The record-union., 1894-04-11
THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS. y
Some of the Natural Inequalities in
Life Touched Upon.
Abstract of a Sermon Delivered at
Unity Hall Last Sunday by
Rev. T. j. Horner.

In his sermon at Unity Hall, on Sum
day last, Rev. L. ]. Horner took the
parable of the Talents for his text lie
said the observation of life, in the light OF
the idea of development. enabled US to see
why some people are endowed by nature
with ten talents while others are endowed
by nature with but one.
without questioning the fact that men
are differently endowed, or questioning
the justice of it." said the speaker. "the
method of wisdom-the method OF mod
ern science-is to strive to find out why
nature orders things as they are, by OBJ
serving how, in the developing order,
things and persons have come to be what
they are.
Never before were so many men OF
ability riveting their attention upon the
observation of NATURES laws as at the
present time, not only in the realm OF the
physical but in the higher realm OF MIND
as well. Mind studying It's own deYel-
opment thereby gains knowledge OF the
laws of thought. and thinking becomes
rational.
Truth becomes more voluble, and as
thought conforms more and more TO the
reality of things man becomes more God
who has made experimental science and
history his life study is the man VINO
speaks &c c0thedrG to-day, and not the
intuitionalist.
'All the facts that we have compel US
to believe now that man started upon
very low plane OF life; that he has been
gradually rising higher and higher as the
ages pass, by the use of the powers in
trusted to him at the beginning. Driven,
by the necessity of providing for his
physical life, from place to place, the en-
vironment in which he was thus placed
helped or hindered the use of his mental
powers until we now find all the diver
sity that we see about US. 1t is compara-
lively easy to follow out through GEN.
turies the development of peculiarities in
families and races, especially those that
have been exclusive, as the Jews, but the
differences that exist between different
members of the same family are yet in
scrutable. But in the broader obServa-
tions of races and families we have gained
enough knowledge to give US faith to be-
lieve that the same law operates to pro-
duce the differences between members Of
the same family.
Faith in the principle gives us good
hope that much is yet to be made known;
and seeing in the operations of law in the
widest fields of nature that benehcence is
its end, we are taught to believe that
goodness is in the design which sur
rounds and incloses too often with mys-
terry the peculiarities of our Individual
Hves-mysteries of disease and death;
mysteries of injustice and cruelty for
which the individual seems in no way re-
sponsible; mysteries of bodily and
mental deformity which seem TO make
life curse; mysteries which compel us
to pause with our weight of cares
Upon the worlds great altar stairs,
That slope through darkness to lJOQ,
"And trust
"'That good shall fall
AT last, far of. at last TO all,
And every winter change to spring.
''Says Professor James OF Harvard:
in all ages men whose determinations
have been swayed by the most distant
ends have been held to possess the high
est intelligence. The tramp, who lives
from hour to hour; the Bohemian, whose
engagements are from day to day; the
bachelor, who builds for single life; the
father, who builds for another genera
ton; the patriot, who thinks OF the whole
community, and. finally, the philosopher
and saint, whose cares are for humanity
and eternity-these arrange themselves
in an unbroken hierarchy, wherein each
successive grade results from ali increased
manifestation of the special form of ac-
ton by which the higher cerebral ,brain)
centers are distinguished from all below
Them
"Hence, you see, to account for the diff
ference between the tramp and the phil
osopher we would have to account for the
thousands of physical experiences that
have affected long line of ancestors
which governed by the law Of heredity,
in the order of development produces
sometimes both tramp and philosopher in
the same family.
1.-THE task is too great for us as yet; but
we may find comfort in the fact that it is
Just this diversity in life which gives our
civilization its greatest interest and
charm.
In the primitive savage state all are
alike-equality reigns; but the moment
man begins to rise above the savage state
differences begin to appear, and continue,
until we have the variety which is the
glory Of our age. If all were st. Pauls.
or Mozarts or Edisons the world would be
reduced to a dead level of sameness equal
to that OF the primitive state again. How
little harmony there would be if all were
musicians, each jealous of all the rest
How much Christianity, if all were mis-
sionaries trying to convert all the world
"After all, it is just this great diversity
and seeming equality that makes it
possible for each one to fill his place and
help TO produce the harmony of the
whole. Is not this what the parable
teaches; and if we have but one, is it
not the work of wisdom to make the
most of that one without quarreling with
fate, and so losing what we have? If ma
ture teaches anything, it teaches that only
in the use Of any organ or faculty is it inn
proved and perpetuated. The Parable of
the Talents is therefore true to the law of
evolution"
Admitted His Crime.