DEAR READER, I want to say a word or two to you respecting your treasure and your heart. Mark these two words, treasure and heart. You may at first be constrained to say, “I have no treasure; what treasure have I? what has this paper to do with me, I should like to know?” Well, my friend, that is the very point I wish to bring before you. It is for you I pen these few limes.
You say that you have no treasure! But how can this be—no treasure? Look at the words again—no treasure. If you were to ask me, I should certainly say that you had a treasure, and you may even now have one.
Perhaps you may, even now, seek like some others to turn the question from you, and say, ‘Yes, if I had a thousand pounds in the bank, with all the interest added to it, I might boast of a treasure; but I have not even as many pence, therefore I certainly have no treasure.’ My friend, you will excuse me, but I must press this thought upon you. Allow me to say that you have both a treasure and a heart. Doubtless you will quickly reply and say, ‘Yes, I know that I have a heart; but as to treasure, you are wrong there.’
Now, let me ask you what it is that you consider a treasure? Is a treasure confined to hard cash, or to landed property? I think not. The common way of judging what a treasure is, is to fix upon that which the party most values. It is the manner of persons to take great care of that which they consider the most valuable. It is not always the case that persons value the same thing, or to the same amount. One man may value a small thing, another may fix upon quite a different thing. One may value his farm—another his house; a third may set a very high value upon hid horse—another his business; and another is taken up with his standing in life, &c.
I don’t forget or deny that these things have, and ought to have, their proper place and attention, of course they have; and it is not my desire to speak a word against the proper use of all good things, but I want to convince you that you have a treasure. Yes, a treasure!
Think of it with due attention. Let me ask you, what is that which you are pressing after every day of your life? Your morning, mid-day, and evening object, to gain which a hundred other things are laid aside. It may be a trifling thing, or it may be a great thing, it may be a worthy thing in its place, or it may be a worthless thing. One thing is as successful as another in the hands of the enemy to occupy the soul with. Anything or everything may be used by Satan for the injury of poor souls.
The word of God tells us that “where the treasure is, there will the heart be also.” Now, to get at the true state of things, as to our condition, the question to the point is this, where is the heart? If my treasure or your treasure is in the world, then, according to the word of everlasting truth, the heart is in the world also. In that same word I read that the world lieth in the wicked one, that he, Satan, is the prince of this world. And what can be the state of any man who is satisfied to be in such a condition as this?
To be in the world, and of the world, and to be ruled over and guided by the great enemy of God and man, is a sad and dangerous condition for any man to be in. Yet Satan blinds the eyes of many simple souls with the every-day toil of this poor world.
If man has a treasure, then the Christian has a treasure. And what and where is the Christian’s treasure? Look at his treasure for a moment. What is the Christian’s treasure? The treasure of him who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is in heaven, and that treasure is the One who died on the cross for sin; and He that believes in Him is entitled to say, “My treasure is in heaven.” What does the word say of such an one? Why, that the heart is there also.
Now, my reader, this is the point I wish to bring you to. Is your treasure in heaven? Is the object you most prize in heaven, or on earth? You may answer this to yourself, to your own heart, or you may answer it to God. He knows well whether His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the treasure of your heart or not. Could you, dear reader, tell God that you do not love Jesus Christ His Son so much as you love some poor feeble thing in the world, or it may be the world itself?
Perhaps you don’t believe it, but it is not the less true, that Jesus Christ is the most despised, though the best friend that man ever had. This is the great question with God, one that He has yet to settle with man. Happy is that man who flies to the cross of Christ, and knows it is settled there. If settled there it will be well, and you are saved; but if it is left for the day of judgment, you will be forever lost as sure as you read these lines.
Bow to Christ on the cross, and you are saved. God saves everyone who comes to Him by Christ, that is, who comes depending upon the blood that was shed there. Every man is a sinner against God, and God will save every sinner who depends upon the death of Christ. God is abundantly satisfied with Christ’s death and blood; are you? What else can you want? God will receive you THROUGH Christ, not without Christ. He only saves by Christ, and Christ crucified.
Now let me again ask, Where is your treasure? Where, and what is the most precious object you possess? Is it Christ? Is He the joy of your heart? If not yet, when will it be true of you? The answer of some is, ‘I hope and trust;’ and that may be your thought at the present moment. By what reasoning do you come to the sad conclusion that tomorrow, or next week, or next year, will be a better time for your receiving Christ than today, this hour! Why you don’t put off loving your child, or your father, till tomorrow, and why put off your soul’s salvation?
Let me caution you against these sad delays, and beseech you to fly to the cross of Christ at once. The end of the day of salvation is drawing nearer every day we live. The end is near. Judgment is near. Jesus has been in this world once, but He is gone, and gone to come again. To the world I can say, “Every eye shall see Him!” That day is hastening very fast, and when that day comes, it will be too late to think of getting salvation; then it will be judgment, not mercy; now it is mercy and not judgment.
It is well to remember that judgment will be for those who will not have mercy at the hands of God. Fruitful fields and a flourishing business are acceptable to man, provided he may use them for his own purpose, and according to his own will. These things are for the body, and therefore man delights in them; but what God offers to man in the cross of Christ is for the soul, and for eternity, and this the eye cannot see. Faith is not sight, and sight is not faith.
The eye saw Christ when He was here on earth, but it was and is faith only that can lay hold of Him for the soul’s salvation.
How do you now think of your treasure? Can you yet come to the belief that you have one? How as to your heart as well as to your treasure? Once more let me press this question upon you as to your treasure. Certainly you have some object upon which you look with deep interest and value much. If so, where is this treasure? May I ask you, if it is Christ that you value, and is it Christ that you delight to think upon? If so, well, but if you are fixing your heart and affections on any other object, I cannot promise you joy or comfort, or any real benefit. What is all the world, or ten thousand worlds, if the soul has no Saviour for eternity?
There is a Saviour provided for the sinner, but on these terms alone: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).) In this way God can save any one, yea, delights to save, and therefore you, if not saved.
J. T.