Who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
Life a journey
1. There is a variety of circumstances which will attend the believer in his journey through life.
2. Moreover travellers need not to be told that the weather during their different journeys is not uniformly the seine.
3. In point of affluence and fortune all the travellers to Canaan are not alike.
4. A passenger to Zion, like most travellers, must expect to meet with different kinds of company on the road.
5. When persons undertake a journey to a distant unknown country it is not unusual to have recourse to a guide.
5. Also a guard is necessary, as the way to heaven is infested with robbers.
6. There is no convenient travelling without a competent supply of provisions. (W. J. Hall, M. A.)
Unequal gifts
Let us see what Jesus Christ does not say.
1. He does not say that the Master loves those least to whom He gives least.
2. He does not say that the Master acts capriciously, but in wisdom.
3. He does not say that this inequality lasts beyond the time of trial, beyond the present life. Inequality
(1) A fact.
(2) A social bond.
(3) We should contend against all the inequalities of the present life which can hurt the moral destiny of our fellow creatures.
(4) The attitude which God takes towards humanity in the short period which we call history. He appears absent. (E. Bersier.)
The servants at work
1. The commendation of human industry which passed from the lips of Christ.
2. The gifts of God are multiplied in faithful hands. The gospel is life and power: it is prolific. Christ enlarges man. (E. Bersier.)
The account to be rendered
There is an account to be given. Mediocrity has its temptations:
1. Envy.
2. Ingratitude.
3. Contempt of duty.
4. After indolence the impiety which blasphemes. (E. Bersier.)
I. The office sustained, a servant of God.
1. Diversity of talent.
2. Diversity of sphere.
II. The character attached to the discharge of this office. “Good and faithful.”
1. In a desire to be governed by our Master’s will.
2. Love to our Master’s service.
3. Diligence in our Master’s work.
4. Rejoicing in the Master’s triumphs.
III. The recompense by which the office is to be crowned. A recompense of-
1. Acknowledgment.
2. Exaltation.
3. Pleasure, “joy of thy Lord.” (J. Parsons.)
The parable of the talents
I. That our divine redeemer is constituted the head and Lord of the Christian economy.
II. That in this exalted capacity he bestows a variety of talents upon the children of men. Time is a talent. Intellectual power is a talent. Moral capacity is a talent. Religious opportunity is a talent. Relative influence is a talent.
III. That he who has imparted these talents righteously demands their improvement.
IV. The period will arrive when he will come to demand an account. While the investigation will be inclusive, it will embrace each individual. It will be impartial. The result will be joyful and solemn. (G. Smith.)
Talents
What is it to trade with what God has given us, and how does the increase come?
1. Whatever God commits to us, gift or grace, has within itself a tendency to grow. The secret of worldly success is-
1. To set about at once to make the best use of whatever we have. God often puts a good thought into the mind; do not trifle, but make the best of it. Christ will come again. Love can be thus enlarged, the intellect, memory. Consecrated time becomes larger time. Specially happy the man who has put millions of minds into God’s bank. Money.
2. Make a good investment by investing in eternity.
3. You are sure of good security, the promise and fidelity of God. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Faithful service and its reward
This portion of the Divine word, while bearing on one great truth, was intentionally fitted to a great many truths. Such as the following:
I. As Christians, we are serving an unseen master. Our Lord is here compared to one who hath gone to a far country.
II. He hath gone to receive to himself a kingdom (Luke 19:12; Matthew 25:21, etc.) The conflict is past and the labour is ended. He is exalted to the Father’s right hand, etc. His people acknowledge Him to be their king.
III. In the absence of this heavenly Prince a great and responsible charge is devolved upon his servants (Matthew 25:14.) His servants are charged with perpetuating and administering the affairs of His kingdom. They are the living depositories of His truth. They are not only to conserve the truth, but to diffuse it, etc.
IV. It is a long time ere the lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them. In some of its aspects life is short; in others it is long-very long. How long does it sometimes seem to watch with your Lord only one hour? And so, the slothful servant says, My Master delayeth His coming and the foolish virgins sink into sleep; and the soul who is like a bride adorned for her husband asks, “Why are his chariot wheels so long in coming?”
V. The results of were done for Christ remain. When the talents are used they grow by use, and increase for God.
VI. Varied and abundant rewards are reserved for the faithful servants of Christ. He who had gone into the far country comes back invested with honour and power to raise others to honour. He is ableto give rule. Putting aside the imagery, may we not picture what would be the actual blessedness of a faithful servant thus applauded, and thus more than repaid. No commendation like the Master’s “well done.” Every faithful servant shall have praise of God. The holy felicity has within it the means of its own replenishment. It is His joy we go to share. “Be thou faithful,” etc. (S. M’All)
The replenishment of heavenly felicity
In the present world it cannot be denied that sweet as peace is, even peace may be monotonous; and coveted as joy is, it is the very nature of joy to subdue the appetite that gave to it its relish. But it is His joy we go to share. Eternity will seem as natural to you as time seems now. Heaven, with all its effulgence, will not dazzle you, and that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory wilt not for a moment be oppressive to your soul. But surely something of the felicity of that state would form part of your experience if you would only believe that, imperfect as you are, you are really dear to Christ. Oh, do not think that He will begin to love you when you reach a world where there is nothing but love. Your danger, your struggle, your sorrow, attract at least the sympathy of this Friend in heaven. Your services, they are not wholly disregarded. Jesus loves you-loves you as you are, and, in a measure, for what you are as well as for what you shall be. The potter values the clay while it is yet upon the wheel, and when it is far from having reached the shape of beauty he designs to give it. The refiner prizes the silver long before the dross is entirely purged away, and the master’s countenance is reflected there. Oh, thou afflicted one, tossed to and fro and not comforted-poor, timid, heir of heaven-you call yourself only vileness; not thus do you seem to your Saviour. “Since thou wast precious in My sight,” He says, “thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee.” (S. M’All.)
The entrusted talents
This parable, a needful complement to the story of the virgins; outward exertion must be combined with inward character. We must work as well as wait.
I. We have here an explanation of the diversity which exists between individuals in the matter of opportunity of service in the cause of the redeemer. We observe the fact that there is such a diversity. These talents do not denote the original endowments which men bring into the world with them, or the possessions into which they come by birth. These are gifts of God; but the reference here is rather to those opportunities which have been given to men in consequence of their abilities and environment. In His bestowment of spiritual opportunities Christ has regard to the natural abilities and providential surroundings of each man; and as in the sovereignity of God there is a diversity in the latter, so in the gracious administration of Christ, there is like diversity in the former. No man has more opportunities of service than he can avail himself of to the full. If Christ has given you one talent, it is because at present He sees you cannot handle more.
II. That new opportunities come to us with our improvement of those which we already have. By utilizing what we have, we get what we have not. The foundation of colossal fortunes have been laid in the taking advantage of little opportunities. The true method of increasing our sphere is to fill to overflowing that in which we are. So heaven shall give new opportunities of service to men who have made the most faithful use of earth. Faithful service widens opportunity.
III. The result of neglecting opportunity.
1. What is said concerning the man with one talent. It is not alleged that he wasted his master’s goods; he simply neglected his opportunities. He was not notoriously wicked, but left undone what he had ability to do. Life is to be made productive. Many are content to do nothing because they cannot do some great thing. He who buried one talent would have buried five, his failure was in his character.
2. He cherished wrong views of God. All wrongness of conduct is based on a wrong view of God.
Two things are to be said:
1. The more rigorous God is supposed to be, the more surely He will punish unfaithfulness.
2. It is not true that God is thus austere. The love of God must constrain us.
IV. The sentence pronounced on the unprofitable servant. Here is a clear end of probation. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
The parable of the talents
I. The parable assumes that all who call Christ “Lord and Master,” will find some work to do for Him, and even some distinctively spiritual work. We have all some “goods” of Christ’s entrusted to us, and some capacity for using them. However inequitably this world’s goods may be divided, in the spiritual realm every man may take and do as much as he can. Who is to hinder us from being as self-denying, as lowly in spirit as we care to be? Our ability is the only measure and limit of our duty as well as of our right.
II. That the term of service is to be followed by a day of judgment, in which every man’s work will be tried, and either approved or condemned.
III. The reward of faithful service will be enlarged capacity and scope for service. The Christian reward is above suspicion; it is the power to do more work. It is a reward after which all must yearn.
IV. The spirit and character of our service will depend on our conception of the Divine character and spirit.
V. That those who have but slender capacities for service may turn them to the best account by associating themselves with others, and helping in a common work. Help to work in some organization.
VI. That the rewards are not arbitrary, but reasonable and meritable. (S. Cox, D. D.)
Great talents and small
I. That becoming a Christian is merely going out to service. It is a voluntary service; not forced.
II. Different qualifications are given to different people.
III. The grace of God was intended to be accumulative. Take the one talent and make it two.
IV. Inferiority of gifts is no excuse for indolence.
V. There is going to be a day of solemn settlement.
VI. That our degrees of happiness in heaven will be graduated according to our degrees of usefulness on earth. (Dr. Talmage.)
