182 THE GOLDEN CASKET. dungeon bearing a golden casket, which he is instructed to present to the prisoner as the free gift of his king. The condemned man hears the message, without any joy; for he perceives, at first, no adaptation in this gift to his mournful circumstances; and exclaims, "What is a golden casket to me ?—I am in a prison,-my life is forfeited,-take it away." The messenger entreats him to accept of it,assuring him that it contains everything he could desire. "It is now locked, (said he) but I am commissioned to give you the key, and thus put the contents of the casket in your possession,-as soon as you believe the love of your sovereign, and that this casket is a gift to you. Receive it, and you will find in it a pardon." The prisoner believes; expresses his confidence; receives the key; and, on opening the treasure, finds a sealed pardon lying before him. He sees nothing else. The joyful discovery of pardon fills all his thoughts. He is now delivered from an ignominious death! This is enough. He imagines the gift contains no more. When his feelings have subsided, he returns to examine the casket; and what is his astonishment to find, under the pardon, a suc THE RICHES OF CHRIST. cession of princely gifts, 183 the richest and highest, each one exceeding the other; an order, for example, on the king's treasury for a great sum of money,—an order for a palace, -for magnificent clothing,-for a supply of jewels, a title to a princedom,—and, last of all, a right in succession to the crown! How far above and beyond the realities of this life on the one hand,-and how infinitely beneath the love of God to sinners on the other, -is this illustration of the unsearchable riches of Christ! Were it attempted to be given as a matter of earthly history, it would find little credit, and be generally regarded as but the extravagance of fiction. And yet it can be proved to a demonstration-that this illustration exhibits but a faint outline of the glorious facts of the Gospel,-scarcely a shadow of their reality! Well might the apostle in rapture exclaim, "Behold what manner of love is this, that we (the heirs of wrath,—the spiritual children of Satan,-the condemned rebels against God) should be called the SONS OF GOD." (1 John iii. 1.) "He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans viii. 32.) 184 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Christ, then, is this golden treasury, -con taining in himself the infinite resources of Godhead, and all given to the world,-all set apart for the salvation of man. But no man can truly see or possess any part of its treasures till he first believes the compassionate love which sent it from heaven to his very door, beseeching him at once to accept of it, and immediately avail himself of its glorious contents. The moment, therefore, that any sinner knows this gift of God to himself— (John iv. 10)-the treasury is opened to his view. He boldly looks in. The first object on the surface which arrests his eye is a free pardon, a deliverance from condemnation. He rejoices in the discovery; and, like the man in the illustrative case, seems for a time to feel as if pardon was all,-as if he had obtained that for which the golden treasury was given. But no. For though pardon is the first blessing enjoyed by the believer, and the entrance door to the possession of every other -(Psalms xxxii. 1–1 John ii. 12) — yet it is infinitely far from being the whole. Behold, then, under the pardon, he quickly finds an order signed by the justice and faithfulness of God for light,-joy,-liberty,—the THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 185 Holy Spirit, (as a constant river in the soul) -perfect access to the welcome presence of God as a Father,- power over sin,—over Satan,-over the world,—a right and a title to heaven,-to a throne,-to eternal glory,yea,-treasure on treasure,— gift on gift! And all to be received and enjoyed,-even as freely as pardon was at first received,—not by virtue of any good feelings in us, or good works done by us, but by simply believing in that infinite love which gave us Christ, and by faith united us to him,—that in him we might ever have a claim on all the fulness of God. ૨ ૩ CHAPTER V. EVERLASTING LIFE. WE are now brought to the consideration of an expression of deep, rich, and eternal meaning, including in it, the entire amount of the glorious treasures just referred to,—and comprehending in one term the true nature of Gospel salvation. It is the expression "EVERLASTING LIFE," -an expression often used by Christ and his Apostles-especially when entreating men to receive the love of God and the gift of his Son,-as holding out the grand inducement for their thus letting go, or exchanging, the world, and all its vanities, for the Redeemer. Like the word "saved," it is much misunderstood. How many imagine the meaning of the often-used term to be simply, deliverance from the condemnation of hell; or an everlasting existence (abstractly |