Matthew 25:18, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures the servant entrusted with a single talent going away to dig in the ground and hide his master's money instead of trading with it to gain an increase. It belongs to the parable of the talents spoken on the Mount of Olives as part of the discourse in Matthew 24-25 about watching and being ready for the second advent. What was hidden was not his own but his lord's entrusted capital, for every person is only God's trustee and steward who must administer it for the Owner and return it with increase. The talent covers every entrusted power and good, including life, time, health, mind, influence, speech, means, property, knowledge of truth, and opportunity. Having only one talent gives no excuse for neglect, since responsibility is measured by what was given and even the smallest gift faithfully used can be doubled, while hiding it brings rebuke, forfeiture of the gift, and loss in the judgment.

Parable Setting and Occasion

The verse belongs to the parable of the talents, given shortly before entering Gethsemane as part of the discourse recorded in Matthew 24-25. It was spoken on the Mount of Olives concerning the second advent to the world. It was the last of many parables in public teaching to the disciples, spoken early in the morning after crossing the mount as a warning about the second appearing in the clouds of heaven.

The parable follows the specifying of signs showing when the coming is near and the command to watch and be ready because no one knows the day nor the hour when the Son of man comes, but the Father only. It is joined to the warning that the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations and then the end shall come. It follows the parable of the ten virgins, and the lesson connected with these parables is vigilant watching and sanctified waiting, with no relaxation of effort to secure eternal life.

Watching for His coming means spending the time not in idle waiting but in diligent working, and the parable teaches this lesson. Readiness for the second coming includes unselfish, watchful labor for God. Christian character is not perfected by quiet prayer and meditation alone, nor by constant activity that neglects personal piety, but believers must cultivate their own faith while diligently serving God. People are responsible for using what God entrusts to them for His glory, and the picture of hiding the lord's money contrasts with faithful use of entrusted abilities in urgent service, since neglecting that work leaves people without needed light and knowledge.

The instruction in Matthew 25:14-46, including this verse, must be studied and compared with one's life record. It calls every person to put away boasting, showing that self-sufficiency is fearfully dangerous and leads men to make the words of Christ of no effect. It calls for serious examination of whether one has been faithful rather than self-sufficient.

Master Servant and Action

The man traveling to a far country is Christ, who was soon to depart from earth to heaven, and the servant is one who professes to have accepted Christ's service. Every human being belongs to the Lord because all have been bought with a price, not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ, which purchased will, affections, mind and soul, so no one is his own. By creation and by redemption all servants belong to Christ, having been paid for by His humiliation and agony, His life of toil and His death of shame, and therefore they are under deepest obligation to devote every entrusted power to His service and to improve every capability for winning souls from sin to righteousness. All who profess His service will be required to render an account at the great Judgment day for the manner in which they have met His claim, for God holds each person responsible for those gifts and for the light and knowledge received, and neglecting their use brings consequences. The opposite of the wrong course of hiding is unreserved surrender and consecration of time and talents after Christ's example in uniting humanity and divinity to recover sinners, trading upon the goods God has entrusted to gain interest and returning to God both the goods and the increase to advance the work Christ came to do, with all recipients of His bounty imparting to Him who bought them with His blood.

The servant who received one talent went and dug in the earth and hid his lord's money instead of putting it to work, improving and increasing it, trading with it, putting it out to the exchangers, and returning it with gain. The buried money represents resources God entrusts to people, and hiding it in the earth means tying it up in worldly possessions and withholding it from God's work, often from fear that God will require its use. He did this out of slothful idleness and then excused himself by claiming fear of a hard master who reaps where he has not sown and gathers where he has not strawed, carrying the idea that God is severe and unjust. He also reasoned that he himself would not be benefited by improvement because God would gather the increase Himself, and therefore he did nothing with his talent, remaining a failure to develop and use an entrusted gift in service. Though he could have entrusted the talent to someone faithful if he could not use it himself, he buried it by following the enemy's suggestions, and his claim of fear is a false excuse that does not remove his responsibility to use what he has been given. Even one talent, if carefully used in God's service, could accomplish much and be doubled, but hiding it is slothful unfaithfulness for which servants must answer to their Lord when He returns, with the unprofitable servant facing judgment.

What was hidden was not the servant's own but his lord's money, entrusted capital lent by God, and every person is only God's trustee, steward and almoner who must administer it for the Owner and give strict account when the Master comes to require His own with increase and interest. The talent was to be used wisely, increased, and returned to its giver, for God gives each person talents to improve for His service and expects to receive what is His with increase, and the church's spiritual progress falls short when its members do not use their gifts to reach the standard their light makes possible. Hiding the lord's money means burying the talents God lends, which are means, influence, and powers of intellect, instead of putting them to work at once to increase the Master's store. Using the mind to get property and choose earthly treasure rather than to serve the heavenly Father, teach the truth from the Scriptures, and turn souls from error and darkness to truth and righteousness is digging in the earth and hiding the talent, depriving God of its increase, selling the soul cheap and sacrificing the heavenly reward. Human beings are probationers whom God tests and proves by entrusted talents, and the coming Master will investigate their course and inquire what use was made of what was lent, asking not how successful servants have been in gathering means but what they have done with the talents given them. The talents mean time lent by God, pen, voice, money, influence, and the light and knowledge of the truths heralding the second coming, entrusted in differing measure to everyone and not only to a favored or especially gifted class, including spiritual, mental and physical powers, influence, position, possessions, affections and sympathies, with abilities to influence others through writing, publishing, speaking, giving and sanctified affection. Faithful use requires careful thought and the highest use of the intellect to serve Christ in the person of the poor, the afflicted, the orphan, the fatherless, the sick, the hungry and the destitute of clothing, to make men wise unto salvation, to warn the world and to save souls.

A person ransomed by the precious blood of Christ who refuses allegiance to Him by withholding entrusted talents from His service commits robbery of God and reproach against Maker and Redeemer. The ransom paid for every son and daughter of Adam does not shield such neglect, and those who do this must answer for it and face retribution in the last day. Fear that the lord would gain from the talent did not excuse the servant who buried his entrusted talent and kept it from benefiting his lord, for he was judged an unprofitable servant and lost the talent. This applies to those who withhold their means from God's cause or try to escape responsibility by transferring their property to wife or children, for they remain accountable for what Heaven entrusted to them until they return it to God. Hiding instead of using for the master withholds from God the increase that could come from entrusted abilities, and people of every capacity are accountable for how they use what God has placed in their care, with the Master investigating their use of these gifts.

The unfaithful steward who hid his entrusted talent pictures those professing Christ's name who do not consecrate their powers fully and entirely to God but yield them in measure to the service of Satan. Hiding the gifts of God in the world means failing to cultivate the grace of Christian steadfastness and to grow up to be firm, unwavering, rooted and grounded in the truth as men of faith. By so doing they withhold from the church the very help God designed them to give, and thus rob God.

