was in Patmos for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus.' He
lost Ephesus; he gained an open heaven and a visible Christ. Do you
remember who it was that said, 'I have suffered the loss of all
things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ'? It was a
good bargain, Paul! The balance-sheet showed a heavy balance to your
credit. Debit, 'all things'; credit, 'Christ.' 'The Lord is able to
give thee much more than this.'

Remember the old prophecy: 'For brass I will bring gold; and for iron,
silver.' The brass and the iron may be worth something, but if we
barter them away and get instead gold and silver, we are gainers by
the transaction. Fling out the ballast if you wish the balloon to
rise. Let the hundred talents go if you wish to get 'the more than
this.' And listen to the New Testament variation of this man of God's
promise, 'If thou wilt have treasure in heaven, go and sell all that
thou hast, and follow Me.'



JOTHAM

'So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord
his God.'--2 CHRON. xxvii 6.


This King Jotham is one of the obscurer of the Jewish monarchs, and we
know next to nothing about him. The most memorable event in his reign
is that 'in the year when King Uzziah,' his father, 'died,' and
consequently in Jotham's first year, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting in
the Temple on the empty throne, and had the lips which were to utter