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THE K I NG ' S BUS I NESS (4) What a price He paid when He pur chased the Pearl of great price. (5) The Church is the crown jewel of Christ Jesus, the Pearl of pearls. (6) God’s people, both Israel and the Church, have always been a sepa rated people, (7) Wheat and tares may grow to gether, but will never be gathered - together. (8) We may find our fiercest foes in our own household. m Subject Illustration-—Other men have said, “If I could only live, I would es tablish and perpetuate a kingdom.” This Christ of Galilee said, “My death shall do it.” — Herrick . LESSON Johnson. IM j CSTRATIONS Dr. Cuyler said, W. H. Pike “that when, the rich est man who has died in New York within his memory, was on his dying bed, he asked his at tendants to sing for him. They sang the old familiar revival hymn, “Come, ye sinner, poor and needy.” The dying millionaire said to them in a plaintive tone, “Yes, please sing that again for me. I am poor and needy.” Ah, what could fifty millions of railway securities and bank stocks do for him on the verge of eternity? He needed to come into a kingdom that would supply atonement, forgiveness, and salvation for needy sinners. The Treasure,—‘One of the first dia monds found on the South African dia mond fields was picked up by the child of a small farmer, as he was playing be side a brook near his father’s cottage. Some months afterwards a peddler came to the cottage with a pack on his back. As he was displaying his wares, the ped dler spied the stone on a shelf in the room. He- took it up and examined it, and then asked the mother what she would take for it. She pointed to the child and said, laughing, “It belongs
to that bairn, not to me.” The peddler then offered the boy a box of wooden soldiers, worth a few cents, in exchange for the stone, and the child gladly ac cepted the offer. The peddler took it to Capetown, where he sold it to a jeweler for a large sum of money. When the jeweler Sent it to Europe to be sold, he obtained $125,000.00 for it and it now adorns a royal neck. The Pearl.—“Gibbon says that a bag of shining leather filled with pearls fell into the hands of a private soldier when Galerius sacked the camp of the Per sians. He carefully preserved the bag, but he threw away its -contents. So fool ish men pass through life; they do not know when they come across the true riches, and even the pearl of great price itself is cast aside as a thing of little worth.’.’i—Baxendale. Precious Jewels.—According to the News of March 14, 1907, “The jewel treasures of the late Shah of Persia show that the precious stones collected by him are valued at ten millions sterling. The collection contains a num ber of unrivalled diamonds and other stones. Yet if he died without Christ he was indeed poor. Golden Text Illustration.—Riches or Righteousness.—The old miser lay dy ing. The physician noticed that his hands moved about with nervous rest lessness. “What is the matter?” said the physician to the old man’s son. “I know what it is,” replied the young man. “Every night before he went to sleep, he liked to feel and handle some of his bank-notes.” Then he slipped a note into the grasping hand, and feel ing, "handling, and crumpling it, the miser died. “Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness deliver e d from wrath.” Prov. 11:4. v. 44. Treasure hid in a field. The field is the world, the hidden treasure Israel (Jer. 31:5-12, 18-20; Ex. 19:5; Ps. 135:4). Christ gave His life for
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