bind together for a while in the way of accommodation or mutual service; but a true, generous, and unselfish friendship can only exist in connection with high principles and noble aims.

The first severe ordeal that Archy had to pass through was a visit from the kind matron of the establishment, who plied him with more questions than he found it possible to reply to without evasion. Happily she was one of those bustling chatty women who do not always wait for an answer, and Archy congratulated himself on her departure, that he had escaped without telling a downright falsehood.

It is remarkable how long some children who have been scrupulously brought up, will hesitate before telling a direct falsehood, even after they have learned many a lesson in false-acting, in evasion, and subterfuge. Archy had never yet intentionally told this kind of falsehood. He did not think he

could; and the terror of being so pushed that he might either have to tell such a falsehood or betray his friends, weighed heavily upon his spirits, as he lay thinking in his bed. He had time to think now, and there was urgent need that he should think. Oh, how he longed for one true and right-minded friend to come and sit by his bed-one God-fearing friend who would help him to do right, and perhaps show him the way-who would read the Bible to him, and talk to him about good and holy things. Why did the boys come and tempt him so, and bewilder him until he could not distinguish right from wrong?

Ah, little Archy! you should have chosen the better friends when you were healthy and happy, and then your bed of sleepless pain would not have been left only to the visitations of those who had no comfort to bring you-no help in your time of needno light in your hour of darkness.

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cover the precious ore that lies deeply imbedded in the heart of the earth.

This, in few words, is the plain and unmistakeable significancy of this Earthly Story. In order to present its spiritual meaning in an experimental and practical form, I shall endeavour, in the first place, to answer a dishonest objection which some might be disposed to urge; and then I shall seek to remove an honest difficulty which I believe often stands in the way of those who are really anxious to find "The Hid Treasure"really anxious to possess and feel a personal interest in the saving truths of the Gospel kingdom. Both the objection and the difficulty will be found to turn upon the fact that the Treasure is said to be a "Hid" Treasure.

In the first place, then, I am to meet a dishonest objection, which usually takes the form of a murmuring question, and asks, complainingly, Why is the Treasure hidden?

Now I have characterized this objection. as dishonest; and so it is. It is designed to suggest what the objector would scarcely dare to assert. The objection, in its undisguised deformity, infers that God is unwilling that men should obtain the Treasure. It rests upon the supposition that God has an ill-will to man, or at least that a limitation is necessary, lest His riches might be expended-His beneficence exhausted-His mercies come to an end. The supposition in either case is a mere excuse for impiety, and can only be traced to the promptings of "the evil heart of unbelief." It is enough to reply to the objector (and I quote the whole passage, because obedience to the exhortation with which it commences would best help the caviller to appreciate the force of the teaching with which it concludes), "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven for HE maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Every hour an ungodly man lives, the very continuance of

the gift of "daily bread," furnishes demonstrative proof that God is "waiting to be gracious" to him-waiting in order that he may discover and secure the Hid Treasure.

It is unbelief, and unbelief alone, that hides the Treasure-unbelief refusing to receive the testimony of God as to its inestimable value, and so rejecting the motive which ought to prompt the man to seek it.

The Treasure is hidden; but this does not mean that it is concealed by God. Jesus came to make known where it might be found-to invite men to Himself; and we are plainly told that "in HIM are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"treasures which He bestows "without money and without price." Hence He earnestly exhorted the Jews to "search the Scriptures"-the field in which all may find the Hid Treasure, assuring them that those Scriptures would "testify" of Him.

If it be asked why the Jews did not, as a people, discover the Treasure, we reply, Because they did not search the Scriptures, believing "His report." "Having eyes," they "saw not;" "having ears," they "heard not." They would eagerly have hearkened, and readily have professed themselves His followers, had He told them where earthly treasure might be found. They were quite prepared to welcome an earthly prince -a temporal Messiah-conferring richest and power and dominion on those who avowed allegiance to Him; these things they believed to be treasures, and they sought after them; and the men of this world believe it still, and therefore, as then, so now, the "treasure upon earth" is coveted, found, and "laid up"-a poor possession, transient and corruptible,-whilst the unsearchable, imperishable riches of Christ remain to so many a Hid Treasure.

In a deeply solemn sense of the parabolie sentence addressed by our Lord to the disciples, God will not "cast His pearls before swine." He will not force His treasure on our acceptance, although He "waits" to bestow it on all who seek it in sincerity and truth. On His part the Treasure is no more hidden than the meridian sun in the Heavens. Christ's words still live on the Sacred Page.

Those Scriptures are in our hands, which He has bidden us, no less than the Jews, to "search." His ministers are commissioned to preach, not a veiled, but a revealed, a manifested Gospel. Any man who fails to discover the Heavenly Treasure, does so because he is making choice of the earthly treasure; and, more than this, his choice is made with such determination, that, in forming and acting upon it, he must resist the strivings of God's Spirit.

This statement admits of no question; it is decided by an appeal to experience. The most careless liver, however indifferent he may be to his spiritual interests, cannot deny that conscience has sometimes troubled him with the thought that he was "poor" for eternity that was a Divine monition of the Spirit urging him to seek the Hid Treasure. The hearer of the Gospel cannot be found, whose heart has not at times been touched by its pleading, earnest, persuasive counsel to buy of Christ "gold tried in the fire, that he might be rich"-that was the voice of the Divine Spirit commending to him the imperishable wealth, the Hid Trea

sure.

