Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-12-01

tory shall have been achieved. But ]
nave to tell you It is a voluntary service
People are not brought into it as slaves
were dragged from Africa. A young man
goes TO an artisan, and says: Sir | want
10 learn your trade. by this identufe,
yleld myself to your care and service for
the next four, or five, or seven years.
want you TO be my master, and | want to
be your servant just so, if we come
into the kingdom Of God at all, we must
come, saying to Christ: BE thou my
master. | take Thy service for time and
for eternity. | choose it," 1t is a volun-
tary service. There is no drudgery in it..
In our worldly c~allings sometimes our
nerves get worn ont, and our head aches,
and our physical faculties break down;
but in this service OF the Lord Jesus. the
harder q man works the better he likes it,
and a man in this audience who has been
FOR forty years serving God. enjoys the
employment better than when he fir8t en-.
tered it. The grandest honor that can
ever be bestowed upon you, is to have
Christ say to you on the last day: "Well
done, good and faithful servant
THE LESSON or TIE PARABLE.
Learn also from this parable that diff
erent qualifications are given 10 different
people. The teacher lifts a blackboard,
and he draws a diagram, in order that by
that diagram he may impress the mind
Of the pupil with the truth that he has
been uttcring. And all the truths of this
Bible are drawn out in the natural world
as in a great diagram. Here is an acre
of ground that mas ten talents. Under a
iittlc culture il Yields twenty bushels Of
wheat to the acYe. Here is another piece
Of ground that has only one talent. You
may plow il and harrow il and culture it,
year after year, but it yields a mere
pittance. SO here is II map with ten tai
cnts IN the way of getting good and doing
good. lie soon, under Christian culture,
yields great harvests OF faith and good
work. Here is another man who seems
to have only one talent, and you may put
upon him the greatest spiritual culture,
but he yields but little of the fruits Of
righteousness. You are to understand
that there are different qualifications for
different individuals, There is a great
deal Of ~ruinous comparison when a man
says: ooh, if | only had that mans
faith, or that mans money, or that man S
e~loquence, how | would serve God"
Better take the faculty that God has
given You and employ it in tho right
way. The rabbits used TO say that before
the stone and timber were brought to
Jerusalem for the Temple every stone
and piece Of timber was marked, So that
before they started for Jerusalem The
architects knew in what place that par
ticular piece Of timber or stone should
fit. And so | have to tell you we are all
marked for some place in the great
TEMPLE OF II LORD,
nd do not let us complain, saying: Ia
would like to be the foundation stone or
the cap stone" Let us go into the very
place where God intends us TO be, and be
satisfied with our position. Your talent
may be in personal appearance; your
talent may be in large worldly estate,
YOUR talent may be in high social posi-
ton; your talent may be in a
swift pen or eloquent tongue; but
whatever be the talent. it has been
given only for one purpose-practical
use. You sometimes find a man in the
community Of whom you say: He has
no talent at Ill, and yet that man may
have a hundred talents. His one hundred
talents NAV he shown in the item Of en-.
durance. Poverty comes. and he endures
it; persecution comes. and he endures It;
sickness comes, and he cndurcs it. Be
fore men and angels he is a specimen Of
Christian patience, and lac is really illus,
trating the power Of Cbrist's gospel, and
is doing as much for the church, and
more for the church than many more
positively active. If you have n 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 have ten.
| learn also from this parable that the
grace Of God was intended TO be accumu-
lative. When God plants an acorn, lie
means an oak, and when lie plants a
small amount Of grace in the heart, He
intends it to be growthful and enlarge
until il overshadows the whole nature.
There are parents who, at the blrth OF
each child, lay aside a certain amount OF
money, investing il, expecting by accum-
ulation and by compound interest, that
by the time the child shall come TO mid
life this small amoun of money will 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 TO 90 ON, and, as by
compound interest, accumulate, until II
shall become en- eternal fortune. Can II
be possible that you have been az
auainted with the Lord Jesus for ten,
twenty, thirty years and that you do no,
love Him more now than you ever did
before? Can it be that you have been
cultured in the Lords vineyard, and tina,
Christ finds on you nothing but sour
| grapes? You may depend upon it, If you
do not use the talent God gave you il
will dwindle. The rill that breaks from
the hillside will either widen into a river
or dry up. The brightest day started in
the dim twilight. The strongest Chris.
tan man was Oncc a weak Christian.
| Take the one talent and make it two
take five and make them ten; take ter
| and make tncm twenty. The grace OF
| God was intended to be very accumula
tive.
Again: ] learn from the text that in
feriority of gifts is no excuse for indo
lence. This man, with the smalles
amount of money, came growing int
the presence Of the owner Of the estate
as much as to say: If you had given III.
| SO, 400 | would have brought $lS,S00 a
well as this other man. You gave m
only 81. $50, and ! hardly thought IT wa
g. I.I q