The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1888-04-26

International sunday-school Leg
son for April 40. 1899.

4AUoIH0bAOAoA subway -kSSsAAOOA AS0De
son for April 40, 1899.
Tho Story Of the Servants and the Taleuts-
The Howard Of the Industrious and the
Puni hmont Of tho slothfnl-An
Impressive Lesson.
Especially arranged from SIS. Quarteriy.1
LESSON Trxr-Matt. 26:14-8O.
GOLDEN TExT-Bc thou faithful unto
death, and will give thee.s crown Of life.--
Rev. 2:1O.
( CENTRAL TRurH-Unto every one that
hath shall be given, but from him that hath
not shall DO taken away that which he hath.
TIME-Tuesday afternoon, April 4, A. D.
30. Same as last lesson.
PLAcE--The Mount Of Olives.
SIMILAR PARABLEs-Mark 13:34-88; Luke
10:1O-27.
INTRoDucTroN-This parable il closely
virgins were represented as waiting for the
coming Of the Lord here the servants are
working while they wait.
HELPS OVER HARD PLACEs-14. A man:
representing Christ about to leave His dis
ciples. Servants. slaves were often In those
days employed as this parable describes.
They represent oil Christian professors.
10. Fiss talents: talent was 1900 shekels,
and silver talent Is variously estimated at
from II 900 to &2,0O0 In several Bible dic-
tionaries it is called s1,e42.5O. The talents
represent the things God entrusts to us, as
Gospel truths, wealth, time, opportunities,
the Bible, the Holy Spirit, the capacity for
religion. According 10 ability: capacity to
use the talents. 16. Traded with TIE same.
referring to the wise and faithful use Of oil
ont a Ia f1 fnds Sh., AL
true use increases power and ability and op-
portunity. 10. Reckoneth with them In
the day Of Judgment. But also, in lesser
degree, at every crisis of life, at death. 81.
Well done: because, in fact, he had done
well Rwler oter many things: larger pow
crs, more opportunities, greater usefulness
was his first reward. The jon of thu Lord |;
the second reward Of faithfulness. Il is
joy like Christ's-pure, loving, unselfish, in
finite, glorious "a A hard man. hard
hearted. He knew he was lying when he
said this. Gathering up the wheat from the
threshing-foor, where he. had strssssd or
scattered the bundles of grain In the straw.
25. Thou hast that Is thine: as If he at least
were strictly honest. %. Wicked and sloth-
yGt: the true reason for his conduct. Thou
kns'cest: you are convicted on your own
showing. %. Usnry: interest, money paid
now employed to denote unlawful or ex-
orbitant interest. 2s. Take the talent from
him: unfaithfulness leads to the loss Of
what is entrusted to us. 20. Ewry one that
hath uses well what he has, and thus, only,
really possesses.
COMMENTs-Salvatlon is gift Of God.
which no man can earn, but when q man is
saved, then God rewards him in the king.
dom according to his works. This Is the
teaching Of this parable. Tho Lord of the
servants gives to them each such talents as
he thinks best, and then at his coming re-
auircs Of them Q proportionate result. In
accordance with this result he rewards
them. To those who have done well, he as
signs q largo award, while to him who has
wasted his opportunities, he meets out only
punishment. This is the law Of Gods king
dom everywhere, and holds good in our
times as well as 1880 years ago. II we are
members Of the Kingdom of God, we are
under the law set forth in our lesson. Let
us then ask tho question; "What is talentan
Some people think that no one is talented
unless he is unusually brilliant. This is
mistake. A talent Is any power Of BODY
or mind which VIC can use for the glory Of
God and tho good Of our fellow-men The
power Of speech Is o talent: the ability to
do helpful deeds is talent; hands, feet,
tongue, eyes, ears, heart, mind are oil tai.
ents. God gave them to US not merely for
our own enjoyment, but 80 that we might
use them for the welfare Of others. Per.
sonal attractivcness even may be very Of.
fective talent il rightly used. Money is o
talent, for whose right use we are RESPONSE
BILE. All that we have, as well as all that
we are, must be regarded as talent. Now.
since this is so, wc can easily see that there
is no ono in this world to whom God has not
entrusted more than one talent. II we will
only count up our talents, we shall find that
we arc far richer than wo thought. We ore
millionaires, while all the time we have per-
haps thought that we werc without any tai
ent at all. just count up your talents and see
how rich you really are! Write them down
on piece OF paper, and you will be quite
amazed at the result. Let no one, then, saw: !:
have no talent and therefore am not to
be held accountable by God" Take for ex.
ample the talent Of speech. There are n
thousand ways in which this can be used
Tor the welfare OF others. Joseph in prison
used his lips to speak sympathizinRly to the
two prisoners under his charge (see Cen
4O:0. The little maid at Naaman,a court
used her tongue in such way that tho
General was healed Of hls deadly disease
FrQpheta and apostles used this talent 40
that thousands were converted to God, and
became heirs OF eternal glory. Those Of us
who are Christians to-day probably became
30 because some friend used his talent Of
speech In o consecrated way. Great
~ the art OF persuasion, and this
one who has the power Of speech can
acquire. Kindly words, truthful words.
warning words, these are some Of the ways
In which the talent Of speech can be multi,
ApA<A Al Il