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stance getting in between the oyster and its shell produces an injury and causes a deposit of the mother of pearl upon it. This is a beautiful illustration and type of the church. As Eve was taken from the side of Adam 'to be his bride, so from the open wound in the side of our Lord is produced the pearl—the church. The sea is the scene of pearl-making. The world is smybolized many times as “the sea,” and it is out of the world that the church is taken. What a price He paid in order to possess the world in which was the hidden treasure which He possesses in His earthly people, Israel, whom He has preserved through the ages for the earth! And what a jewel He has in the church,—-the pearl of great price! He places a value upon it not understood by us. He looked for it. He found it. He gave up His place in glory, surrendered all that was dear to Him, took the place of and was pun ished as a criminal, that He might adorn Himself throughout the ages with a gem beautiful to behold. “Chosen in Him” was the church before He made the world. “Having predes tinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself” that we might be “to the praise and glory of His grace.” And to prapahrase slightly, “She shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.” The Church can say “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” The fairest jewel of all God’s creation, in time and eternity, will be His bride, adorned for her husband, dearer to Him than the apple of His eye,—-with Him and like Him, forever. (3) THE PARTITIONING OF THE TWO PARTIES, vs. 47-52. This parable falls into a logical place. The pearl, His bride, has been taken out of the world, and the angels begin the final separation before the King returns. The church is being used by the Lord to winnow men out of the world now, but in this scene the angels
(Psa. 135:4). “For the Lord hath chosen Jacob for himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.” They are hated of the Gentiles (Psa. 83:2, 3). They are the “mystery” of Rom. 11:25: • “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.” He calls them His “hidden ones” (Psa. 83:3). “They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and . consulted against thy hidden ones.” God knows them, although with closed eyes and stopped ears they de ny Christ' as their Messiah. Some day the “hidden ones” will be revealed. . (2) THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, vs. 45, 46. How can any one, with God’s Word in their hands, with the key to the parables before them (13:1-17), with this parable and the parable of the treasure,—teach that Christ is either the Treasure or the Pearl? Sinners never purchase Him. He would not al low any one to add a hair to the fin ished work of the cross. We are bought with a price. Christ is God’s love gift to men. We do not pay any price for the gift. He paid the price in dying for us (1 Pet. 1:18, 19). He gave His life for us, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Christ Jesus is “the Man” spoken of in the parable. He came to seek and to save thè lost (Luke 19:10). The sin ner is never represented as seeking Him. It was God who sought Adam and Eve, and Jesus Himself says “No man can come except the Father draw him.” The pearl is formed as a result of an injury to the oyster that produces it. The material of which it is formed is the “mother of pearl” which linés the interior of the- shell ,and which is re newed as often as injured, or worn away. 'A particle of sand or rough sub
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