Talents Ownership and Meaning

Talents are not apportioned capriciously but according to each person's ability to use them, and the servant received one talent because he could wisely use only one. They are Christ's goods committed as a lent trust, with each person given his work and his special place on earth to work with Christ for the salvation of souls. The holder of one is to render the improvement of one and need not lament lack of larger gifts, for God equally honors faithful improvement of great or small trusts and expects returns according to what a man has and not according to what he has not. No one can safely remain idle or bury what was entrusted, but even the man with few talents must trade on what he has, consulting God's expressed will and diligently using what was lent to gain others. In proportion as integrity toward God and fellow men is shown, blessing is given, and the character formed by faithful or unfaithful use decides fitness to live through the eternal ages, so each is working out his own destiny with the Holy Spirit waiting to aid every believing soul and Christ's abiding presence to the end giving strength to trade faithfully. Christ's servants are responsible for caring for their Lord's interests during His absence and must answer to Him when He returns, being held accountable for using what they receive and for producing further gains by faithful use.

The talent means all entrusted goods and powers, including time lent by God, life and existence itself, health, body and mind, mental powers and intellect, physical strength, influence, position, possessions, money and means, property, speech, pen and voice, writing and publishing, skill, sympathy, affections, generous impulses, spiritual understanding, light and knowledge of truth, and opportunities. It includes spiritual, mental, and physical powers entrusted in differing measure to everyone, not only to a favored or especially gifted class, with each accountable to God for using them in the work of saving souls. The reckoning does not ask how successful servants have been in gathering means, but what they have done with the talents given them, requiring careful thought and the highest use of the intellect to serve Christ in the person of the poor, the afflicted, the orphan, the fatherless, the sick, the hungry, and the destitute of clothing, and to make men wise unto salvation. Hiding the lord's money means burying means, influence, and powers of intellect instead of putting them to work at once to increase the Master's store, and using the mind to get property and choose earthly treasure rather than to serve the heavenly Father, teach truth from the Scriptures, and turn souls from error and darkness to truth and righteousness is digging in the earth and hiding the talent, depriving God of its increase. Neglecting a faculty leaves it weak and undeveloped, while exercising the powers God has given brings them into useful, balanced service for good and God's glory.

The talent means not merely ability to preach and teach the word but also temporal means, money, influence, powers of mind, and property lent by God to be used in His cause to advance His work, bless the needy and relieve the destitute. Hiding is what is done when a right to do what one pleases with possessions is claimed and the Lord's money is not used so souls are saved, which is covetousness which is idolatry, whereas practical benevolence in using means for Christ would give spiritual life to nominal professors, transforming them from selfish, covetous worshipers of mammon into earnest, faithful co-workers with Christ in the salvation of sinners. To bury is to feel no accountability, to call the Lord's goods one's own, to turn the mind away from doing good and getting truth before others, and to use dealing to advantage self instead of putting money and influence out to the exchangers to advance Christ's cause and save precious souls. Houses and lands are worthless beside precious souls bought with infinite price and cannot be taken to heaven, for means are of no more value than sand except as used for daily necessities, to bless others, and to advance God's work. The buried talent must be brought out and put to use so Christ may receive His own with increase when He comes, warning against hoarding wealth or postponing giving until death and calling for timely, self-sacrificing investment in preparing people for the day of God.

The talent also includes time, speech, writing, influence, money, knowledge, and light and truth to be used to warn others, win souls and place truth before others. Even small abilities, including the light and truth entrusted, are to be actively employed in work for others in cooperation with the Holy Spirit who works through human effort, and hiding them means failing to carry truth to people who need it. Time, influence, intellect, sympathy, and affection are gifts to be diligently used in Christ's service, not withheld or left unused, with strict account to be given when the Master comes after a long time to reckon. Selfish works testify that such a person is not a Christian, for to be a Christian is to follow Christ's example, and the buried talent leaves one with no souls as stars in the crown of rejoicing and unprepared for the reckoning when probation closes.

The parable represents all natural, acquired, and spiritual gifts as trusts apportioned by ability to be used in Christ's service, with the one given one talent accountable for that one just as the one given five is accountable for five. Each trust, great or small, honors God when faithfully improved, and the Lord's goods including physical, mental, and spiritual powers are to be used to please Him, with right use increasing the talents entrusted. God measures each person's ability and knows just what to lay upon him, giving to every man his work according to his several ability, and the one found faithful is entrusted with greater responsibility and still more, so that through grace he grows to full stature. Faithful improvement causes talents to continually increase with other talents added, so that even if a man has only one talent and gains only one, if his work has been in proportion to his ability he will be just as surely rewarded as the man who gains a larger number. God alone can judge the capabilities of His servants and discern the time and talents employed for Him, and human judgment of who has accomplished the most good often errs seriously, for humble work done as unto God counts for more than bustle and show that interposes self and proves a dead failure.

Every ability, including the ability to write a book, is moral and spiritual capital given by God for which the possessor is individually accountable to Him. To every man God has given his work with diversities of gifts of influence which belong to Him alone, and everyone is to trade on what is entrusted where he can, doing the best possible service for the Master, with one talent well used gaining other talents. No one is accountable for talents he never had and none should complain of smallness of gifts, for the man with a few pence who serves God faithfully with his pence is judged as faithful as the one who improved five talents or pounds. All are to employ their talents to God's glory according to ability, and no man or council of men is to make little of these talents by human estimate, weigh another man's gifts in human balances, belittle God's worker, merge individuality, urge a man to make another man his steward, sell stewardship to be absolutely under human control, or take control of the profits of a writer's work. The persons God entrusts are themselves held responsible to trade upon His goods and thus develop character and talent, and this responsibility cannot be transferred to another or handed over for others to manage. Placing books and all profits beyond a mere pittance wholly under control of others to control and invest as suits their ideas is unjust and incurs great and dangerous responsibility, separating the agent from God, exposing him to temptation, and destroying faith in principles that purge from guilt and from selfishness and hypocrisy.

Distribution Proportionate Responsibility

Having only one talent or the smallest gift does not remove responsibility or excuse neglect, complaint, contempt, or accusation of unfairness. Trusts are suited to known powers and responsibility is proportionate to what was given, with each person's trust proportioned to ability and the expected return corresponding to the amount entrusted. The parable's responsibility applies to everyone, not only a favored or especially gifted class, for every person is entrusted in differing measure with abilities and resources including spiritual, mental, and physical powers, influence, position, possessions, affections, and sympathies, and is accountable to God for using them in saving souls. The important question is not how much has been received but what is done with it, and developing abilities and growing in usefulness are duties owed to God and others, with profession of faith pledging cultivation of every faculty for most effective service. Faithful improvement of little is as acceptable and as surely rewarded as that of much, and the humblest service wholly devoted to God to advance His glory is as acceptable as the use of greater talents.

Even one talent carefully used in God's service could accomplish much and be doubled, just as two can become four, so having only one does not justify hiding it. Hiding it is slothful unfaithfulness and living for self when God desires abilities improved for Him and used in His work, and the servant's excuse does not remove responsibility to use what has been given. Failure to improve it brings great loss, for responsibility is in exact proportion to gifts and every man is responsible for wise use of what is entrusted, and the one-talent man who felt least responsibility because he had least and left it buried and unused was for that neglect cast into outer darkness. God's gifts including money must be handled faithfully and put to work to produce good for God rather than kept idle, and rewards are in proportion to work and improvement, not earned as merits for Christ has purchased them.

