MATT. xiii. 46. “One pearl of
great price.”

No heart is at this moment quite vacant, quite listless,
quite objectless. We will not speak of men whose goodly
pearl is mere thoughtless self-indulgence. But we speak
of three goodly pearls, sometimes reflecting, sometimes
counterfeiting the pearl of price. Their seekers, we doubt
not, are amongst us, and we would speak to them.
I. The pearl of true reality, the thing that is a substance
of which there are ten thousand shadows. Is there a
goodlier pearl than this in all God’s universe? We do
not complain of this object of search, but of the method of
seeking. How often is the search of truth not a business
but a pastime, not a struggle but an excuse. Away with
the worship of doubting.
II. Another pearl is the pearl of virtue. Let no man
disparage it. God does not, Christ does not; but let no
man make the pearl a virtue, a thing which looks only at
the act, and never enters into the heart, out of which God
says are the issues of life. The seeker of the pearl of
virtue must listen to what God has to say about it, and
be wrapped within the folds of the righteousness of
Christ.
III. The goodliest pearl of all to be threaded in this string
is the pearl of love. But who can tell the sorrows of the
pursuit or the disappointment of the attainment? One loves
and the other does not. The cup is dashed from the lips,
so the enchantment is gone in the getting. At last death
comes, and the final parting. Oh, the merchant seeking
this pearl is a very sorrowful man ere all is done. But God
is the fountain of love, and offers Himself as its satisfac-
tion. That is the pearl of price.
C. James Vaughan, M.A.