The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-15

IUUUU, IIUEIn, and 10Y
thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath,
and buyeth that field. Matthew xiii, A.
The story is told of one of the great min
ing kings Of America who now counts his
wealth by many millions of dollars. that he
got his start toward great wealth in a pc
cular way.
He received some intimation that a GER
tain mine which was not regarded very
highly by it's owners was nevertheless rich
and might be made very profitable. He
went and hired out to work in that mine
and worked there as a common miner for
several months until he had satisfied him
self of the great value of the mine. He then
went away, sold all that he had. and Dor
rowed all he could get trusted for. and
bought that mine, reaping from it great
profit.
But in the days of Christ all the East
where men and women had been living for
hundreds and thousands of years was
more or less a gold field. There were in
those days no safe deposit vaults, no banks
where money could be cared for in safety,
and there was very little opportunity to
| invest boarded silver or gold in traffic. 1t
was also an uncertain and turbulent world,
and there was only one way to make sure
of wealth and that was to hide it away.
And so it became a common thing to hide
gold and silver and precious stones in the
earth.
To this secret treasure place the owner
would go from time to time and draw from
it the riches that were needed for use. But
as, the wealth was not safe unless the hid
| ing place was kept secret, it would natur-
ally occur very frequently that the sudden
death Of one who had hidden the treasure
| would leave the secret of the hiding place
unknown. It was warlike time and pre-
datory bands of robbers and invasions Of
an enemy would ever and anon drive the
people from their homes, and many a man
dying in battle would have no opportunity
to make known to his friends the secret
hiding place of his treasure.
Thus it became true, as Thomas Guthrey
says. that the earth became a bank in
which was accumulated during the course
Of ages a vast amount of unclaimed de-
posits"
STORY OF TEACHING.
So you see the story which Jesus brought
to these people was one full Of teaching to
them. There was not man who heard Him
who, if called upon to testify, could not
have borne witness to similar cases that
had come under his own observation.
Here is man who lives down In the viii
lage. He has his little house and home
plot and his team, but is not able TO own
a field yet. He rents a field on shares out
in the country. One morning he goes out to
pillow with his rude, old-fashioned wooden
pillow, pulled through the earth slowly by
a yoke Of oxen. He is busy holding the
pillow in it's place so that it will turn up
the earth as much as possible, when sud
denly the point Of the pillow strikes some
thing hard and nearly throws him over
on to the oxen, they lunge forward. He
supposes it is a stone, but as he digs the
earth away his eyes stand out in astonish-
ment, for he that his pillow has torn
into a. pot Of gold, and there are the rich
coins before his eyes.
He does not need 70 be told what has
happened. He knows that here is an old
unclaimed treasure, and that under the law
it would belong to any man who owns the
field. He is full of Joy, but he is also full
Of fear and anxiety. He looks all around
very stealthily. No one is in sight; no one
has noticed his rich find. Carefully he re-
places the sod. puts everything back so
that it will look as before, carefully sticks
the old pillow back in place, as though he
other business and then he hurries his
oxen away to town.
When he gets to town he astonishes peo-
pie with his efforts to sell out. He sells out
his house and lot, sells his furniture, sells
his oxen, sells everything in the world he
has got. OF course such forced sales never
bring full value. and his neighbors think
the man must be crazy to sQuander his
goods in that way. But he knows what he
is about; he has priced the field before, and
he knows what he can buy it for and when
by forcing sale on all his possessions he
secures the needed sum he hurries away
to the owner and buys the field. The peo-
pie still say he is crazy. How is he going
to live on that field without any house. and
how is he going to work it without oxen?
But all their hootngs soon turn to admit
ration and praise, for as soon as the man
gets a deed to the place he goes back and
upturns his rich treasure, and forever
after his family are able TO live in a much
better house and to enjoy more of comfort
and luxury than they have ever dreamed of
knowing before. Everybody agrees now
that he was, indeed, a wise man when he
sold all that he had, even at a sacrifice to
buy the field in which he had found the
hidden treasure.
A PROFITABLE EXCHANGE
Now the Lord Jesus Christ says that the
kingdom of heaven is like that-that when
we give up all our sins, and all our selfish
ambitions, and take Him not only to be our
Savior, but our Lord and King, we ex-
change poverty for great riches, and that
there is no better investment, indeed. there
is no investment in the world so good as
for a man to sell out all that he has to de-
pend upon and trust in, and to put his
trust in Jesus Christ.
And this is true from whatever stand
point we may look at the matter. Wealth
is only symbol of comfort and happiness.
and when it fails TO bring these it is a
worthless thing; yet at how many points
in life it does fail. But Jesus Christ has the |
power to give to our hearts blessed COM
fort and peace which are beyond anything |
the greatest riches of the world can bestow.
He is the one friend that has power to !
comfort Us in every emergency Of life. The
wealth which He gives US is the one sort Of
wealth which is honored everywhere and
can give silver lining to every cloud in
our experience.
And yet to many people this treasure is
still hidden. 1t is not only the heather
world, which never heard about Christ, to
whom il is hidden: right here in our own