes upon one pearl in consequence of his
seeking.
Now, notice about him, as a seeker, that he has his mind awakened and
engaged. He is thinking about something– thinking about pearls. His
heart is occupied with his business. His energies are thrown into it.
All his thoughts are in the direction of precious stones. Oh that we
could wake men up to exercise the faculty of thinking and then to
direct, to regulate and to control their thoughts! But thinking is an
occupation that a great many persons altogether dislike! They are
frivolous. We cannot get them to think about anything. Why is it that
people are so passionately fond of reading novels and so seldom read
the true histories which are quite as interesting and far more capable
of affording pleasure and pastime? It is because the minds of men are
frivolous.
An idle tale–a silly story of a love-sick maiden–will engross them by
the hour together! But anything that is solid and worth the knowing
seems to have small charm for their shallow brains. Many minds never
get on the wing at all. Many men work so hard with their hands and
suffers such fatigue from bodily labor that they are scarcely able to
think much, while there are others who dissipate their time and consume
their lives in idleness till they are utterly disqualified for any
vigorous thought. They are lazy and sluggish. They have dry rot in
their very souls! Their brains do not work. They seem to live in one
everlasting lethargy and daydream. Oh that men were wise, that they
were thoughtful! Happy was the preacher who knew that he was addressing
himself to a thoroughly intelligent, thoughtful congregation! We
would expect, then, that the handfuls of good seed would drop into the
furrows readily and bring forth an abundant harvest!
This merchant's mind was awakened. He had something before him. Equally
evident is it that he had a fixed definite objective. He had given
himself to pearl hunting and pearl hunting was to be the one objective
of his life. If you had met him and said, "What are you seeking?" He
would have answered in a moment, "I am seeking good pearls. Have you
any to sell me?" He would have been sure to have the answer ready to
hand. But ask many a man whom you meet with, "Sir, what are you living
for?" he would, perhaps, tell you what his trade or what his profession
might be! And if you pressed him with the question, "What is your main
objective in life?" he would not like to say that he was living only to
enjoy himself–seeking his own pleasure. He would hardly like to say
that he was living to grasp and grab and get a fortune. He would hardly
know how to answer you!
Many young men are in this condition–they don't have a definite
objective. Now, you will not make a good captain if you do not know the
port you are sailing for. You will make a poor life of it, young Man,
if you go out as an apprentice and then, afterwards, as a master with
no definite aim and end. Say to yourself, "I can only live for two
things. I can live for God, or I can live for the devil–which, now, am
I going to do?" Get your mind well fixed and firmly resolved as to
which it shall be. I will put it to you as boldly and baldly as even
Elijah did when he said, "If Baal is God, serve him, but if Jehovah is
God, serve Him." If the world, if the flesh, if the devil are worth
serving, go follow the career of a sensualist and say so! Let yourself
know what you are at–but if God is worth serving and your soul worth
the saving, go for that! Do not sneak through this world really seeking
yourself and yet not having the courage to say to yourself, "Self, you
are living for yourself." Have a definite and distinct objective, or
else your vital energies will be wasted and your most industrious days
will be recklessly squandered!
This merchant, in the next place, had an objective which was not at all
commonplace. Other people might go in for bricks and stones, or for
grain, or for timber. He went in for pearls. He was a merchant seeking
pearls and those the best he could find. He did not go in for common
sea pearls, or pearls such as you may get in a Scotch river, but he
went in for good pearls. He took a high aim, as far as that line of
action was concerned. He went into a fine business. I would to God that
many who have not found Christ, nevertheless had sufficient common
sense, sprinkled over with Grace, to say, "I will go in for something
good. My life shall not be an evil one"–
"Lives of great men all remind us We may make our lives sublime."
It goes well for a young man when he has such an aspiration as this
within him–"My life, too, shall be sublime. I will not seek mean or
menial objects. I will not cultivate any depraved or groveling tastes.
I will seek something that I can commend to my own
conscience–something that will bear reflection when I come to
die–something that will carry the sterling mark when I have to value
it in another world." O young Merchant, if you are about to start in
business, I recommend this business of seeking good pearls! Seek the
Truth of God, seek honor, seek temperance, seek peace, seek love, seek
that which will make you good and true and right! I will tell you,
soon, where you may find these, but for the present it may suffice me
to inculcate a laudable ambition for everything that is honest and of
good repute–and an eager desire with your heart for that which your
conscience commends.
