The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-12-06

twenty. The grace of God was intended to
be very accumulative
Again l learn from the text that info
riority OF gifts Il no excuse for Incidence.
This man, with the smallest amount OF
money, came growing into the presence OF
the owner OF the estate, as much as
to say, III you had given me 5000 would
have brought SlSSJ0 rs well as this other
man. You gave me only SlsSo,and hardly
thought it was worth while TO use 1t at all.
So hid 1t in napkin and II produced no
result Its because you didn't give me
enough" But inferiority OF faculties
Is no excuse for Incidence, Let me say
to the man who has the least qualifications,
by the grace of God he may be made
almost omnipotent The merchant. whose
rargoes come ont from every island OF tile
sea, and who, by one stroke OF the pen, can
change the whole face of American CON-
mercc, has not SO much power as you may
have before God, in earnest faithful and
continuous prayer You say you have no
faculty. 10 you not understand that
you might this afternt on 60 into your place
Of prayer, and knetl before God, and
bring down upon your soul, and the souls of
others, a blessing so vast that It would take
eternal ages to compute it. "Oh," you say,
81 haven't feetness of speech. i can't
talk well. / can't utter what want to
say" My brother, can you not quote
that p one passage Of Scripture; carry
it with you everywhere; quote il under
all proper circumstances With. that one
passage OF Scripture you may harvest
thousand souls for God. am glad that the
chief work of the Church in this day is being
done by the men of one talent Once in
while, when great fortress is to be ia ken,
God will bring out a great field-piece and
AXE all with the firey hail Of destruction.
But common muskets do most OF the hard
fighting. 1t took only ono Joshua, and the
thousands Of common troops, under him, to
drive down the walls of cities and, under
wrathful strokes, to make nations fly like
| sparks from the anvil 1t only took one
Luther for Germany, one, zwinglius
| for Switzerland, one John Knox
for Scotland, one Calvin for
France, and one John Wesley for England
Dorcas as certainly has mission to serve as
Paul has mission to preach. The two mites
dropped by the widow into the poor-box will
| be as much applauded as the endowment Of
q college, which gets mans name into the
ne wspapers The man who kindled the fire
| under the burnt offering in the ancient temple
had duty as imperative as that of the
| high priest, in magnificent robes, walking
into the Holy of Holes under the cloud OF
Jehovah's presence. Yes the men with one
talent are to save the world or it will never
be saved at all, The men with five or ten
| talents are tempted to toll chiefly FOR them
selves, to build up their own great name,
and do nothing for the alienation of the
worlds woes The cedar of Lebanon sand
ing on the mountain seems to hand down the
| storms out Of the heavens to tho earth, but it
pears no fruit, while some dwarf pear Tree
has more fruit on its branches than it can
carry. Better to have one talent and put it
to full use than five hunGred wickedly
neglected.
ing to come n day Of solemn settlement
When the old farmer of the text got home,
he Immediately called all the servants about
him and said: Here is the little account |
have been keeping. want to see your ac-
count, and we will first compare them, and
| III pay you what owe you, and you II pay me
what you owe me. Let us have settlement"
The day will come when the Lord Jesus Christ
will appear, and will say to you: What
have you been doing with my property
What have you been doing with my facul-
ties! What have you been doing with what
| gave you for accumulative purposes!"
| There will be no escape from that Settle
| ment. Sometimes YOU cannot get settle
| ment with man, especially if he owes you.
| He postpones and procrastinates, and saysi
| "I'll see you next week." or "fll see you next
month" The fact is he does not want 20
| settle. But when the great day comes of
| which am speaking, there will be no escape.
We will havo to face all the bills.
have sometimes been amazed to see
| how an accountant will run up or
down long line of figures II l see
ten or fifteen figures in a line, and
| attempt to add them up, and add them
| two Or three times, | make them different
| each time. But have admired the way an
accountant will take long line of figures,
| and without single mistake, and with great
celebrity, announce the aggregate. Now, in
| the last great settlement there will be
| a correct account presented. God has
| kept long line of sins, long line OF broken
Sabbaths, a long line Of profane words, a long
| line of discarded sacraments a long line of
misimproved privileges They will all be added
up, and before angels, and devils, and men,
will be the great day of settlement. l have
to ask the question: Am l ready for
itm 1t is, of more importance to me to
answer that question IN regard 60 myseil
than in regard to you: and it is of more
importance for you to answer it in regard to
yourself than in regard to me. Every man
for himself on that day. Every woman for
herself on that day. "If thou be wise, thou
shalt be wise for thyself; if thou soonest,
thou alone shalt bear it." We are apt to speak
| Of the last day as an occasion Of vocifera-
| tion-a great demonstration of power and
pomp; but there will be on that day, think,
few moments of entire silence. | think a
| tremendous, an overwhelming silence. l
| think it will be such silence as the earth
never heard. 1t will be at the moment when
all nations are listening for their doom.
learn also from this parable of the text
that our degrees of happiness in heaven will
be graduated according to cur degrees of
usefulness on earth. Several of the COM
mentators agree in making this parable the
same one as in luke, where one man was made
ruler over five cities and another made ruler
over two cities Would it be fair and right
that the professed Christian man who has
lived very near the line between the world
and the Church-the man who has often
compromised his Christian characteristic
man who has never spoken out
for God--the man who has never
been known as Christian only on
struggle has been to see how much of the
world he could get and yet win heavens it
right to suppose that man will have as
grand and glorious a seat in heaven as the
man who gave all his energies of body, mind
and soul to the service of God! The dying
the same startling acclaim as that
which greeted Paul, who had gone
under screenings, and across dungeons, and
through maltreatments into the kingdom of
glory. One star differs from anther star in
glory, and they who toll nightly for Christ
on earth shall have a far greater reward than
those who have rendered only half n service.
Some of you are Fastening on toward the
reward of the righteous. | want to cheer
You up at the thought that there will be some
kind Of a reward wa ting for you. There are
Christian peop'e in this house who are very
near heaven. This week some of you may
pass out into the light of the unset
ting sun. saw a blind man going
along the road with his staff, and he
kept pounding the earth and then
stamping with his foot. Isaid to him: NV hal
do you do that for.' ''Oh u he said, II car
tell by the sound of the ground when an
near a dwelling" And some of you can tel
by the sound OF your earthly pathway thai
you are coming near to your Fathers house
l congratulate you. Oh, weather heater
voyagers, the storms are driving you into the
harbor. just as when you were looking for a
friend, you came UP to the gates OF his house
, and you We're talking with the servant, wheI
your friend hoisted the window and shouted
, "Come in! come in!' Just so, when you com
, to the gate Of the future world, and you ar
talking with death, the black porter a
! the gate, methinks Christ will host tn
window and say: Come liz come I'M will
make thee ruler over Ell cities.o In antici
i patton of that land | do not wonder tina
t Augustus Toplady. the author of Brock o
, Ages" declared in his last moment: ~ hav
{ nothing mora to pray for: God has give
, me everything Surely no man can live o.
earth after the g!ories | have witnessed" Oh