of heaven" are used by our Saviour in different senses. Sometimes, as
here, they mean the grace of God, or true religion. And what Jesus
teaches us by this parable is that true religion is more valuable
than anything else in the world.

The next parable, in the forty-fifth and forty-sixth verses of the
same chapter, is about The Pearl of Great Price. This teaches the
same lesson. It reads thus:--"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a
merchantman seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl
of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it." By this
"pearl of great price" Jesus meant true religion, as he did by the
treasure hid in the field in the former parable. And the truth he
teaches in both these parables is that religion is more important to
us than anything else in the world. Let us look at some incidents
that may help to illustrate for us the value of religion.

"Jesus Makes Everything Right." A poor lame boy became a Christian,
and in telling what effect this change had upon him, these are the
words he used to a person who was visiting him: "Once every thing
went wrong at our house; father was wrong, mother was wrong, sister
was wrong, and I was wrong; but now, since I have learned to know and
love Jesus it is all right. I know why everything went wrong
before:--it was because I was wrong myself." And this is true. The
first thing that religion does for us is to make us _be_ right
ourselves, and then to _do_ right to others.

"Be." A young lady had been trying to do something very good, but had
not succeeded. Her mother said, "Marian, my child, God gives us many
things to _do_, but we must not forget that he gives us some things
to _be_; and we must learn to _be_ what God would have us be, before