Matthew 25:20, commentary and pictures

The verse shows the servant entrusted with five talents putting them faithfully to work to gain five more and then coming to present both the original trust and the increase to his lord. The traveling master is Christ leaving earth for heaven, and the servants are His professed followers bought at infinite price who must render an account, with watching meaning diligent work and continually increasing capabilities rather than idle waiting. The present time while the Master is away is the trading time before probation ends, when every capability must be put out to use for fellow men rather than hidden. Talents include positions, duties, skill, education, tact, perseverance, zeal, influence, means and time, all sacred capital still belonging to the Lord including the increase. Faithful servants who use five to gain five more will be rewarded, in contrast to slothful servants who bury their trust, for greater gifts bring greater responsibility requiring return with increase through good works and saving souls.

Verse Story and Setting

The servant who had received five talents traded with them, gained five more beside them, and came presenting both the original trust and the increase to his lord, showing that what is entrusted must be faithfully put to work and returned with increase rather than hidden. The talents are gifts and blessings belonging to God, to be used according to His Word and not merely human judgment, and they multiply when diligently and conscientiously used to glorify Him and advance the work of truth. Investing what He lends in His cause to save souls brings the Master's approval and glory to God, and God rewards every servant who works with self-denying, self-sacrificing zeal for the salvation of souls. The good steward returns his talents with interest while claiming nothing for himself, for there would have been no gain without the deposit and no interest without the principal, and his trading is done in sight of unseen intelligences with a witness constantly by his side.

The talents entrusted include intellect, affections, speech, influence, and other powers and opportunities belonging to God, and each person has a sphere of service proportioned to powers and capacities. No gift is too small to matter, for even a small gift put to use in faith and unselfish diligence can produce fruitful results and bring a fitting return to the Giver. God values a gift by its proportion and motive and not merely its size, and He expects improvement and gains proportionate to what was received, rewarding each person according to work. Wasting these gifts through careless words and conduct buries and corrupts them and lowers the minds of others, while faithful use benefits others and advances the truth. Refusing to use means for God's cause out of fear or treating them as one's own brings no reward, and falling short of developing gifts up to the standard light and privileges make possible leaves members accountable.

The verse belongs to the parable of the talents in Matthew 24-25, given shortly before entering Gethsemane, within the discourse spoken early in the morning after crossing the mount, among the last public parables. Together with the parable of the ten virgins it teaches the solemn duty of unselfish, watchful labor in God's cause and calls for readiness for Jesus' second coming in the clouds. Watching for Christ's coming means diligent work rather than idle waiting or meditation alone, requiring personal consecration and continually increasing capabilities. The traveling master represents Christ leaving earth for heaven, and the servants represent professed followers bought at infinite price by His sufferings and blood to secure willing service, who must render an account and return His own with usury.

The lesson was given to the disciples for Christians living in the last days, and it binds servants now to waiting, watching, praying and working. It is to be studied and compared with the life record with close, critical self-examination over how each is trading on the Lord's talents and whether putting them out to the exchangers. Mere profession of faith has no value unless love is shown through works, and feelings are no criterion; assurance is known by working on nearest burdens and building character daily by grace. Abilities give no ground for boasting or exalting self over sincere workers, for the capital is the Lord's and not one's own for pleasure, and gifts call for humble dependence in continually receiving and imparting grace, with Jesus alone to be exalted.

The present is the trading time while the Master is away before probation ends, in which God-given capabilities and opportunities must be used for the Master for fellow men and the widow and fatherless. Having a name in the church book does not secure entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Faithfulness is shown by working for the One who gave His life for the world, doing missionary work for those perishing in sins, and each one who has denied himself and purified his soul through belief of the truth at once does that work. To bury talents means to withhold influence or money from His cause and let them lie dormant in the earth, and those who do so will be condemned when the Master comes to reckon. No person living is without a gift from God, from the highest to the lowest, and every individual is held responsible to make the most of it, for God keeps an account and requires His own with usury; those who misapply grace so it does not benefit others are consumers but not producers.

Special gifts do not warrant despising others, and devotion to service brings highest esteem. Every man, woman and child possesses varied talents which may be sanctified to the Master's use, to be prized as His gifts and sacredly consecrated to His glory, not used to glorify self. No one is to be so controlled as to express and act another man's mind, and talent is not for a favored class to look down on others as deficient in tact and intellect. Each from the lowest and most obscure to the highest has his place in the family of God and is a responsible agent to the Donor, to whom he must render an account of mental and physical endowments. It is not the number of talents that makes men valuable in His sight, but the way they appreciate and employ them, and the smallest gift is not to be ignored or despised; if faithful and humble, realizing dependence upon Him, they will receive wisdom as Daniel did and become trusted.

