The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1888-11-29

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 grapesf You may depend upon
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
dim twilight. The strongest Christian man
was once o weak Christian. Take the one
talent and make it two; take ave and make
them ten; take ten and make them twenty.
The grace of God was intended to be very
accumulative.
Again, learn from the text that inferior
ity of gifts is no excuse for Incidence. This
man, with the smallest amount at
money, came growing into the presence Of
the owner of the estate, as much as
to say: sIf you had given me $1,000
other man. You gave me only ~ 800, and
hardly thought it was worth while to use
it ALL So hid it in a napkin, and it pro-
duced no result. It's 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 cargoes
come out from every island of the sea, and
who by one stroke of the pen, can change the
whole face of American commerce. has not 80
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 afternoon
go into your place of prayer, and kneel be-
fore God. and bring down upon your soul,
and the souls of Others a blessing so vast
that it would take eternal ages to compute
its oh, you say, II haven't
NV brother, can you not quote one
passage of scripture? Then, take that one
passage of scripture carry it with you every
where; quote it under all proper circum-
stances. 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 a while, when great fortress
is to be taken, God will bring out great
field piece and rake all with the fiery hail of
destruction. But common muskets 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 Germany, one
Zwinglius for Switzerland, one John Knox
for Scotland, one Calvin for France, and one
John Wesley for England. Dorcas as GER
tainly has mission to serve as Paul has a
mission to preach. The two mites dropped
by the widow into the poor-box will be
as much applauded as the endowment
of college, which gets a mans name
into the newspaper. The man who
kindled the fire under the burnt offering
in the ancient temple had a duty as impera-
tive 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
nd rfNrly f<>ypf hnsr
grandizement, and do nothi ng for the allevi-
alton of the worlds woes. The cedar of Lee
banon standing 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 it's branch
es than it can carry. Better to have one tai
emit and put it to full use than 500 wickedly
neglected.
My subject teaches me that there is going
to come day of solemn settlement. When
the old farmer of the text got home he imme-
diately called all the servants about him and
seid: Here is the little account have been
keeping. Iwant to see your account, and we
you what 1 owe you, and you'll pay me what
you owe me. Let us have a 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 faculties? What
have you been doing with what gave you
for accumulative purposes" There will be no
escape from that settlement. Sometimes you
cannot get a settlement with man, especially
if he owes you. He postpOnes and procrasti-
nates and says: "I'll see you next week, or,
I'm see you next month";" The fact 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 an accountant will run up or down a long
line of figures. If / see 10 or Is figures in a
line, and l attempt to add them up, and i
add them two or three times, l make them
different each time But have admired the
ways an accountant will take long line of
figures, and without single mistake, and
with great celebrity, announce the aggregate.
Now, in the last settlement, there will be
correct account presented. God has kept
long line of sins, long line of broken Sab
baths, a long line of profane words, a long
line of discarded sacrements, a long line of
misimproved privileges. They will all be
added up, and before angels, and DEVILS and
men, the aggregate will be announced. Oh
that will be the great day of settlement. /
have to ask the question: Gam l ready for
it?' 1t is of more Importance to me to an
swer that question in regard to myself than
in regard to you; and it is of more impor-
lance for you to answer it in regard to your
self than in regard to me. Every man for
himself in that day. eff 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 vocif-
eratiOn-a great demonstration ofpower and
pomp; but there will be on that day, think,
a few moments of entire silence. think
tremendous, an overwhelming silence. /
think it will be such q 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 our degrees of
usefulness on earth. Several of the common
tators agree in making this parable the
same one as in Luke, where one man was
made ruler over five cities and another 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 mau who has
never spoken out for God-the man who has
ever been known as Christian only on COM
munlon day-the man whose great struggle
has been to see how much of the world he
could get and yet win heavens it right to
suppose that that man will have as grand
and glorious q seat in heaven as the man
who gave all his energies of body. mind and
soul to the service of God? The dying thief
entered heaven, but not with the same
startling acclaim as that which greeted
Paul, who had gone under screenings, and
across dungeons, and through maltreat-
ments into the kingdom of glory, One star
differs from another star in glory, and they
who toll mightily for Christ on earth shall |
have q far greater reward than those who |
have rendered only half a 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 waiting for you. There are |
Christian people in this house who are very
near Heaven. This week some of you may
pass out into the light of the unsetting SUM- |
] sow o blind man going along the road with |
his staff, and he kept pounding the earth |
and then stamping with his foot, said to |
him: What do you do that for?'. "Oh, |
he said, II can tell by the sound of the |
ground when am near dwelling" And |
some of yon can tell by the sound of your |
earthly pathway that you are coming near to |
your fathers house. congratulate you, Oh, |
weather beaten voyagers, the storms ore
driving you into the harbor. Just as when
you we're looking for o friend, you came
up the gate Of his house, and you /
were talking with your servant, when
your friend hoisted the window and shouted |
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