Even a small talent has a place appointed by God and a work appointed for it to accomplish when wisely used instead of hidden. A small talent faithfully and wisely used in ordinary duties can produce lasting influence, and faithfulness in little things is the beginning of greater usefulness. Faithfulness in little duties works on the plan of addition while God works on the plan of multiplication, so that these littles become the most precious influences in His work. The servant with one talent is expected to improve it to the utmost of ability rather than leave it unused, and faithful improvement causes talents to continually increase with other talents added, so that even if a man has only one and gains only one, if his work has been in proportion to ability he will be just as surely rewarded as the man who gains larger number. Humble, earnest, self-denying service can therefore grow in power and usefulness, and God alone can see its full worth and far-reaching influence.

No one is accountable for talents never had and none should complain of smallness of gifts, mourning talents never given or aspiring after great things instead of doing present small work with earnest fidelity. Everyone is to trade on what is entrusted where he can, doing the best possible service for the Master, with those in humble sphere and meager ability not to repine but to prove fidelity and manifest loyalty by faithful use, and the Lord will be satisfied. God does not require the same amount from all, for the church is composed of large and small vessels and the small are not expected to contain what the larger contain; the lowly unlearned Christian is not expected to exercise intellectual power of one with advantages, the poor are not expected to give alms they do not have, and the sick and suffering are not expected to give active energies infirmities forbid, but God accepts faithful effort according to what a person has and not according to what he has not. One talent well used will gain other talents, talents not buried gain yet others, and faithful use can increase what is entrusted, while responsibility for a person's work belongs to that person and cannot be transferred to another. Even the lowly, uneducated, poor, feeble, sick and suffering who have only means, opportunities and abilities amounting to one talent must put it to the exchangers by laboring with whole soul to warn the world and convert others, putting the same tact, sharpness and diligence into God's work as into temporal matters, lest failure leave guilt for souls in darkness of error at the reckoning.

The one-talent servant was condemned because he hid his talent instead of using it, failing to increase what had been entrusted and trying to make his master responsible for that neglect. His failure was not caused by having only one, for entrusted gifts differ according to ability and each is accountable for using what he has, not what he lacks, and faithful use rather than size earns commendation. Failing to improve even a small gift brings the same loss as failing with a much greater one, while faithful use of little receives returns like faithful use of abundance. The person entrusted with one is accountable for that one, not for more, yet hiding it instead of using it for God's work makes him an unfaithful steward who must answer to God, whether fear of future need and love of money keep those with little as well as much from advancing His cause. No hoarding and idleness is allowed, for talents in trust are given to every man from lowliest and most obscure to highest, proportioned to varied capabilities including light of truth and all spiritual advantages, and goods handled are not one's own but the Master's capital to be invested and traded to increase usefulness and return corresponding increase, with servants justified by faith judged by works when the Chief Shepherd reckons as Judge.

Excuses and False Views

The hiding was slothful idleness excused by professed fear of a hard master who reaps where he has not sown and gathers where he has not strawed, implying God is severe and unjust. That plea was false and did not remove responsibility, for it sprang from distrust and jealousy toward God, an ungenerous and avaricious spirit, failure to know Him rightly, and spiritual declension. Though unable to use the money himself he could have placed it with someone faithful instead of burying it at the enemy's suggestion, yet fear of surrendering God-given abilities led him to put them in the enemy's service for earthly gain until they dwindled and were lost. The wrong use grew from a wrong view of God as a harsh judge and exacting creditor, and many do the same while He is in truth a rich giver and fountain of love who entrusts gifts according to ability to relieve suffering humanity.

He reasoned anxiously for self-benefit that improvement would profit him nothing because the owner would gather all the increase to Himself, and therefore he did nothing with what was lent him. Instead of trading upon God's goods in the world vineyard to return fruit in its season and lay up a good foundation for the time to come, he remained only a consumer when by putting his gift out to the exchangers he might have been a provider. To receive skill, treasure, wisdom and understanding yet use them to accumulate selfish gain produces no increase for the Master and brings Him serious loss, because those who should have been helped, fed, clothed and relieved receive no help. Such hiding robs God of glory and service, withholds means that should have been imparted to advance His kingdom and care for the widow and fatherless, lays up no treasure in heaven, and forfeits both increase and principal.

The complaint against the master is repeated by those who charge God with inequality and complain of brethren and of unequal facilities. God in infinite wisdom knows perfectly how to test men, giving to every servant according to known powers and capacities, expecting corresponding returns, and cooperating with those who trust Him and not themselves, opening ways before them and increasing intellect as they walk humbly instead of complaining. There will never be equality in distribution of trusts or in returns, for gifts differ according to ability, yet faithful use of what one has rather than size of gift wins commendation, and doing his best with one or two or five brings acceptance. Neglecting ability and then making the master responsible for the neglect does not excuse, since each is accountable for using what he has and not for what he lacks, and those who fail to serve faithfully rob Him while making the most complaints.

Pleaded inability does not remove responsibility, for it is not made by God but is produced by inactivity and perpetuated by deliberate choice. Devoting love, judgment, memory, foresight, tact and energy to self and to trades, farms, houses, merchandise, dress and tables perverts, disables and cripples physical and mental powers until unfit for God's work, and God holds guilty both for work negligently done or left undone and for vigor, skill, light and power that might have been had but was not obtained through devotion to the world. Responsibility is measured not by present resources but by powers originally bestowed and possibilities for improvement, so the question is how the unfitness came and how it can be remedied. Neglecting a faculty leaves it weak and undeveloped, while exercising ability in close connection with the Source of light and power increases and strengthens every faculty, arouses dormant energies to new life, and makes one more apt and skillful; left unused, ability deteriorates like a tool rusting from inaction. This life is the sowing time for producing a harvest in His strength, and God tests and proves His people by whether they cultivate mental powers for good and His glory.

Not being qualified or fitted does not justify hiding, because consecration to God gives wisdom, tongue and utterance that adversaries cannot gainsay. Every man, woman and youth is required to take hold of one line of work after another as it presents itself, keep spiritual senses awake to the wants of the cause, give self and capital of means to advance the kingdom, and use reasoning powers with purpose to save souls wherever places stand open. No one is too unqualified to work, but becomes qualified by using what he already has with determination to improve in whatever line his work lies, and even one talent traded upon will gain another. Hiding because one cannot do the work of the most experienced, stand in the highest place, trade on pounds or labor for multitudes is idleness, for faithfulness means willingly doing small tasks well where placed, working for individuals, and neglecting no smaller duty at hand that would relieve the heavily burdened. The Lord watches over every timid soul of little self-confidence, and trusting Him increases influence, whereas reaching for a higher calling while neglecting work within capacity, or discouraging the fearful, does the enemy's work.

