Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-06-03
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TO depreciate themselves and who have
an idea that their best attempts amounl
to little or nothing; text, Matthew XIV
-, ITO another one"
Expel first from this parable of the
talents the word Eusury.' 1t ought tc
have been translated interest" "'USu,
ry' is finding a man in a tight place
and compelling him to pay an unrea
SOnable sum to get out. Interest" is a
righteous payment for the use of mon
ey. When the capitalist of this parable
went off from home, he gave to his
stewards certain sums of money, wish
ing to have them profitably invested,
Change also your idea as to the value
of one talent. You remember the CAPT
taliSt gave to one of his men for bust.
ness purposes five talents, to another
two, to another one. What a small
amount to last, you think, and how
could he be expected to do anything
with only one talent? 1 have to tell
you that one talent was about $780,
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 OIL
have large financial resource or exalted
official position or wide reaching oppor-
tunfty. 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 en-
large upon it, we speak of it as some
thing for gratitude to God. Mean
while we give no time at all to consider
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 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 people
of only one talent to appreciation of
their duty. Only a few people have
five talents or ten talents, while mil
lions have one My short text is like
galvanic shock, ITO another one"
The most difficult thing in the world
is to make an accurate estimate of our
selves. 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,
1ut 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 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 will be no evidence of ego
tism 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 heav-
en-. l ask you again, What is your one
talent?
Value of CheerfuIn eSS.
Is it a 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 irritation. In other words, it must
be q light within us so bright that it il
lumines eye, cheek, nostril and mouth.
Let ten men who are accustomed to
walking certain street every day re-
solve upon a cheerful cOuntenance as a
result of a cheerful heart, and the in
fiuence of such a facial irradiation
would be felt not only in that street,
but throughout the town. Cheerfulness
is catching. But a cheerful look is eX-
ceptional. Examine the first 20 faces
that you meet going through Penrsyl-
yania 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 a severe look or a depressing
look or an evaricious look or sneering
look or a vacant look. Here is a mis-
sionary work for those who have trou-
BILE. Arm yourself with gospel comfort.
Let the God who comforted Mary and
Martha at the loss of their brother, the
God who soothed Abraham at the loss
of Sarah and the God of David. who
consoled his bereft spirit at the loss of
his boy by saying. Il shall go to him."
the God who filed st. John with dox-
Ology when an exile on barren Patmos
and the God who has given happiness
to thousands of the bankrupted and
prosecuted, filling them with heavenly
riches which were more than the earth
ly advantages that are wiped outlet
that God help them. If he take full
possession of your nature, then you
will go down the street benediction to
all who see you, and those who are in