Hidden Treasures To Find in Humanity

1874

Hidden Treasures

Many a rare jewel lies hidden in the earth, waiting for some potent hand to discover it and remove the rough exterior which so obscures the precious gem. So there are thousands of individuals living in retirement and seclusion, who need only that some kind friend should search them out and penetrate with pleasant words and genial smiles the mantle of reserve in which they are enveloped, that the world may see and recognize the nobility of soul which they possess.

Some of these may be the children of toil, and consequently, have grown rough from its associations. But, notwithstanding the brawny arm and sun-browned cheek, the unpolished manners and faulty grammar, the real diamond may be there still, and concealed though it is from human eyes, our heavenly Father beholds its brilliancy and recognizes its worth. Another class may be the victim of poverty; but even the hovel may contain an immortal gem which needs only the refining influence of Christian love to cause it to shine as brightly as the richest diadem.

The little ragged mendicant who stands at our doors asking for bread, may possess a genius that would move the world if it were rightly developed. I never look upon one of these unfortunates but what I think of the latent power that may be slumbering 'neath the rags and filth, and I have longed from the depths of my heart to possess even a tithe of the vast sums which are daily squandered upon empty baubles, that I might relieve these "little ones" whom the Saviour blessed, from the lot of ignorance and want to which they were born, and place them under the elevating influences of education and Christianity, that the talents which God gave them might be developed, and made to shine each in its own sphere.

What happier, nobler mission can there be than this! What a field is here open to the exercise of Christian effort. Neither is it an unpromising one. It is well proven that those who have been the world's greatest benefactors have arisen from lowly origin. The Almighty does not create in vain, neither does He scatter his blessings with a partial hand. I believe in the law of compensation, and that whatever is withheld in one gift is made up in another. Ah! ye who would do something for the cause of God and humanity, and who would rear for yourselves eternal monuments, shrink not from this mirror of love, even though it leads you to dens of vice and scenes of woe.

Better far, than searching for diamonds is the labor of seeking, 'mid the haunts of sin and wretchedness, those jewels of immortality, and be assured, that each one found and fitted for the Master's kingdom here, will be reflected in your crown hereafter. — Rural New Yorker.