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“I Am
7he Way,
The Truth, and
The Life."
Anxiety in Richmond.
The special purpose of this department in The
Golden Age, is to impress all who read with the
truth that “the entrance of Thy words giveth
Light.” Wherever the Gospel is preached in fidel
ity men and women are brought from darkness to
light, and it is our purpose to make this page hold
interest for all Christian denominations, and stimu
late their activity in life and in purse.
Those of our readeis who affiliate with the South
ern Baptist Convention will read with interest, and
respond, we hope, with liberality, to the following
letter from Dr. Wm. H. Smith, formerly pastor in
Columbus, and greatly beloved, not only in Georgia,
but wherever known:
The Convention Year is drawing rapidly to an
end. The books of the Foreign Mission Board close
at midnight, April 30th. Large sums of money are
still needed to pay all indebtedness, and they are
not coming in very fast, It is a time of deep anx
iety in the Mission Rooms. Shall we go to the
Convention with glad hearts, reporting a large in
crease in appropriations to the work and no debt?
Or will the churches break our hearts, cripple the
cause and dishonor the Lord by failing to send
the money needed to support the work, which God
has so signally blessed on every field?
It is very important that a collection be taken
in every church, and that all subscriptions be care
fully rounded up. Too often a good subscription
fails because no one sees to it that it is paid in.
Will not all pastors, Missionary Committees and
Societies take care that the subscriptions are
promptly collected?
It is very important, also, that all treasurers of
Churches, Societies and Associations send the money
in their hands to the Secretaries of the State Mis
sion Boards by April 30th, and if that is not pos
sible, wire it to them at that time.
Dr. Willingham is out among the churches and I
send out this appeal in his absence. He may have
something further to say when he returns.
Faithfully yours,
WM. H. SMITH, Asst. Cor. Secy.
Richmond, Va., April 12, 1906.
The Buried Talent.
By J. L. D. Hi I Iyer.
The fate of the man who had one talent, and
buried it, is a sad fate. And it affords an import
ant and an instructive lesson. Os course the word
“talent” as used by the Savor in the parable,
meant a sum of money, or its representative in
Gold. It was a thing of commercial value. One
man received ten, another five, and this one only
one. The Lord made no explanation of this dis
crepancy. God bestowed his gifts lavishly, or spar
ingly, just as He pleased, and makes no apology for
doing so. We are to accept the provision that He
makes for each of us without complaint, We are
His. The talents are His. He knows His own busi
ness, and we are His servants. It is not ours to
demand of Him a reason for his preferences.
Reasoning from our knowledge of human nature,
we can readily account for the fact that those on
whom the larger gifts were bestowed were easily
led into the busineess enterprises that doubled their
capital. They had enough money to set them up
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The Golden Age for April 19, 1906.
in business. It was an amount that demanded their
active attention. The very possession of so much
capital was itself a strong inducement to put it in
to business, and the credit given to them by the
possession of so much capital made business en
largement easy and natural.
The man with one talent was not so moved by
his possession. The credit that he might command,
and the business power that would come to him on
account of his one talent was not such as to great
ly encourage him. He feared he might use it un
wisely and lose it. That he should, therefore, go
and hide it, so that he might at least return it un
diminished to his Lord when He should call for it,
was a very natural thing for him to do. But his
prudence was condemned, his good intentions were
repudiated, and he was deprived of the talent and
sent away in utter bankruptcy, while his more for
tunate and more faithful fellow servant had the
one talent added to his possessions.
While the word “talent” used in the parable
refers to money, it is easy to apply the teaching
to any kind of opportunity that the gifts of God’s
providence may bestow upon his servants on earth.
And by a very easy transition in thought, the tal
ent that meant a sum of money in the parable,
comes to mean a natural element of mental power
bestowed upon a person. This talent may be one
that gives skill in some line of hand work or ac
curacy and power in some intellectual work. It may
be skill as a printer or a sculptor, or a mere me
chanic, or it may be as a master in the great realm
of thought. It may be the gift that maketh one a
successful merchant, or planter or lawyer or ’doc
tor, or banker or broker, or tinker or cobbler. A
man may have a number of these good gifts, or he
may have only one. In the last ease it is of the
most immeasurable importance that a man should
in boyhood find out what his one gift is and make
sure that he cultivates that gift. Train up a child
in that way, and it will make his life a success.
