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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 > 'ssjj I fib SjHB? 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." 3