Accountability Judgment and Reward

The parable teaches accountability, for each servant must faithfully develop and use what has been received according to ability, trading diligently and conscientiously with no selfishness or worldly ambition woven in, with self kept out of sight and Christ held before the world, and each must personally answer when the Lord returns, examined individually, with reward proportionate to improvement and punishment proportionate to abuse. Burying even one talent, letting a trust from God lie unused, is not a harmless choice but abuse of what the Lord has lent, for the talent is not the servant's property and God requires it to be put to use and returned with increase. Hiding means wicked and slothful, unfaithful service and spiritual declension instead of using and increasing entrusted ability, and Christ as Master requires earnest, vigilant work, waiting, watching, praying, and working with personal consecration and heart-holiness to prepare the way for His second coming, continually striving to increase capabilities and labor intelligently with every facility He provides. The unprofitable servant who hides is regarded as slothful and untrustworthy, unworthy of admission to heaven, with warning that the talent will be taken away and he will be cast into outer darkness.

The present is the trading time while the heavenly Master is on His journey, the gracious opportunity to occupy till He comes, and trading must be done today because tomorrow probation may end and the account be fixed forever. A name in the church book will not secure entrance into the kingdom of heaven, so every church member must make close, critical examination of what of the Lord's he has and how opportunities have been used, and whether talents are being put out to the exchangers. The account is being built day by day, hour by hour, for the last great day, making a record in the books of heaven that prepares reward or punishment, with no second probation in which to make up for neglected service and no excuse for knowing the truth without obeying it in word and deed. At His coming Christ will reckon with every one and require an account of what was done with His goods, expecting results from everyone and giving reward proportionate to the work, and those who through spiritual indolence make no effort to win souls will be held responsible for the work they might have done but did not do. Right use means investing the talents for the salvation of fellow men, using riches to advance the cause of God and to relieve the wants of the widow and the fatherless, which glorifies God and gathers rich blessings, while abusing talents lent as a precious blessing for pride, extravagance, vain show, ambition and profligate selfishness brings a terrible curse, and at reaping time faithful and unselfish use brings the inexpressible joy of seeing gathered sheaves as the recompense of fidelity. Faithful trading is self-denying, self-sacrificing zeal for the salvation of souls, which God rewards, and each one purified through belief of the truth will at once begin missionary work for those perishing in their sins, with capabilities to be increased so that even one talent must be used to gain another.

Responsibility is measured not by present resources and capacities but by the powers originally bestowed and the possibilities for improvement, including all vigor, strength, skill, light, and power that might have been had but was failed to obtain. Merely keeping or returning the talent without gain is unfaithfulness, for returning it was not enough when provision had been made to grow in knowledge, and judgment concerns not only wrong acts but also good left undone through neglect of the capacities Christ made available and through work negligently done or left undone. Pleaded inability does not remove responsibility, since it is not made by God but is produced by inactivity and perpetuated by deliberate choice, devoting love, judgment, memory, foresight, tact, energy, and every other faculty to self and to trades, farms, houses, merchandise, dress, tables, and other worldly pursuits, thereby perverting, disabling, and crippling physical and mental powers until unfit for God's work. The question is not whether one is now inexperienced and unfit but how and why he is in this condition and how it can be remedied, for while one exerts the ability he has in close connection with the Source of light and power, God works with him to increase and strengthen every faculty, making him more apt and skillful and arousing dormant, palsied energies to new life. God alone can judge the capabilities of His servants and discern the time and the talents employed for Him, and He who bestowed the gift will scrutinize the returns received from every talent, knowing just what men have done, and will reward them accordingly.

Hiding the talent brings the Master's rebuke against the wicked and slothful servant, for burying in the world the talents intrusted by Christ brings no returns to God. The unused gift is forfeited and taken away to be given to one who used his well, leaving the unprofitable servant with nothing, for God gives talents not chiefly for gaining earthly wealth but so people may serve others and lay hold of eternal life. Talents are all capabilities, opportunities, and divine treasures of truth given to be wisely improved and presented by living witnesses for the good of humanity and the glory of God, and Christ, having paid the purchase money for salvation by His humiliation and agony, has a right to service, with the very name of servant involving work and responsibility. He will scrutinize every talent and expect interest with usury in proportion to the capital intrusted, so talents faithfully used with the kingdom of heaven first increase, while putting all strength of brain, bone, and muscle into worldly business interests imperils spiritual interests and loses an eternity of bliss. Such unfaithful handling, including wasting entrusted resources and failing to employ abilities diligently, reveals an untrustworthy character, leaves a person unprepared for greater responsibility or eternal life, and dishonest acts will be exposed at the final judgment, where each person is dealt with according to how talents have been used. Each person is accountable for gifts received, and those who do not put them to work face the fate of the unprofitable servant: judgment and exclusion.

Rewards correspond to fidelity, perseverance, earnest effort, work, and improvement, yet they are not earned as merits, for Christ has purchased them, but faithful labor may receive the highest reward. If those entrusted with few talents are faithful, they receive just as large a reward as the one to whom many were entrusted, for God assigns trusts according to different abilities and values faithful service by what a person has, not by what he lacks. Human judgment of who has accomplished the most good often makes serious mistakes, for humble work done as unto God counts for more than bustle and show that interposes self between the people and God and proves a dead failure. Even the smallest trust comes from God and is to be put to diligent use, for one talent used faithfully can be doubled just as two can become four, and humble service can therefore grow in power and usefulness, with God alone seeing its full worth and far-reaching influence. Small gifts and humble daily duties must be used faithfully rather than neglected while longing for greater work, and faithfulness requires developing every ability by exercise to its highest point to bring glory to the Giver and be a blessing in saving souls.

Hiding is robbery of God and reproach against Maker and Redeemer, for a person ransomed by the precious blood of Christ refuses allegiance by withholding entrusted talents from His service. The ransom paid for every son and daughter of Adam does not shield such neglect, and those who do this must answer for it and face retribution in the last day. Having the least gift did not remove responsibility: the servant who buried it instead of putting it to use failed to use what had been entrusted and was condemned to outer darkness. Hiding an entrusted ability in the world is like folding the talent away, and it means casting away the crown of life, for God claims each person's service and gives everyone responsibilities to accept and discharge faithfully and conscientiously. Failing to improve God's gifts through neglect brings condemnation, for Christ requires experience and character — including faith, obedience, and love — to grow in keeping with light and grace received, and without growth light and blessings decrease. Burying means in farms and business, improving earthly property, and employing tact, skill, brain, bone and muscle for earthly, selfish purposes while neglecting God's work of broadening His cause and winning souls, which lays hay, wood and stubble on the foundation, sets heart and labor on treasures to be consumed by the fires of the last day, leaves men dry, shriveled and dying spiritually from non-use, unfitted for heaven, ends the whole life-work in ashes, eternally loses the reward that might have been gained, leaves unsaved through neglect souls that might have been saved, and cuts off hope of eternal reward.