Each man has his appropriate gift
You are to understand that there are different qualifications for different individuals. There is a great deal of ruinous comparison when a man says: “Oh, if I only had that man’s faith, or that man’s money, or that man’s eloquence, how I would serve God.” Better take the faculty that God has given you and employ it in the right way. The rabbis used to say, that before the stone and timber were brought to Jerusalem for the Temple every stone and piece of timber was marked; so that before they started for Jerusalem, the architects knew in what place that particular piece of timber or stone should fit. And so I have to tell you we are all marked for some one place in the Great Temple of the Lord, and do not let us complain, saying: “I would like to be the foundation stone, or the cap stone.” Let us go into the very place where God intends us to be, and be satisfied with the position. (Dr. Talmage.)
Better to use one talent well than five wickedly
The man who kindled the fire under the burnt offering in the ancient temple had a duty as imperative as that of the high priest, in magnificent robes, walking into the Holy of Holies under the cloud of Jehovah’s presence. Yes, the men with one talent are to save the world, or it will never be saved at all. The men with five or ten talents are tempted to toil chiefly for themselves, to build up their own great name, and work for their own aggrandizement, and do nothing for the alleviation of the world’s woes. The cedar of Lebanon standing on the mountain seems to hand down the storms out of the heavens to the earth, but it bears no fruit, while some dwarf pear-tree has more fruit on its branches than it can carry. Better to have one talent and put it to full use than five hundred wickedly neglected. (Dr. Talmage.)
Ordinary talents do most of the work
I am glad that the chief work of the Church in this day is being done by the men of one talent. Once in awhile, when a great fortress is to be taken, God will bring out a great field-piece and rake all with the fiery hail of destruction. But common muskets do most of the hard fighting. (Dr. Talmage.)
The grace of God was intended to be accumulative
When God plants an acorn, He means an oak, and when He plants a small amount of grace in the heart, He intends it to be growthful and enlarge until it overshadows the whole nature. (Dr. Talmage.)
The talents
I. What was committed to them.
1. It was a responsible trust.
2. It was not alike in the case of all. It differed not in nature, but in amount.
3. It was regulated by a certain principle-“To every man according to his several ability.”
II. What was done by them.
1. The faithful.
2. The slothful.
(1) A spirit of dissatisfaction;
(2) or this servant may have felt that it was in vain for him to exert himself, on the ground that his means were so limited.
(3) Again, this servant may have been one of those timid, over-cautious persons, who, lest they should do wrong, do nothing. We should “add to our faith, fortitude.”
III. The account required of them.
1. It was delayed for a considerable period.
2. Highly gratifying in the case of those who were first summoned.
(1) An emphatic expression of approval.
(2) Promotion to a state of high dignity and honour.
(3) The enjoyment of transporting bliss. The case of the other servant.
3. Unsatisfactory in its nature, and most serious in its results.
(1) A foolish plea.
(2) A withering rebuke.
(3) A peremptory command.
(4) A fearful doom. (Expository Outlines.)
One talent
I. The reason of his conduct.
1. He may have believed he could do nothing worth accomplishing with one talent.
2. He may have been envious of others.
3. Dissatisfaction with the distribution of the talents may have caused his inactivity.
4. Want of interest in his master’s success.
5. He may have neglected his master’s work for his own.
II. Whether any of these motives will justify him.
1. Does dissatisfaction with God’s government of the world constitute a just excuse for inactivity? Yes; if it is unjust. I have a right to resent injustice. Is God’s government unjust. Faith says “No.” Vain excuse.
(1) Because God had a right to do what He would with His own.
(2) Because the responsibility was proportioned to the gift.
2. Will his belief that no very great thing could be accomplished with one talent justify him.
(1) You misunderstand God if you think He takes no account of little things.
(2) He not only notices but prizes little things. The two mites.
(3) One-talented men are the true workers of the world.
(4) It is the multitude of them that builds up the mighty result.
3. But is the servant justified in supposing that his own interests must first be considered before his master’s? Certainly there are many who are now pleading this: “I will attend to God’s matters one day-my own absorb my attention now.” No justification in this:
(1) Because God commands you to study His interests first.
(2) Because, you being merely His steward, this is just.
(3) Because, you being the creature of His hands and His servant, it is doubly just.
(4) Because this is the true way to advance your own interests. (See Trench on Parables, p. 281, for an apt illustration.)
III. Conclusion. Have any of you buried talents? Dig them up and begin this glorious career of working. (The Southern Pulpit.)
Human responsibility
I. All that we have, and, indeed, all that we are, belongs to God.
1. We have nothing that we can call our own-ourselves, our possessions, etc. We are servants-under authority, etc. God’s authority over us is entire and unlimited.
2. God has entrusted us with “His goods”-
(1) Minds and bodies endowed with numerous and admirable powers.
(2) More or less of worldly substance.
(3) Positions of influence and authority.
(4) The Sabbath, etc.
II. The distribution of the talents in different numbers or proportions.
1. Whether the term “talents” should be applied to all the powers, possessions, and opportunities for usefulness which the Lord of heaven confers upon His servants, or only those which are most eminent and valuable in the possession of each of them, admits of doubt.
2. Their unequal distribution illustrates in various ways the Divine perfections. It manifests His sovereignty, in doing as He pleases with His own; His goodness, as we have no claim or merit; His wisdom, in their adaptation to each.
III. The talents are improvable. They may be increased in value by wisdom and fidelity in their consecration to the Redeemer’s service.
IV. The certainty of the day of reckoning, however it may be delayed. The results of death and judgment and eternity are not the less sure because some wish they were doubtful or uncertain, nor are they the less near because some choose to think of them as distant.
V. The treatment of the good and faithful servants. As their diligence and their faithfulness had been alike, a similar reward is given to each, and both are commended in the very same words. Confessed, unnumbered sins must, from the nature of the case, be rewards, “not of debt, but of grace.” What a generous Master we have! His “Well done!” will be honour and bliss that shall captivate and enrapture as can no earthly delights.
VI. The doom of the servant who had but one talent, and hid it in the earth, is minutely described. The ground of his condemnation. His sin was slothfulness. All his pleas were poor pretences. It was right that he should be deprived, while others were enriched. There can be no valid excuse for not serving God. (T. D. Crothers.)
Fidelity in the service of God
Explain the nature of fidelity.
I. Fidelity requires A knowledge of our obligations, and, therefore, those who wish to be faithful will endeavour to obtain clear and correct views of what they are bound to do.
II. It requires an enlightened view of the grounds of those obligations. Without this there can be no rational desire or fixed purpose to discharge them.
III. It requires superiority over all conflicting tendencies. A man may have a desire to do his duty, and he may have a general purpose to perform it, but then may be too weak to withstand temptation. Fidelity in the service of God requires, therefore:
1. A knowledge of what He would have us do, as men, in all our relations of life, as Christians or as ministers.
2. Such views of our relation to Christ, and our obligations to Him, as shall awaken in us the desire to do His will, and lead us to form the purpose that we will in all cases endeavour to perform it.
3. Such a strength of this desire and such firmness of this purpose as render them actually controlling over our whole inward and outward life.
IV. From this statement of the duty it is plain-
1. That it is a very simple one.
2. It is a very comprehensive duty. It, in fact, includes all others.
3. It is one of constant obligation.
4. It is obviously exceedingly difficult. It supposes the renunciation of ourselves and of the world. (C. Hodge, D. D.)
The master’s approval of the faithful servant
I. His character.
1. A good and faithful servant accepts his position as a servant, with all that is included in that position.
2. He bears the work-burden of his servitude.
3. He renders service with hearty goodwill.
4. He is obedient to his master.
5. He has his master’s interest ever before him.
6. He is profitable to his master.
II. The conduct upon which this character is based. “Thou hast been faithful over a few things.”
III. The commendation and reward. “Well done.”
1. This is real commendation, not doubtful.
2. This is complete and full commendation.
3. This is useful commendation.
It is not an encumbrance, like a robe of state or an official chain of gold, but it is as a strong girdle for the loins. “Enter thou into the joy of the Lord.”
1. The joy of the Lord on His return to His servants.
2. The joy of the Lord in the goodness and fidelity of His servants.
3. The joy of the Lord in commending and rewarding His servants.
4. The whole personal joy of the Lord, so far as it can be shared by His servants.
5. The joy set before Him when He endured the cross.
6. The joy of finished work and completed suffering, of the joy provided in that kingdom which is joy.
This text teaches
1. What the Christians are expected to be-servants.
2. What we are expected to do.
3. What we may expect to obtain.
4. Supplies a present test of character and motive to service, (S. Martin.)
The good and faithful servant
I. The approved servant described.
1. Good.
(1) Good in nature.
