The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-12-05

ten. twenty, thirty years, ami tnat you 10
not love Him more now than yon did before:
Can It ue that you have boon cultured III the
Lords vineyard, and that CHRIST finds on you
nothing but sour grapes: iou may depend
uuon it, # YOU do not Use til. talent that God
gave YOU it will dwin'lla. TIE ri!l shat breaks
from the hillside will either widen into q
river or dry up The brightest day started
in the dim twilight. The strongest Christian
mun was once Il weak Christian. Take the
one talent and make it two; take five and
make them ten; Ia 20 ten Hni make them
twenty. The grace cT God WAS intcnled to
be very accumuiatise.
Again I learn froin the text that infe-
riority Of gifts is no excuse for lndo!snce.
This man, with the smallest amount of
money. came growing into tha presence Of
tile owner of the estate, as much as
to say: "If you had given me $500 ! would
have brought :;lS.SD rs we'll as this other
man. You gave me only $lSS land hardly
thought it was worth While TO use it at ALL
So hid it in napkin AMI it produced no
result. It's because you didn't give me
enough" But inferiority of faculties
is no excHse for Incidence. Let me say
to the man who has the least qualifications,
by the grace of Col he may be made
almost o,nnipotent The merchant, whose
..rgoes come out from every island Of the
Sea, and who. by one stroke of the pen, can
change the whole face of American COM
merce, 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 aftern on go into Your place
of prayer, and kneel 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! ooh" you say,
Il haven't teetness OF speech. l can t
talk well. l can't utter what I want to
say" My brother, can YOU not quote
one passage of Scripture! Then, take
that one passage Of Scripture; carry
it with you everywhere; quote iG under
passage OF Scripture you may harvest
thousand souls for God. ! am glad that the
chief work of the Church in this day is b ing
done by the men of one talent. Once in q
while, when q great fortress is 20 Ge ia ken;
God will bring out a great field -piHnH A'A-
rake all with the frey hail Of destruction.
But common muskets Go 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 It only took one
Luther for Germany, one Zwinglius
for for ssselldna' seotland one UH' Gavin V % for
France, and one John Wesley for England
DorcaS as certainly has mission TO serve as
Paul has a mission to preach. The two mites
dropped by the widow into the poor will
be as much npplauded 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 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 mon with one
talent are to save the world, or it will never
be saved at all, The men with five or ton
talents are tempted to toll chiefly for them
selves, to build up their own great name,
and work for their own aggrandizement,
and do nothing for the alienation Of the
worlds woes The cedar of Lebanon and
ing on the mountain seems to hand down the
storms out of the heavens to the 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 taic1t and put 1t
to full use than five hundred wickedly
n n'glectc
Ny sub ;ect teaches me that there is go
ing to come 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 l
have been keeping. | want to SEQ your ac-
count, and we will first compare them, and
Il / pay You what owe you, and you II pay me
what you oweme. Let US have settlement"
Tho day will come when the Lord Jesus Christ
will app .ar, 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 accumuat;ve purposes:"
There will ne no escape from that Settle
ment. Sometimes you cannot get q settle
ment with man, especially if he owes you.
He postpones and procrastinates, and says:
"rli see you next week" or am see you next
month" The fart is, he does not want to
settle. But when the great day comes OF
which am speaking there will be no escape.
We will have to face all the bills.
| have sometimes been amazed to see
how TN accountant will run up or
down a long line of figures. II see
ten or fifteen figures in line, and
attempt to add them up, and I adj them
two or three times, make them different
each time. But have admired the way ar
accountant will take long line OF figures,
and without q single mistake, and with great
ceIerity, announce the aggregate. Now, IN
the last great settlement, there Will be
a correct account presented. God has
kept :, long line OF sins. a long line of broken
SabhathS, a long line of profane words long
line Of discarded sacramants, long line OF
mismprovsl privi!e res. They will all be added
up, and before angels, and devils, and men,
the aggre late will be announced. Oh, that
will he the great day Of settlement. have
to ask the question: Am I ready for
ith' 1t is OF more Importance to ma to
answer that question in regard to myself
than in regard to you: and IL IS OF more
importance for you to answer 1t IN regard TO
yourself than in regard to ME. Every man
for himself on that day. Every woman for
herself on that day. eff thou be wise, thou
shalt be wise for thyself; if thou scorneSt,
thou alone shalt bear it." We are apt to speak
of the last day as an occasion OF vocIfera-
tion-a great demonstration or power ana
pomp: but there will be on that day, thlnK,
few moments Of entire silence. l think O
tremendous, an overwhelming silence.
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 10 our degrees OF
usefulness on earth. Several of the COM
mertators agree III making this parable the
same one as in Luke, where one man was made
ruler ove- five riticS and another made ruler
over two cities Would it he fair and right
that the pro:eSsed Christian man who has
lived very near the line between the world
and the Church--the man who has often
compromised his Christian charact"r-tne
man who has never spoken out
for God-the man who has never
been known as a Christian only on
communion days-the man whose grant
struggle has hecn to see how much of the
word he could get and yet win heaven is it
righJ to suppose chat maa will nave as
grand and glorious seat i'll heaven as the
man who gave al! his energies Of body. Eind
aud soul to the serv;ca OF Cod: Tie dying
,nlet cnterd heaven, bat not with
the same start!n2r acclaim rs that
which greeted Panl, WHO had gone
under screenings and across dungeons, and
through ma!treat:nen;s into the Kingdom OF
glory. Cnc star differs from ullther star in
glory, and they who toll nightly for Christ
ON nnr.th Shr I La We frr srrnlttr r.YYurl than