Mere profession of faith has no value in the judgment, for readiness for Christ's second coming includes unselfish, watchful labor for God, and Christian character is not perfected by quiet prayer and meditation alone nor by constant activity neglecting personal piety, but by cultivating faith while diligently serving. Servants justified by faith are judged and rewarded by works, for faith works by love and purifies the soul of moral defilement that it may become a temple for the Lord. The reckoning does not ask how successful servants have been in gathering means, but what they have done with talents given them — time lent by God, pen, voice, money, influence, and light and knowledge of truths heralding the second coming — and faithful use requires the highest use of intellect to serve Christ in the person of the poor, the afflicted, the orphan, the fatherless, the sick, the hungry, and the destitute of clothing, and to make men wise unto salvation. Love shown through works is counted, and even small acts done from love are accepted and rewarded by God, for love gives value even to acts that seem small. Withholding the Lord's money so souls are not saved, while claiming a right to do what one pleases with possessions, is covetousness which is idolatry, whereas practical benevolence in using means for Christ would give spiritual life to nominal professors, transforming them from selfish, covetous worshipers of mammon into earnest, faithful co-workers with Christ in the salvation of sinners.

Faithful Trading and Increase

What the Master entrusts must be traded upon, put to work and faithfully improved so that it increases and can be returned with increase and interest when He comes, for talents increase only by being used while leaving them buried leaves them fruitless. Merely keeping or returning what was received without gain is unfaithfulness, since each person is accountable not only for the original trust but for what could have been gained through faithful effort, including what might have been obtained by growth in knowledge under provision made for it. This accountability reaches time, influence, abilities, light and opportunity, and judgment concerns good left undone through neglect as well as wrong acts, so disregarding what God gives is unsafe and hiding withholds from God the increase that faithful use could bring. The requirement applies to people of every capacity and to every talent and power in God's cause, and the Master will investigate and require an account of how entrusted gifts were used. When ability lies unused it deteriorates like a tool rusting from inaction.

When gifts are actively used in service, God works with people to strengthen abilities and increase what they can do, and talents improve and multiply as they are used in the Master's service. Trading is to be done diligently and conscientiously according to God's Word for building up truth, with no selfishness or worldly ambition, with self kept out of sight and Christ held before the world to bring glory to God by doing one's best whether given many talents or few. Unused ability stays buried and fruitless through neglect and complaint, with those hiding one talent murmuring because they receive no increase, whereas if the one talent were used it would double and become two for further improvement. He who conscientiously strives to improve one talent will as surely receive increase as he who improves a larger number, for as human agents use aright what is given God increases their power and strength. Faithful use of what is least prepares for greater responsibility, strengthens the weak through connection with God, and leads toward a richer, holier life of service, while failure to grow in spiritual understanding and power by earnest daily use to the utmost, in self-denial and cross-bearing, in spreading light and giving means for mission work, lets light burn dim and flicker out like empty lamps with no blessing to expect. Faithful trading to increase talents brings the ministry of heavenly angels to increase ability, and continually drawing from the fullness of God's love makes Christ within a living source of spiritual life and health.

The talent is to be put to work for others to bless them, and when used to bring one soul to the Master that person may help bring others, multiplying its influence. Using even one talent to bring someone into truth doubles it, and that person's bringing others increases it further, in contrast to leaving entrusted means unused like money lying idle in banks, which is a buried talent called into service for sharing truth. Each person must answer individually to God for how entrusted abilities and opportunities are used, with an account at judgment and future reward proportionate to work done and effort made during probation.

God gives each his work according to ability as measured by Him, for He knows just what to lay upon each person, and the one found faithful is entrusted with greater responsibility and, if faithful to that, with still more, so that through grace he grows to full stature in Christ. The parable represents all natural, acquired and spiritual gifts, including physical, mental and spiritual powers, as trusts to be used in Christ's service to please Him, with the one given one accountable for that one just as the one given five is accountable for five, and each trust great or small honoring God when faithfully improved. Right use increases the talents entrusted, and those given responsibility need help in their work and not merely censure as their gifts are increased through use.

Trading upon talents means being set to work in God's vineyard where one is and learning how to employ ability by using it, with mistakes corrected and work resumed, rather than standing idle in the marketplace while waiting for more education. Burying is staying idle while being retained instead of distributed to labor in large cities and towns and along the highways and hedges, spending time and money that wastes what should have gone to practical godliness and leaves work undone and souls lost, while those who improve talents where they are will be blessed with God-sent teachers and with heavenly intelligences cooperating as they bid men come because all things are ready. People who do not know how to serve can remain inactive, while instruction and opportunities for work help them use and increase talents, and using ability in practical work causes increase through exercise and teaches lessons that cannot be learned in school. God appoints to every man his work according to ability, requiring education and practice to qualify for any emergency and wise planning to place each in his proper sphere to gain experience fit for responsibility, and church members who do not put instruction into practice or share received truth neglect responsibility and hinder the work. Hindering men from going forth buries their talents, while encouraging them to trade puts them to use, and ministers should apportion part of the vineyard to idle men, correct their blunders, and set them at work again rather than holding them back to waste time, expend money needlessly, and lose souls.

Hiding by hoarding knowledge through long devotion to study without imparting it clogs the mind with unused matter, makes the student unable to use what was received, wastes time, checks advance in practical holiness, and hinders progressive usefulness. Trading by laboring to instruct others keeps the mind from clogging and brings increase, for as men impart to others they receive more richly, grace for grace. Talents are to be used where a person is to pass along precious truth, imparting what is received and keeping on imparting in order to continue receiving, which gives knowledge that makes one dissatisfied with self, shows the great work to be done, and shows the need to separate from every hurtful habit lest another be harmed. Improving the past keeps what was gained as a treasure of gathered light constantly added to, raising to a higher plane of service, bringing readiness to fill vacancies at the call to come up higher, and keeping one in responsibility from vanity to self as Christ opens uncomprehended beauties of the Word. The talent includes the light of truth for serving others and winning souls, and hiding it is selfish neglect and idleness warned against, with answer to be given at judgment and no increased light for those who do not share what they have. Burying is hearing discourse after discourse yet keeping received knowledge and light to self instead of communicating to neighbors, friends and those enslaved by appetite, folding the hands in ease and leaving soul-winning to ministers, which leaves churches barren and unfruitful and souls starving without the Holy Spirit and power from above. God entrusts every steward with a talent to use freely for others and keeps the heart flooded with His presence to reveal Christ, requiring all to labor as those who must give account, so those who neglect to impart cannot expect continued supply while those who impart gain spiritual strength and blessing.

Burying Means and Property

The buried money is the resources God entrusts, including money, possessions, means and the ability to accumulate means, and to hide it in the earth is to tie it up in worldly possessions, enterprises and self-gratification and withhold it from God's work, often from fear that God will require its use. Every talent is more than earthly wealth, including abilities and the Lord's gifts both natural and spiritual, lent as a loan from the Master and a stewardship of His grace for a sacred trust involving eternal interests and secured by Christ's blood for entire obedience. It is delusion to take satisfaction in talent for getting worldly goods without turning it to account for Him who bestowed it, and even the humblest service done in doing the Master's bidding to promote His glory becomes a consecrated gift. What is lent is to be invested to advance His glory, win souls, sustain missions, relieve suffering, carry the warning message, open new missions, provide houses of worship where present truth can be heard, economize, and send treasure before into heaven instead of spending in self-gratification. To bind up the one talent in the earth while the cause is crippled and left to beg its way, the treasury half-supplied and souls perishing, gives cause for alarm, for the day to give an account of stewardship is fast approaching and no one can hand his own responsibility to another.