(2) Good in principle.
(3) Good in motive.
(4) In fruitfulness.
2. Faithful.
(1) To God.
(2) To himself.
(3) To others.
II. The approved servant commended. “Well done.”
1. Surprise.
2. Humility.
3. Adoration.
4. Love. (H. March.)
The good servant
1. He is commended.
2. Promoted.
3. Admitted to joys unspeakable. (W. Jowett, M. A.)
The faithful servant and his reward
The parable of the ten virgins shows us our duty to ourselves; the parable to the servants our duty to others, etc. The one parable cries “Watch!” The other cries “ Work!”
I. Look at the faithful servant. There are several things respecting him illustrating our own position.
1. He was a “servant;” one who is dependent upon, and responsible to another. Whatever our position, this is the character of every one of us. Men often speak as if God had no claim upon sinners. The man who hid his talent was as much a servant as he who by diligent trading made his five talents into ten. We are all servants, whether we own our Master or not, etc. Ascertain the character you bear.
2. He was entrusted with some of his master’s property. So are we.
3. The talents bestowed upon the servants varied in their number. So it is with us.
4. They are given to us to be used according to the will of the proprietor-we may invest them, or waste them, or hide them.
5. They are entrusted to us for a limited period; the extent of that period is unknown.
II. Let us look at the conduct of the servant. He was not elated with pride because he had more than others, nor was he depressed with envy because he had less. He realized his responsibility, and at once set to work, etc. He was” good “and “faithful,” referring to his character and conduct. While faithful to his master, he was good to his brethren, and the manifestation of his goodness is seen in the revelation that follows, “Faith without works is dead,” etc.
III. Look at the faithful, servant’s reward. Gives his account with joy.
1. Has his master’s approval.
2. He is raised to a higher position.
3. He was admitted to his master’s presence-a honour beyond our comprehension. Apply the subject. (Charles Garrett.)
The unprofitable servant
I. The individual referred to is described as acting in the capacity of a servant. This denotes responsibility. Knows his Lord’s will. He possesses capability.
II. His sin. He did not squander the talent. His sin was knowing to do good and doing it not. He was of a phlegmatic constitution of body and mind. He did not seek the aid of God’s grace. What a lamentable state of mind to wish to get to heaven, and yet to turn in a bad temper from the only path that leads to it! But is God a hard Master? Ask the Christian who experiences in his heart the power of the religion he professes. Ask Nature.
III. His end. “Outer darkness.” (R. Jones, B. A.)
The discharged servant
There is, perhaps, no position more painful for a good and kind master to be placed in, no duty so painful for him to fulfil, as the being compelled to discharge a servant for misbehaviour, whatever the nature of the offence may be. There is something sad, and almost solemn, as the hour of departure draws nigh in which the servant is about to quit the threshold of the home where he has, it may be, served for years. At such a moment sins of omission and commission can scarcely fail to rise up in memory’s glass slowly and upbraidingly before the downcast mind. It is then the obstinacy within relents, the hardness melts, the pride of the heart is abased, when it is too late. How apparent, then, is the folly of disobedience. Then is seen how useless were all those promises of amendment drowned in the opium of forgetfulness, or strangled in the birth by the complicated influences of procrastination. At such an hour, too, the value of the place he is leaving rises up before the mind’s eye in a way never experienced before. As the foot is lingering for the last time on the step of the master’s door, the comforts of a quiet and peaceful.home are then contrasted with the cold and forlorn aspect of things without. Now if this be the case in regard to the affairs of this world, how much more forcibly does it apply to the next scene of existence? Here we must imagine no longer an earthly, but a heavenly Master, about to dismiss, not a servant merely that fills his or her respective place in a common household, but a man considered as a rational and accountable being. (R. Jones, B. A. )
The sin of unprofitableness
I. Unprofitableness implies a mind unlike that of God, and therefore unfit for communion with God.
1. The mind of the unprofitable one is marked by indifference to the welfare of others.
2. The goodness of Deity is not merely negative; it seeks to bless mankind.
II. Unprofitableness will exclude the soul from heaven; it is a frustration of the merciful designs of God. (E. Gibbon, M. A.)
The unprofitable servant
I. The excuse set up by the unprofitable servant for his neglect. It is general. “I know that thou art a hard man.” This is the language of the disobedient heart with reference to the merciful parent of the universe. The service is framed to meet our moral happiness. The ways of wisdom axe ways of pleasantness. The excuse uses an audacious tone; God is unreasonable, and expects the impossible, and does not put forth the needful agencies.
II. The sentence pronounced on him.
1. Supposing there was truth in his accusation, why did he not adopt the course less injurious to his Master?
2. Deprivation-“Take, therefore, the talent from him.” “Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness.” (D. Moore, M. A.)
The wicked and slothful servant
I. His profession.
1. The name, “servant of the Lord,” is most honourable.
2. It is a most comprehensive name.
How comes it that any whose dispositions thus widely differ should be found among the professed followers of Christ?
1. They have false notions of what constitutes a genuine servant of the Lord.
2. They have low thoughts of God.
II. His character.
1. He had been slothful.
2. He was therefore wicked.
(1) He was wicked because unfaithful to his trust.
(2) Because cherishing dishonouring thoughts of his Master.
(3) Because he acted contrary to his own avowed convictions.
III. His doom.
1. A just doom.
2. This will be the doom of many.
(1) To every individual is given at least one talent.
(2) Of even one talent a strict account will be required.
(3) This should lead us to self-examination and prayer. (H. March.)
The capacity of religion extirpated by disuse
Many persons read this parable of the talents, I believe, very much as if it related only to gifts external to the person; or, if to gifts that are personal, to such only as are called talents in the lower and merely man-ward relations and uses of life, such as the understanding, reason, etc. But the great Teacher’s meaning reaches higher than this, and comprehends more, namely, those talents which go to exalt the subject in its God-ward relations. The main stress of His doctrine hinges, I conceive, on our responsibility as regards the capacity of religion itself; for this, in highest pre-eminence, is the talent, the royal gift of man. In pursuing the subject presented, two points will naturally engage our attention.
I. The capacity for religion is a talent, the highest talent we have. We mean by a talent, the capacity for doing or becoming something, as for learning, speaking, trade, command. Our talents are as numerous, therefore, and various as the effects we may operate. We have talents of the body, too, and talents of the mind, or soul. All those which can be used, or which come into play, in earthly subjects, and apart from God and religion, are natural; and those which relate immediately to God, and things unseen as connected with God, are religious. The religious talents compose the whole God-ward side of faculty in us. They are such especially as come into exercise in the matter of religious faith and experience, and nowhere else.
1. The want of God-a receptivity for God.
2. Inspiration-a capacity to be permeated, illumined, guided, exalted by God or the Spirit of God within, and yet so as not to be any the less completely ourselves.
3. The spiritual sense, or the power of Divine apprehension.
4. The capacity of religious love.
5. The power of faith a power of knowing God. Their true place and order in the soul is-
(1) At the head of all its other powers, holding them subordinate.
(2) All the other talents fall into a stunted and partially disabled state when they are not shone upon, kept in warmth, and raised in grade by the talents of religion.
(3) All the greatest things ever done in the world have been done by the instigations and holy elevations of the religious capacity. This, therefore, is the real summit of our humanity.
II. The religious talent or capacity is one that, by total disuse and the overgrowth of others, is finally extirpated. Few men living without God are aware of any such possibility, and still less of the tremendous fact itself. On the contrary, they imagine that they are getting above religion, growing too competent and wise to be longer subjected to its authority, or incommoded by its requirements. The teaching of Scripture, “To him that hath shall be given,” etc. This spiritual extirpation is referable to two great laws or causes.
1. To the neglect of the talent or capacities of religion. All living members, whether of body or mind, require use or exercise. It is necessary to their development, and without it they even die.
2. To the operation of that immense overgrowth or over-activity which is kept up in the other powers. Is it wrong to assume that your religious senses were proportionately much stronger and more active in childhood than it is now?
Thus onward the thoughts that crowd upon us, standing before a subject like this, are practical and serious.
1. How manifestly hideous the process going on in human souls under the power of sin. It is a process of real and fixed deformity.
2. There is no genuine culture, no proper education, which does not include religion.
3. Let no one comfort himself in the intense activity of his mind on the subject of religion. That is one of the great things to be dreaded. To be always thinking, debating, scheming in reference to the great question of religion, without using any of the talents that belong more appropriately to God and the receiving of God, is just the way to extirpate the talents most rapidly, and so to close up the mind in spiritual darkness.
