What woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? Luke 15:8
(Additional readings: Deuteronomy 30, Psalm 119:105-128)
This parable is one of a series of three — the lost sheep, the lost piece of silver, and the prodigal son — which teach of the Lord's love and care for all of us. They teach us that not one human being ever gets beyond the Savior's care. No one, however far from the paths of civilized, life and Christian teaching, but will have access, if he wishes, to the tree of life. All three of these parables illustrate first of all the infinite love and mercy of God.
But within this clear and evident meaning there lies a spiritual meaning not so apparent, a meaning applicable to us all; for, as the Lord took on our humanity, whatever is true of Him in the highest degree is also true of us in the lowest. If the Lord came, as He said, "to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10), His command to us also is "Seek, and ye shall find" (Matthew 7:7).
In the parable of the lost piece of silver we have the picture of a woman seeking for a treasure which she once had but which she has lost. She knows that it is in the house somewhere, and she knows too that if she searches diligently, she will find it.
It is a common experience of our human nature that we dislike losing something which we once had. It may be a very small loss, but it disturbs us. If we had given it away, we should probably have scarcely missed it—even perhaps felt better because someone else is enjoying it. But when we lose it without knowing how, the loss irks us; and sometimes the effort we make to recover the lost article is out of all proportion to the value of the thing itself.
So, too, when, as spiritual beings, we are conscious that our mind or soul has lost some attribute which it once had, there is in all true men and women the instinctive desire to regain what has been lost. Silver in the Word represents truth or beliefs. Belief in a good and wise God, in heaven and life there after death is very real to us when we are taught it in childhood. But as we grow older, doubts come into the mind. One says, "I wish I could believe, but I cannot." There is still some remainder of desire left, even if the reason seems to deny. There is the feeling that something has been lost.
We speak of money and material wealth as treasure. But there are other treasures more valuable. If there were not, God would be unjust, for many can never attain material riches. There are treasures of the mind and soul which anyone may possess who really desires them. These are the true wealth and they cannot be bestowed or taken away like the shifting fortunes of the world.
In this light we should all from time to time ask ourselves, "Have I lost anything of value that I once possessed? Have I lost that condition of implicit faith and trustful confidence in my Heavenly Father which I once had?" This confidence in the wisdom and love that is always guarding us was no less real because we were too young to express it; it was a state of faith the quality of which was unknown to ourselves and at the time unappreciated—the confident trust of childhood. We say that we have "grown out of it." No, we have not. We have mislaid it, lost it for a time. But the Lord wishes that we find it again. He says: “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). We lose truth only when we do not practice it. The loss of any good principle or any truth from our practical daily life lessens our happiness and the happiness of the world. We cannot afford to lose any heavenly principle from our minds and lives, for such a loss is a start on the downward path. And this is especially true of the principle of implicit belief and trust in the Lord.
The ten pieces of silver represent all the truths necessary for our spiritual life and development. One of these truths is the truth that all knowledge of God and of spiritual things is from revelation, and not from any ability in ourselves to discover it. When we look out upon the world and see the foolish things that men do from trust in themselves—the rivalries and discord—we ought to have little confidence in our own wisdom. Yet some regard those days of simple trust when there was faith and reverence as foolishness, and these days, these clever days when we know that the things of this world are the only things worth striving for, when we care for nothing except ourselves, they regard as days of wisdoms.
Today the souls of men possess many treasures, but this cue seems to a great extent to be lost. We have learning, education, reason, and many delights. We may have all the treasures but this one which is represented in the parable by the piece of silver which was lost — a full, perfect belief and trust familiar to early childhood and fortunately still enjoyed by some adults also.
The lost coin is still in the house. God, in His infinite wisdom, has so ordered it that nothing which we have once attained is ever completely destroyed. The state of childhood trust remains somewhere within us. We have lost sight of it, but it has not gone. It is still lying hidden in the soul, It is still in the house. And it is the Divine purpose that we attain that state again in a fuller degree. So the Lord commands, "Seek, and ye shall find."
And our parable tells us just what to do to find it. First light a candle and sweep the house. The house is our mind or soul in which are all our treasures. Our mind is a dwelling place in which we manage to store many things, and also to lose many things. The candle that lights our search is truth from the Lord. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet" (Psalm 119:105). From Him proceeds all truth. He is the light of the world. Everyone who receives and understands anything of the truth is lighting a candle, and by its light he is able to guide himself from youth through manhood and old age. The little child in the Sunday School learning the first lessons of the Lord's commandments and precepts is lighting a candle sufficient to illuminate his little mental home. The wisest scholar in the universe in learning the deeper truths of the Word is but lighting a candle obtained from Him who is the light of the world.
But our instruction goes further. Every one of us when he learns the truth lights a candle. But the question is, For what purpose are we lighting it? Is it to sweep the house and find what we have lost, or merely to show how clever we are and how superior to others? Are we learning the truth, as we should, in order that by its light we may purify our own souls and be better instruments cf the Lord in helping others? No lesson is really of use to us if it does not help us to advance further in regeneration.
The lesson of the parable to each one of us is simply this: when once we have been thoroughly convinced of any truth, let us immediately make use of that knowledge to get rid of whatever is foolish, false, or wrong in our own hearts and minds. If we do this, we shall regain the lost treasure. We shall regain the state we once had and have lost.
That condition of trustful confidence in the Lord to which we have alluded was never really lost. It was submerged by the things of the world, buried beneath the dust of worldliness, folly, and pride. When the mind has been cleared of our wrong ideas and ambitions, we shall find the lost piece of silver, the true faith which seemed lost. And when we find it, we shall have new delight, as is represented in the parable by the woman's calling together her friends and neighbors and saying, "Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost."
In the parable it is a woman who is said to seek the lost piece of silver. This is because a woman represents the affections, and it is in the affections, in the will, that there is the initiative. If we do seek to regain the treasure which was lost, it is our will or affection that impels us to find it. Intellectual powers can gain for us many things, but they cannot regain for us the lost treasure. We must have the will to attain regeneration, rebirth. If either in this world or in the next we reach again the state of trustful confident happiness which we had in childhood, it will be because we have exercised our will, our love or affection as our Heavenly Father has recommended in this simple parable. "What woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?"
