The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-07-04
USING OUR TALENTS.
Sermon for Those Given to Depreci-
ate Themselves.
Discourse of DIR. TalmaGe on the Short
Text, "To Another One'-DiM-
cult Task to Accurately Es-
innate Ourselves

Washington,
This is discourse by DIR. Talmage
for those given to depreciate them
| selves and who have an idea that
their best attempts amount to little
or nothing; text, Matthew 25: Is, ITO
another one"
Expel first from this parable of the
| talents the word "usury." 1t ought
to have been translated Interest"
| ''Usury" is finding man in tight
place and compelling him to pay an
| unreasonable sum to get out. I'm
| terest" is a righteous payment for
the use of money. When the capital
ist of this parable went off from
home, he gave to his stewards GER
tain sums of money, wishing to have
them prontably invested. Change
also your idea as to the value of one
| talent. You remember the capital
| list gave to one of his men for busi-
ness purposes five talents, to another
two, to another one. What small
amount to last, you think, and how
could he be expected to do anything
with only one talent? I have to tell
you that one talent was about $1,000,
so that when my text says: "Io an
other one," it implies that those who
have the least have much.
We bother ourselves great deal
about those who are highly gifted or
have large financial resource or exalt-
ed official position or wide reaching
opportunity. We are anxious that
their wealth, their eloquence, their
wit, be employed on the right side.
One of them makes a mistake, and
we say: "What an awful disaster
| When one of them devotes all his
great ability to useful purposes, we
celebrate it, we enlarge upon it, we
speak of it as something for graft
tude to God. Meanwhile we give no
| time at all to consider what people
are doing with their one talent, not
realizing that ten people of one tai
ent each are quite as important as
one man with ten talents. In the one
case the advantage or opportunity
is concentered in a single personality,
while in another it is divided among
ten individuals. Now. what we want
to do in this sermon is to waken peo-
pie of only one talent to appreciation
of their duty. Only few people
have five talents or ten talents, while
millions have one. My short text is
like a galvanic shock, "To another
one"
The most difficult thing in the
world is to make an accurate esti-
mate of ourselves. Our friends value
US too high, our enemies too low: TO
find out what we are worth morally
and mentally is almost impossible.
We are apt to measure ourselves by
those around us, but this is not fair,
as they may be very brilliant or very
dull, very good or very bad. Indeed
there are no human scales that can
tell our exact moral and mental
weight, nor is there a standard by
which we can measure our exact in
tellectual height, so the hardest thing
to do is to calculate our real stature
or heft. But it viii be no evidence
of egotism in any of US if we say that
we have at least one talent. What is
it and, finding what it is, what use
shall we make OF it? The most OF
the people, finding that they have
only one talent, do as the man
spoken of in TIE parable, they hide it.
But if all of the people who have one
talent brought it out for use before
this century is half past and CORE.
spondents begin to write at the head
of their letters 1850 the earth would
be one of the outskirts of heaven. ]
ask you again: What is your one
talent?
Is it cheerful look? Garry tha,
look wherever you go. It must come
inane smile which we sometimes see
which is an irritation. In other
words, it must be light within us sc
bright that it illumines eye, cheek
nostril and mouth. Let ten men who
are accustomed to walking a certain
street every day resolve upon q
cheerful countenance as a result o1
a cheerful heart, and the influence OF
such a facial irradiation would be
felt not only in that street, but
throughout the town. Cheerfulness
is catching. But cheerful look il
exceptional. Examine the first 2(
faces that you meet going through
Pennsylvania avenue or Chestnut
street or Broadway or State street
or La Sale street or Euclid avenue
and 10 out of the 20 faces have either
an anxious look or severe look or 8
depressing look or an avaricious lool
or sneering look or vacant look
Here is a missionary work for thos,
who have trouble. Arm yourself will
Gospel comfort. Let the God wht
comforted Mary and Martha at th'
loss of their brother, the God wht
soothed Abraham at the loss O
Sarah and the God of David, VIII,
consoled the bereft spirit at the los!
of his boy by saying: Il shall go Il
him." the God who filled st. Johl
with doxology when an exile on bar
rem Patmos and the God who ha
gives happiness to thousands OF tn