4. Make little of the hope that the Holy Spirit will at some time open your closed or consciously closing faculties.
5. This truth wears no look of promise, in regard to the future condition of bad men.
6. How clear is it that the earliest time in religion is the best time. The peculiar blessing and the hopeful advantage of youth. A great share of those who believe embrace Christ in their youth. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
God blesses those who improve their privileges
I. What is implied in men’s faithfully improving divine blessings.
1. This implies their acknowledging that all their favours come from God. As long as men disregard the hand of the Giver, they will certainly despise His gifts.
2. A proper improvement of Divine favours implies a grateful sense of Divine goodness. The slothful servant did not thank his Master for the one talent.
3. A faithful improvement of Divine favours implies a cheerful and unreserved consecration of them to Him who gave them.
4. Faithfully improving Divine favours implies employing them in the service of God..
II. That those who faithfully improve the blessings which God bestows upon them may reasonably expect further marks of his favour.
1. The faithful improvement of Divine favours affords the highest enjoyment of them. Men never enjoy their talents buried or abused.
2. The faithful improvement of Divine favours in time past prepares men for the reception of more and richer blessings in time to come. Masters bestow their best favours upon their best servants.
3. God has promised to reward past fidelity with future favours.
4. God’s conduct confirms the declarations of His Word. He has in all ages bestowed peculiar advantages upon those who have improved the temporal and spiritual blessings
He has given.
1. All the blessings we possess have been sent in mercy.
2. If God will reward only those who improve His favours in His service, then men are unwise and criminal in converting them to their own use.
3. Men ought to be more concerned to improve God’s favours than to gain the possession of them.
4. Those who abuse God’s favours have reason to expect that He will diminish them. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Laying ourselves out for God
Therefore you should keep a constant reckoning how you lay out yourselves for God. (T. Manton.)
Christ absent from us
It was needful that Christ, should go from us for a while; for He would not govern the world by sense, but by faith. (T. Manton.)
Diversity in service
Every one hath his service and opportunity to do something for God; all offered to the tabernacle gold, or silver, or brass, or shittim-wood, or goats’ hair, or badgers’ skins. So, as Christ went to Jerusalem, some strewed the way with garments, others cut down branches, some cried “Hosanna”; that was all they could do. (T. Manton.)
Diversity in ability
There is a diversity as to the measure and degrees. Every barque that saileth to heaven doth not draw a like depth. (T. Manton.)
Our account with God
Who made thee to differ? (Rom 12:35). “For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things.” The sun oweth nothing to the stars, nor the fountain to the streams. Our account must be answerable to our receipts; there is a proportion of return expected. (T. Manton.)
Diversity of talent helpful to service
God will have this difference for the beauty and order of the whole; variety is more grateful. Hills and valleys make the world beautiful; so do distinct orders, ranks, and degrees of men. All eye or all belly is monstrous.; difference with proportion maketh beauty; therefore one excelleth another, and several gifts and ranks there are for the service of the whole. (T. Manton.)
As divers countries have divers commodities, and one needeth another; one aboundeth with wines, some have spices, others have skins, and commodities in other kinds, that by commerce and traffic there might be society maintained among mankind; so God in His Church hath given to one gifts, to another grace, to maintain a holy society and spiritual commerce among themselves. (T. Manton.)
Use the talent we have
It was a good saying of Epictetus in Arrian, Si essem luscinia, etc. If I were a nightingale, I would sing as a nightingale: Si essem alauda, etc. If I were a lark, I would piere as a lark; but now I am a man, I will glorify God as a man. But alas! how often do men of the best endowments miscarry. (T. Manton.)
Satanic abuse of great talents
The devil loveth to go to work with the sharpest tools. God hath given great abilities to some above others, to enable them for his service. Now the devil, to despite God the more, turneth his own weapons against himself. (T. Manton.)
Talents given for activity
Strength is not to be wasted in sin and vanity, but employed for God. It is better it should be worn out with labours than eaten out with rust. (T. Manton.)
Trading for God, not self
Applause, vainglory, and suchlike carnal motions and ends may set some men on work, and make them prostitute
the service of Christ to their own lusts. This is not to trade as factors for God, but to set up for ourselves. (T. Manton.)
A gift and a trust
As a gift, they call for our thankfulness; as a trust, for our faithfulness. (T. Manton.)
Dread of God natural in the carnal mind
Fear is more natural in the carnal mind, because a bad conscience is very suspicious, and our sense of God’s benefits is not so great as the sense of our bad deservings is quick and lively. (T. Manton.)
A picture of the devil
The best picture that could be taken of the devil would be by the characters of malice, falsehood, and envy. But God is justice itself, goodness itself, mercy itself, as it is expressed in Scripture. (T. Manton.)
The unprofitable are destroyed
(Matthew 7:19), “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.” Not only the poisonous, but the barren tree. (T. Manton.)
The sinner self-condemned
Grant the sinner’s supposition, it bindeth the duty upon him, and so he cuts his throat with his own sword. (T. Manton.)
Doing better than excusing
Certainly it is better be doing than excusing. Doing is safe, but excuses are but a patch upon a sore place. (T. Manton.)
Private conceits
You must not lift up your private conceits against the wisdom of God. (T. Manton.)
Nothing idle in nature
In the whole course of nature nothing is idle; the sun and the stars do perpetually move and roll up and down; the earth bringeth forth; the seas have their ebbings and flowings, and the rivers their courses; the angels are described with wings, as ready to fulfil God’s commandment, and run to do His pleasure. It were an unworthy thing, among so many examples and patterns of diligence, for man alone to be idle. (T. Manton.)
The sovereignty of the Divine endowments
Now, most men quarrel with this. But mark, the thing that you complain of in God is the very thing that you love in yourselves. Every man likes to feel that he has a night to do with his own as he pleases. We all like to be little sovereigns. You will give your money freely and liberally to the poor; but if any man should impertinently urge that he had a claim upon your charity, would you give unto him? Certainly not; and who shall impeach the greatness of your generosity in so doing? It is even as that parable, that we have in one of the Evangelists, where, after the men had toiled, some of them twelve hours, some of them six, and some of them but one, the Lord gave every man a penny. Oh! I would meekly bow my head, and say, “My Lord, hast Thou given me one talent? then I bless Thee for it, and I pray Thee bestow upon me grace to use it rightly. Hast Thou given to my brother ten talents? I thank Thee for the greatness of Thy kindness towards him; but I neither envy him, nor complain of Thee.” Oh! for a spirit that bows always before the sovereignty of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Variety God’s law
God gives to one five, and to another two talents, because the Creator is a lover of variety. It was said that order is heaven’s first law; surely variety is the second; for in all God’s works, there is the most beautiful diversity. Look ye towards the heavens at night: all the stars shine not with the same brilliance, nor are they placed in straight lines, like the lamps of our streets. Then turn your eyes below: see in the vegetable world, how many great distinctions there are, ranging from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall, or the moss that is smaller still. See how from the huge mammoth tree, that seems as if beneath its branches it might shade an army, down to the tiny lichen, God hath made everything beautiful, but everything full of variety. Look on any one tree, if you please: see how every leaf differs from its fellow-how even the little tiny buds that are at this hour bursting at the scent of the approaching perfume of spring, differ from each other-not two of them alike. Look again, upon the animated world: God Hath not made every creature like unto another. How wide the range-from the colossal elephant to the coney that burrows in the rock-from the whale that makes the deep hoary with its lashing, to the tiny minnow that skims the brook; God hath made all things different, and we see variety everywhere. I doubt not it is the same, even in heaven, for there there are” thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers”-different ranks of angels, perhaps, rising tier upon tier. “One star different from another star in glory.” And why should not the same rule stand good in manhood (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Talents for small spheres
God hath a deeper reason than this. God gives to some men but few talents, because He has many small spheres, and He would have these filled. There is a great ocean, and it needs inhabitants. O Lord, Thou hast made Leviathan to swim therein. There is a secret grotto, a hidden cavern, far away in the depths of the sea; its entrance is but small; if there were nought but a Leviathan, it must remain untenanted for ever: a little fish is made, and that small place becomes an ocean unto it. There are a thousand sprays and twigs upon the trees of the forest; were all eagles, how would the forests be made glad with song, and how could each twig bear its songster? But because God would have each twig have its own music, He has made the little songster to sit upon it. Each sphere must have the creature to occupy it adapted to the size of the sphere. God always acts economically. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Few talents will have to be accounted for
If you had but little, God required but little of you; why, then, did you not render that? If any man holds a house at a rental of a pound a year, let it be never so small a house for the money, if he brings not his rent there is not one half the excuse for him that there would be if his rent had been a hundred pounds, and he had failed to bring it. You shall be the more inexcusable on account of the little that was required of you. Let me, then, address you, and remind you that you must be brought to account. (C. H. Spurgeon)
Improvement of talents
The right use of the Divine blessings is well represented by his trading or occupying with his Master’s property. This not to be understood in a way of merit, for when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants. But the image of trading fitly sets forth the course of active improvement of every gift, which the true Christian pursues, his diligence and industry in his calling, and the common utility which is thereby promoted. Whatever is bestowed on him, he considers net as his own, but as his Lord’s. He employs it, therefore, with the scrupulous conscientiousness of a faithful servant. He does not waste his gifts in idleness, abuse them to self-confidence and pride, or lessen and destroy them by rash and ambitious schemes. He does not rest with complacency in the barren thought that he possesses them. He does not display them with ostentation. He does not compare himself with others, or endeavour to ascertain whether his talents are more or less than those of his neighbour. He does not interfere with a province not assigned to him, or hinder the work of his fellowservants, or require everything to be done in his own way, or quarrel with those who differ from him in their mode of acting. But his concern is to trade with his talents. Whatever will tend to the discharge of his personal and relative duties, whatever will instruct the ignorant, relieve the distressed, assist the needy, guide the inquiring, comfort the sorrowful, reclaim the wandering, and confirm and encourage the sincere-all this, with a due regard to circumstances, and in the fear of God, he considers his proper vocation. Whatever use he can make of any circumstances in which he is placed, any office he holds, any influence he has gained, any knowledge he acquires, any parts or accomplishments which he possesses, any favour God has given him with others, any occasions or incidents which present themselves he straightway turns to account, even as the merchant traffics with his commodities. Above all, he employs the means of salvation to his own personal benefit. He repents of his sins, and trusts in the sacrifice of Christ for pardon and justification before God. He values the Bible, prizes the Sabbath, derives improvement from pious example, profits by Divine chastisement, and learns from the mistakes and sins of others, and thus uses every advantage for spiritual instruction with fidelity and thankfulness. If he be a minister of the sanctuary he considers all his opportunities for saving souls, all his ability for discharging, his high office, as a solemn trust deposited with him, and for which he must give an account. (Bishop Daniel Wilson.)
