SERMONS. HEAVENLY TREASURES CONTRASTED WITH EARTHLY. BY WM. M. WIGHTMAN, d. d., PRESIDENT OF WOFFORD COLLEGE. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."-Matt. vi, 19-21. This passage is taken from our Lord's sermon on the mounta sermon of important texts, as it has been happily described—a sermon, of which the preacher is the Word and Wisdom of God; every sentiment of which is as practical and adapted to daily life, as it is weighty and clad with the authority of a teacher sent directly from God. The subject which is thus brought to our attention contains the highest wisdom, and involves the duty and happiness of time, the destiny of eternity. The text presents a contrast between earthly treasures and heavenly; it presses an earnest warning against the seductions of the one, and an equally earnest direction to secure the other. The spirit of the passage is, that spiritual and heavenly things are, and ought to be considered, the great objects of pursuit to man, since they aione are imperishable, satisfying, and worthy of the ambition of an immortal mind. The terms in which the great lesson of the text is delivered, are to be interpreted with the scope, intention, and limitations, furnished by the whole revelation of Divine Truth. Thus, the injunction, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth," is not to be understood as a peremptory prohibition against all prudent foresight for uture wants-against all accumulation of property, with whatever ntention; but the expression means, according to the Hebrew idiom, that we should prefer heavenly to earthly treasures-should seek them first and foremost-as of a value and importance infinitely higher. Thus, further on, the great Teacher bids us take no thought for the morrow; evidently, from the whole scope of the discourse, meaning no anxious thought-the precept lying not against forethought altogether, (one of the noblest attributes of human intelligence)-but against all such carking care for the morrow as a distrust of the Divine Providence would beget, and which would be fatal to settled peace of mind. It is undeniable that the present life has its claims-subordinate, certainly, to the higher claims of the life to come, yet in their measure real and substantial, and demanding our serious regard. Nay, these subordinate interests are themselves included in the covenant grant of the gospel, and made matters of specific promise: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Whilst therefore the injunction of the text does not oppose a proper attention to the temporary interests of human life, it may be understood, to lie against the hoarding up of useless wealth. Absurd as such a procedure is, it often happens that money is accumulated solely for its own sake, and without any respect to its uses and advantages. The insane passion of the miser who starves in his wretched garret that he may add to his gains, is only an extreme illustration of a tendency too often witnessed. Even large wealth may be so held as to confer no benefit upon its possessor or the world. Instead of being regarded as an important talent committed to us to be wisely and generously used, it may be looked upon as absolutely our own, and hoarded up as though God and the world had no right to demand at our hands a religious employment of it-no poor man may be relieved, no benevolent institution fostered, no religious interest served by it. Riches may become not our servants, but our masters. We may surrender ourselves to the domination of the sordid lust of gain, sacrifice conscience and duty to God in this wretched servitude, and glory in the gilded badges of our slavery. Obviously, "no man can serve God and Mammon." Furthermore, the spirit of the precept here delivered by our Lord implies that the acquisition of property is not to be matter of anxiety to us, so as to prevent our contentment with the lot in life in which We Providence has placed us, or our constant dependence on God. hold that it is every man's privilege to endeavor to better his circumstances. This may be attempted in a spirit of discontent, of murmuring and repining at our present condition; or it may be done in a far different spirit, and in due submission to the Divine will. While the latter is both lawful and commendable, the former course is interdicted, and carries its condemnation in its face. We hardly need to add, that the precept before us prohibits the accumulation of property for unworthy and sinful ends. Whenever it is an object of ardent desire and eager pursuit, that it may foster our pride, pamper luxurious tastes, minister to sinful pleasures, encourage effeminacy, or dissolve our energies in indolent repose, then at once the motive desecrates the pursuit. Sought for such ends, wealth becomes an unmitigated curse to the soul. The lesson taught us in the text is the vast superiority of heavenly treasures over earthly; and the emphatic exhortation given us is to lay up the former rather than the latter. This superiority is exhibited in the following particulars: 1. Their incorruptibility; 2. Their security; 3. Their suitableness to the spiritual, immortal nature of man. Then the exhortation is enforced by the considerations-1. Of the susceptibility of augmentation in the case of heavenly treasures; and, 2. Of the invariable connection between our affections and our treasures. In general terms, treasure may be defined as provision for the future. What instinct supplies to the bee and the ant, reason and experience teach man. The fact that our necessities require daily supplies, suggests the propriety of anticipating to-day the wants of to-morrow, and providing to meet them as they come. Even in a state of semi-savageism, the Indian of the prairies