Force him to neglect his one talent, and to strive
after something else and he meets defeat, failure
and want all along life’s waV. Many a failure in
life began when the youth chose to bury the talent
he had and to pursue things to which he had no
claim.
But it is not all of life to live. A man may have
a talent that would make him a master in the field
of engineering. That would enable him to cut the
Panama Canal, or Tunnel beneath the English
channel. It may be the only talent that he has that
could ever make him well-to-do, so far as this
life is concerned. He may have no tact for busi
ness. No power to do business profitably. He
might be able to keep the wheels on the tracks of
thousands of miles of railroad and yet not be able
to conduct the business in a seventh-rate way sta
tion. Yet that man may have other gifts. He may
be a good logician, a good speaker. He may have
masterly power in analysis and comparison. His
ability to interpret written languages, and make its
meaning plain, may be far above the average, yet
none of these things afford the promise of financial
abundance. Suppose now this youth deliberately
buries his talent for engineering and cultivates his
intellectual gifts instead. The only possible re
sult to him will be poverty and hardships through
life. He can’t make a living at anything except en
gineering, and he refused to be an engineer. He
may be as great a. lawyer as Lord Coke. As great a
preacher as Whitfield, or a master in medicial sci
ence. He may be a poet like Milton, or a philoso
pher like Sir William Hamilton, yet if he has no
talent for the gaining of wealth except the one that
he borrows, he will be a business failure, and a
poor man all his life. Some men are more richly
endowed, so that they may be able to take care of
their worldly interests, and cultivate their un
worldly gifts besides. But we are considering those
persons who have but one of these worldly gifts and
who neglects to employ that gift. To such there
is but one road that leads to opulence. When they
fail to take that road they are lost.
If it were, “all of life to live” there could be
but one wise course open before the young people
who are entering into life. That would be to find
out the talent that God has given by which they
may make the most of this world, and then to use
it faithfully and honestly and industriously. But
this life is not all. There is another. The issues
of worldly interest are for a day, but there are oth
er interests that are for eternity.
One talent may make you abound in the things
of this life, another you may use for the glory of
God, and the salvation of souls, while you live, and
enjoy the rewards of a faithful life beyond the
grave. The talent may be antagonistic. If you
give your self to engineering you cannot preach
the gospel. If you preach the gospel you must
bury your talent for engineering and make up your
mind to live hard, work hard, have hard things said
of you, and at last die hard before you can come
into your reward. If you do not bury your talent
for engineering you must bury that other gift that
.the Holy Spirit offers you, the gift to be a servant
of the Great King.
A youth whom I knew, had this issue laid
before him forty years ago this spring. His
church had said to him, we believe it is your duty
to preach the everlasting Gospel. His father point
ed to his natural gifts, that promised a life of
opulence, and showed that with him the life of
a minister of the Gospel would be a life of poverty.
The boy said “Father, I settled that question long
ago. I must preach the gospel though I am to live
and die in poverty.”
The die was cast. He deliberately buried the one
talent by which he could have attained to worldly
success, and gave himself to the service of his
Divine Master, turning his back on luxury and
wealth, as Moses turned away from the splendor
ot the Egyptian court, because, like Moses, “he
had respect unto the recompense of the reward.”
God’s providence sometimes requires us to bury
one talent that we may use another to- advantage
and for his glory. So
Constancy.
It is not in the rose of the morning I would have
you think of me,
Nor at the repose of twilight that brings an easy
fidelity,
But at high white noon, amid tumult, in the race
for place and pelf,
Remember me praying that you, dear heart, may
be true to your better self.
—Clarence J. Owens,
“The Entrance
Os V
Thy Words
Giveth Light."
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