Multiplied talent
It is not only enjoined upon us if we would be Christians to occupy with our gifts, but to multiply them. The industrious servant of God will do this. He learns as he goes on; he gains more experience; he overcomes difficulties. He not only does more than when he first began, but he does things better. He contrives to do more good continually. He does not rest contented with the ordinary plans of others, but enters on undiscovered ground and marks out new regions of usefulness. He looks around him for occasions of doing good to others and getting good himself, of learning or teaching, acting or enduring for God and his neighbour. (Bishop Daniel Wilson.)
The householder and his servants
I. The talents entrusted to the management of the servants.
1. The man travelling represents our Lord, the absolute Owner of all things, Lord and Redeemer of His Church.
2. The servants represent the professed disciples and members of Christ, the visible body of the faithful, particularly the ministers and stewards of His mysteries.
3. The talents represent the various powers and blessings which Christ has assigned to us for the salvation of our souls, the benefit of our fellow-men, and the glory of His name.
II. The right employment of the talents by the faithful servants.
1. The faithful servant of Christ studies to do his Lord’s will, and has a delight in the work.
2. Shrinks from no trouble or danger, estimating all he can do for such a Master as nothing.
3. Aims at approving himself to his Master, not to the world.
4. Laments lost opportunities.
5. Walks wisely in the management of his concerns.
6. Begins immediately, proceeds diligently, works contentedly, and perseveres cheerfully.
III. The faithful servant’s reward.
1. He receives the commendation of his Master.
2. Made ruler over many things.
3. Enters into the joy of his Lord.
IV. The slothful servant.
1. His character. It is not said that he wasted his Lord’s goods; simply that he buried them-made no use of them, and this was enough to condemn him.
2. His doom. (Bishop Daniel Wilson.)
Well used talents prepare for enjoyment in heaven
This parable shows plainly enough that your talents are to be put to use and gain usury for the Lender. They must be kept well rubbed with work if they are to shine brightly in their heavenly setting. I do not believe with those people who seem to think it will be all as one a thousand years hence, whether we cultivate our minds in this life or not, and that it matters nothing how small our knowledge may be. All is good if turned to a right account, and the acquirements of this life may enlarge our spiritual capacities for another. And I cannot help thinking that, to some extent, our power of seeing and appreciating the hidden things of the next life will depend on the exercise and growth of our faculties in this. (N. Macleod, D. D.)
God is never niggardly in His gifts
In considering our life, with its duties and responsibilities, there are two mistakes, into both of which, though they are contradictory the one to the other, we commonly fall.
1. We often feel that very little has been entrusted to us, that our gifts are few, our opportunities of cultivating them fewer still. We need therefore to remember that in the parable even the slave who is least gifted and trusted receives one talent, and that a Hebrew talent was equivalent to some £350-a very large sum to be entrusted to a slave. Our Master is no niggard, He gives liberally to all. All things are ours-the pure, bright heaven, the fruitful earth, the golden splendours of the sun and the silver splendours of the moon, the fragrant flowers and the songs of birds, the social affections, the Word of Life, and the common salvation; and, though the capacity to appropriate and use these heavenly gifts may vary, yet what man is there, capable of using them at all, but will confess that he has received many things, and things of inestimable value, at the Master’s hand?
2. But then, if we acknowledge that we have received many and great gifts, we are too apt to forget that the large sum of good in which we rejoice is made up of many trivial contributions. We need to be reminded that the one talent of the parable was equivalent to sixty mince, to three thousand shekels, to some eighty thousand of our pence, and that the only way to get its full profit out of the talent was to use every shekel and every penny well. Great single opportunities are very rare; we cannot often find a good investment for heavy sums; but we may wisely employ a few pence or a few shekels every day. The talents of the parable may stand for high gifts, such as faith, love, obedience; but we cannot keep these faculties always at their utmost stretch, nor live at the heroic level day after day. It is by a perpetual use of them in the daily round and common task of life, in the discharge of small recurring duties and the endurance of the little temptations which are never absent, that we develop them to the fulness of their stature. And it surely is a very comfortable and helpful thought, that if hour by hour we try to do the work of the hour well, to be honest and diligent in business, to rule our tempers in the home, to help a needy or sympathize with an afflicted, neighbour, to teach our class with patient care, to sing a song of praise with the heart and the understanding-that in the discharge of these and the like trivial duties we are serving God, trading with the Master’s money; that by these small gradual accumulations we are doubling the talent which He has put into our hands. (S. Cox, D. D.)
The man with one talent needed
The world greatly needs men of one talent, and there are ways in which such men are often of surpassing usefulness. Hur was probably a man with only one talent, and yet it was partly through his help that the prayers of Moses prevailed against the enemies of Israel. The heroes of Thermopylae were for the most part also men of one talent, yet the splendour of their glorious heroism still illumines the world. In the case of many a shipwreck the man with one talent, the rough, honest sailor who helps the women and children to escape and then himself remains behind to die is in truth “not far from the kingdom of God,” not far from its inner shrine, not far from the great Cross of Calvary … As a matter of fact, men with one talent are often surprisingly near to the men with five talents. In the realm of the spirit extremes often meet. Men with one talent are often vicarious sufferers. Nature makes experiments on them, as on some worthless body, for the benefit of the whole human race. They are used as stepping-stones on which others may rise to higher things. They act as humble pioneers to the loftiest and most successful pilgrims … It is easy enough to see that there is often something sublime in the devotion of the man with one talent. Great in nothing else, he is often really grand in his unswerving and unlimited loyalty to a nature higher than his own. And this devotion has a vast uplifting influence. (A. H. Crawford, M. A.)
Latent possibilities in the man with one talent
We never really know what our talents are till we begin to use them. The noblest powers are often the most slowly developed. Saul is amongst the prophets sometimes. Elisha is often called from the plough. The dunce acquires undying fame. The very same want of depth in the soil which causes the good seed to spring up quickly also causes it ere long to wither away. When there is little to evolve evolution is a rapid process, but when there is much to evolve the process is a slow one. Cathedrals are not built in a day. The soul is like the phoenix-from the withered ashes of a wasted past it soars aloft into the glad strength of an immortal life. (A. H. Crawford, M. A.)
Encouragement for the man with one talent
All men have at least one talent. The elements of the noble and the sublime exist to some extent in each of us. Even now, in the midst of his humble work, on the rough face of the man with one talent there is cast from time to time the sublime and awful shadow of his inescapable destiny, of that great day of the Lord when all created souls shall be transfigured and glorified by the splendours of the Eternal, when “the dead, small and great, stand before God.” If the poor man with one talent shall hereafter stand there, surely he is good enough to stand hand in hand with any of his brethren now on earth! (A. H. Crawford, M. A.)
