is to be _added_ unto us. If there is anything I would like you to
remember, it is these two arithmetic words--"first" and "added."
I do not mean by "added" that if you become religious you are all
going to become _rich_. Here is a boy, who, in sweeping out the shop
tomorrow, finds a quarter lying among the orange boxes. Well, nobody
has missed it. He puts it in his pocket, and it begins to burn a hole
there. By breakfast time he wishes that money were in his master's
pocket. And by-and-by he goes to his master. He says (to _himself_,
and not to his master), "I was at the Boys' Brigade yesterday, and I
was told to seek _first_ that which was right." Then he says to his
master:
"Please, sir, here is a quarter that I found upon the floor."
The master puts it in the till. What has the boy got in his pocket?
Nothing; _but he has got the Kingdom of God in his heart_. He has laid
up treasure in heaven, which is of infinitely more worth than the
quarter.
Now, that boy does not find a dollar on his way home. I have known
that happen, but that is not what is meant by "adding." It does not
mean that God is going to pay him in his own coin, for He pays in
better coin.
Yet I remember once hearing of a boy who was paid in both ways. He was
very, very poor. He lived in a foreign country, and his mother said to
him one day that he must go into the great city and start in business,
and she took his coat and cut it open and sewed between the lining and
the coat forty golden dinars, which she had saved up for many years to
start him in life. She told him to take care of robbers as he went
across the desert; and as he was going out of the door she said:
"My boy, I have only two words for you--'Fear God, and never tell a
lie.'"
The boy started off, and towards evening he saw glittering in the
distance the minarets of the great city. But between the city and
himself he saw a cloud of dust. It came nearer. Presently he saw that
it was a band of robbers.
One of the robbers left the rest and rode toward him, and said:
"Boy, what have you got?"
The boy looked him in the face said:
"I have forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat."
The robber laughed and wheeled around his horse and went away back. He
would not believe the boy.
Presently another robber came and he said:
"Boy, what have you got?"
"Forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat."
The robber said: "The boy is a fool," and wheeled his horse and rode
away back.
By and by the robber captain came and he said:
"Boy, what have you got?"
"I have forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat."
The robber dismounted, and put his hand over the boy's breast, felt
something round, counted one, two, three, four, five, till he counted
out the forty golden coins. He looked the boy in the face and said:
"Why did you tell me that?