The merchant went to seek pearls and he sought them with diligence. The
merchant was seeking good pearls. He did not open a shop and say,
"Pearls bought here if anybody likes to bring them," but he went forth
in quest of them. How far he traveled I do not know, but the oriental
trader frequently goes immense distances. You may meet a
Nijni-Novgorod, in the south of Russia, with traders who have been all
round the globe seeking what they want–men who do not always travel by
railway, but who will walk any distance to obtain the very article on
which they have set their minds and in which they deal. Distance seems,
with them, to be no object. Ah, and when a man has got a noble
objective before him, and says, "Before I die, I will accomplish
something that shall be right and true and beneficial to my fellow
men," he will face hardships that would baffle his fellows!
I pray God that he may have the perseverance to carry that out and that
he may say, "Is there anything right to be learned? I will learn it,
let it cost me what it may of care and toil, of headaches and
heartaches, of buying experience and burning the midnight oil! If there
is anything to be done that is good and true, I will do it at any
hazard, for I am seeking good pearls." And as the merchant was seeking,
so he was using discrimination at the same time. When we are very
diligent and full of desire, we are in imminent danger of being easily
deceived, but this man, seeking good pearls, was not like a lady
unacquainted with the nature of pearls–he was a man who knew a pearl
when he saw it! He knew the character of pearls and the value of
pearls. He could tell which were cloudy and which had a soft radiance
and which were of the first water.
Indeed, he could tell a genuine pearl from an imitation one! He was a
merchant seeking good pearls. Yes, dear Friend, and I pray God that if
He put into the heart of any Brother or Sister here to live for the
right and for the true, He would give you great discrimination, for
there are many shams in the world and you may readily grasp that which
appears to be substantial goodness–and it may turn out to be a shadow.
Seek not only pearls, but seek good pearls. Go in for the good! Yes,
cast your soul about to find the best! Evidently this merchant went
into the business with comparatively moderate expectations. He was
seeking pearls. They must be of a tolerable size and pure. He evidently
expected to buy a good many of them. It was what he was seeking,
seeking good "pearls" (in the plural).
He had not reckoned that he should be fortunate enough to light upon
one huge pearl that should be worth an emperor's ransom! That he had
not looked for, though he did feel a desire that way. If anybody had
said, "Would you like to find a big pearl?" he would have said, "That I
would! That is infinitely better than to find a number of little ones."
He hardly hoped for it and, therefore, he did not seek it, but, still,
he was ready enough to have it if it came his way. And so, my dear
Friends, I am speaking of a class of persons–and I hope there may be
representatives of them here–who want everything they can get that is
good and true.
You need to be temperate in all things. You need to have an unsullied
character. I remember that was my own desire, when first I thought of
the life that lay beyond me. Before I knew the Lord I used to think, "O
that I might be kept from dishonesty, that I might be preserved from
falsehood, that I might be kept from a malicious spirit, that I might
be right-hearted and true." Those were the pearls that I wanted! I did
not know, just then, that I could find something that would include all
these minor pearls and a good deal more! Still, it is well when such a
desire as that is in the heart, especially of any young man. I wish it
were in the heart of the old, if up till now they have never found the
Pearl of Great Price!
Thus have I shown you the man while he is seeking. I wonder whether he
has come in here tonight and is sitting among this assembly. Perhaps it
is not a man at all, but a woman, a merchant woman. They can do trading
well. Lydia, that seller of purple, was, no doubt, an admirable
tradeswoman, and in the Divine trade of which we are now speaking there
is no difference. Well, you do not know the Lord yet, dear Friends, but
you do need to seek everything that is excellent. So far so good.