Importance of little things
Human endowment and human performance, the “few things,” get their significance from their relation to the “many things”-the great, thronging facts and principles and laws of the kingdom of God. The most persistent and varied activity and the largest achievements of the greatest men are but small in themselves considered, but they are points where the vast economy of the kingdom of God-that something which is vaguely indicated by “many things,” “the joy of the Lord” emerges into the region of our human life and touches it. That which is out of sight is more and greater than that which pushes out into our view. That point of rock which rises out of the hillside is, to the geologist, not merely a distinct stone-it tells him the dip and quality of the great strata underground which buttress the hills. Obedience, responsibility, duty, work, love, trust-all that makes up Christian life here-are sides and manifestations of the unseen, spiritual universe. Godliness has promise, not only of the life that now is, but of that which is to come-has the promise which one part of a thing gives of the other part. Godliness is a part of the life to come. Godliness is God revealing Himself in human character. Follow back godliness and you come to God. The boy who is learning his alphabet is handling the same elements which enter into the plays of Shakespeare or the dialogues of Plato. He has begun upon literature when he has learned A B C. It is a little thing in itself for him to learn twenty-six letters, but it is a very great thing when you consider the alphabet as the medium of the world’s thought. Even so the largest endowment and result are but “a few things,” but they acquire a tremendous and eternal importance as integral parts of the great moral economy of God. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.)
Faithfulness is on the direct line of mastery
Fidelity tends and leads up to mastery. Success is a thing of stages and aggregations, and it is of vastly more consequence that the man should be rightly pointed-set in the direction of a larger, Divine success, than that he should achieve what he undertakes here. If there is no larger, purer, more spiritual kingdom than this there is no such thing as real success. If there is such a kingdom, and if the earthly sphere of Christian life and work is a part of it, then the success may well lie beyond the line of our human vision, and be too large for our little inch-rules. The great principle holds-fidelity leads up to mastery. You see it illustrated daily. You see the faithful journeyman advanced to the foremanship, the plodding student become an authority; you see men of moderate ability becoming powers in business or in manufacturing by steady devotion to one thing. The thing itself may be small; their perseverance magnifies it: and they themselves grow into the ability to handle larger things through their fidelity to the smaller interest. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.)
Faithfulness the main thing
This parable turns on moral quality rather than on ability. Its key-note is not five talents, nor two talents, nor one talent, but faithfulness to all three. It is faithfulness, and not amount, which links the talent to the joy of the Lord, the “few things” to the “many.” The amount of ability is not the first thing for us to consider; it is the faithful use of whatever ability we have. To use aright we must be right. Vigorous use of talent is not necessarily right use, for unfaithfulness is vigorous also. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.)
The unused talent passes from the servant who would not use it to the one who will
A landlord has two farms lying together-the one is admirably managed, the other is left almost to itself, with the least possible management, and becomes the talk of the whole country-side for poor crops and untidiness. No one asks what the landlord will do when the leases are out. It is a matter of course that he dismisses the careless tenant, and puts his farm into the hands of the skilful and diligent farmer. He enforces the law of the text. In the kingdom of Christ this law is self-acting. To bury our talent and so keep it as originally given is an impossibility. To have just so much grace and no more is an impossibility. It must either be circulating and so multiplying, or it ceases to be. It must grow or it will die. Hence it is that in your own souls you perhaps are finding that, no matter what effort you make, you cannot enter as heartily into holy services and occupations as once you did, but are finding your old joy and assurance honey-combed by unbelieving thoughts. Hence it is that the susceptibility to right feeling you had in boyhood has gone from you. You did not mean to become unfeeling, but only shrank from acting as feeling dictated. But he who blows out the flame finds that the heat and the glow die out of themselves. (Marcus Dods, D. D.)
The law of spiritual capital
It is a law with the operation of which we are familiar in nature and in the commercial world. It is he who has even a little capital to begin with, and who makes a right use of it, who soon leaves far behind the man who has none, or who neglects to invest what he has. And the more this capital grows, the more rapidly and the more easily is it increased. After a certain point it seems to increase by virtue of its own momentum. So in certain sicknesses, as soon as the crisis of the disease is past and a little health has been funded again in the patient’s constitution, this rapidly grows to complete recovery. So with popularity, it begins one scarce knows how, but once begun, the tide flows apace. You may scarcely be able to say why one statesman or one author should be so immeasurably more popular than others; but so it is that, when once a beginning is made, tribute flows in naturally, as water from all sides settle in a hollow. It is this same law which regulates our attainment in the service of Christ. However little grace we seem to have to begin with it is this we must invest, and so nurse it into size and strength. Each time we use the grace we have by responding to the demands made upon it, it returns to us increased. Our capital grows by an inevitable law. The efforts of young or inexperienced Christians to give utterance to the life that is in them may often be awkward, like the movements of most young animals. They may be able to begin only in a very small way, so small a way that sensitive persons are frequently ashamed to begin at all. Having received Christ they are conscious of new desires and of a new strength; they have a regard for Christ, and were they to assert this regard in the circumstances which call for its assertion their regard would be deepened. They have a desire to serve Him, and were they to do so in those small matters with which they have daily concern their desire and ability would be increased. Grace of any kind invested in the actual opportunities of life cannot come back to us as small as it was, but enlarged and strengthened. Such grace, then, as we have, such knowledge as we have of what is due to others, to ourselves, and to God, let us give free expression to. Such investments of Christian principle as are within our reach let us make; such manifestations of a Christian temper and mind as our circumstances daily demand let us exhibit, and it must come to pass that we increase in grace. There is no other way whatever of becoming richly endowed in spirit than by trading with whatever we have to begin with. We cannot leap into a fortune in spiritual things; rich saints cannot bequeath us what their life-long toil has won; they cannot even lend us so that we may begin on borrowed capita]. In the spiritual life all must be genuine; we must work our own way upwards, and by humbly and wisely laying out whatever we now possess make it more or be for ever poor. (Marcus Dods, D. D.)
The man with two talents
He has his own peculiar interest as he stands in the little group of three before the master. He is significant, we may almost say, because of his insignificance. As the master puts the money in their hands we can see them look at it, and can guess what they think about it. The man to whom five talents are given is surprised that he should receive so much. He is exhilarated and inspired, or perhaps, on the other hand, he is paralyzed and overcome. The man to whom one talent is given is startled at the smallness of the trust. He, too, feels a positive emotion, Either he is stung to energy and determines that he will do something strong and good even with this little gift, or else he is crushed into despair. Is this then all of which his master thinks him worthy? Both of these men are interesting. They represent extremes. But the man of two talents stands and looks at his trust, and it is just about what he might have expected. It is neither very great nor very small. It does not exalt him, and it does not make him ashamed. He turns away, and goes out to use it with a calm, unexcited face. He is the type of common mediocrity. He is the average man. He presents the type to which we almost all belong. There are none of us probably who are conscious of anything which separates us as notably superior to the great mass of our fellow-men. On the other hand, it is not probable that many of us count ourselves distinctly below the average of human life. We do not lay claim to the five talents; we will not confess to the one. It is as men and women of two talents that we ordinarily count ourselves and ask to be counted by our brethren. Therefore this quiet, commonplace, unnoticed man, going his faithful way in his dull dress which makes no mark and draws no eye, doing his duty insignificantly and thoroughly, winning so unobtrusively at last his master’s praise, ought to be interesting to us all. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
The predominance of mediocrity
The average man is by far the most numerous man. The man who goes beyond the average, the man who falls short of the average, both of them, by their very definition, are exceptions. They are the outskirts and fringes, the capes and promontories of humanity. The great continent of human life is made up of the average existences, the mass of two-talented capacity and action.
1. It is so even in the simplest and most superficial matter of the possession of wealth. The great fortunes, with their splendid opportunities and their tremendous responsibilities, rise like gigantic mountains which everybody sees out of the general level of comfortable life. On the other hand, excessive poverty, actual suffering for the necessaries of life, terrible as it is, is comparatively rare. A part of its terribleness comes from its rarity. The great -multitude of men are neither very rich nor very poor. The real character and strength of a community lies neither in its millionaires nor in its paupers, but in the men of middle life who neither have more money than they know how to spend, nor are pressed and embarrassed for the necessities of life.
2. The same is true in the matter of joy and sorrow. The great mass of men during the greater part of their lives are neither exultant and triumphant with delight, nor are they crushed and broken down with grief. They do not go shouting their rapture to the skies, and they do not go wailing their misery to the sympathetic winds. They are moderately happy. Joy flecked and toned down by troubles; troubles constantly relieved and lighted up by joy; that is their general condition; that seems to be their best capacity. The power of the intensest joy and the intensest pain belongs only to rare, peculiar men.
3. Mental capacity. Most men are neither sages nor fools. Few men are either scholars or dunces.
4. Popularity and fame. Those whom the world praises and those whom all men despise are both of them exceptional. You can count them easily. The great multitude whom you cannot begin to count, who fill the vast middle-ground of the great picture of humanity, is made up of men who are simply well enough liked by their fellow-men. They are crowned with no garlands, and they are pelted with no stones. They have their share of kindly interest and esteem. You cannot well think of them as either losing that or as gaining much beyond it.
