Talents
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the day of God the workers through whom He has wrought will be
commended.
They will enter into the joy of the Lord as they see in His kingdom
those who have been redeemed through their instrumentality. And
they are privileged to participate in His work there, because they have
gained a fitness for it by participation in His work here. What we shall
be in heaven is the reflection of what we are now in character and
holy service. Christ said of Himself, “The Son of man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister.”
Matthew 20:28
. This, His work on
earth, is His work in heaven. And our reward for working with Christ
in this world is the greater power and wider privilege of working with
Him in the world to come.
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“Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord,
I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not
sown, and gathering where thou hast not strewed; and I was afraid, and
went and hid thy talent in the earth; lo, there thou hast that is thine.”
Thus men excuse their neglect of God’s gifts. They look upon God
as severe and tyrannical, as watching to spy out their mistakes and
visit them with judgments. They charge Him with demanding what
He has never given, with reaping where He has not sown.
There are many who in their hearts charge God with being a hard
master because He claims their possessions and their service. But we
can bring to God nothing that is not already His. “All things come
of Thee,” said King David; “and of Thine own have we given Thee.”
1 Chronicles 29:14
. All things are God’s, not only by creation, but
by redemption. All the blessings of this life and of the life to come
are delivered to us stamped with the cross of Calvary. Therefore the
charge that God is a hard master, reaping where He has not sown, is
false.
The master does not deny the charge of the wicked servant, unjust
as it is; but taking him on his own ground he shows that his conduct is
without excuse. Ways and means had been provided whereby the talent
might have been improved to the owner’s profit. “Thou oughtest,” he
said, “to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming
I should have received mine own with usury.”
Our heavenly Father requires no more nor less than He has given
us ability to do. He lays upon His servants no burdens that they are
not able to bear. “He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are