II. Let us go a stage farther, then, and look at this man's FINDING. He
was buying pearls everywhere. Where he went he asked people if they had
any pearls. He went down back streets, into the slums of big cities and
searched out the Jews in those old days, living in the dirtiest corners
of the city. He wanted to know whether they had any pearls. It was
pearls in the morning, pearls at mid-day, pearls at night! If under his
window at night anybody had cried, "Pearls!" he would have been
downstairs in an instant to get them! He was hard after pearls and so
it came to pass that he lit upon a pearl that he never hoped to see. It
was more than he expected! Ah, I pray God that some here, whose hearts
are honestly seeking after that which is right, may find Christ, who
has in Him more of the spirit of temperance, uprightness, truth and
philanthropy than will be found anywhere else! Oh, that they might find
Him who is the Truth and whose doctrine is perfect holiness and
everlasting life! It will be more than they ever expected to find! And
when they do find it, how glad they will be!
Certainly this man was in the way of finding a fine pearl if anybody
was. He was seeking good pearls, not the one pearl, but he was in the
pearl line and so he was likely to discover the best pearl if anybody
discovered it. "Being in the way, the Lord met with Him," says one of
old. Oh, if you have desires after that which is right and true and
good, I trust that the Lord Jesus will manifest Himself to you and that
you will say, "This is the very thing I sought for! I have longed and
pined after it and here it is." This find was to this merchant a
remarkable one! He did not find good pearls–he found what was much
better–one pearl. And to him that one pearl contained all the little
pearls that he had before been seeking after. Tell it and let all men
know it, that all that is good beneath the sun–all that is true, all
that is right, all that is loving, all that is philanthropic, all that
is of good report, commendable before God and praiseworthy among
men–is to be found in the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ!
And it will be given to us and worked in us when we submit ourselves to
Him and make Him our All in All. He who is a Christian, if he is
perfectly a Christian, has all good things in one! If there is anything
that is to be praised and extolled by philosopher or sage, you shall
find it in the example of the Master! And He will give us Grace to
exhibit it in ourselves! So this man found all in one. What the value
of that pearl was I do not know. The estimate of its value is not
given. We only know that he thought it worth all that he had and he
went away and sold all that he had that he might buy it. And he
evidently thought it worth all the other pearls he had ever been
seeking because if he spent his all upon that one pearl it would be
clear that he must have abandoned the searching after smaller pearls
since he had no capital left!
But he thought the one pearl of more account than all other pearls and
worth more than all that he had. Yes, I guarantee you that he thought
it worth a great deal more than all that he possessed. He would not
have sold all that he had in stock to buy it if he had not the notion
that it was worth ten times the price then and, that when he had paid
for it, he should have made his fortune and should be rich beyond a
miser's dream–for that is how traders in such things are sure to fetch
their bargains! Well, when a man finds Christ I cannot tell you how
much he values Him, but this I know– all the world besides seems
nothing to a Christian when he has once found His Lord and Master! "Oh
what a Christ I have!" he says. But he cannot tell how dear–how
inconceivably precious–the Christ of God is to his soul!
Concerning this find we must mark, next, that the man, having found it,
was resolved that he would have it. Having found a pearl of great
price, he did not question whether he should buy it or not. If he had
not gone out honestly to seek pearls, he would have objected to the
price, but being intent upon finding pearls, he no sooner found this
one than he said, "I must have that. I can let the little pearls go if
you like, but I must have that." And it is a grand thing when the Lord
brings the human mind to this! "I see that in Christ there is
everything I need–pardon for my sin, cleansing for my nature, Grace to
maintain my character and to make me perfectly fit for Heaven. There is
all in Christ that I need and I must have Him! I must have Him! It
comes to this–at any price–whatever it may cost me, I must and I will
have Him!"
Now, although the parable does not say it in so many words, it is
perfectly clear that the person with whom he was dealing was willing to
sell. When he had found a pearl of great price, he bought it, which he
could not have done if the other had not been ready to sell it. Albeit
the Lord, in His mercy, does not sell His Grace, but gives it freely,
the manner in which He disposes of it is here described under the
figure of selling. If you want Christ, you may have Him if you are
willing to come to the terms which God lays down. Of this I shall have
to speak presently. If you desire this Pearl of Great Price, there is
no reason in the world why that Pearl should not be yours tonight!