5. Character and religion. Here, too, it is the average Shut fills the eye. Where are the heroes? You can find them if you look. Where are the rascals? You can find them too. Where are the saints? They shine where no true man’s eyes can fail to see them. And the blasphemers likewise no one can shut out of his ears. But the great host of men: do you not know how little reason they give you to expect of them either great goodness or great wickedness? You do not look to see their faces kindle when you talk to them of Christ. You do not either look to see them grow scornful or angry at His name. You do not count upon their going to the stake for principle. But you do count upon their paying their honest debts. You have to shut your thoughts about them in to this world, for when you think of them in eternity heaven seems as much too good for them as hell seems too bad. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
Dangers of mediocrity
It is not always an easy thing for men to make up their minds to mediocrity. It is a young man’s right, almost his duty, to hope, almost to believe, that he has singular capacity, and is not merely another repetition of the constantly repeated average of men. To see those dreams and visions of youth gradually fade away; little by little to discover that one has no such exceptional capacity; to try one and another of the adventurous ways which lead to the highest heights and the great prizes, and find the feet unequal to them; to come back at last to the great trodden highway, and plodon among the undistinguished millions-that is often very hard. The fight is fought, the defeat is met, in silence; but it is no less, it is more terrible. The hour in which it becomes clear to a young man that that is to be his life, that there is nothing else for him to do except to swell the great average of humanity, is often filled with dangers. Let us see what some of them are.
1. He has to make up his mind to do without both of the different kinds of inspiration which come to the men who are better off and the men who are worse off than he is. The man of five talents excites admiration and expectation; the man of one talent has an incentive to do great things in spite of difficulties; but to the middle man, the man who is neither very much nor very little-the man who has two talents, but only two-both of these forms of impulse are denied. He is neither high enough to hear the calling of the stars, nor low enough to feel the tumult of the earthquake. What wonder, then, if he often falls asleep for sheer lack of sting and spur? What wonder if he does the moderato things that seem to be within his power unenthusiastically, and then stops, making no demand upon himself since other men make no demand upon him?
2. A want of definiteness and distinctness. Genius, lay its very intensity, decrees a special path of fire for its vivid power. Conscious limitation, on the other hand, knows there is no hope for it except in one direction. Both have the strength which comes by narrowness. But the man who knows himself to be only moderately strong is apt to think that his strength has no peculiar mission. The commonplace man is the discursive man. He has neither the impetuosity of the torrent nor the direct gravitation of the single drop of water. He lies a loose and sluggish pool, and flows nowhither, and grows stagnant by and by.
3. The constant danger of being made light of by other men. Becoming uninteresting to others, he loses interest in himself. He attracts no reverence, and he enlists no pity. He finds himself unnoticed. He must originate out of himself all that he comes to. He hangs between the heaven and the earth, and is fed out of neither. What he does seems to be of no consequence, because it wakens no emotion in his brethren. He has no influence on other men, and so there is no effluence, no putting forth of life from him. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
The advantages of mediocrity
It is in the quality more than in the quantity of talents that their true value lies. Given by God they constitute a true, direct, and sacred connection and channel of intercourse between your soul and His. Forget your brethren and think of Him, and realize your direct relationship to Him. When you have done that you may come back into the mass again and see what are the special advantages which belong to a faithful life lived in the average condition, lived with the average capacities of mare
1. Such a life brings out and makes manifest the solid strength which belongs to the simple qualities of manhood. Types of power which can only be developed in supreme joy or supreme sorrow enthrall our imagination; and then some plain man comes who knows not either rapture or despair, who simply has his daily work to do, his friends to help, his enemies to forgive, his children to love and train, his trials to bear, his temptations to conquer, his soul to save; and what a healthiness he brings into our standards, with what a genuine refreshment he fills our hearts. Behold how great are these primary eternal qualities-patience, hope, kindness, intelligence, trust, self-sacrifice. We do not accept them because we cannot have something finer. They show us their intrinsic fineness, and we do them reverence. The arctic frost! The torrid heat! Behold the true strength, the real life of the planet is not in these. It is in the temperate lands that the grape ripens and the wheat turns calmly yellow in the constant sun.
2. The man conscious of mediocrity has the advantage of displaying in “his life and character the intrinsic and essential life of human nature. He is one with his fellow-men, and it is he who-being faithful, pure, serene, brave, hopeful-has power to make his brethren all that he tries himself to be.
3. May not the average life find a self-surrender to the help of other lives more easy, and make that surrender more complete, just in proportion as it is released from that desire for self-assertion, that consciousness of being something which is worthy of men’s observation, that self-love which must haunt the lives of those who, in any way, on either side, find themselves separated from the great bulk of their fellow-creatures?
4. And is it not true that all that assertion of the intrinsic value of every life which is the very essence of our Christian faith, all that redemption of the soul, in the profoundest and the truest sense, which was the work of Christ, must come with special welcome and appreciation and delight to any man who feels his insignificance and is in danger of losing himself in the vague mass of his fellows? Christ redeems him. Christ says, “Behold yourself in Me, and see that you are not insignificant.” Christ says, “I died for you.” Set thus upon his feet, made a new man, or made to be the man he is, with what gratitude and faith and obedience must that man follow the Christ who is his Saviour! (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
The average man
I. His dangers.
1. He will be surely tempted to ape greatness.
2. He will be tempted to underrate himself.
3. He may lose himself in the crowd.
II. The encouragements.
1. He has the necessary talents.
2. God designed to do most of His work in the world through the average man.
3. The magnificent reward that awaits him. (F. E. Clark.)
A hard man
The servants in our parables seem to have erred from an opposite excess of temperament. His melancholy broodings prevented the unprofitable servant from a right use of his master’s talent; the virgins were over sanguine that their oil would hold out.
I. Observe this man.
1. He has begun with less than the others had. The melancholic mind is apt to exaggerate this fact.
2. Yet he was treated according to his ability. He was not expected to render more than he could.
3. We see the influence of his temperament in disparagement of the largeness of his Lord’s purposes and dealings; he interprets everything after his own spirit. Toil for such a master must be thankless and graceless indeed.
II. Looking at the man, therefore, as representing the peculiar dangers attaching to certain temperaments, I think we see sufficiently the nature of the warning he furnishes us.
1. It is essential to all profitable service of our Master, that it shall be hearty service. What heart can there be in any such labour as shall have no generous thoughts of Him for whom it is done. We must get a better conception of God, and create in our souls a healthful moral incentive to doing right.
2. Again, to be a profitable service, it must be felt also to be a service that shall react upon ourselves. It must improve us as well as glorify God. God puts joy and consolation into any duty; he who does the duty has the joy.
III. The wrong conception of god which gave strength to the melancholy and enervating tendencies of this dark-souled servant in his relations with his master. Have we put this “hard man” upon the throne of the universe? This conception of God is at the bottom of most of the hindrances in the way of Divine faith. It is the “hard man” that comes to throw a false light upon our conception of the atonement; so much suffering for so much sin. Is this the God that Jesus Christ depicted?
IV. The phrases introduced to darken the picture are worthy of notice. “Reaping where thou hast not sown.” “Gathering where thou hast not strawed.” What a contrast to the “Refiner” in Malachi. To the diseased vision all things are distorted.
1. We may all at times have intervals of gloom corresponding to those which our text has suggested.
2. Do not darken your life by fear. “Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.”
3. God is love. (G. J. Proctor.)
Christ’s talents
In Eastern lands, and ancient times, slaves were artizans, workmen, whose profit belonged to their master. The apostle Paul thought of himself as a slave put in trust, placed under trusts.
I. Christ’s talents. Such we are to regard all gifts, powers, or possessions that are entrusted to us. Our special talent is that one thing in which we stand out distinct from others.
II. Christ’s apportionment of His talents. Two rules decide the apportionment.
1. The talent must match the capacity.
2. The talents put together must secure ability for all the work which Christ wants done.
III. Christ’s expectation concerning His talents.
1. Service by their use.
2. Culture by their use.
IV. Christ’s judgment of those entrusted with His talents.
1. Judgment is the same for all trusts.
2. It is based on quality, not results.
3. The judgment is severe, not on those who tried and failed, but on those who never tried.
4. The reward is simply other and larger trusts. (Selected.)
Trading with talents
A trader either trades with his own, or with another man’s stock, whose servant he is. Now no man hath any stock or talent of his own, but all their talents which they are required to improve and trade with are the Lord’s.
1. Hast thou a rational soul, wisdom, knowledge, and great understanding? It was given unto thee by the Lord.
2. Hast thou riches, or much wealth? It is the Lord’s money.
3. Hast thou acquired parts, great learning? This is also thy Master’s goods.
4. Have you the gospel and the ministration of the word? It is the Lord’s trust.
5. Have you faithful ministers? They are the Lord’s.
6. Have you precious talent of time and the opportunities of time? This you are entrusted with by the Lord.
7. Have you health, strength, and advantages to attend upon the word and means of grace above many? All this is from the Lord.
