The Nevada County picayune., 1910-10-07
THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS Sunday Schsel Lsssea for Oct. 9, 1910 Specially Arranged for This Paper

LESSON TExr.-Aatthew 2S:14-so. Memory verse 2S..
 GOLDEN TEXT.-'His lord said unto him, Well done. thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over few things. l will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the Joy of thy lord. Matt 26:2i.
 TIME.-Tuesday afternoon. April 1. A D 30. Immediately following the last lesson.
 PLACE.-on the slopes of Mount Olivet. overlooking Jerusalem.
 Suggestion and Practical Thought.
 The parable shines cicarest in the light of the circumstances. Jesus and his disciples are still on Olivet, over looking Jerusalem and the Temple in All their glory. Jesus had just fore told their destruction. Let the dis ciples learn a necessary lesson from the cause of that ruin.
 Many and great talents had been committed to the Jewish nation. No nation had ever received so great a trust as they-ths divine Revelation. religious truth, and best of all the Messiah, the Son of God; and thus power to become Q blessing to all the world.
 This nation had refused to use these talents intrusted to them; again and again they had buried the talent in- stead of using 1t; and now they were about to murder their Messiah, in- stead of using him, and thus to bury this talent in tho earth.
 The parable lay in full view before the disciples eyes. What the city then was, multiplied into the new Jerusalem of the Revelation, could have been thetrs evermore by faithful use of the diviAeiy entrusted talents. The loss of all, the outer darkness" the weeping and gnashing ot teeth, , as the fruit of unfaithfulness, lay in the prophetic vision shown by Christ.
 And now that buried talent was brought forth and was to be entrusted to the disciples and to the Christian church they were to found The five talents were now offered to them, and the vital question was what they
 
 were made very plain to them by the parable. It was written in letters of light on their sky, printed indelibly on their minds.
 A man travelling into a far country, and therefore wishing to leave his af' fairs in competent hands. He repre- sents Jesus Christ who was about to leave his disciples and go to heaven, which was far country in the sense that his servants could not have yis- ible communication with him. He was to leave the spread of the gospel, and the salvation of the world in the hands of his discip.es, although he was with them in invisible but real presence.
 The servants denote all those to heaven were entrusted. The Jewish rulers are among those represented by the man with one talent, for they looked upon the kingdom of God placed in their charge as a matter of small account compared with their own sell
 
 Christian leaders received some five talents, some two, some one; and SC do all Christ's professed followers, and all who have received from Christ the privileges and blessings of his gospel. The principle applies to all God with many things.
 Robert Louis Stevenson was talking one day to the children of school in Samoa about the Parable of the Tal possessed by them all. Tongues, to be used to make all about them cheerful and happy Faces, to be kept as bright as a new silver coin, that they might shine like lamps in their homes Hands, to be kept employed in useful work cheerfully done.
 His lord said unto him, We'll done thou good and faithful servant He had his lords approval Faithfulness not success, nor the amount gained was rewarded. God will say Well done" only to those who have done well. There are no emptya compli ments in the day of judgment Han del tells us that when he wrote the 'Hallelujah Chorus he saw the heav ems opened and all the angels and the great God himselfl" modest man of moderate ability said that he could not expect Gods We'll done, but he did expect that he would say, We'll tried We'll attempted.
 Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord, participate in his joy and share with him in his pleasure. the same kind of Joy which our Lord himself feels. Leighton's words on this en tering into the joy of the Lord are beautiful: Tt is but little we can re ceive here. some drops of joy that enter into us. but there we shall enter into joy, as vessels put into a sea oi happiness" The joy of the Lord Jesus ChSist, of which the faithful like him, shall partake in some meas ure here, and in its fullness hereafter