rion, when he stood by the cross of this blessed Man, Christ Jesus, when he saw the sun darkened-the earth shaking-the rocks splitting and said,-" Surely this Man was the Son of God."

THE PEARL.

MATTHEW XI. 45, 46.

THE kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

ALL men are seeking happiness. It is as natural to man to seek after it, as for a bee to seek honey but, if the bee were to seek for honey where it could find nothing but poison, it must die itself of the very flowers from which it seeks to draw sweetness. Man's never-dying spirit cannot find happiness anywhere but in God. The golden eagle, that loves to soar in the high, pure, sunny air above the mountains, and makes its nest "in the tops of the rocks, and the holes of the ragged rocks," cannot be happy

C

in a wooden cage; neither can man's soul, which was meant to soar upwards to God, be happy anywhere but in that pure heaven, in which God made it to live, and in the cheering beams of the Sun of Righteousness. These men are like "the merchantman seeking goodly pearls; " but it is a vain thing to look for them in the mud, or in the barren, sandy desert. Pearls must be sought where they are to be found, or men will seek for them in vain.

A Pearl is a beautiful jewel, which grows in the oyster. It is thought by some that the wonderful juice, which lines the oystershell, and hardens into that smooth, polished, rainbow-coloured substance, called Mother-of-pearl, also forms the pearl itself, when it is lodged by the fish round some small grain of sand or gravel, which has found its way into the shell. So that the oyster is the Mother of the pearl,'- the pearl is, as it were, the child of the oyster. These pearl-oysters, or oysters in which the pearl is found, are brought up from the

bottom of the sea, chiefly off the coast of Ceylon, by divers; and according to their

size is their value..

Now, when a merchantman who is

seeking goodly pearls," hears of some place where "one pearl" of great beauty and value is to be seen, he goes to that place, "and sells all he has and buys that pearl." He knows that though he is parting with all he has to buy that one precious jewel, he is yet a gainer-because that one pearl is worth much more than all that he has parted with to get it. And so he goes on his way rejoicing, for he has got riches in a small compass, wrapped up in his bosom; and instead of money, that would take chests and carts to carry it, or goods that must be dragged after him in carriages, or houses and lands which he could not take with him at all when he moves about, he has got his riches in one precious pearl, and so can carry them with him wherever he goes.

Now "the kingdom of heaven" is like

this. The Gospel comes to us, who are "seeking goodly pearls," but seeking them in vain because we are seeking them in the world's market. They bring us pearls, indeed, there to buy, but they are mock pearls a little bubble of glass filled with fish-scales, is all that is wanted to make a false pearl-and though it looks well at a distance, yet it crushes and crumbles into powder when we squeeze and press it tightly in our hands, and we see nothing left but a little worthless dust that a breath blows away. So are the pleasures of the world d; and those who seek for happiness in any thing that the world can give, will only have such false pearls instead of true ones to shew, or rather, not to shew-for they will be all broken, crushed and blown away.

But the Gospel tell us where "one pearl of great price" is to be had. It tells us OF CHRIST AND HIS SALVATION—of him, who is more precious than rubies, and to whom all the things we can desire are not to be compared." It tells the sinner who