The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-10-04

movement is that it does not Try 70
make incoming out OF men
of business. Right where they Stahd'
if their business be honorable, thes
are to serve the Lord Christ; and 70
serve him. too, by the increase OF the
talents with which he has lowered
them. In the stress and STRAIN, ana
struggle of everyday commerce iheS
are to make manhood and make
money for God. The dark ages OF
the Church were when the notion pre-
| vailed that men SHOULD from
their fellow men in order to be go0d.
The Parable of the Talents has a Tar
different teaching.
One day | talked with a leading
American whose career is KNOWN 10
but few Of his fellow countryH1en, ana
he was speaking judicialiy concerning
another American prominent IN publlc
life. The second man, he declared, Is
really not great, FAMOUS, lor
his native gifts are not those OF the
worlds mighty men. | have often
thought of that Judgement, as | have
watched the growing power Of the one
man, and his increasing ~nobieness,
While the other has never emerged
from his obscurity. The question
arises, WHO is the great man. Is 1t
the most richly talente man, or the
one who multiplies most the talents he
has? Is it he who is born with brains,
and into place and opportunity; or he
who overcome S an ADVERSE tate aud
makes his life a servant Of his trials?
History is full of tales of gifted men
who amounted to little or nothing,
and fuller of other men who dared to
employ to the full the lesser ability
which they possessed. Here is a man
neither learned nor brilliant who
reaches millions with real messages OF
cheer: and over wonder sits another
n condemn him a - a m n n DI1cn
Acknowledgement he himself makes no
use of his superior brains. Which is
the greater man?
The parable is defective in that it
does not portray the fiVe-latent men
who fail. 1t is not only the oDe-taient
men who bury their treasure. Even
more striking are the many cases Of
those born under the motto, "noblesse
oblige,' who, with a spacious heritage
Of good name and tradition, the best
training, leisure, and noble environ
ment, yet waste their talents in idle
ness or futile lf-pleasing. We often
have pictured to use the ghastlinesS
gambler; it is time that some
body should linn in true colorS the
failure of the prosperous loafer. 1t is
not the talents we are given, but the
use We make of them, chat determines
our success or failure in life.
Two Successes
Two out of three men in his story
were successes. Both stood true IN
their trust, and both doubled their
talents. 50 both were reward ed in
exactly the same words: the one who
had made two talents got as much
as the one who had made five; for
they were being rewarded for dill
gence and fidelity, and not for gross
receipts. Jesus was fond of illustrat-
ing the principle that to whom much
is given of him much will be re
qEired.
1t is good to see the highly lowered
man, the one with five talents, live up
to his possibilities. One of the noble
sights of public life-truer, even, in
Great Britain than in Americas to
see men of wealth and culture bear
ing their proper share of civic re
sponsibility. Fidelity in his duty is
the one justification for q class of
nobility. Let us demind all pessimists
and croakers. who delight to point out
the failings of people, that the first
success Of the story was the five-tal-
ent man-the who, in the
hands of a conventional story-teller,
would prove the heavy william of the
play.
The other success was the tWO-tal-
ent man; of whom Phillips Brooks
said, He presents the type to which
we nearly all belong the man
who is neither Very rich nor very
poor. not notable because of success
Or of defeat, the man with gifts like
a million others, the average mar
Therefore his quiet, commonplace,
unnoticed man, going his faithful way
doing his duty insignificantly and
thoroughly, winning SO unobtrusively
at last his masters praise, ought &c
be interesting to us ALI.
r1-;4f, c4,1Gr would No - o,c
+, Grafton Of wherein those two meT
We're successful. First OF all, they
had done their work: they had beer
faithful, and that is the highest sue
cess possible to mortal or angel. They
had the masters We'll done, good
and faithful (not good and brilliant
servant which is heavens chief re-
ward. They had been made by then
: task: this is the wonder always
~ Mrought by good work: it ira nSforns