The Removal: Where the Treasure Is, There Is the Heart
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Removal: Where the Treasure Is, There Is the Heart
Scripture Reference:
- Luke 16 (further images / scripture text)
Description: A family moving house watches while movers place all their possessions in a removal boat on the canal. In the front of the house, a man points to the door that is left open. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649-1712), whose initials are at the lower right, was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem, as well as for the poem that accompanies it (below). The attendant Scripture text is Luke 16:9.
Motto:
The all, since nothing is to be kept,
Causes thee no burden.
Poem:
He who has removed all his possessions,
Will inquire little about the rental House,
He departs from it, and leaves it behind,
Even though the door was left open:
All who live in this world,
Should act that way,
(Because it is everyone’s rental House,
And not at all an Inheritance),
By removing all their Goods of pleasure,
From there in time, with diligence,
So that, when certain death,
Would terminate the end of the Rental-time,
They would let go of the World’s House
Since they had wisely all that was theirs,
Possessed by the prudent heart,
Like a chosen Treasure,
After the Divine teaching of Jesus,
Assembled by the Lord,
In the Dwelling of the blessed Kingdom of Heaven,
What would one then care about clay and mud?
A place where nothing is owned,
One can easily forget,
When one goes to a better place.
Everyone should submit then to wise counsel;
Or otherwise there will be a vigorous argument,
In the hour when one has to move,
And leave the all and everything behind,
To go out naked and bare.
Then move from this World,
What to thee is of great value.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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