The unhappy objector is hiding the Treasure from himself: God is not hiding it from him. Conscience must tell him that he is really refusing to consider the question, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

Let him remember this Gospel Treasure is treasure for the soul. It is necessarily valueless utterly valueless-in the estimation of those who are living only for earthly ends and aims-living as if they were not immortal. If thus living, let the objector hearken to the Scripture call, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead". awake to the consciousness of immortality. Then, with humble anxiety, let him seek at a throne of grace to learn where his Treasure is buried, and God will not be wanting to him. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." Only let him see to it that he "asks in faith, nothing wavering." Let him take his Bible and his heart, and examine them

well together. Let him look, in the one, at the holiness and greatness of God; in the other, at the corruption and insignificance of man. Then let him prostrate himself before his Heavenly Father, against whom he has sinned, and beseech Him to show him "how sinful man may be just with God;" beseech Him, by His Spirit, to reveal to him the saving truths of the Gospel kingdom; and the Hearer and Answerer of prayer will not be wanting to him. There will be angels with him in the still hour of devotion, who will descend while he is studying to know the Divine will, and tell him, as at Bethlehem they told the shepherds, that for him "is born a Saviour." The guiding Star shall rise for him in the East; it shall stand over the place where his Treasure lies. Let him go thither, and he shall find that which "cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof: it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire: no mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: and the topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it." He shall "know of the doctrine, that it is of God." He shall find "the Hid Treasure."

And now, passing from the case of the dishonest objector, I would, in completing the Exposition of the Parable, endeavour to remove what I have designated "an honest difficulty"-a difficulty which I believe often stands in the way of those who are truly anxious to find the Hid Treasure.

The difficulty is this. The mind of the inquirer is troubled from the very consciousness of its seeming powerlessness to apprehend Gospel truth-is distressed because the estimate formed of the Atonement does not approach the Scriptural estimate-because the "witness of the Spirit," in its establishing, comforting, sustaining, sanctifying influence, is not realized. There is a disposition to exclaim, Oh that I could regard Christ as "the chiefest among ten thousand!" Oh that I could "rejoice in Him with joy unspeakable and full of glory!"

It will help me to point out the true occasion and cause of this difficulty, if I refer to

an analogy which comes within constant observation. We all know that, in regard to earthly riches, a treasure is valued just in proportion to the uses to which we can apply it,the services it may render, the enjoyment it may confer. We must contrast the advantages resulting from the due employment of wealth, with the actual deprivations of poverty, in order to form a correct judgment. Not what we have-the mere possession of wealth,-but the right use of what we have, constitutes wealth a "treasure." "A poor rich man " is no unusual spectacle. He has wealth, but it is not a treasure to him. He wants to become experimentally acquainted with the condition and trials and sufferings to which he would be reduced without it, before he can realise its true worth. "Clothed," like Dives, "in fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day," he wants to take the position of Lazarus, sick and dying, and "desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table," and then he would be able to value aright the wealth which he had before, but of which he seldom, if ever, thought with gratitude. The use of wealth possessed, and that alone, transforms it into "a treasure." Hence we rightly conclude, that, whilst a little of this world's goods, applied, enjoyed, and realized, makes a comparatively poor man rich, great possessions, large estates, a home of magnificence to rival a palace, not applied, not enjoyed, not realized, leaves a rich man very poor.

Now let this reasoning be directed to spiritual things,-to the experience of one who complains and is troubled because he cannot realize the value of "the unsearchable riches of Christ." We ask, For what purposes-for what uses-are these riches available? What ends are they designed to serve? Earthly riches serve to alleviate or remove the ills of poverty. The riches of Christ are designed to remove the ills of spiritual poverty. Just then, as acquaintance with the ills of poverty in temporal things is the way in which earthly riches become to us really and experimentally a treasure, so acquaintance with the ills of spiritual poverty is essential before Christ's riches-the riches of Gospel

grace-can be to us a spiritual treasure. Before this acquaintance is attained, the Treasure must necessarily be a Hid Treasure.

Here then is the secret, the true occasion and cause of the difficulty we are considering. The man who is troubled because he is conscious that the Treasure of the Gospel kingdom is hidden from him, and really wishes to discover it and make it his own, must find that Treasure by acquainting himself with his spiritual poverty.

Viewed from this standpoint, the Parable itself suggests all that is necessary to remove and dissipate the honest difficulty of every earnest seeker.

It tells him that the Gospel Treasure exists. God has made a provision in "the exceeding riches of His grace," fully equal to the need of all who are spiritually "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." It tells him that the Treasure may be found-"the which when a man hath found." It tells him that he may find it the which when a man "—any max -"hath found." But-and this is the point where the difficulty arises and is explainedthe finding of the treasure, the possession of it as a treasure, depends upon its being applied to its designed purposes. If not so applied, like the miser's gold, it can be no treasure. These purposes are the supply of our spiritual need. If, therefore, the inquirer would feel Christ precious to him, his first step must be to learn how poor he is.

He must not allow himself hastily to conclude that he is already duly conscious of this poverty, or that he cannot be so poor as God's Word assures him that he is. The miser is thus prone to deceive himself, and will even boast of his wealth when others pity him for his poverty. Rather let him, with prayer for the Spirit's teaching, begin the searching scrutiny of self-examination. Let him diligently and faithfully compare his life with the Bible standard of perfect obedience. Let him consider all his direct and deliberate transgressions, in thought, word, and deed, of that law which is "holy, just, and good "-transgressions against which conscience exclaimed loudly but in vain. Let him consider all that has been