03.05 The treasure at our feet

V. THE TREASURE AT OUR FEET The treasure is hid in the field: it is not dropped from the skies. What is new and sudden is not the existence of the treasure, but the man’s discovery of it. So in the case of these strange illuminations and conversions. However sudden they may seem, we cannot doubt that all the while a preparation has been going on in the soul. The impressions of early experi[ences apparently forgotten recollections, ’it may be, as Wadsworth thought, of some, ’higher and purer world the patient teaching, perhaps in childhood, of parent or;of pastor old questionings silenced for the time but haunting still the recesses of the mind the unconscious influence of the baptismal grace, of the unseen Spirit of God all these have been “hid in the field” of character and life. How often we learn that some of the most penetrating and enduring influences are those which do their work in silence- and in secret. There is the atmosphere of home in early days; there are the prayers and thoughts of those who watch us with silent eyes of love and care both here and surely in the world unseen; there is the quietly diffused power of example, of contact with men and women better than ourselves; above all how strangely we forget it! there is the ceaseless working of One Who knows us perfectly and loves even as He knows and who wills that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Never let us neglect for ourselves or for others the silent power and steady pressure of education, of atmosphere, of orderly habits, of religion, of the faithful use of appointed “means of grace.” The treasure must be prepared and hidden before it can be discovered. Let us then neither doubt nor presume upon the liberty of God’s illuminating and converting power.

TAGS: [Parables]