The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-11-30

or the cap stone." Let US go into the
very place where God intends 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 NAV be i'm q swift
pen or eloquent tongue; bat whatever be
the talent 1t has been ven for only one
purpose-practica! use. You some. lines
lind a man in the community of whom you
say: He has no talent at all, }" and yet
that man may have hundred talents
His one hundred talents may be shown in
the tenn of endurance. Poverty comes
and he endures it; persecution comes, and
he endures it; sickness comes, and he en-
dures it. Before men and angels he is a
specimen of Christian patience. anil he il
really illustrating the power of Christ's
gospel, and is doing as much for the
Church, and more for Church, than many
more positively active.
Ii 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 have ten.
learn also from this parable that the
grace of God was intended to be accumu-
lati|e. When God plants an acorn, He
means an oak. 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 sthe birth of each child,
lay aside a certain amount of money, in
vesting it, expecting by accumulation and
by compound interest, that by the time
the child shall come to md-life this small
amount of money will be a fortune, show
ing 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 comDound interest, accumulate I'M
til it shall become an eternal for
tune. Can it be possible that you have
been acquainted with the Lord Jesus for
ten, twenty, thirty years, and that you do
not love Him more now than you ever did
befores Can it be that you have been
cultured in the Lords vineyard, and that
Christ finds on you nothing but sour
grapes? 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 river
or dry up. The brightest day started in
the dim twilight. The strongest Christian
man was once a weak Christian. Take the
one talent and make it two; take five and
make them ten; take ten and make them
twenty. The grace of God was intended
to be very accumulntive.
Again: learn from the text that infe-
riority of gifts is no excuse for Incidence.
with "a of
money, came growing into the presence
of the owner of the estate, as much as to
say: "If you had given me 80, 400 would
have brought $1s. 800 as well as this other
man. You gave me only $3.50, and l
hardly thought it was worth while to use
it at all. So hid it in a napkin and it
produced no result It's because you didn't
give me enough"
But inferiority of facilities 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 omnipo-
tent. The merchant, whoes 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 so much power as you may have be-
fore God, in earnest, faithful and cou-
tinuous prayer. You say you have no
faculty. Do you not understand that you
might this afternoon go into your place
of prayer. and kneel before God, and
bring down upon your soul, and the souls
of others, blessing so vast that it would
take eternal ages to compute it! Co." you
say, 81 haven't feetness of speech.
can't talk well. l can't utter what want
to say" My brother, can you not quote
as Thn,, xol- Aknx
one passage of Scripture, carry it with you
every where, quote it under all proper Cir
cumstances. With that one passage of
Scripture you may harvest a 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 a great fortress is to be
taken, God will bring out great field
piece and rake all with the fiery hail of de-
struction. 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 Ger
many, one Zwinglius for Switzerland.
one John Knox for Scotland. one Calvin
for France and one John Wesley for |
England. Dorcas as certainly had mis-
sion to serve as Paul had a 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 mans name into the news |
papers. The man who kindled the fire un- |
der the burnt offering in the ancient tenn |
pie had duty as imperative as that of the |
high priest, in magnificent robes, walking |
into the Holy of Holes under the cloud of |
Jehoval'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 alienation of the worlds |
woes. The cedar of Lebanon standing on
the mountain seems to hand down the
storms out of the heavens to the earth, but |
it beavs 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 use than five hundred wick
eddy neglected.
Ny subject teaches me that there is
going to come a day of solemn settlement.
WI hen the old farmer of the text got home
he Immediately called all the servants
about him and said: Here is the little
l have been keeping. 1 want to
see your account and we will first compare
them; and I'll pay you what I 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 say to you: "What have you been
doing with my property? What have you
been doing with my facilities? What have
you been doing with what I gave you
For accumulafiva purnaSassV Tboro will