If now you have found Him, who is "the chief among ten thousand" and,
"altogether lovely," and you value Him so that you cannot be happy
without Him, He will become, at once, your portion! If, having heard of
Christ, your desire is toward Him as all your soul can need and you are
ready to say, "I will not leave this house of prayer till Christ is
mine," there is no obstacle to your possessing this priceless Gift!
Yes, God, even the Father, is willing that you should have His only
begotten Son to be your Pearl from now on and forevermore!
III. Having thus described the seeker and described the finder, we must
go on to describe him SELLING. He sold all that he had. It had taken
him a long time to get it together and, I have no doubt, he had much
pleasure in the accumulation. But now he has great pleasure in selling.
"Buy my farm," he says to one man. "Come, buy it!" "I don't know that I
want to buy farms," says the other. "It is nothing! It is nothing!"
"Nevertheless, let us come to terms. I need money and I must have
money." And away went the furniture in the house, one article after
another! They must all go! Clear them all out! This was a rapid sale.
He must have money. Everything must go for that pearl! Though he did
not tell anybody his motive, that pearl was on his brain and on his
heart–and all must go.
He is more glad to get rid of his possessions than ever he was to
obtain them! Away they shall go at the best price they will fetch, but
go they must, for he must have the pearl! Well now, Jesus Christ is to
be had, but there is a great deal that a man must give up if he is ever
to call Christ his own. "What, then," says one, "what am I to give up?"
Well, there must be a selling off tonight of a whole mass of old
prejudices. Sometimes when the Truth of God, as it is in Jesus, comes
to a man's mind, he repels it because it is so different from what he
has learned ever since he was a child. And the notion is that you had
better follow the religion of your parents. If you had been a
Hottentot, you would have worshipped a fetish. If you had been born in
Hindustan, you must have worshipped Juggernaut, according to that
theory.
But it is a great mercy when a man says, "Now, I understand that Jesus,
the Son of God, has died in the place of sinners that believe in Him
and I am simply to believe in Him and I shall be saved! On my believing
I shall receive a new
nature and be born again by the Holy Spirit, and from that time on I
shall become the disciple and the servant of Christ. Now," says the
man, "I will do it! It is contrary to what I have always been told. I
have been led to think that it was my good works which would save me. I
have heard that Saving Grace was in the sacraments, but at last I
perceive that God teaches in His Word that salvation is by faith in
Jesus Christ, and I will have it! I will sell my prejudices! Away they
shall
go."
Next to that you must sell off your righteousness. It will not fetch
much, but I daresay you think it is a fine thing. Up to now you have
been very good and your own esteem of yourself is that as far as the
Commandments–"All these have I kept from my youth up." And what with a
good deal of Church going, or attendance at the Meeting House and a few
extra prayers on Christmas and Good Friday, and just a little dose of
sacraments, you feel yourself in tolerably good shape! Now, Friend,
that old moth-eaten righteousness of yours that you are so proud of,
you must sell off and get rid of, for no man can be saved by the
righteousness of Christ while he puts any trust in his own! Sell it
all–every rag of it! And if nobody will buy it, at any rate you must
part with it! Assuredly it is not worth putting among the filthiest of
rags, for it is worse than they are!
And everything else that you have before now thought fit to boast
of–come on, you must get rid of it! You know so much. Well, you had
better sell off what you know, for unless a man become as a little
child he cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven. You are somebody–you
fancy you are not cast in a common mold–you have a great strength of
will and can force your way to Heaven! You will have to get rid of that
little conceit, for that strength of yours will be your weakness! It is
only when we are weak in ourselves that we can ever be strong in
Christ! Are you content to do so? Will you sell off all the old
prejudices and all the old righteousnesses? Going, going, gone! Will
you let them go, or have you got a reserve price? Let them go, for they
are dross and dung and the sooner they are gone the better–for then
you can buy the Pearl of Great Price–but not till then!
Yes, and there are some men that will have to give up a good deal of
what they call pleasure–sinful pleasure. No pleasure which is honest,
which is really beneficial to us, need ever be denied to us–
"Religion never was designed To make our pleasures less."
