IN the month of April, 1907, a pawnbroker I in London did a most extraordinary thing. In consequence of a wager which he had made with a friend he exposed for sale in his shop window a hundred-guinea diamond ring, priced at two shillings and three-pence.
For five days the ring remained in the window, the ticket attached to it clearly stating that the price was only 2s. 3d. But nobody purchased it. Early and late crowds of people passed and re-passed the shop, but not one among them would purchase an article worth a hundred guineas for the small sum at which it was priced.
Stranger still is the fact that something worth a great deal more than a million diamond rings is offered, not for a small sum, but absolutely free. Yet many pass it by as if it were hardly worth a thought.
To what am I referring? I refer to the great boon of salvation and eternal happiness, which God is offering "without money and without price,'' to" whosoever will.”
Is not this great gift worth having? How is it that such multitudes live and die without accepting it? How are you treating God's wonderful offer? Have you availed yourself of it, or are you passing it by with cold neglect?
Not for five days, but for year after year has this marvelous offer been made. It holds good to-day. You may be saved now. But the offer is liable to be withdrawn at any moment. If you delay you risk losing your soul forever. Take care About three months previous to the diamond ring being offered in vain, a man was walking down Fleet Street, London. He was hungry and tired, and as he passed the well-known restaurant of Messrs. S— he saw in the window what he took to be a pie. The temptation was great. Should he break the glass and take it? He would. He did.
But to his unspeakable disgust he found he had stolen an imitation china dish filled with sawdust!
What a parable lies hidden in this incident!
Are there not many who, weary and hungry, eagerly seize upon one thing and another in order to appease their inward cravings, only to find them as unsatisfying as the sawdust pie?
Have you ever had such an experience?. Have you tried to stifle the cries of your soul by novel-reading? Have you sought satisfaction on the racecourse, the football field, or in drink? Or have you turned in the direction of religion, and endeavored to find therein something that would relieve your unrest of heart?
Whatever it may he, you have been disappointed! You have laid hands on the object of your pursuit, and lo! it is nothing but a sawdust pie.
Now we can tell you of something that can really satisfy the deep cravings of your soul.
Rather, I should say, we can tell you of Some One. JESUS is His name. His love, true and strong and tender, is better than all that earth can offer you. To have Him as your Savior and Friend is to have joy and peace without end.
It is not hard to see the reason why the diamond ring was neglected, while the sawdust pie was eagerly seized. With regard to the first, people did not believe that it was what it was. With regard to the second, the man sincerely believed it to be something other than it really was.
In the same way people have no real idea of the value of what God offers them. Some actually think it would spoil their lives and make them miserable if they were to accept it. At the same time they have exaggerated notions as to the world's power to satisfy. They grasp at this and that, and lay themselves out for pleasure and enjoyment, only to discover that they have been pursuing an object of no value-a mere dish of sawdust.
Let me urge you, reader, to go in for the thing of real value. Not religion but Christ is the object I would set before you. He died to make atonement for you, and His precious blood has power to cleanse all your sins away. Put your trust in Him. He is mighty to save, and freely saves every sinner who confides in Him.
The Day of Judgment is coming. Then things will be seen in their true light. And if you go on unsaved, careless, unready to meet God, you will never forgive yourself for
(1) Having neglected that which is of true worth, and
(2) Having been altogether taken up with things of no value.
Ask yourself the question seriously, What is the true value of the things which absorb your time and thought? H. P. B.