The Son of God is come and God presents Him to us as His Perfect Son and our Perfect Saviour. Twice during His earthly ministry there was a voice from heaven which said, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased": "In whom I have perfect delight now and for ever." Can you reply, "This is my Beloved Saviour and He is everything to me"? [Footnote: St. Matt. iii. 17 and xvii. 5.] He is either everything or nothing.
Are you like the merchant in the parable, "seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought it"? Is your heart singing
"I've found the pearl of greatest price,
My heart doth sing for joy;
And sing I must for Christ is mine!
Christ shall my song employ!"
A Chinese convert told one of the missionaries that he happened to take up a Testament which had been sold to the people of the house by a colporteur, but they could not see the meaning of it, so they laid it on one side. "But," he went on to say, "from the moment my eyes lighted upon it, I was greatly attracted by it. So I read and kept on reading till the meaning dawned upon me, and then," he added with a beaming face, "I found the Pearl of Great Price."
This reminds me of that strange story of a very valuable pearl necklace worth £117,000 which was lost about a year ago. It was sent by post from Paris to London when it suddenly disappeared and no one knew what had become of it. A very large reward was offered to any one who found it.
But now comes the wonderful part of the story. One morning, a man of the name of Horne was on his way to the factory where he was employed when he saw a large match-box lying in the gutter in St. Paul's Road, near London. He picked it up and put it in his pocket. Presently he went into a public-house to have a glass of beer and there he met two of his mates. He took the match-box out of his pocket, pushed it open, and seeing it was filled with what he thought were white beads or marbles, he said to them, "What do you think of these, I've just picked them up?" "Oh! they're no good," replied one of the men, "throw them away." However, Horne decided to take them to the Police Station. The officers looked at them and said they were worth nothing, but gave him a receipt for them.
On their way to the factory they turned into another public-house for a drink, and while there Horne found one of the marbles loose in his coat pocket. "Oh!" he said, "I've got one of them left." Holding it up in his fingers, he looked round and asked, "Will any one give me a penny for it?" But no one would have it.
In another public-house where they stopped, he offered the pearl for a glass of beer, but no one accepted the offer. The pearl which was worth many hundreds of pounds was despised by one and all. Then Horne offered it for a packet of cigarettes, but again it was handed back with the remark, "That's no good to me." So one of his friends suggested that he should crush it under the heel of his boot as it was no good.
Later on when some one asked him what he had done with it he said he had thrown it away.
It is a wonderful story and quite true. "Oh!" you say, "what a thousand pities, if that man Horne had only known its value, it would have made him a rich man in one day."