The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-01-01
PROPER USE OF CAPITAL
HIGHLY INTER ESTLNG SERMON BY
DIR. Phillips.

His Text Taken From the Parable of the
T,,eut.-snvs society is Handicapped
with an Immense Burden of Medi-
ocrity Out to Failure to Perceive OPP
portunities-Ni e,;.ccre Business ana
Professional Men the Ones Who Kali
Against Trusts.
"The Use We Make of Our Capital
was the subject of spirited ana
highly interesting New Years sermon
by the Rev. DIR. Watson l.. Phllllps at
the Church of the Redeemer yesterday
morning. He took as his text Matthew
XIV. 16, IS: "Straightway he that hao
received the five talents went anu
traded with them and made other nVe
talents. In like manner he also tnat
had received the two gained olhei
two. But he that had received the one
went away and digged in the eafth ana
hid his Lords money" In the course
of his sermon the speaker PAID hlgh
TRIBE to the late Dwight l.. Moody. lie
spoke as follows:
1.-THE parable of the talents is an eter-
nal challenge 1t confronts men ike
a prophet of the Lord to demand:
What are you doing with what mas
been entrusted to you? That Is all the
Interpretation of it we need. All the
painstaking scholarship that has been
expended upon it In vain attempt TO
discover striking analogies and set up
impressive explanations Of every de-
tail of the story's movement mas SIM
ply made it fantastic and obscured the
main teaching. The truth the LORD hao
in mind was simple truth, familiar
event then, but in view of what He was
about to say of the future 1t was most
important one. We cannot afford 10
dim or hide 1t; least of all can we afford
to waste our energy in determining the
relative degrees Of responsibility OF
these different men, or why they were
SO unevenly endowed The two accented
teachings are: The working capital OF
these men was not their own, they
were entrusted with it; they were
stewards, and they were held to ac-
count not for the amount they received
but for their use of 1T.
at is in this view Of 1t that this par
able takes it's place among those lumin-
Gus teachings of Jesus which have
thrown a white light upon mans path,
and made it impossible for him to en-
tirely mistake the mind of God concern
ing sin. These two truths are two that
man needs most persistently to keep in
mind, and wants most perversely to
forget; we are stewards OF Coos prop
erty we afU also fellow workers with
- Nf
we made of what is entrusted to us,
and not the amount of 1t fixes our sta
tus. Through these two truths the
parable touches every one of us, and
those two stand upon another which is
as old as human consciousness.
what is the, chief end of Man? To
glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
You will never get beyond that But
what is its inner meaning? How does
64f4glorify his father? BY what de-
VelopnYNhr and use of SFTssH wntSA
will bring to him power, dignity, infiu-
ence, make him an efficient co-worker
with his father, and gladden. the faith
ers heart with the bright vision OF his
beauty and strength--the sons char
acter, conduct, honors set jewels In the
fathers crown. And it is the fathers
heart that Is engaged at this point and
not the fathers law; there was the err
ror in the old thinking; 1t did not per-
ceiye the true relation between the glo-
rifier and the glorif1ed, nor understand
the real quality of the glory. The
glory with which we glorify God Is not
the glory Of a despot who looks abroad
upon an army of slaves and sees every
one servilely obedient doing his will
with the regularity of a machine and
with no more feeling, heaping up wealth
and power and honor for him; 1t is the
glory of the father who rejoices In his
sons character, prosperity, victories
growing Influence and honor among
men. and himself lives again In his boy
and sees new luster added to the family
name.
LET us look at this truth until it is
clear. God is glorified in you In what
you become and what you do, because
YOU are His child. There is the thrill
ing significance, the divine majesty of
this old teaching; there is its power to
exalt and inspire us, to make every
mans life sublime and every act Of life
sacredly significant Here also Is the
beginning of tremendous responsibility
and the shadow of condemnation for
the man who digs in the earth and
hides His Lords money. What is that
man doing? He is wasting his own
patrimony and squandering his chances
assuredly; but he Is also proving false
to his trusts, he is refusing to coop
crate with his father in the development
of the common property; he is denying
his father the glory that should accrue
through his faithfulnesS.
''There has been living and working
among us a man whose remarkable
success as an evangelist has made his
name known and honored throughout
the Christian world. But he was some
thing more than a successful evangel-
list. Now that we miss his living pres
ence and think of his far reaching
plans and ceaseless activities, we per-
ceiye that he was an animate exhorta-
ton to faithfulness, constant rebuke
to laissez-faire; one who saw opportu-
nifty and responsibility, realized his in
debtedness to the world and did his best
to concel his obligations. AS he stood
for a moment consciously facing death
he said I have always been an ambi-
tio1s man, but 1t has not been my de-