It makes them vastly more! But any pleasure that savors of sin is to be
done away with. Come, can you sell all that? That mixing in loose
company, anything approaching to lewdness, anything that has to do with
the gratification of the vile passions of the flesh–come, for Christ's
sake, can you give it up? Well, if you cannot, of course you cannot
have the Pearl! If you must have the world you cannot have Christ. If
you can find pleasure in the haunts of sin, you are of your father, the
devil, and you do his works. But come out from it! Give them all up!
Cast it behind you. These things must be sold off if we are to have the
Pearl.
And, then, sometimes, in some cases, men have to give up a good deal of
the honors and the satisfaction of life that arise from the esteem of
their fellow creatures. Has it come to this, "If I become a Christian
they will ridicule me"? Well now, can you not put up with a little
disgrace for Christ? "But if I am an earnest Christian, then I shall
have to encounter all sorts of slander." Be it so. And can you not give
up the applause of men for the sake of Christ? Come and let the dogs
tear your character to shreds as long as you are right before Him and
your motive is pure! "Yes, but I know what it is. I shall get the cold
shoulder in society if I become a thoroughly earnest Christian. There
is Lady So-and-So, for whom I have very great respect, whose good
opinion I would not forfeit on any account–and she would not recognize
me any more." Very well, but can you put the whole lot of it into the
scale and say, "I sell it all off! I let it all go, that I may have the
Pearl"?
That man is not worthy of Christ who would be ashamed to stand in the
pillory with Him, or go with Him to prison and to death! We must so
love Him that we count reproach for His sake to be honor, even as Moses
counted the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of
Egypt. "Well, you have taken enough, surely." Yes, but this pearl
hunter sold all that he had, but you have got a little left. You have
got some prospects. If you become a Christian your old uncle will cut
you out of his will. You know very well that if you shall go to hear
the Gospel at such-and-such a place you are very likely to be fired
from your employment. "But we must live," says somebody. This is not at
all clear to my mind! I know that we must die, but as to, "must live" I
do not feel quite so certain about that!
It is infinitely better to die than ever to do a dishonorable thing! If
Jesus Christ is our Master, we must be content to let the fairest
prospect go and all things that seem to encourage our success in this
life must be secondary in our thinking! We must seek, first, the
kingdom of God and His righteousness. Yes, and sometimes even love that
has been longed for must go for Christ's sake. Company that has been
delightful must be forsaken for Christ's sake. And if all this is done,
yet it is still not enough! He that has Christ must give himself and
all that he has to Christ! I should doubt whether I were a follower of
Christ if I had not in my very soul given up to Him all that I am and
all that I have, to be forever His.
He has bought us with a price and it is not right for us to give him
only one arm, one eye, one foot and half a heart! He that is a true
Christian is a Christian through and through! Whatever he possesses of
talent. Whatever of substance he owns, he looks upon nothing as being
his own, but as all belonging to his Master and he is prepared to use
all for his Master's Glory and to part with all if so it were necessary
for the maintenance of his Master's kingdom! The merchant sold all that
he had! I think I see you draw back. "This–this is too hard a line."
Very well, if you do not want to buy the Pearl–that is to say, if you
do not want to make your fortune, for the buying of the pearl was the
making of the merchant's fortune–if you do not think the Pearl is
worth it, pray do not have it!
It is not possible to estimate the intrinsic value, the real worth of
Christ! We do not cast pearls before swine. If you do not want Him,
there are plenty who do. He need not come begging of you that you will
be His customer. God forbid you should refuse, but if you do not want
Him, then say so! Only say it, and definitely and distinctly say it, "I
will have nothing to do with Him." But this man went and sold all that
he had. I tell you he was glad to sell it. He counted that the man who
bought his farm was doing him a favor. "Take it," he said, "there, I
will let you have it under price if you will only let me have the
money. I so much want to get money."
No, but he did not dare tell him such for fear he should go and raise
the price, but in his heart, "I do so much want to get that pearl that
I really would be obliged to anybody who will take that stock off my
hands." So if you really want Christ, instead of needing Him to urge
you to dispose of these poor effects which I have described, you will
be eager to be rid of them that Christ may be yours! May the Spirit of
God work in you such a high resolve!
