The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 484

Hie enough for ue if we feel the exceeding awfulness of thoee words, ,,.The door wlll! shut," and take into our hearts the solemn warning of the Lord, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." It must be very dreadful to be found unprepared, even if the lamp is not quite gone out, even if it had been burning brightly once. Very dreadful it must be to fray," Lord, Lord, open to us I" and to obtain no answer save those awful words, " know you not; " dreadful exceedingly, even if those words do not imply the extremest condemnation; still more dreadful-dreadful beyond the reach of thought, if they do mean perpetual exclusion from the presence of God in the great outer darkness. 'l'herefore watch- watch and pray always. LEsSONB. 1. It is not enough to belong to the visible Church. We must grow in grace. 2. We must pray daily for the renewing of the Holy Ghost. 3. We must examine ourselves daily, not leave self-examination to the hour of sickness and approach- ing death. 4. The Lord cometh suddenly ; therefore watch. Vere. 14-30.-The pOIT'able of the talents. I. Tm: MASTER AND ms SERVANTS. 1. The Master's departure, This parable is the complement of the last. The two together cover both sides of the Christian life-the contemplative and the active. The burning lamp represents the life of faith and worship kindled by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The trading represents the outward life of active work for Christ. Under all ordinary circumstances the two must be combined. A living faith cannot exist in the heart without manifesting itself in outward work; while active work for Christ's sake springs from that living faith, and loses all its worth and beauty if it becomes dissociated from faith and love. The two elements must coexist in all Christians; but they may be combined in different proportions, so that some are mainly men of action, others mainly men of contemplation. In large measure we must be both. We must keep the lamp of zeal and faith ever burning, and we must work for Christ. Christ himself was the man travelling into a far country. He was about to depart out of this world unto the Father. The parable relates primarily to the apostles, to whom it was spoken; then to the ministers of God's Holy Word and sacraments, who are his servants, who must work for him in his Church; then to all Christians, for all belong to Christ, being bought with his blood, and all have work to do for him. The Master was about to depart. He called his own servants. We must remember that those servants were not like servants now, as free as their masters. '£hey were slaves, bought with their master's money; they belonged to him; their time, strength, ability, all were his. 2. The Master's goods. He delivered hie goods to his servants; they were to trade with them. Slaves often earned money for their masters in various trades or professions. He entrusted large sums to them-five talents to one, three to another, one to a third. Here we notice one of the leading distinctions between this and the cognate parable in Luke xix. 12-27. There each of the ten servants received the same sum, a pound, a mina; here the sums entrusted to the servants differ greatly. 'l'he two parables supplement one another. That in St. Luke teaches that the necessary means of grace are given in like measure to all the servants of the King. They show various degrees of zeal and diligence in the use of them. The rewards of the great day will vary according to those varying degrees of faithfulness. The parable of the talents teaches a somewhat differeut lesson. "There are diversities of gifts" (1 Cor. xii. 4,); " God haih set some in the Church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers;" "But all these worketh one and the selfsame Spirit,dividing to every man severally as he will." The talents must represent first and chiefly spiritual gifts, such 11,9 those first granted on the great Day of Pentecost, the gifts necessary for the apostles of Christ, and in various degrees for those who have been called to continue the apostles' work. Those gifts are not given to all God's servants alike. The gifts of the Spirit differ; there are great differences in energy, zeal, streugth of character, spiritual eloquene~. "'l'he Spirit divideth to every roan severally as he will," according to the needs of the Chw-ch, accordiug to the capacit) of the individual servant. But, secondarily, the talents must also signify all the good gifts of God-health, time, intellfalctual powers, earthly riches, station, influence; these and such-like are his gifts, entrusted to us for a while, to be used, not for our own enjoyment, but for his service. They are bestowed in widely duferent measure, Each man's responsibility varies accordiug to the greatness of tht 490 THE GOSPEL AOOORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [OB, xxv. 1-46.