8. Have you spiritual gifts and saving grace? Those talents you have received from the Lord.
9. Are you fathers or masters, and so have authority over families, children, servants? These are the Lord’s trusts. Traders ought to know the worth of those commodities put into their hands. Traders must not be timorous in laying out their money. Traders should know where to buy, of whom, and who to trade with. Traders must know the terms on which they are to trade. Traders must know in whose name they trade. Traders must trust, or they will have little or no trade at all. Traders must keep their accounts well. Some traders give more attention to their private affairs than to their business. Some traders break, and expose such that are faithful dealers to loss and shame. (Benjamin Keach.)
Our trust of talents
I. God has committed to men a variety of gifts or talents. By what is here called talents, is to be understood all such blessings and privileges as providence favours us with. What God requires from every man is according to what His providence has imparted to him.
II. All our talents, more or less, all the gifts of God to men, may and must be improved. They were conferred for this very purpose. The blessings of providence are no blessings to us if we want wisdom or will to make a right use of them.
III. The reward will be in proportion to the actual improvement which men make of the talents entrusted to them.
IV. In the day of judgment Divine justice will be displayed in such manner as will strike every sinner dumb, as will silence every excuse, and quite confound him. (E. Sandercock.)
The joy of the Lord’s service
When Richard Cameron, one of the noblest of our Scottish martyrs, had fallen mortally wounded on Airdsmoss, he said, “I am dying, happy, happy; and if I had a thousand lives I would willingly lay them all down one after another for Christ. Oh, He is near me; I think I see Him! I am just coming, Lord Jesus.” And he added, “Tell my parents not to weep, but continue steadfast in the faith, and not to fear a suffering lot for Christ.”
The reward of fidelity
I. The different capacities, advantages, and situations of men, are owing in general to the wise providence of God.
II. It is of little importance to us what our station in life is, or what the duties belonging to it; but of the greatest whether we perform or neglect them.
III. It is not of so great moment how long, or how short, our time and service are, as how well we have fulfilled them. (S. Brown.)
Divers talents
Some have abilities superior in kind, others in degree; some excel in strength of body, others of mind; some in judgment, others in imagination and memory; some are fit for contemplation, others for action; some to design, others to execute; some to govern nations, enact laws, and administer justice, others for inferior and private, yet necessary and useful employments. This variety is designed to fill up the various places and offices, which are proper in the great community of the world. (S. Brown.)
Parable of talents
Doctrine
I. That Christ Jesus is the great Lord and Owner.
II. That Christ, at His departure, appointed every man his work; and, at His ascension, gave gifts unto men, to be employed for His glory till He come again.
III. That it pleases the Lord to dispense His gifts variously among His people; to some more, to some fewer, talents. All have some talent. There is diversity, however
(1) Of employments and offices;
(2) In the kind of gifts;
(3) As to the measures and degrees. The account must be answerable to our receipts. (T. Manton.)
Varieties of gifts
Some are able to lay down the truth soundly; others able to apply it forcibly. Some have the gift of prayer and utterance, others are able to inform the judgment and convince gainsayers. Some to clear up doctrines, others to stir affections. Among hearers, some have more wisdom, some more knowledge, some more affection. Amongst the penmen of Scripture there is a great variety; John is sublime and seraphical; Paul spiritual and argumentative; Peter, in an easy, fluent, and mild way; Isaiah more court-like and lofty; Jeremiah more priest-like and grave. Among the saving gifts there is a diversity of graces, though all have all in some measure. The new creature is not maimed, yet some are more eminent, some for one grace some for another. Abraham for faith, Job for patience, Moses for meekness, Timothy for temperance. Every grace working according to the diversity of tempers, some are modest and mild, others bold and zealous; some are mourning for sin, others raised in the admiration of the grace of God in Christ; others exemplary for strictness and weanedness from the delights of the animal life. (T. Manton.)
Hiding, not wasting, God’s trusts
Mark, he not said he did embezzle his talent, as many waste their substance in riotous living, quench brave parts in excess, sin away many precious advantages of ordinances and education and powerful convictions. He did not misemploy his talent, as some do their wealth, others their wit, to scoff at religion, or to put a varnish on the devil’s cause; their power to oppress and crush the good. The precious gifts that many have, are like the sword in a madman’s hand, they use them to hurt and mischief. No such thing is charged upon this evil and naughty servant. ‘Tis fault enough to hide our talents, though we do not abuse them. (T. Manton.)
Modesty not to invalidate talent
It is true that the violet loves the shade, but then it manages to bloom there-to thrive and multiply. It makes itself known by its delicate, agreeable perfume. It does not hide itself in the earth. No flower is more sought for, and in an invalid’s room none more grateful. There are some Christians like towering cedars, some like branching oaks, some like willows by the water-courses. There are others like spring flowers; they are so modest and bashful that you must seek them and bring them into the light. They much prefer the shade. But, as we none of us live to ourselves, such a disposition must not be looked upon with too much favour. Modesty may become a disease. If a lady is so bashful that she never dare venture into the streets without a thick veil over her features, her sensitiveness of organization must be diseased. So in Christian congregations, there is a reserve about some which needs to be broken down. They never emerge into the daylight. They are timid, full of distrust-a distrust which almost amounts to self-excommunication. Now, the subject which suggested itself to my mind as I read these words was this-The temptation to depreciate small abilities and scanty opportunities. (R. Thomas.)
The increase of talent
A merchant going abroad for a time gave respectively to two of his friends two sacks of wheat each, to take care of, against his return. Years passed; he came back, and applied for them again. The first took him into his Storehouse, and showed him the bags of grain; but they were mildewed and worthless. The other led him out into the open country, and pointed out field after field of waving corn, the produce of the two sacks given to him. Said the merchant, as he gazed, “You have indeed been a faithful friend; give me two sacks of that wheat. The rest shall be thine.” I leave you to make your own application of the allegory. (R. Thomas.)
The law of use and neglect in the kingdom of heaven
The other day I met with a curious myth illustrative of this point. It comes from the East, from Mohammedanism; but it is very expressive. A tribe of men dwelt on the shores of the Dead Sea. They had forgotten all about truth, and had taken up with lies; and were fast verging towards the saddest possible condition. Whereupon it pleased a kind Providence to send them the prophet Moses with an instructive word of warning. But no-the men of the Dead Sea discovered that there was no comeliness in this Moses-no truth in his words; they received him with scoffs and jeers. Moses withdrew, but the laws of nature did not withdraw. The men of the Dead Sea, says the narrative, when next he visited them, were all “changed into apes;” sitting on the trees there, grinning now in the most unaffected manner, gibbering and chattering very genuine nonsense. There they sit and chatter to this hour, “only, I believe, every Sabbath there returns to them a bewildered, half consciousness, half reminiscence,” seeming to have some distant idea that once they were of another order, They made no use of their souls, and so they have lost them. Their worship on the Sabbath now is to roost there, and half remember that they once had souls. There is no little truth in this old Moslem myth. They made no use of their souls, and so have lost them. Brethren, that is God’s law. We keep what we use. We lose what we neglect to use. (R. Thomas.)
The pleasure of small abilities
Why is it not possible for us to acknowledge the abilities God has given to others, and render them their due without our coveting them ourselves? We have none of us been overlooked. If He has not given us the greater, He has given us the less, and if not the less then the least, and for each there is the fit and natural sphere of exercise. It is as much pleasure to the linnet to sing its unpretentious song as for the lark to mount high above the corn fields on a bright sunny morning, and pour down its flood of melody on the earth. It is as much pleasure to the sparrow-hawk to steal along the hedgerows as for the eagle to cleave the sky in the wildest storm. If God has given us small capabilities, He has likewise given us the position adapted to them, and in that position we may find the sweetest pleasure and the greatest usefulness of which we are capable. (R. Thomas.)
Talents for service not ornament
Man is not placed upon the earth merely to be a passive recipient of the favours of heaven. He is here in the capacity of a servant; and what is a servant for if not to serve? Some of us imagine sometimes, I fear, that we are here to occupy a kind of ornamental position in the church. I remember to have read of Oliver Cromwell that, on one occasion he was visiting one of the great churches of our land, and discovered in the niches of one of its side chapels a number of silver statues. “What are these?” demanded he sternly of the trembling dean who was showing him round the church. “Please your highness,” was the reply, “they are the twelve apostles.” “The twelve apostles are they? Well take them away at once, and melt them down and coin them into money that, like their Master, they may go about doing good.” Such is the mission that God has given to each one of us. The world we live in is not a great play-ground, but a vast harvest field, where every man, each in his own particular sphere, must thrust in the sickle and reap. None of us can say, like those of whom our Saviour speaks, standing in the market-place, “No man hath hired me.” (R. Morton.)