IV. Now, the last thing is THE BUYING. He had sold all that he had and
then he pays the shekels–pays them over that he may have the
pearl–and he gets the pearl. It was a considerate purchase–a
deliberate bargain. He did not see the pearl and then, in a hurry go
and sell his goods and guess at the value of it. No, but he had looked
at it, for he was a seeker of pearls. He knew a pearl when he saw it,
though I dare say he did not tell the seller all that he had seen in
it. He said to himself, "That is a wonderful pearl. If I can get the
money–my little stock won't fetch above 500 pounds–but if I can get
it for that, I am a made man."
And so he thought it over. It did not need much thinking over. Oh, if a
soul did but know Christ, he would not think twice before he would have
Him! If men were not such fools–if they had but light from Heaven to
see the value of my Lord and Master–instead of our standing here and
having to beg and persuade and find out new words of commendation, I
think they would only say, "Tell us about Him! We will have Him! What
does He ask of us? What can we do for Him? What can we submit to so
long as we may but make sure of Him who forgives all sin, who gives
immediate and perfect salvation to all who trust Him? So long as we may
have the Christ of whom it is written, 'He that believes in Him has
everlasting life,' we shall be content."
It was a well considered purchase. And it was an immediate purchase. He
did not go home and say, "I shall think about this." No, but he knew
that pearl and he said, "If I let that slip through my fingers I shall
never see the likes of it again. If anybody else gets that bargain,
then I shall have lost the one opportunity of my life." And so he does
but take time enough to go and sell his farm and the little land he had
and the little property he had. He was back quickly with his money,
only afraid somebody might have slipped in between and offered another
thousand or two more than he was able to raise and that he might lose
the pearl. So, dear Friends, he that comes to Christ aright may well
deliberate about it, but the end of his deliberation ought to be very
speedy. "If He is to be had, let me have Him. Oh, if I can know my sins
forgiven, let me know it! Oh, if by any means I can have peace with
God–if I can become a child of God and an heir of Heaven–if my
eternal happiness can be secured, oh, let it be secured! How is it
done? Come, tell me at once! I wish not to leave my seat till I have
found that which you speak of."
It was a deliberate bargain–an immediate bargain. And then it was a
joyful one! I am sure his eyes twinkled as he paid over his money. I
should like to have a picture of his face, when at last he had got his
pearl! Now, that which he had
been all over the world for, he not only got, but something a great
deal better! He got his pearl and, I dare say, he was ready to jump for
joy to think that he got it! Ah, when a soul gets Christ it is–
"Happy day, happy day,
For He has washed my sins away." It is the beginning of delight to a
soul when he can say, "Jesus is mine! I know He is! Grace has enabled
me to lay hold upon Him." And, oh, what an enriching purchase it was
which the man had made! When he had once got the pearl, instead of his
property, he thought to himself, "Why, I have got a hundred times more
property, now, than I had! Though I have given up that bit of land I
can buy half a province, now, if I like, with this pearl which I have
obtained!
So, Brothers and Sisters, if you have ever given up anything for
Christ, I am sure that the Lord Jesus Christ has made you very ample
rewards! Some years ago a person rather eccentrically advertised for
persons who had been losers by obedience to the Divine Command–that if
anyone who had lost anything through love to Christ would apply to him,
he would make it up. The odd advertisement appeared for some months in
one of our religious periodicals. But the oddest thing is that nobody
ever answered it! I would have thought that somebody would have tried
and made up a case, but nobody did! You cannot make up such a case–you
are no losers by Christ!
"But," say some, "the martyrs were, were they not?" Well, they are up
there, ask them! They will tell you as you look at them with their ruby
crowns, all brilliant in the light of God, as they stand–
"Fairest of the sons light, Midst the bright ones, doubly bright," that
they counted it their honor that they should be permitted to lay down
their lives for Jesus' sake! Oh, there is no losing when you deal with
Him! You will make 500 per cent over this exchange–be sure of that!
No, it shall be a thousand per cent, for, "No man," says He, "shall
lose house and lands for My sake that shall not receive in this world a
hundredfold, and in the world to come, life everlasting."
