would get into a man's barns and vineyards, hay-crops and
fruits. Thieves would steal the hoard that he had laid by, for want of
better investment. Or to generalise, corruption, the natural process of
wearing away, natural enemies proper to each kind of possession, human
agency which takes away all external possessions--these multifarious
agents co-operate to render impossible the permanent possession of any
'treasure on earth.'

On the other hand, what a man has laid up in heaven, and what he is
partially here, have no tendency to grow old. Men never weary of God,
never find Him failing, never exhaust truth, never drink the love of God
to the dregs, never find purity palling upon the taste, 'Age cannot
wither, nor custom stale, "their" infinite variety.'

'Treasure in heaven' has no enemies which destroy it. Every earthly
possession has its own foes, every earthly joy has its own destructive
opposite; but nothing touches this treasure in heaven.

It has nothing to fear from men. Nobody can take it out of a man's soul
but himself. The inmost circle of our life is inviolable. It is
incorruptible and undefiled and fadeth not away, for it all comes from
the eternal God and our eternal union to Him. He is our portion for
ever.

III. The madness of fastening the heart down to earth.

The heart must be in heaven in order to find its true home. It is
unnatural, contrary to the constitution of the 'heart' that it should be
fettered to earth.

If it is, it will be restless and unsatisfied.

If it is, it will be at the mercy of all these enemies.

If it is, what will happen when the man is no longer on earth? 'What
shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?'

HEARTS AND TREASURES

'For where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also.'--MATT. vi. 21.

'Your treasure' is probably not the same as your neighbour's. It is
yours, whether you possess it or not, because you love it. For what our
Lord means here by 'treasure' is not merely money, or material good, but
whatever each man thinks best, that which he most eagerly strives to
attain, that which he most dreads to lose, that which, if he has, he
thinks he will be blessed, that which, if he has it not, he knows he is
discontented.

Now, if that is the meaning of 'treasure,' then this great saying of nay
text is, as a matter of course, true. For what in each case makes the
treasure is precisely the going out of the heart