To hide the Lord's money is to fasten means in large houses, lands, expensive buildings and worldly enterprises for self, saying by actions that God cannot have it but it is wanted for self. God has not entrusted means to lie idle nor to be covetously retained or hid away, but has lent every talent as entrusted capital to be used to His glory in giving the warning to the world. Investing wealth in land and neglecting support for God's work and the saving of others is burying it rather than putting it to use so the Master may receive it with increase. Using the mind to get property and choose earthly treasure rather than to serve the heavenly Father, teach truth from the Scriptures and turn souls from error and darkness to truth and righteousness is digging in the earth and hiding the talent and depriving God of its increase. That course sells the soul cheap, sacrifices the heavenly reward, and leaves human probationers to be investigated by the coming Master inquiring what use was made of what was lent.

Burying talents of means is investing them in earthly treasures such as enriched, improved farms and building added to building instead of letting power, influence and means flow in the missionary channel to warn the world and present doubled talents in the ingathering of souls when the Master comes. It fixes heart, anxiety, persevering labor, tact and skill on earthly possessions and not on heavenly things, exalts the earthly above the eternal, and eclipses the eternal with the earthly. It makes means invested in larger plans to extend the work look like loss bringing no returns, leaves the heart able only to estimate earthly treasure and unable to appreciate heavenly treasure, and keeps the person fully occupied as the devil wants. Burying life, influence and ability in business matters in the earth is planning only how to make money and lay up treasure on earth and making everything of the world, and if all ability is used for earthly gain even that which he has, even his very ability, will be taken away. Earthly wealth cannot be carried into eternity, and a life spent gathering it instead of serving God and saving souls brings loss before God's judgment, for both the original trust and its increase are demanded.

Burying the Lord's talent is investing His capital in mining stock and other very uncertain enterprises, which consumes or ties up what is greatly needed for His work and to win souls. It is not God's will but a device of the enemy and a snare of the last days to involve God's people in loss, and because so much money is invested in these uncertain ventures the work of God is sadly crippled for lack of the talent that wins souls. Taking money that could do good work for the Master in God's institutions and withdrawing it to bury it in lands, real estate and mines where the Lord's cause is not benefited drains funds from the treasury instead of increasing them. It comes from a lottery-like desire to try fortune after flattering promises of financial gain, where small gain brings elation and resolve to keep getting money, fostering greed and a penurious spirit that begrudges every dollar called for to advance God's cause. To hide time, capital of money and ability, which are not a man's own but God's property, is to rob God and sacrifice His property and time and retard the work those talents could have advanced.

Failing to use entrusted means in God's cause now and leaving that work for children to do is digging in the earth and hiding. God has left wealthy parents themselves to do this work as His faithful stewards, and when the Master calls them to account they must render to Him what He lent them, both principal and interest. The money and property in parents' hands are talents lent by God to be used to His glory, with parents as stewards and not children as responsible for the father's talents. Fear of future need and love of money can keep those with little as well as much from using what God entrusted to advance His cause, yet the person entrusted with one talent is accountable for that one and becomes unfaithful by hiding it. Selfish pursuit of gain that keeps a person from faithfully using what Christ entrusted brings account and reward corresponding to fidelity, perseverance and earnest effort.

Hiding describes selfishly retaining means as long as possible and planning to meet God's claims only by bequests at death, without self-denial and multiplying nothing entrusted. It is willing means principally to children, especially to unbelieving children who already have abundance and serve the world, merely because they are children, while giving nothing or only a meager pittance to the cause of God, which lightly regards God's claims and sins against the Master. Property thus left principally to children frequently proves a curse to them, a source of temptation and an open door to many dangerous and hurtful lusts. Faithful stewardship requires disposing of property while of sound mind and good judgment with prayerful consideration and with experienced counselors who know the truth and divine will, providing for afflicted or poor children who will make judicious use of means, and using surplus means while living to advance God's cause and carry on work in His vineyard. Those who wait until death to dispose of property surrender it to death rather than to God, contrary to God's plain plan and at great risk since those entrusted afterward may not use the talents as well, and children who influence aged believing parents to leave property in their hands take fearful responsibilities.

Money lying idle in banks or hidden in the earth is a buried talent that must be put into circulation and wisely invested to save souls rather than kept out of circulation. The entrusted money was meant to be put to use for the Master and increased before He comes, including by supporting meetinghouses, sanitariums and schools that prepare workers and train missionaries to serve throughout the world. Using even one talent to bring someone into the truth doubles it, and that person's bringing others into the truth increases it further. By creation and redemption all servants belong to Christ, and every talent He bestows including means is to be used in saving fallen humanity and rescuing perishing souls from Satan's power, such as by putting entrusted money into circulation to advance work begun in Nashville and to strengthen work in Southern California.

Hiding the Lord's money is withholding the tenth of all increase, which He claims as His as the very least to be returned, and withholding tithes, gifts and offerings meant to advance His work and support preachers who teach Scripture. Digging in the earth and hiding it is embezzling property committed in trust to be returned to the Lender, defrauding the Creator and robbing God, and all so withheld is recorded in heaven as robbery requiring repentance and not corrected merely by afterward beginning to work on the right principle. Withholding tithes and offerings and being careless and indifferent with entrusted means blocks the way so truth cannot go to regions beyond and leaves the treasury empty so workers at home and in foreign fields cannot be supported. True stewards regard themselves as stewards of the Lord's property and God as supreme proprietor to whom they must render His own with increase when He requires it, by devoting themselves and their property to God in life, bringing tithes and gifts and offerings, restricting personal wants, and increasing talents by constant use.

Hiding the talent is what many profess when they claim a right to do what they please with possessions and fail to use their Lord's money so souls are saved. That withholding is covetousness, which is idolatry and worship of mammon, and being selfish with entrusted means gives victory to Satan and cannot grow without great loss of souls to Christ. Practical benevolence in using means for Christ would give spiritual life to nominal professors, transforming them from selfish, covetous worshipers of mammon into earnest, faithful co-workers with Christ in salvation of sinners. Because God has done great things every heart should expand with generous feeling and determination to return His entrusted talents to Him so His moral image in man may be restored. Having only a small amount is no excuse for doing nothing, for money like other possessions is a sacred trust to be used to advance God's work and build His kingdom, not to glorify self or satisfy selfish desire.

To bury is to tie up the Lord's goods in business and worldly enterprises instead of using them intelligently to bring souls into truth and spread knowledge of truth where the third angel's message has never been heard. It is misappropriating the Lord's goods and sending means into the enemy's lines, such as putting money into buildings thinking to make money for self, and whoever does this is not safe, obtains no blessing, receives no reward, brings loss on himself and may lose every dollar. Fear and lack of faith lead to leaving means unused in buildings and worldly enterprises, while faith working by love uses the Lord's goods diligently and brings returns by winning souls. The right use is to lay means up in the bank of heaven by spending it to do good and add souls to God's cause, which is the safest way to make money and the wisest circulation of means. Burying leaves cities barren, unworked and unenlightened, criticizing and blocking those trying to work, so God's purpose is not fulfilled.

