Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1908-07-24
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RANK AND WIN PLACIDITY.

By Rev. N. niece Waters

by n6S. ~. L. 1SS w dlS1S
The parable of the talents-Matt
XIV. 1880.
The question of rank has been the
perpetual heartache of human society
The Orient has solved the puzzle Of
caste. The West has solved it by
democracy.
The West with its democracy has a
part of the truth. 4 mans chance III
! life must not be determined by where
he was born or by his inheritance, but
by his personal worth. Every man
must have a full chance to be all the
man there is in him to be.
But the East, with its clumsy caste
system, also has q part of the truth.
Inequality is fact among men. When
the West, as it has sometimes DONE
interpreted democracy to mean equal
ity among all men, it has fallen into
grievous error. Equally in OppOrtuni-
ty, variety in ability is Gods law.
Jesus spoke the truth. There is the
five-talent man. Homer saw him aid
named him Tlysses-there was found
none who could bend his bow Scot
land found him at the pillow ana his
name was Burns. In New England he
was born in a cabin on the frontier of
Puritan civilization. He walked
straight to the Senate. In our age he
directs the fleets of commerce and or
ganiZes corporations.
There is the man to whom God has
intrusted two talents. We know him
name is legion. He is the average
man. He has a chance in the world.
For of him is humanity principally
| made up. He makes up the armies
that fight. He makes up the force of
men that till soil, hold the levers of
commerce, bear the burdens Of trade,
fill the churches, crowd the schools,
build the homes Of men where the great
children are to be born and will make
up the vast multitude in heaven. God
has a great need of him, and, as Lin
coin said, God best loves the common
people because He has made so many
Of them"
There stands sullen and despairing
the man to whom God has given but a
single talent. l have met him in col
lege. He traded all his patrimony to
get there-he would be a scholar. Now
the tragedy begins Tries he ever so
hard, he is always at the bottom of
his class. He goes into a profession
and he is failure in the eyes of men,
In business he never gets ahead and
constantly the temptation is with him
not to use the talent he has. And yet
somehow he must not fail in his place.
The heroes have done almost all they
can for the world; the future welfare
Of the world as in the past hangs oil
the one and two talented men doing
their best.
That is a photograph of the world,
| and note, Jesus drew it did not
He saw and called attention to the
fact of inequality in this world
Moreover, he gave no hint Of condemn
ing it; he proposed no 1eveling There
is no such thing as equality in capac-
ity between man and man. No law of
| larger liberty, no economic or social
| istic scheme, no state of lawless an
| archy can ever make men equal-God
made them otherwise, and unequal they
will be to the end.
Christ says the station iii life is not
| the real difference in men, but the
way they fill their station. Reward is
based on faithfulness. You are paid,
not for what you do, but how you do.
This truth is the one needed in our
time. The truth of the parable is with
your talent be content. Use it well
and God will pay thee full wage The
| ten-talent man can have no higher
crown. In his small church the coun-
! try minister may work miracles. In
! your hahdicraft you may do great
things. Getting up is not getting on.
! The coming man is the becoming one.
Here lies the hope for the man of
mediOcrity or one talent Greatness
/ depends on service. All service ranks
the same with God With Him there is
neither last nor first