part of this great company denominated by our Lord "The Pearl of Great Price." Pearls

are compared with holiness in Matt. 7: 6; the partakers of the heavenly calling are called

"holy brethren" (Heb. 3: 1), and "saints of the Most High" (Dan. 7: 22). Pearls are

compared with wisdom in the O.T., and Dan. 12: 3 tells us that "they that be wise shall

shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the

stars unto the age and beyond." These are the seed of Abraham likened to the stars of

heaven, the nation itself being likened to the sand of the seashore. These wise ones

"understand" and "instruct many" (Dan. 9: 33); they are subjected to tribulation

(Dan. 11: 35) before they enter their glory. Wherever we see this elect remnant we find

tribulation and suffering. The words of the epistles of Peter and James, so full of

admonition and comfort to those of the dispersion who believed and who were passing

through the "fiery trial," were addressed to this remnant.

When we read in the book of the Revelation of "The wife" and "The bride," we have

the two companies again who are in view in these parables as the Treasure and the Pearl.

Israel's relationship to God is that of a wife who, being unfaithful, has been put away, but

the return of Israel is to be like the taking back of the penitent wife, nay, so great is God's

grace and love that He says it will be "as a young man marrieth a virgin," even though in

reality it will be the taking back again of an unfaithful wife (see Isa. 62: 4, 5 and

Hos. 2: 19, 20, &100:). This relationship, which includes "all Israel," is brought before us

in Rev. 19: as the marriage of the Lamb, whose "wife hath made herself ready."

After the thousand years' reign, and in connection with the new heaven and the new

earth, we read, "And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God

out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Rev. 21: 2). In verses 9

and 10 we have this fact repeated. The inhabitants of this city are the partakers of the

"heavenly calling," who, like Abraham, desired a better country, that is an heavenly, and

for them God hath prepared a city.  It was this heavenly calling (which must be

distinguished from the super-celestial calling of the dispensation of the mystery), so

plainly understood and believed by Abraham, that enabled him to be a stranger and a

pilgrim on the earth, a sojourner in the land of promise as in a strange country, content

with tents and no settled habitation, because he looked for a city which hath the

foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Such as are children of faithful Abraham, not only according to the flesh but according

to the spirit, such constitute the bride and the pearl, an elect remnant out from an elect

nation. Israel viewed as a whole is likened to a treasure and a wife. The remnant (which

will include believing Gentiles during the "Acts" period) are viewed as a precious pearl

and a bride. We may set this out more clearly as follows:--