Burying puts capabilities in the enemy's service by following the enemy's suggestions, though the servant who could not use the talent himself could have entrusted it to someone faithful. His claim that fear of a hard master made him hide the money is a false excuse for unfaithful stewardship. To be afraid to surrender God-given abilities to the Master is to place them in the enemy's service by burying them, and capabilities and talents used for earthly gain rather than committed to Christ and His work are lost and dwindle away.

Burying Abilities Time Truth

Hiding the lord's money is knowing present truth and having great light, opportunities, privileges, intellect and spiritual abilities yet doing nothing in service, feeling no burden, ceasing to witness, and letting souls perish out of Christ through idle, slothful church membership. Every converted soul is appointed to witness, and the light given must shine not in much talk only but in good works, used not for self-pleasing but for the Lord in perfect obedience. The buried talent must be unearthed and put out to the exchangers by going to work for the Master, for no idler will be found inside the kingdom, and sleeping churches must awake to the urgency opposite to the angel flying in the midst of heaven proclaiming the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Digging in the earth and hiding is withholding truth and refusing soul-saving work after feasting upon it for years, for which the doer will be pronounced slothful, and the excuse of not being qualified does not justify it because consecration gives wisdom, tongue and utterance that adversaries cannot gainsay. Unused talents that should have been traded upon with every talent of light, ability and influence will be required again with the improvements required of stewards, while faithful use develops increasing consecration, efficiency and tact as laborers together with God.

The talent includes intellect, affections, speech, influence, reason, wealth and whole power belonging to God, and refusing to trade is wasting, corrupting, weakening, dwarfing, squandering and misapplying the trust instead of increasing it. Burying is failing to realize ownership and accountability for influence and wasted opportunity, belittling speech and mind through reckless, trifling, cheap, light words that mold associates downward to what is low and ignoble and by that influence strengthen evil. Hiding is perverting natural powers of mind and body, especially faculties of mind and power of speech, to the service of evil instead of constantly improving them to feed other minds with rich intellectual food and benefit young and aged through association as a blessing to the world. Influence, voice and intellect cannot be misapplied without robbing God, but are to be bound up with Him, consecrated and improved to the uttermost by diligence and fidelity in present duty with passions conquered through grace, for He will with rigorous impartiality demand His own with usury. Even one talent traded in small investment with unselfish, unwearied diligence is not in vain, for God makes the effort fruitful and pronounces blessing on it.

Burying the entrusted talent by indifference wastes opportunities to care for and reach sinners nearby, in home churches and neighborhoods, and forfeits the reward pictured as a star-gemmed crown. It is remaining idle while the work stands still, mourning talents never given and aspiring after great things instead of doing present small work with earnest fidelity, when even the lowly, uneducated, poor, feeble, sick and suffering who have only one talent of means, opportunities and abilities must labor with whole soul to warn the world and convert others to truth with the same tact and diligence put into temporal matters. God does not require the champion's work from the lowly, alms from poverty, or active energies from the feeble, but accepts faithful effort according to what a person has and not according to what he has not. Failure to employ the trust leaves guilt for souls in the darkness of error who never hear truth, including when a physician fails to point a sick person to the Saviour, and meets accountability at the reckoning. This failure makes the church weak and apathetic and makes backsliders, calling for aggressive warfare and true missionary spirit for saving souls.

Giving oneself to novel reading is burying talent, bringing the mind under Satan's control often without knowing it, instead of using every God-given power for Christ as commanded to make the most of and improve every talent. Burying the single talent is living for self when God desires abilities improved for Him and used in His work, and having but one talent does not justify hiding it, for that one carefully used would accomplish much and might have been doubled, while failure to improve it brings great loss. The need is using every gift aright, including the talent of speaking helpful, uplifting words to bless others.

The verse applies to workers who think they can do very little because they lack special training, such as in medical institutions, for Christ gave to one five, to another two, and to another one, yet desires every worker to do his best. Even with but one talent each is to use it wisely and put it out to the exchangers to increase it, doing all he can to roll back disease and distress, coming to the help of the Lord against mighty darkness, and gaining intelligence and knowledge so His glory is revealed with clearness and power. Neglecting ability and then making the master responsible for that neglect brings no excuse, for gifts differ according to ability and each is accountable for using what he has, not what he lacks, and faithful use rather than size earns commendation. The educated man who boasts in learning but avoids effort to develop and use abilities is like this servant, condemned as slothful and dismissed from the Lord's presence, while faithful use brings increase and approval. Burying is failing to use abilities and opportunities in service to Jesus and hiding gifts in worldly pursuits instead of putting powers to work for Christ, and a physician's valuable opportunity to serve as minister of righteousness is likewise wasted when he fails to speak or act at the right time and neglects a timely opportunity.

The lesson applies to life, health, reasoning powers, physical and mental strength, money and opportunities placed in care to be used faithfully for God's glory with self-denial and cross-bearing, giving account for use, while wasting them on vain enjoyment makes unfaithful servants. A talent is not limited to money but includes kindly affections, generous impulses, spiritual understanding and social influence, and burying is leaving such qualities unused instead of serving others, which increases responsibility and makes guilty those who know the Master's will but withhold kindness while condemning others for selfishness. Time itself is a talent where every moment has eternal consequences and must be treasured for holy purposes, and time spent in selfish pleasure instead of blessing others is buried and lost for eternity. Mind and body must be guarded from self-indulgence and misuse and kept ready for service conformed to Christ's will, for weakening one part diminishes usefulness of the whole. No one is excused from serving Christ, life, talents, means and opportunities are trusts belonging to Him to be judged for faithful or unfaithful stewardship, greater gifts bringing greater responsibility, and each case is decided according to faithfulness in assigned work, justified by faith but judged and rewarded according to works.

Burying means neglecting daily opportunities, failing to let light shine and pass truth to those in darkness, which makes one fruitless like a fruitless tree, whereas every believer is called to illuminate others by giving time, influence, ability, intellect, sympathy, affection and money. It is leaving ability unimproved or abusing it instead of using it for Christ and to win souls, with account to be given to God, and unused gifts can hinder others' good work. Keeping abilities or resources idle while waiting for a better opportunity is no better than selfishly withholding them, for merely possessing gifts is not enough and unused qualities increase responsibility. Hiding ability in the world is like folding the talent away and casts away the crown of life, for God claims each person's service and gives everyone responsibilities to accept and discharge faithfully.

