CHOOSING THE BEST
‘Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’
This is the reason which our Lord gives for the precepts which go immediately before. And our hearts re-echo the Saviour’s words.
I. A principle of human nature.—We all know how true it is that a man’s heart, his thoughts, his plans by day and his dreams by night, are with the things he values, whatever they are; with his favourite pursuits or pleasures, his riches, of whatever kind they may be. This is simply a principle of human nature. What our Lord does here is to warn us to turn this universal habit to account, to make good use of it, to make it a moral force, a lever to help us in our labour, and not a dead weight to hinder us and pull us back again.
II. The best things to choose.—There are but two courses open to us. Either to serve the world all our lives, and to take the chance of being able and willing when old age comes to us to serve God then; or the safe and happy course, to serve Him all our lives long. What then shall be our treasures?
(a) The favour of our heavenly Father the thing we most wish to keep.
(b) The will of God, doing the duty He has given us.
(c) The love of God. Let our hearts be in heaven, even while our hands are busy with earthly work; that so when death comes to us we may truly find heaven a home to our souls.