The Russellville Democrat., 1888-11-29


how I would serve God" Better take the
faculty that God has given you and en-
ploy it In the right way.
The rabbls used to say that before the
stone and timper were brought to Jeru-
salem for the temple every stone and
piece of timber was marked, so
that before they started for Jeru-
salem the architects knew in what place
that particular piece of timber or stone
should fit And so l 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. saying: 81 would like to be
the foundation stone 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
appearances; your talent may be IN large
worldly estate; your talent may be in
high social position; your talent may
be in swift pen or eloquent tongue;
but whatever be the talent 1t has been
given only tor one purpose-practical use.
You sometimes find man in the COM
munity of whom you say: HE has no
talent at all;" and yet that man may
have hundred talents. His one hun
dred talents may be shown in the item of
endurance. Poverty comes and he en-
dures it; persecution comes and he en-
dures it; sickness comes and he endures
1t. Before men and angels he is a speci-
men 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. II you have
one talent, use that; IL you have ten tall
ents 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 ac-
cumulative. When God plants an acorn,
He means an oak, and when He plants
small amount of grace in the heart, He
intends 1t to be growthful and enlarge
until 1t 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 ac-
cumulation 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 small
amount of money will roll up into vas
accumulation. Well, God sets aside
certain amount Of grace for each one
of His spiritual children at his
by compound interest, accumulate,
until it shall become an eternal fortune.
Can it be posi- ible that you have been ac-
quainted with the Lord Jesus for ten,
twenty, thirty years, and that you do not
love Him more than you ever did beforef
Can it be that you have been cultured in
the Lords vineyard, and that Christ finds
on you nothing but sour grapesg You
may depend upon it, If you do not use the
talent that God gave you it will dwindle.
The riH that breaks from the hillside will
either widen into a 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 ac-
cumulative.
Again, learn from the text that in
feriority of gifts is no excuse for indo-
lence. This man, with the smallest amount
of money, came growing into the pres
ence of the owner OF the estate, as much
as to say: "If you had given me 80, 400 l
would have brought S18, 800 as well as
this other man. You only gave me 81, $50,
and / hardly thought 1t was worth while
to use it at all. So hid 1t in napkin,
ana IL prOQuC6u no result. DSCdusO
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
omEipotent The merchant whose car
goes come out from every island of the
sea, and who, by one stroke of the pen,
can change the whole face OF American
hoe NJ oh m
may have before God, in earnest, faithful
and continuous prayer. You say you
have no faculty. Do yeu not understand
that you might this afternoon go into
your place of prayer aud kneel before
God, and bring down upon your soul, and
the souls of others, blessing SO vast that
il would take eternal ages to compute itS
"Oh," you say, 81 haven't fsetness of
speech | can't talk well. | can't utter
what L want to say. My brother, eau you
not quote one passage Of Scripture!
| Then take that one passage OF Script
ure; carry it with you everywhere; quote
IL under all pr oper circums tances. With
that one passage of Scripture you may
| harvest thousand souls for God l am
glad that the chief work OF the church in
this day is being done by the men of tai
ent. Once in awhile, when a great
fortress is to be taken, God will bring
| out great feld-piece and rake all with
the fiery hail OF destruction. But COM
! mon muskets do most OF the hard fight
ing. 1t took only one Joshua, and the
thousands OF common troops under him,
to drive down tha walls OF cities, and,
under wrathful strokes, 70 make nations
| fly like sparks from the anvil. 1t only
took one Luther for Germany, one
uuyi Svvft Inn
Knox for Scotland, one Calvin for France,
and one John Wesley for England Dor
cas- as certainly has mission TO
serve as Paul has mission to
preach. The two mites dropped by
the widow into the poor box
viii be as much applauded as the
endowment OF a college, which gets a
mans name into the newspapers. The
man who kindled the first fire under the
burnt Offering ia the ancient temple had
a duty as imperative as that OF the high
priest, in magnificent robes, walking into
the holy of holies under the cloud of Je-
hovah'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, 10 build up their own
great name, and work Tor their own ag-
grandizement and do nothing for the
alleviation 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 Ii bears no fruit
while some dwarf pear tree has more
fruit on its branches than II can carry.
Better TO have one talelt and put 1t TO
full use than five hundred wickedly neg
| leoted.
My subject tea ehes me that there is GO
Ing TO come day Of solemn settlement.
w hen the old farmer OF the text got home
he Immediately called all the servants
about him and sail: Here Is the little
account have been keeping. want to
see your account and we will first COM
| nAre them and pll paw Won what | oWo