The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-11-22

voluntary service. There is no
drudgery in it. In our worldly call
ings sometimes our nerves get worn
out, and our head aches, and our
physical faculties break down; but in
t1is service of the Lord Jesus the
harder man works the better he likes
IT. and man in this audience who has
been for forty years serving God en-
joys the employment better than when
be first entered 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
servantp
THE MANY VARIOUS ENDOw1ENTS OF
MAN.
Learn also from this parable that Diff
ferent qualifications are given to diff
fcrent people. The teacher lifts q.
in order that by that diagram he may
impress the mind Of the pupil with the
truth that he has been uttering. 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 has ten talents. Under q little
culture 1t yields twenty bushels of
wheat to the acre. Here is another
piece of ground that has only one
talent. You may plow it, and harrow
it, and culture it, year after year, but
it yields mere pittance. So here is a
man with ten talents in the way of
getting good and doing good. He
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 70 understand that there are
different qualifications for different
individuals. There is a great deal Of
ruinous comparison when o man says:
"Oh, if I only had that mans faith or
that mans money or that mans elo-
quence how would serve God" Bet
ter take the faculty that God has
given you and employ it in the right
way. The rabbis used to say that be-
fore the stone and timber We're brought
to Jerusalem for the temple every
stone and piece of timber was marked;
SO that before they started for Jerusa-
lem the architects knew in what place
that particular piece of timber
or stone should it, And SO have to
tell you we are all marked for some
one place in the great temple of the
Lord, and do not let us complain say
ing: 81 would like to be tho founda-
ton stone or the cap stone" Let us
go into the very place where God in
tends us to be, and be satisfied with
the position. Your talent may be in
personal appearance, your talent may
be in large worldly estate, your talent
may be in high social position, your
talent may be in swift pen or elo-
quent tongue, but whatever be the
talent, it has been given only for one
purpose-practical use. You some
times find man in the community
of whom you say: He has no
talent at ALL" and yet that man may
have a hundred talents. His one hun
dred talents may be shown in the item
of endurance. Poverty comes, and he
endures It; persecution comes, and he
endures it; sickness comes, and he en-
a specimen of Christian patience, and
he is really illustrating the power Of
Christs 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; il 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
l learn, also, from this parable that
the grace of God was intended to be
accumulative. When God plants an
acorn, he means an oak, and when he
plants 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 a
certain amount of money, investing
it, expecting by accumulation and by
compound interest that, by the
time the child shall come to mid
life, this small amount of money will
be fortune, showing how a small
amount 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 go on and,
as by compound interest, accumu-
late, until it shall become an eter.
nal fortune, Can it be possible
that you have been acquainted with
I the Lord Jesus for ten, twenty,
thirty years, and that you do not love
him more now than you ever did be-
fore? Can it be that you have been
cultured in the Lords vineyard and
that Christ finds on you nothing but
sour grapes9 You may depend upon
it, if you do not use the talent tina,
God gave you, it will dwindle. The
rill that breaks from the hillside will
either widen into river or dry up
The brightest day started in the din,
twilight. The strongest Christian
man was once q weak Christian
Take tho one talent, and make it two
take five and make them ten; takc ter
and make them twenty. The grace O.
God was intended to be very accumu
lative. 4
MANS LACK OF ADAPTABILITY TO CIE
CUMsTANCEs.
Again: learn from the text tina
inferiority of gifts is no excus
for Incidence. This man, with tn
smallest amount Of money, cam
growing into the presence Of tn
owner of the estate, as much as to say
''F you had given me 50, 400 ! woul'
have brought $1S 500 as well as thi
other man. You gave me only 81 $50
and hardly thought it worth Will
to use it at all. SO I hid it in a nap
kin, and it produced no result, It
because you didn't give me enough,
But inferiority of faculties is no excus
for Incidence. Let me say to the NAL
who has the least qualifications, by th
grace of God he may be made almos
omnipotent. The merchant, who's
cargoes come out from every islam
of the sea, and who, by on
stroke of the pen, can change tn
} whole face of American commerce
has not SO much power as you ma
have before God, in earnest, faithful
| and continuous prayer. You say yo
have no faculty. Do you not undo