HID, HIDDEN
I pause over these words merely to remark, that in Scripture they express a great deal. It was the custom very generally through the eastern world, to secrete and bury their treasures and valuables. We are told by a certain author, that there are a set of men who make it their business to go about in search of treasure supposed to have been hidden; and so general is the idea, that vast treasures are concealed in the earth, by men who died without making discovery of them to their friends, that this employment of digging in pursuit of wealth is a common thing. This will throw a great light upon those expressions in the word of God, which enjoin an earnest pursuit after the knowledge and love of the Lord. "If thou seekest after wisdom (saith Solomon,) as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." (Proverbs 2:4-5) Nothing could be more happily chosen to intimate that earnest unwearied pursuit after Jesus, as men seeking for what lay buried out of sight. And when that life, which the apostle saith, is hid with Christ in God, (Colossians 3:3) is discovered, yea, in the smallest degree, this is like what the Lord said to Cyrus: "I will give thee the treasure of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places." (Isaiah 45:3) Views of Jesus, to the discovery by God the Holy Ghost, lead the soul to the enjoyment of him, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Colossians 2:3)