The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-10-20

( agencies OF our her WGrlQ-eIll-
braelng missionary work is making
over individuals. communities and ma
tons Her increasing part in civic life
Is a noteworthy aspect of the times.
Her Y. n c. As, G. Els, and ". c.
J.. US, and the whole alphabet of sub
sidiary organization are keeping
SHAPING hand upon youth. AS for her
mothers meetings, sewing classes. lit
erary clubs, gymnasiums, Bible study
classes, mission study classes, etc, who
can tell the tale? Unquestionably. the
church is an increasing minister to
human life No one who studies the
situation fairly can accuse her of being
& One-talent steward. When her Lord
returns, he VIII find her at least busy.
The NimbIe Penny.
All men are not equal; nor do all
men mean the same to society or to
God. There are diversities of gifts;
this truth has broken up every COM
munistic enterprise that was ever
started, and it forever stands a bar
rier to the success of extreme social
ism. No one can deny that there are
dve-talent men, two-talent men, and
one talent man did not get a square
part of all these would by no means
accomplish equal results The little
man may be lifted into a big place,
but, as the monkey at the top of the
highest tree in the forest is only a
monkey still, SO the little man is q $
little man, wherever he is placed. And
the big man may be crowded into
small lot, but a big man he remains.
A superficial view may incline the
reader of the parable to say that the
OueJalent man did not get a square
DEAL But he did, and more: he got
all that he could carry. AS ships diff
fering in capacity may all be filed,
so these various men were all given as
much as they could bear. They were
to be judged for faithfuluess. God
never expects a five-talent increase
from a one-tale nt man. By no man
ner OF means could the one talent man
have returned to his lord ten talents
Since the world is made up largely
of one-talent people, it is worth re-
marking that the nimble penny con-
tributes more to manSind's veal than
the sluggard dollar. A man may be
rich in the stored gold of wisdom and
knowledge and yet do less to profit his
fellows than the other who keeps his
small handfuls of silver coins in cir
culation- God and the world honor
the man with a little who makes the
most of it. Society is debtor less to
the brainy and equipped few, who give
themselves to Incidence or sei6shness
than to the mediocre men who are
possessed by spirit of faithful ser
vice; and who recognize their account
ability for what they are able to do
A Day of Reckoning.
Kipling is said to have interjected in
a conversation upon atheism, the terse
and colloquiaI declaration, pounding d
table with his fist as he spoke. IT tell
y . there must be Somebody some
Mere who gives us all our ticks" The
same sentiment has been a monitor
to the Anglo-Saxon race throughout its
history. The climax of this parable is
the return of the lord to hold his SER
wants to account.
In the loose thinking upon theologi-
cal themes which characterizes the
times, it is common to assume that the
truth of great judgment day, with
rewards and punishments. is anti
quated, and has gone to the garnet dis
carded- There is not room here to go
into a discussion of the subject, but
even the man of the street. who rea-
the temporal to the eternal, knows full
we'll that about the hardest thing in
business life is to secure workers who
will be faithful when the boss back is
turn ed. and who work from any other
consideration than that of the pay en-
veIOpe or the fear of being discharged.
If men were to construct a moral uni
verse that would run for a week they
would have to put a judgment day
I into it.
| The faithless one-talent servant was
/ punish d-not that he had not al
ready punished himself by the afro
4 plying of his powers. But taking him
on his own reckoning. and judging
4 him out of his own mouth. he was
awarded the punishment which his
i defiant and insolent attitude could not
avert. And the keenest sting of this
/ bitter fate was that he knew 1t to be
just. They who will not accept the op-
portunity which God offers them can
upon them.