Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-06-07
TO ANOTHER One.
Rev. Or. Talmage breaches on the Sub.
jeCt, Duly of the One Wi.ha
Single Talent.
Try to Make an Accurate Estimate OF Yourself
The Value of sympathy.
copyright 1851. 4

preclate themselves and who have an idea
that their best attempts amount to lit
tie or nothing; text, Matthew XIV, Is,
TO 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 COM
to get out. Interest" is righteous pay
ment for the use of money. When the
Eapitalist of this parable went off home.
gave to his stewards certain sum of
kaoney, wishing to have them proftably
invested. Change also your idea as to
the value of one talent. You remember
the capitalist gave to one of his men for
business 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? / have to tell you that one talent
was about $1,000, so that when my text
says, ITO another one" it implies that
those who have the least have much.
We bother ourselves a great deal about
those who are highly gifted or have large
financial resources or exalted official posi-
ton or wide reaching opportunity. We
are anxious that their wealth, their clo-
quence, their wit, be employed on the
right. side. One of them makes mis-
take, and we say, What an awful disas-
ter" When one of them devotes all his
great ability to useful purposes, we cele-
brate 1t, we enlarge upon it, we speak of
IT as something for gratitude to God.
Meanwhile we give no time at all to con-
slider what people are doing with their
one talent, not realizing that ten people
OF one talent each are quite as important
as one man with ten talents. In the one
case the advantage or opportunity is con-
centrated in single personality, while
In another it is divided among ten in
dividuals. Now, what we want to do in
this sermon is to waken people of only
one talent to appreciation of their duty.
Only few people have five talents oil, ten
talents, while millions have one. My short
text is like galvanic shock, "To another
one"
The most difficult thing in the world is
to make an accurate estimate of ourselves.
Our friends value us too high, our enc
mics too low. To find out what we are
worth morally and mentally is almost
impossible. We are apt to measure our
selves by those around us, but this is
not fair, as they may be very brilliant
or very dull, very good or very bad. In
deed 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 intellectual height, so
the hardest thing to do is to calculate our
real stature or heft. But it will be no
evidence of cgotism 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
the 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 correspondents 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? Carry that look
wherever you go. 1t must come from a
cheerful heart. 1t is not that inane smile
which we sometimes see which is an irri-
light within us so bright that it illumines
eye, cheek, nostril and mouth. Let ten
men who are accustomed to walking
certain street every day resolve upon
cheerful countenance as result of 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 is exceptional. Examine the first
twenty faces that you meet going through
Pennsylvania avenue or Chestnut street
or Broadway or State street or La Sale
street or Euclid avenue, and nineteen out
of the twenty faces have either an anxious
or vacant look. Here is a missionary
work for those who have trouble. Arm
yourself with gospel comfort. Let the God
who comforted Mary and Martha at the
loss of their brother, the God who soothed
hrob no locc of nd ho cd
of David, who consoled his bereft spirit
at the loss of his boy by saying, II shall
60 to him." the God who filled st. John
with doxology when an exile on barren
Patmos and the God who has given hap
piness to thousands of the bankrupted
and prosecuted, filling them with heavenly
riches which were more than the earthly
advantages that are wiped outlet that
God help them. If He takes full pos
session of your nature, then you will go
down the street benediction to all who
see you, and those who are in the tough
places of life and are run upon and belied
and had their homes destroyed, will say:
IF that man can be happy, 1 can be hap
Ply. He has been through troubles as big
as mine, and he goes down the street with
face in every lineament of which there
are joy and peace and heaven. What am
l groaning about? From the same place
that man got his cheerfulness / can get
mine. Why are thou cast down, o my
soul, and why art thou disquieted within
me! Hope thou in God, for / shall yet
praise Him who is the health of my coun-
tenance and my Cod"
Again, is your talent that of wit or
humor? Use it for God. Much of the
worlds wit is damaging. Most of satire
has a sting in it.. Much of caricature is
vitriolic. In order to say smart things
how many will sacrifice the feelings of
others! The sword they carry is keen, and
it is employed to thrust and lacerate. But
few men in all the world and in all the
churches realize that if wit is bestowed it
is given them for useful, for improving, for
healthful purposes. If we all had more of
much it would improve our Christian con.
versation and prayer meeting talk and SER
mon! Robert South and Rowland Hill
and Jeremy Taylor and Dean Swift and
Lorenzo Dow and George Whitefeld used
their wit and their humor to gather great
audiences and then lead them into the
kingdom of God. Frivolity is repulsive in
religious discussion, but l like the humor
of Job when he said to his insolent crit.
les, mo doubt but We are the people, and
wisdom shall die with you," and | like the
humor of the prophet Elijah, who told the
Baalites to pray louder, as their god was
out hunting or on an excursion or In
such loud conversation that he could not
hear them. / like the sarcasm of Christ
when He told the self-righteous Phari,
sees that they were so good they needed
no help. 'The whole need not a physi-
clan, but they that are sick" or. when in
mirthful hyperbole He arraigns the hypo
critical teachers of His day who were SO
particular about little things and care.
less about big things, saying, Eye blind
guides that strain at a gnat and swallow
a camel" and the Bible is all ablaze with
epigram, words surprisingly put and
phraseology that must have made the au-
diences Of Paul and Christ nudge each
other and exchange glances and smile and