This was a final purchase. The merchant, according to the parable,
never went buying pearls anymore. "No," said he, "No. I have bought a
pearl of great price and now I will go out of the business." And when a
man once finds Christ– ah, then he seeks nothing more! If Jesus Christ
is mine, more than all in Him I find. He does not need a secondary
object. His desires all stay home and satisfy themselves with the
fullness that is in Christ Jesus. He went out of the pearl-hunting
line, for he had found all the pearls he should ever need. And it was a
purchase he never regretted. The parable does not say that he came back
to the seller and said, "There, take your pearl, and let me have my
house and lands back." No, it was done! The great transaction was done!
He never wished to have it undone! With his pearl of immense worth, he
was a rich man, worthy to be the rival of princes, and he felt that it
was enough.
Oh, blessed are they who can say, "It is enough," and can rejoice and
bless and magnify the Lord–
"Now rest, my long-divided heart! Fixed on this blissful center, rest!
With ashes who would grudge to part, When called on angels' bread to
feast?" Let me, however, just put in one word of caution. Take care,
dear merchant Brothers, that when you buy a pearl, you buy a good
one–that it is the Pearl of Great Price! I have known noble spirits
whom I have admired and felt ready to weep over–men that have been
heroic in the pursuit of that which seemed to them perfectly true and
have made a sacrifice of all that they had for it–and yet they have
been deceived. They have grasped antichrist instead of Christ! They
welcomed the lie of Hell which came to them in the garb of the angel of
light! Mind, mind that you get Christ and His Truth as you find it
revealed in Scripture and revealed a second time in your own heart by
the Holy Spirit–for whatever is short of Christ will prove a cheat and
deceive you.
Some years ago one of the largest pearls that was ever found passed
into the hands of a Russian. It was a very large pearl, indeed–as
large as an egg and of a pear shape. He purchased it, the party who had
it being ignorant of its value. He was a man of substance and he kept
it and prepared a house which, though sparse on the exterior, was
sumptuously furnished within. And he would take his guests into an
inner chamber which, when it was unlocked, contained a table of marble
in the center of which was a box which had to be unlocked with several
keys and the reading of an alphabet, and so forth, and at last he
produced this pearl. He was very reluctant of ever permitting it to
depart from his hands, for it was of immense value.
The Emperor of Russia bid an enormous price for it and promised him
honor and rank, but he would not part with it. It happened, however,
that the possessor of this pearl was implicated–whether truthfully, or
not, I cannot tell–in a conspiracy and had to leave his home at St.
Petersburg. He took with him nothing but his pearl and came to Paris
sufficiently rich in the possession of that pearl. On a certain day,
the Duke of Brunswick, who was his only rival in such matters, came
with some others to see the pearl. The owner unlocked it with great
care and much deliberation. And when he had opened it, he was observed
to turn suddenly pale. It seemed as if he had been stricken with death.
Unhappy man! His pearl had suddenly become clouded, as pearls sometimes
do. It had been taken with some disease which happens to pearls, if I
may so express it. In a short time it would turn to powder–it had
ceased to be of any value, whatever, and he had come down from a
millionaire to a pauper! Yet he had bought a good pearl,
notwithstanding this seemingly tragedy.
There is only one Pearl that never can be clouded and will last right
on throughout eternity and that is the Son of God, "who only has
immortality." If you get Him, you have a Divine hope which can never
fail you! But if your hope is in priests or a hope connected with
sacramentarianism, or any other hope but that of which Christ is top
and bottom, beginning and end–you may make what sacrifice you
will–your brightest prospects will end in bitterest disappointment!
May the Lord grant that none of us may ever be thus balked of our
life-confidence–that no such blank bewilderment may ever fall on our
spirits.
Listen to me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the
Lord. The voice of Jesus is heard in this parable of the kingdom
describing and directing the seekers. Such persons comprise no small
fraction of an assembly like the present. It would, indeed, be strange
if seekers were not always largely represented here and, in every stage
of anxious enquiry! I am sure some of you have seen the Pearl you want
sparkling before your eyes. I wonder how many of you have resolved to
sell all you have to buy it? But who among you all have actually made
the Pearl your own and rejoice in its possession? That such of you will
go on your way rejoicing there is no doubt! But will you not return and
give glory to God? Shall we not have the happiness of greeting you here
in the fellowship of the kingdom of His Grace? The Lord grant it may be
so for Jesus' sake. Amen.