There is another promise included in the third overcometh, which is that of a pure heart, under the type of a pearl. Jesus says, "I will give to him that overcometh a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it." This white stone can be interpreted by the words of our Savior, in which he says: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." Here we see the pure heart, most beautifully illustrated under the typology of the pearl.

To get a clearer view of this emblem, let us note the following points:

1. The pearl is very valuable. They are obtained with great difficulty, and at a risk of life, and are sold for considerable sums. Jesus in His parable gives us to understand that one pearl could be of such magnitude and worth that a merchant would expend for it all of his goods and all his wealth. This is pre-eminently true of the infinite worth of a pure heart. There are many treasures which human beings hold very dear, and in spite of their greed for material riches, yet when the test comes the great majority of mankind hold the treasures of good health, or of a sane mind, or of lofty genius, as paramount to mere material wealth. But God has taught us that a pure heart has in it a divine worth, which. far exceeds all the riches of the material or intellectual world. Solomon gives in his Proverbs one of the finest climaxes in the Bible concerning the untold value of a pure heart, which he sets forth under the name of wisdom. He says that "it is better than silver," and then "superior to fine gold," and then "more precious than rubies," and then that "all the things the natural heart can desire are not to be compared unto it." The heart is the fountain of all moral and mental being. It is the inward spring, out of which flows all the diversified streams of life, and when the heart is thoroughly purified from every unlawful desire, and every unloving temper, so that out of its pure, pellucid depth there flows only the graces of the Spirit, which secures to its possessor advantages both in this life and the life to come infinitely above all price. He is the wise man who sells out everything in the world for this pearl.

2. The pearl is formed within a living creature. Pearls do not grow in the open air, or exposed to the beating elements. They are formed within an oyster, hidden away in the depths of the sea. Thus a pure heart is formed in the very centre of an immortal being. It is not an accident, that lies exposed to outward life. It is a living thing, and has its seat at the very centre of moral being.

3. The pearl is produced out of suffering, and by the crucifixion of a life. When the oyster opens its mouth to feed at the bottom of the sea, a small grain of sand is washed into it, which makes an incision in the soft part of the shell fish. In its effort, either to expel the grain, or to heal the wound, it emanates a saliva, which is formed around the grain of sand, and makes the pearl. Thus our hearts are made pure, through the crucifixion of our natural life. Our inner being of self-will, and selfishness, must be pierced by the sharp word of God. There must be a breaking down of our thoughts, and plans, and ambitions, and selfish ease, and out of this interior crucifixion, which makes the heart to bleed, and the eye to weep, and the whole self-will to succumb to the authority of God, there is formed the blessedness and beauty of a clean heart.

4. The pearl has the character of remarkable beauty, among the precious gems of the earth. There is a delicacy, and softness of beauty about it, which far surpasses that of many gems, because it has been formed out of a living substance. In like manner, a heart that has been thoroughly washed in the blood of Jesus, and cleansed from all hardness, and bitterness, and impurity, and made soft and white and gentle by the power of the Holy Ghost, has in it a beauty which attracts the notice of the loving angels, and makes it as dear to God as the apple of His eye. No wonder that the infinite One himself has said, "that his eyes go to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong, in the behalf of that person whose heart is pure and perfect toward Him." The eyes of glorified beings can sweep over a moral landscape, and read the different qualities of the moral universe, and see the different shades and degrees of holiness, as swiftly and accurately, as our eyes can discern the fascinating face of the magnificent landscape, or the exquisite colors and perfection of a flower garden.

The things that men prize highly in this world, are oftentimes an abomination in the sight of heavenly beings, but those who have perfectly humble and tender and spotless hearts, stand out to their gaze with extraordinary beauty and perfectness.

5. We are told in John's vision of the New Jerusalem that the gates of the City were each one of a solid pearl. All of the Bible emblems are selected with infallible propriety, and as a pearl is that thing in the world which beautifully represents a pure heart, so it is that thing which represents the gateway into the City of God, the Heavenly Jerusalem. In John's description of that City he says it was twelve thousand furlongs. This translated into our measurement would be about fifteen hundred miles. Think of a City of pure gold fifteen hundred miles square and fifteen hundred miles high, with three gates on each side, and each gate of one solid pearl fifteen hundred miles high and five hundred miles wide. Truly God is preparing something for His saints, the magnitude and glory of which will surprise the most extravagant dreams of earthly imagination. And yet vast and glorious as that vision is, Ave may each have in our own being, through the precious cleansing blood of Jesus, something which fully corresponds to it in a perfectly lowly and pure heart. A pure heart is the very gate to Heaven, and he who carries that gate of pearl within his own being will have no difficulty in obtaining an entrance to that City.

6. In this white stone Jesus promises to inscribe a new name which no one can know except the person receiving it. A name in Scripture is always indicative of a character, hence a new name is a new inward character, a divine and heavenly experience, which no one can know but the conscious soul in which it is wrought. Others may see the fruit of a pure heart and hear the testimony to that blessed work of grace, which has been accomplished in it, and they may be convinced of the reality of its existence, but after all there is an inward core of our being, into which no one can be admitted but our Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier. Our loving Lord has, in beautiful wisdom, reserved to Himself the inner chamber of our immortal souls, the fountain of consciousness, the secret source of character, and the home of moral intuitions. There is the secret fountain, where the Holy Spirit works the sweet miracles of saving grace. There are many marvelous things connected with our creation and existence, but none more so than the fact that God makes us each one to live a secret life with Himself. A life in which we are impenetrably walled in from all other creatures, and where He alone dwells, that is in the citadel of our nature. It is this "white stone" of inward purity that God offers to work into us if we by faith overcome.