ARE WE SERVANTS?

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 21, 1876

“And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness.” Matt. 25:30. This was the command concerning that slothful servant who did not improve the talent his Lord gave him. A very significant point in the rendering of that decision is that it was based entirely upon the testimony of the offender himself. In our courts of justice, it is generally necessary to bring witnesses to prove the charges brought against the individual. Sometimes, however, a person, in trying to tell a story that will hide his fault and screen himself from punishment, will so overdo it, or state something so absurd, or so contradict himself, that his own evidence is sufficient to condemn him.

So it was with the wicked servant. Said he, “Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, . . . and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth.” And his Lord said unto him, “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: wherefore, then, gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have received mine own with usury?” Luke 19:22. “Thou oughtest therefore [because thou knewest that I was a hard man] to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.” Matt. 25:27.

This servant is called a slothful servant. He was lazy, indolent, idle. He did not appreciate the kindness of his lord in thus giving him something to improve. So sleepy and inactive was he that he did not heed his lord’s command, “Occupy till I come,” but paid so little attention to it that he finally forgot all about it. The thought, that his Lord would one day call upon him for a settlement, came to him so lightly at last as to give him no particular uneasiness, and he settled down at ease, and his talent lay unimproved—buried.

Now don’t you see that, if he had realized that his lord was an austere man, requiring every cent that honestly belonged to him, if he had really thought that his lord was a sharper, he would have been diligent in the use of that talent, that “pound,” so that he might have a reasonable sum to pay his lord for the use of it on his return? Of course he would.

Well, his lord comes. He is called. Now he realizes his situation, and for the first time for a long period, he is awake. He knows he is wrong, and he gets up that excuse; and his reason is of all reasons the one which, had it existed, would have prompted him to use that talent. His lord sees his quibbling, and sees that he has given a false reason, to hide the true one,—slothfulness. An excuse to harmonize with his actions would have been like this: Lord, I knew thee, that thou art a real easy, good fellow, and I knew thou wouldst not care, seeing that my talent was but small; so I didn’t trouble myself about it. So he was judged by his own words.

Reader, what talent has your Lord given you? Perhaps it is to preach. Do not bury it. Cultivate it, expand it. Perhaps it is to write good books, or good articles for the paper. If so, do not neglect any means that are at your command to fit you to write well. It may be you have a talent for conversing. Let your conversation be in Heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour. See Phil. 3:20. Let it be as becometh the gospel of Christ. Phil. 1:27. So order it that you may be a good missionary everywhere and every day.

Have you a talent for making money? God gave you that talent, and he will require of you the right use of it. He did not give it to you that you might surround yourself with needless things, with luxuries and extravagancies. He has a cause which he commands you to sustain. He has commanded no man to go into the world to preach His gospel without support. While one has a talent to preach, and another to accumulate property, both are commanded to improve their talents; and when the one preaches, he makes the other his debtor, and it becomes his duty to minister unto the wants of the preacher out of his purse and out of his store-house. “For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.” Rom. 15:26, 27.

These poor saints who had been ministering spiritual things, were those who were scattered abroad at the time of a great persecution (Acts 8:1), and who all went out preaching (Acts 11:19), perhaps as our missionaries go out, only they had no tracts. At first they preached to the Jews only, but afterwards to the Gentiles, as is seen by Acts 11:20 and Rom. 15:26, 27; and Paul says the Gentiles were pleased to give of their means to them, and also that the Gentiles were their debtors, and that it was their duty to minister to those preachers of their carnal things.

God has given you the light of present truth, and he not only wants it to save you, but he has commanded you to pass it along. “Ye are the light of the world.” “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.” That is what your Saviour says. How are you going to let your light shine? You can’t preach, you are no writer, you are not apt in conversation. Should you try either one of these, you would not succeed in shedding much light. But you can make money. God has placed much property in your hands. The light that you have may all be printed, and what is wanted is the money to do it and to send the precious sheets out into the world, where many a soul groping in the darkness may be made glad as he hails the dawning of a ray of light thus borne to him.

Much of the light of present truth must be carried abroad in this way. Here is where your talent may be improved; and when the Lord’s means thus intrusted, or lent, to you are used for the advancement of his cause, when he thus receives his “own with usury,” he will increase your possessions (Matt. 25:23); when the tithes are all brought into the store-house he will open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, so great that there shall not be room to receive it. Mal. 3:10.

Many have talents in several directions; and while the talent for making money may be most prominent in an individual, he may, while improving that, improve all his other talents. Let him cast a good influence by his daily life and honesty. Let him speak to his neighbor. Let him write to his friend. Let him hold up every light he has.

All of us can be missionaries in some way. If you have not the time nor talent to scatter tracts and secure a larger circulation of those periodicals that are laden with words of light, give of your means for some one else to do it. “See that no man take thy crown.” Just now is an especially favorable time for work in this direction.

The Lord is soon coming to reckon with his servants. Let us awake before he comes. If we hide our talent, be it ever so small, the Lord will take no excuse. “Cast him out into outer darkness” will be the dread sentence.

But if we improve our talent, if we return unto the Lord the increase of his gifts to us, how joyfully shall we hear the approving voice of Jesus when he says, “Well done, good and faithful servant, . . . I will make thee ruler over many things”! Have we been a faithful ruler over a few acres with a nice cottage here? A possession upon the new earth with a mansion in the New Jerusalem shall be ours. How glad we shall be that we have transferred our possessions, that we have laid up our treasures in Heaven! Come, let’s be faithful servants.