We have four things here, which, keeping to the metaphor of the text, I may designate as the Capital, the Business, the Profits, and the Audit.
I. The Capital. A pound was a very little thing for a prince who was going to get a kingdom to leave with his servants to trade upon. The smallness of the gift is, I think, an essential part of the representation. May it not be intended to point out to us this lesson how small after all, even the high gift that we all receive alike here is, in comparison with what we are destined to receive when the kingdom comes? Even the salvation that is in Jesus Christ, as it is at present experienced on earth, is but like the one poor pound that was given to the servants, as compared with the unspeakable wealth that shall be theirs the ten cities, the five cities, and all the glories of supremacy and sovereignty, when He comes.
II. Now a word about the Trading. You Christian men and women ought to make your Christian life and your Christian service a matter of business. Put the same virtues into it that some of you put into your trade. Your best business in this world, as the Shorter Catechismhas it, is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever. And the salvation that you have got you have to trade upon, to make a business of, to work it out, in order that, by working it out, by living upon it, and living by it, applying its principles to daily life, and seeking to spread it among other people, it may increase and fructify in your hands.
III. The Profits. The immediate results are in direct correspondence and proportion to the immediate activity and diligence. The truths that you live by, you will believe more because you live by them. The faculties that you employ in Christ's service will grow and increase by reason of your employment of them.
IV. The Audit. "Till I come; "or, "Whilst I am coming." As if all through the ages the king was coming, coming nearer. We have to work as remembering that everyone of us shall give an account of himself and his trading unto the Proprietor when He comes back.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth,Sept. 2nd, 1886.
References: Luke 19:13. J. Vaughan, Sermons,9th series, p. 5; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 142; Ibid.,vol. viii., p. 264; Preacher's Monthly,vol. vi., p. 225; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. v., p. 271.Luke 19:14. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xix., p. 154.