It includes also a conscientious improveinent of all talents. Various are the talents committed unto men. Time, money, influence, together with every mental endowment, are among those which a Christian will feel liimself more especially bound to improve. He considers them as given to him for the pur- pose of honouring God with them, and of rendering them subservient to the good of men. He therefore will not wrap any one of them in a napkin, but will so trade with them as to deliver them up with interest whenever he may be called to give up his account p.]
Such diligence will infallibly enrich the soul —
[The exertion of our powers does not command success ; but God invariably puts honour upon it, and makes it both the occasion and the means of communicating his blessings. Our diligence in cultivating the land cannot ensure the crop : yet it is by that, for the most part, that God replenishes our barns, and supplies our returning wants. Thus the diligent hand makes us rich in grace, in ^jeace, in holiness, and in glory.
" To him that hath (that hath improved his talent) shall be given ; and he shall have abundance." Ervery grace is improved by exercise 1— from that improvement arises a " peace which passeth all understanding"^" — the whole man is thus progres- sively renewed after the divine image ^ — and an increased weight of glory is treasured up for the soul, when it shall re- ceive its full reward* — ]
Infer —
1. What a pitiable state are they in who never labour at all for the salvation of their souls !
[If remissness only will prove fatal, and that to persons who were once diligent, surely they must be poor indeed who have never entered on their work at all ! Let the gay and thoughtless well consider this : for every man shall receive according to his own labour. Nor shall it be sufficient to say at the last day, " I did no harm :" the question will be, " What improvement didst thou make of thy talent ?" And if we have buried it in the earth, we shall be condemned as wicked and slothful servants.]
2. What reason have all for humiliation and con- trition !
[If we consider the greatness of our work, and how little any of us have done in it, we shall find reason to blush and be confounded before God. Yes ; while the world condemn us as " righteous overmuch," we should be condemning, and
P Matt. XXV. 15 — 18. ^i INIatt. xxv. 29. ^ Isai. xxxii. 17. » 2 Cor. iii. 18. * 2 Cor. iv. 17. 2 John, ver. 8.
775.] god's blessing, the greatest riches. 101
even lothing ourselves for doing so little. What might we not have attained, if we had laboured from the beginning with the same anxiety and diligence as others manifest in their tem- poral concerns ? How low are the attainments of the best of us, not only in comparison of what they might have been, but of what we once expected they would be ! Let us then trace our poverty to its proper cause, our own remissness : and " whatever our hand findeth to do, let us henceforth do it with all our might."]