THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE. 83 



Pearls change, and are greatly deteriorated by time. 

 They alter the more quickly, when worn immediately 

 upon the skin. There they soon tarnish, and lose their 

 brilliancy. Redi states, that on the opening of the tomb, 

 where the daughters of Stilicho had been interred, with 

 all their ornaments, eleven hundred and eighteen years 

 before, every thing was found in high preservation, 

 except the pearls, which were so brittle as to be very 

 easily crushed by the finger. 



As we muse on the pearls, a voice addresses us — it is 

 that of our Lord Jesus Christ : — " The kingdom of hea- 

 ven 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," Matt. xiii. 

 45, 46. It may easily be gathered, from the prices of 

 pearls already mentioned, that a merchant man might 

 give all that he was worth for one pearl, and yet be a 

 vast gainer by the bargain. We have here, therefore, 

 a merchant seeking after pearls, by sea and by land, 

 who meets with a pearl, by the purchase and resale of 

 which he is sure to make his fortune. The story in the 

 parable might easily be true in experience, for in ancient 

 times especially, a merchant might in his travels meet 

 with a pearl, the price of which amounted to the value 

 of his whole stock. But still the price it might be sold 



