Milford chronicle., 1888-11-23

swift pen or eloquent tongue, but whatever
be the talent it has been given only for ono
purpose-practical use. You sometimes find
a man In the community Of whom you say;
s'Ee has no talent at all;n and yet that man
may have a hundred talents His one hum
dred talents may be shown in the item Of en-
durance Poverty comes, and he endures it;
persecution comes, and he endures it; sick
ness comes, and he endures it. Before men
and angels be is a specimen of Christian
patience, and he is really Illustrating tie
power Of Christ's Gospel, and is doing as
much for the church, and more for the
church, than many more positively active.
If you have one talent, use that; if you have
ten talents, use them, satisfied with the fact
that we all have different qualifications, and
that the Lord decides whether we shall have
one or whether we shall havo ten.
learn also from this parable that the
grace of God was intended to be accumula-
tive, When God plants an acorn, he means
an oaS, and when he plants a small amount
Of grace in the heart, he intends it TO be
growthful and enlarge until it overshadows
the whole nature. There are parents who at
the birth of each child lay aside certnin
amount of money, investing it, expecting by
accumulation and by compound interest that
this small amount of money will be for
tune, showing how a small amount Of money
viii roll up into a vast accumulation. Well,
God sets aside a certain amount Of grace for
each one Of his spiritual children at his
birth, and it is 10 go on and, as by COM
pound interest, accumulate, until it shall
become an eternal fortune Can it be
possible that you have been acquainted
with the Lord Jesus for ten, twenty,
thirty years, aud that you do not love him
more now than You ever did before? Can it
be that YOU have been cultured in the Lords
vineyard, and that Christ finds on you moth
ing but sour grapesg You may depend upon
it, if YOU do not use the talent that God gave
you, it will dwindle The rill that breaks
from the hillside will either widen into a
river or dry up. Tho brightest day started
in the dim twilight The strongest Christian
man was once a weak Christians Take the
one talent and mako it two; take five and
make them five; take ten and make them
twenty. The grace Of God was intended to
be very accumulative.
MANS LACK OF ADAPTABILIfY TO CIRCUM-
STANCES
Again: I learn from the text that inferi-
ority of gifts is 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;
''If you had given me $1,000 1 would have
brought s15,SO0 as well as this other man.
You gave me only $3.50, and hardly
thought it was worth while to use it at all.
So 1 hid it in napkin and it produced no
result. It's because You didn't give NO
enough" But inferiority of faculties is no
excuse for incidence Let me say to the man
who has tho least qualifications, by the grace
of God he may be made almost omnipotent
The merchant, whose cargOes come out from
every island of the sea, and vino, by one
stroke Of the pen, can change the whole face
Of American commerce, has not SO
much power as you may have before
God in earnest, faithful and continuous
prayer. You say YOU have no faculty. Do
you not understand that you might this af-
ternoon go into your place Of prayer, and
kneeI before God, and bring down upon your
soul, and the souls of others, blessing so
ve,t that it would take eternal ages to COM
pnia itl oh YOU say, II haven't deetness
Of sDeech. l can't talk well. I can't utter
what L want to saw Ny brother, can you
not quote one passage Of Scripturel Then
take that ono passage Of Scripture; carry it
with you everywhere; quot9-& under all
proper circumstances. With that one piEs--
sage of Scripture you may harvest a thousand
souls for God. l am glad that the chief
work of the church in this day is being done
by the men Of one talent. Once in q while,
when u great fortress is to be taken, God viii
bring out a great field piece and rake all
with the fiery bail of destruction. But COM
mon muslets do most Of the hard fighting.
1t took only one 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 Ger
many, one Zwinglius for Switzerland, ono
John Knox for Scotland, one Calvin for
France and one John Wesley for England.
Dorcas as certainly has mission to serve as
Paul has n mission to preach. The two mites
dropped by the widow into the poor box will
be as much applauded as the endowment Of a
college, which gets a mans name into the
newspapers. The man who kindled the fire
under the burnt Offering in the ancient temple
had a 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 themselves, to
build up their own great name, and work for
their own aggrandiZement, and do nothing
for the alleviation of the worlds woes. Tho
cedar of Lebanon standing on the mountains
seems to hand down the storms out of the
heavens to tho earth, but it bears 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 uso than
five hundred wickedly neglected.
THE INEVITABLE DAY or RECKONING.
My subject teaches me that there is going
to come a day Of solemn settlement When
the old farmer Of the text got home, he inn
mediately called all the servants about him
and said: "Here is the little account have
been keeping want to see your account,
and We viii first compare them; and iii pay
you what 1 owe you, and you'll pay me what
you owe me. Let US have q settlement"
Tho day will come when the Lord Jesus
Christ will appear, and will say to you:
ssWhat have you been doing with my prop
ertyl What have you been doing with my
facultiesl What have you been doing With
what gave you for accumulative purposesi
There will be no escape from that set tlement.
Sometimes you cannot get q settlement with
c man. especially if he owes you BE post
pones and procrastinates, and says: "rn
see You next week. or "Ill see you next
month"; The fact is, he does not want to
SETTLE But when the great day comes Of
which l am speaking, there will be no es-
cape W. win haze to face nll the bills.
have sometimes been amazed to see how an
accountant will run up or down a long line
of figures. If see ten or fifteen figures in
line and attempt to add them up, and add
them two or three times, l make them diff
ferent each time. But I have admired the
way an accountant will take long line OF
figures, and without a single mistake, and
with great celebrity, announce the aggre-
gate. Now, in the last great settlement there
will be a correct account presented. God
has kept a long line Of sins, a 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, the aggregate will be an
nounced Oh, that will be the great day OF
cofflau,anf have RI ash tha ounsfiOns Am