03.07 The pearl of great price

VII. THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE The Kingdom of Heaven, the possession of the Truth as it is in Jesus, comes to men not only as a sudden discovery but also sometimes as the reward of eager search.

It is the lifework of the merchantman to find “goodly pearls,” and in the course of his travels he finds one of such supreme worth that for the sake of it he sells all he has and buys it. “Goodly pearls” are the object of the merchant’s search. He is a type of those who view the world as full of possibilities waiting to be realized, full of “pearls” of truth and beauty and joy. Life presents itself to them as a quest, a voyage of discovery. They are never happy in the peaceful harbour of routine; they are ever putting out to sea. Like Tennyson’s Ulysses they “cannot rest from travel”; they say, with him, “All experience is an arch wherethro’

Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move.” This is a spirit in itself right and brave and true. He Who made the world and rejoices in it, Who has filled it with such inexhaustible beauty and mystery, Who has endowed us with such powers of feeling and of thought, must surely watch with favour His merchantmen setting out to seek the goodly pearls. It is one of the reasons why we should be thankful for the age in which we live that there is such a stir of travel in the air, such a belief in the wealth which life contains.

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