Burying is hearing truth constantly yet neglecting to impart what is received, folding hands in contentment and doing nothing while expecting God to keep supplying spiritual necessities, which makes churches barren and unfruitful and leaves them in danger of starving spiritually to death. God requires every steward to use the entrusted talent, giving rich gifts freely to others and keeping heart channels flooded with light of His presence to reveal Christ, laboring as one who must give account. Keeping received knowledge and light to self instead of communicating to neighbors, friends and those enslaved by appetite, and leaving soul-winning to ministers while folded in ease, leaves souls starving without the Holy Spirit and power from above. Hiding light and knowledge instead of imparting it, keeping truth in the outer court instead of bringing it into the inner temple to sanctify the heart, and failing to shine by deportment and character corresponding with profession through light, frivolous, worldly, money-loving, self-centered life, meets the unfaithful servant's fate without the Good and faithful word, for all will be judged according to light shining on the pathway today. Those who impart what they receive keep on imparting in order to continue receiving, gaining knowledge that dissatisfies with self, shows the great work to be done, separates from hurtful habits lest another be harmed, keeps gained treasure constantly added to, raises to higher service and readiness for vacancies, and prevents vanity in responsibility as Christ opens beauty of truths not yet comprehended, while those who neglect to impart cannot expect continued supply but those who impart gain strength and blessing.

Leading workers hide talents when they gather all responsibilities upon themselves because they think they can do work more perfectly, spreading over too much ground until they carry burdens they have no strength to carry and can do justice to nothing. By doing so they hinder the work they desire to advance, giving others no chance to think, act, be caretakers and lift burdens, educating people to look to men and depend upon others rather than go to God, which is why there are not more apt, skillful, efficient workers in great need while vital energies of the best are worn out. The individual and the church have responsibilities of their own to be prayerfully considered, each to use and improve talents and individual judgment given him, thereby increasing capability to serve, with no minister depending on certain leading minds to define duties and no one mind controlling and molding a conference, for high position brings no new power or virtues and no human mind can plan all branches. Withholding or neglecting what God entrusted includes keeping responsibility centralized instead of allowing talents and minds to be used, and when one keeps responsibilities and does not patiently train others their talents stay hidden instead of growing and multiplying. Those entrusted with responsibilities who fail in appointed work hide what was lent by leaving proper place, assuming burdens God never meant, filling minds with buying, selling and getting gain, not keeping heart free from oppression, selfishness, dishonesty and underhand dealing, not representing the Lord in business, and not daily striving in humility to improve lent talents and double them after the divine pattern, lose Christian experience. Burying is encouraged when young inexperienced preachers are injured by flattery and relieved of life's burdens, for those thinking they must preach are not entitled to throw themselves upon brethren for support until growth to able workmanship with good fruits is shown, and when not preaching should do what they can for own support.

Hiding occurs when a man refuses to think and act for himself and lets another mind be brains for him, becoming a mere shadow, machine and cipher, but God gave every man ability to think and act and entrusted talents to be used and strengthened by bearing individual responsibility without shrinking from risk. Talents grow by exercising every faculty even in little things until power for larger responsibilities is acquired, by thinking independently and testing plans rather than blindly assenting, by bringing plans to the divine Counselor, and by steady uniform energy adding day by day to stock of ideas as if moments were jewels to be gathered and cherished, thus acquiring breadth of thought and strength of intellect as a whole, strong, balanced man. Doing another's thinking for him wrongs him and deprives him of education in overcoming cowardice, ignorance and inefficiency with thoughtful zeal, for individual judgment is a gift to be exercised and developed, not surrendered to a leader.

Parents are stewards of children's training and will be called to account for unfaithful stewardship if careless, and hiding is doing only surface work instead of earnestly training and molding character, failing in childhood and youth to preoccupy heart soil and sow seeds of truth in earliest years. Faithful stewardship keeps domestic education abreast of literary education, combining practical and literary training, storing the mind with knowledge, and tenderly teaching children Christ as personal Saviour so giving hearts and minds to Him they become disciples complete in Him. Neglecting God-given home work of training children fails to improve entrusted capabilities and robs God of influence those children should have at home and beyond, whether given one talent or several. It leaves talents, powers and moments unused through selfish ease instead of diligent honest work, robbing children of blessings, discipline, order, thoroughness, knowledge and efficiency they should receive, leaving them unable to sustain themselves and succeed, and giving perverted impression that useful labor and intelligent knowledge are contrary to proper custom. Parents too are to invest wisely the talents entrusted to them and put abilities to best use.

Ability to sing is a talent entrusted by God to be cultivated and used for His glory rather than left unused, and musical ability consecrated to His service must not be used for self-pleasure or to draw self and others toward friendship with the world, for each must answer whether abilities glorified God. A physician's valuable opportunity to serve as minister of righteousness is likewise wasted when he fails to speak or act at the right time to point the sick to the Saviour and help another find salvation. A teacher who spends time on long unsuitable speeches while neglecting practical work for souls likewise fails to use what the Lord entrusted in Christ's service.

Health is a talent entrusted by God for whose use people are responsible to the Creator, and strength, time and intellect are entrusted not owned, to be put to useful work for God's honor and humanity's good. Strength like money is a trust, and failing to use it to best advantage and wisely rather than holding it back or letting it waste through inaction is failure of stewardship, and withholding it because keeping it is agreeable is wrong. Strength, time and talents belong to God for wise use in serving Him and doing good, and each young person is accountable for putting them to work for His glory and salvation of others and must not leave abilities and resources unused.

Those who bury talents are unfaithful stewards and will be replaced by workers who put God's means into wise circulation, for means are talents entrusted to trustees not owners to be used in advancing the work Christ came to do. Not a farthing is to be squandered on selfish indulgence or left idle through little interest in God's work, and selfishly withholding obstructs the work and may lead God to remove gifts and entrust them to others who will honor the trust. The unfaithful will be replaced by poor honest humble souls, and God will call every steward to account with fear and trembling, for decisions of the last day turn upon practical benevolence acknowledged as done to Himself.

Every church member according to his several ability is the light of the world expected to enlighten and bless others, whether rich or poor, great or humble, called into active service with every trained mind, disciplined intellect and jot of ability brought into saving souls, for God depends upon the church for forwarding His work and expects duty as intelligent beings. Even the one talent given to the smallest gift has a place and work appointed by God to accomplish when wisely used instead of hidden, and faithfulness in little duties works on addition while God works on multiplication so littles become most precious influences. Humble gifts are needed in house-to-house work and may accomplish more there than brilliant gifts and may reach a class those with more talents cannot, while those with greater gifts must not silence the less able. The parable includes every degree of means and ability with talents in proportion to capabilities and work assigned to each, the least valuable to God, and faithful use brings commendation and eternal life in contrast to the buried talent, with no one excused from serving Christ.

Knowledge, talents, means, opportunities and business are lent to test character and must be accounted for, given to be used in service to others, so hiding them does not fulfill intended use. Gifts and abilities natural and spiritual are to be employed in Christ's service with every part improved, and hiding is conduct of an unprofitable slothful servant robbing God of what should be used for His glory. Entrusted goods are to be consecrated and used to increase what can be devoted to Him, and no one can hand own responsibility to another, for each has duty in God's cause as faithful steward. Even those with less ability have opportunity to use and impart what they have, as in the account of verses 15-20 bringing satisfaction to servant and interested others.