Our Lord told His disciples one day this pretty parable. The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure--that is, something precious like gold or gems--hid in a field, and a man who knows about it, and wishes to get it, sells all that he has and buys the field; the treasure is then his and he digs it up. In that country much gold had been hidden in the ground by men who fled from their enemies, and never came back to dig it up again, and there were many who sought for it. This parable means that the kingdom of God, the love of Christ, and His help to make us good are so precious that we should give up anything for them, and try as hard as we can to gain them. [Illustration: JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES IN THE CORN-FIELD.] Our Lord and His disciples were poor, and sometimes wanted food. One Sabbath day they were walking through the corn-fields, and the disciples were hungry, so they picked some ears of corn, rubbed them in their hands, and ate the wheat. The Jews might eat corn in the fields on week-days, but the Pharisees had made many hard and silly rules about the Sabbath day. God had said that they must keep the seventh day holy; but He meant it to be a rest from work and a day for men to pray to Him, not a day such as they made it. The Pharisees said that no fire might be lighted on the Sabbath day, no food cooked, not one thing might be done; they might only walk a little way on that day; and doctors might not cure or help the sick. So it was a day when men, and children too, were not happy, as God meant them to be. Now, when the Pharisees saw the disciples eat the corn, they said, "Why do you do that which is not right on the Sabbath day?" Our Lord answered, and told them that there was no harm in His disciples eating the corn, for men must eat on the Sabbath day, and that we might do needful things on it. Then He went into the synagogue, and He saw there a man with a withered hand. And the Jews said to Christ, "Is it right to make men well on the Sabbath day?" And Jesus said, "Yes, it is; for if a sheep fell into a pit on the Sabbath day you would take it out, and a man ought to be helped more than a sheep." And He told the poor man to stretch out his hand; he did so, and found that Jesus had made it well, and just like the other hand. And the Pharisees were so angry because He had told men that they were wrong, that they began to talk about killing Him. But Jesus went away when He knew it; and a great crowd of people followed Him, and He made all the sick ones well. [Illustration: THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.]