ISAIAH 365
Cheap things are seldom valued. Ask a high price and people think that the commodity is precious. A man goes into a fair, for a wager, and he carries with him a tray full of gold watches and offers to sell them for a farthing apiece, and nobody will buy them. It does not, I hope, degrade the subject, if I say that Jesus Christ comes into the market-place of the world with His hands full of the gifts which the pierced hands have bought, that He may give them away. He says, " Will you take them ? " And one after another you pass by on the other side, and go away to another merchant, and buy dearly things that are not worth the having.
In a beautiful passage in his Roots of Honour John Euskin says that it may become the duty of any man to die for his pro- fession : the soldier, he says, to die at his post in a battle ; the physician to die rather than leave his post in time of plague ; the pastor to die rather than preach falsehood; the lawyer to die rather than countenance injustice ; and the merchantman, he says, to die rather than that the nation should be unprovided or any great wrong be done to the mass of men committed to his care. But here is One who did die for the buyers in His market, who did die that His market might be furnished with infinite stores, who did die that no one coming to His market should ever be sent empty away.
IF Another cry was made by a man carrying on his back a large leathern " bottle," and jingling in his hands several deep and bright copper saucers, to attract attention. I could hear nothing but " Ishrub ya 'atshan ! Ishrub ya 'atshan ! " which is the Arabic for " Drink, 0 thirsty ! " That sounded like the Biblical invitation, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." Yes ; but, according to Isaiah, they were to " buy with- out money and without price." That man's invitation, however, is very different. By the sale of his sherbet he makes his living, and he who has no money will get no drink ; and if he should thus publicly offer to sell wine with or " without price," he would be torn to pieces by a fanatical Moslem mob. I liked the sound of his invitation, nevertheless. And I will only add that it is a most significant and encouraging fact that the colporteur may be seen in those bazaars pursuing his humble vocation, and offering the true " bread " and the water of " everlasting life " to the perish- ing multitudes in this intensely Moslem city. And the best wish we can express on behalf of the Damascenes is that they may be
366 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
brought to accept it, through Him whose Kingdom, according to the inscription over the entrance to their mosk, " is an everlasting king- dom," and whose " dominion endureth throughout all generations."*
The selling price is naught ; but that does not mean that these goods cost nothing to the heavenly seller. There goods are the cheapest sold and the dearest bought that ever any goods were. Go out by night and see those countless worlds as so many bright gems flashing on the diadem of the universe ; all these and all their untold wealth could not purchase one item of the goods in Emmanuel's market-place, for the Son of Man bought tliem at a great price, and now they are all free. No money can buy them ; they are without price because they are priceless ; they are without price because, after all, they are not so much sold as given away. He who has them is of princely estate, and princely are all His gifts. The selling price is naught, because already they have been bought and paid for. The selling price is naught, because, truth to tell , the buyers have naught to give.
IT Louis I., on one occasion, sent one of his aides-de-camp to request that a place should be reserved for him at the morning service. " Tell His Majesty," said Leon Pilatte, " that all seats are free and open." "I have often thought," says M. Luigi, "that that little sermon was the best that poor Louis of Bavaria ever heard in his life. No one else would have dared to tell him that God's house is free to all, and that in it all are equal"
Earth gets its price for what earth gives us;
The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in ; The priest has his fee who covers and shrives us,
"We bargain for the graves we lie in ; At the devil's booth are all things sold, Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
For a cap and bells our lives we pay. Bubbles we earn with a whole soul's tasking;
Tis heaven alone that is given away, 'Tis only God may be had for the aslnng.^
iii. The Benefit of it.
It is unfolded in this chapter. First of all, there is the assured promise of a fuller life, " Your soul shall live." " Your s(yul ! "