The Penn's Grove record., 1901-06-07
DR.. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE,
Subject; Duty of the One with a Single
Talent - Try TO Make an Accurate e.
Innate of Yourself - The Value of
sympathy,

bY DIR, IalmaEe for those given 10 de
preciatc themselves and who have an idea
that their best attempts amount to lit
tie or nothing: text, Matthew XIV, Is.
ITO another one"
Eypel first from this parahle OF the
talents the word "usury." Ii ought to
have been translated interest Il sury''
is finding a man in a tight place and COM
polling him to pay an unreasonable sum
to get out, Interest" is righteous nay
ment for the use OF money. When the
capitalist of this parable went off home.
he gave to his stewards certain sums Of
money, wishing to have them proftably
invested. Change also your idea as to
the value of ono talent. You remember
the capitalist gave to one of his men for
business 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! l have to tell you that one talent
was about ST2OO, so that when my text
says, TO 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 eio-
quence, their wit, be employed on the
right side. One OF them makes a ms
take, and we say, What an awful dlsas-
ter When one OF them devotes all his
great ability to useful purposes, we cele-
brate it, we enlarge upon 1t, we speak OF
1t as something for gratitude to God.
Meanwhile we give no time at all to CON
slider what people are dong with their
one talent, not realizing that N 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 q single personality, white
IN another 1T Is divided AMONG ten IN
~dlvlduals. Now, what we want TO DO IN
this sermon Is to waken people OF only
one talent to appreciation OF thelr duty.
only a rev people nave hFe talents or ten
talents, while millions have one My short
text is IKE a GalVdnlc shock, 10 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 Il 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 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
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 Garth would
No pfa pf tbn-1ptElJrtg pf baa1-an ,-l
you again, What is your one talent?
Is 1t a cheerful look? Garry that look
wherever YOU GO. 1t must come from a
cheerful heart. 1t is not that inane smile
which we sometimes sec which is an irrI-
tation. In other words, it must be a
light within us so bright that it lllumines
eye, cheek, nOstrll and mouth. Let ten
men who are accustomed to walking d
certain street every day resolve upon Il
cheerful couutenanCc as a result OF a
cheerful heart, and the influence OF such
a facial irradiatlOn would be felt not only
in that street, but throughout the town.
Cheerfulness is catching. But a 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
look or a severe look or a depressing look
o. an ayaricious look or a sncerilg look
or A vacant look. Here Ia q missionary
yourself with gospel comfort. Let the God
who comforted Mary and Martha at the
loss of their brother, the Cod who soothed
Abraham at the loss OF Sarah and the God
of David. who conso!ed his bereft shirt
at the loss OF his boy bv saving. Il shall
go to him" the God who filled St. John
with doxology when an exile on barren
1lntr,Ds and tha. IN1l ,-b., - -.-. H..