learns that winter will come, when his supplies from the chase must cease, and that corn should be planted in the spring to furnish him with food, when other resources fail. Earthly treasures, particularly among ancient Oriental nations, consisted of stores of corn, wine, and oil; of ample wardrobes of rich and costly garments; of numerous flocks and herds; of gems and precious stones; of silver and golden vessels. In modern times, earthly treasures are composed of landed estates, splendid mansions, elegant furniture, galleries of art, cellars stocked with wines, stables filled with horses, ample revenues from fixed capital, and the like. "Heavenly treasures" is an expression meant to mark and set forth the resources and reversionary interests of an immortal spirit, brought into possession of the favor of God, created anew in the Divine image, and made graciously an heir of the promises of the gospel in Christ Jesus. These may be summed up in the riches of grace for the life that now is, and the riches of glory in the life which is to come. They are, of course, spiritual, satisfying, immortal. These two are contrasted in the text. The superiority of heavenly treasures is seen, first, in their incorruptibility. Earthly treasures, in their ancient form, were emphatically corruptible. The stores of corn, wine, and oil, were perishable. Their rich wardrobes, their costly fabrics of silk and wool, were proverbially the prey of the moth and mildew. The corrosions of rust affected their precious. metals. If modern treasures seem to claim an exemption from the rapid processes of natural decay, they nevertheless are subject in the long run to the same law of decay. The towered castle, which a few generations ago seemed to stand in monumental grandeur, defying the tooth of time, falls ultimately into ruin; the lichens and ivy grow in the widening crevices of its walls; the gradual inroads of heat and moisture, of wind and rain, are all the while corroding battlemented turrets, iron-ribbed gates, granite foundations. A few hundred years will suffice to lay low the proudest structures of wealth and ambition. How stands the case with heavenly treasures? They are intellectual, consequently of the essence of mind itself; spiritual, and resist the law of decay which attaches to material substances; immortal and eternal as the God whose favor, attributes, glory, and heaven, constitute part and parcel of them. War, famine, fire, sword, revolution, and whatever else may be found to alienate earthly possessions, cannot touch these heavenly treasures. They enter into the constitution of the mind itself, and defy the point of the sword, the engines of torture, the inquisitor's faggot, the executioner's axe, the decay of the body, the very grave itself. So far, then, as corruptibility is concerned, there may be contrast, there can be no comparison. Or, secondly, if we look at the security of each, the same conclusion is inevitable. In addition to an inherent principle of decay, earthly treasures are proverbially insecure. What is spared by gradual waste, may be seized by sudden violence. The estate may remain in its loveliness of wood and water, of mansion, garden, and -- field; but some unlooked-for civil commotion may pluck it from our hands, and turn us out of its possession. Lightning may rend ancestral halls; the incendiary's fires may leave the palace a blackened ruin. Or, if we overlook fortuitous visitations of calamity; if we suppose that no commercial convulsions shall shake the securities on which we lean,-no popular tumult overturn the established foundations of property, and send us adrift upon a sea covered with the wrecks of fortune; yet at least, it is the inevitable doom that we must ourselves, ere long, leave all earthly possessions behind. Let the man of wealth multiply his precautions. I care not if he be a monarch, and can post an army around his palace. Disease laughs at the glittering array of his guards; walks with unceremonious front along his corridors, across his portals, into his embroidered chamber, indifferent to its robes of state, and its Arabian perfumes. Death, who cannot be bribed by the gold of an empire, challenges his victim. Like the meanest serf, the throned king must heed, must obey that summons. Every man that lives and breathes must reckon on such a visitation. Then where is the rich man's wealth? Can he his millions into the eternal state? Will his bonds and stocks, his landed property, his merchant-ships with Eastern cargoes-will any of these be available to him in that dread futurity which is his eternal lot? So far as earthly treasures are concerned, what is the difference between the soul of a rich man and of a beggar, a moment after death? Can you tell, as each takes its flight to its eternal destination, which was fortune's favorite, and which has just left its garret and its rags? Tell me not, then, of treasures held by so frail a tenure, and which, sooner or later, by an inevitable destiny, will desert us! carry Contemplate, on the other hand, heavenly treasures, especially in connection with the close of life. Down to the meeting-place between eternity and time, the treasures of earth may follow us; but there they fail us. A winding-sheet and six feet of earth is all that remains of hoarded millions. How different is the case in respect to the treasures of the soul! Death shall sooner quench the dimless ray of intellect, and dissolve the indestructible essence of mind, and annihilate the grave-defying soul of man, than touch the inward peace, the calm serenity, the assured faith in the Redeemer, the mounting hope, the heaven-kindled love, the far-flying joy, in which are found the true treasures of the gracious soul. Let the body die' |