Faithful stewardship lays up unfailing treasure in heaven by giving one's own means to the treasury while living rather than hoarding through fear, transferring to children, or giving only at death. Property is talents lent to stewards to use for His glory, entrusted to the father himself, and children are not to become responsible for them. Parents while of sound mind and judgment, with prayer and help of proper counsellors of experience in the truth who know the divine will, should dispose of their own property themselves to meet God's claims first and advance His cause, considering afflicted or struggling children in poverty who will make judicious use of means. To place means in hands of unbelieving children who have abundance and are serving the world merely because they are children is a sin against the Master, and property willed principally to children with none for God or only a meager pittance becomes a curse to the heirs, a source of temptation and an open door to many dangerous and hurtful lusts, robbing God and self of heavenly treasure. Children who in direct or indirect way influence aged parents to divide property while living or will it mainly to them take fearful responsibilities, while believing children ought in fear of God to counsel and entreat parents to be true to profession and take a course God can approve.

All are to be producers as well as consumers, serving others rather than avoiding responsibility, and must do their allotted work fully, for to do only one-third leaves the other two-thirds working against Christ. Talents include positions of trust, duties and responsibilities, with five talents meaning larger responsibilities than two, as well as skill, education, tact, perseverance, zeal, life, health, reasoning powers and every moment. A worker faithful in little and least, thorough in everything, climbing every round with deep thought, mastery, solidity, intelligent knowledge, carefulness and thoroughness, proves fitness to bear heavier burdens and receive Well done, while grasping for the highest round without climbing step by step is self-inflation that falls short. Life and every ability are a sacred trust to be wisely improved in doing all possible good for His honor and fellow men, because results will be seen in eternity and the use of every talent will be examined at His coming.

Talents Defined and Shared

God gives to each person gifts according to ability, and even a small gift has a real purpose that must be faithfully used. Humble work such as visiting homes can accomplish what brilliant gifts cannot, and the servant who rightly uses one talent is as truly rewarded as the servant who rightly uses five. Trading wisely on one talent leads God to give ability to use a larger number, for that work is no less real than the work of five and calls for all the more earnest effort. The talent of money is multiplied when used to spread truth, for one person brought into truth represents a doubling and that person bringing others a further increase. Neglect to improve talents by use to gain others to render back to the Giver is backsliding that calls for confession and softening of heart under the Spirit, and daily choices shape the individual account each must give.

One talent traded upon gains another, two put out to usury gain two more, and four working on the same principle make eight. This calls for daily consecration, dying to self and living the new life unto God, letting the breath of heaven circulate through the soul and taking up appointed work in a trustful happy mind that sees, understands and is kept safe from failure. God gives every person work with means, opportunities and abilities proportioned to capability, and those with greatest trusts bear greatest responsibility. Faithfulness means putting the same tact, sharpness and diligence into work for God as into temporal matters, investing and sacrificing to put the talent out to the exchangers by laboring with the whole soul to convert others from darkness of error to present truth. God does not require the lowly and uneducated to work like champions of faith, nor poverty to give what it lacks, nor the feeble and sick to exert the energies of the healthy, but accepts earnest faithful use of even one according to what a person has. No one is to remain idle aspiring after great things but to do present small work with fidelity in his own sphere, as rill, shrub, lamp and star each fill their place, for all time, property and self are loans from the Master who paid wages of His own blood and sufferings.

The talents are gems of truth to be appreciated and brought into character — Bible truth, preciousness of promise, justification by faith, righteousness of Christ — and trading means putting every ray of light and jot of influence on the Lord's side instead of burying self in earthly business. The one-talent man has this work and is not excused, and if all influence and ability is used to plan money-making and lay up earthly treasure God calls him to account and takes away even what he has, even ability itself, for there is a gathering that scattereth and a scattering that increaseth. Merely returning what was received does not satisfy the Lord, who holds men accountable for talents they might have possessed and good Christ died to make possible, with judgment referring not especially to actual transgressions but to neglect of doing what might have been done. He who does not improve talents is a slothful untrustworthy servant unworthy of heavenly courts, disappointing the Master and responsible for souls lost through unfaithfulness, upon whom must fall the penalty of failing God's purpose. A day of reckoning will reveal how each used or abused entrusted means and opportunities in proportion to ability and opportunity, and the return expected is proportionate to what each has been given.

Mere profession of belief does not save, for devils believe and tremble without right faith, and assurance of acceptance is not known by feelings which are no criterion but by going to work and taking up burdens lying next to you as laborers together with God. Believers are God's husbandry and building whom God builds, for no one can build or cleanse himself from a single spot of sin, but by taking hold of God's power he builds for time and eternity. Faithful use means having a molding influence, studying to bring solid timbers into character, cultivating right disposition and building character daily by grace from Christ, for a fractious fretting miserable temper cannot build for eternity nor enter His kingdom. God measures not only what is done but what could have been done, and unused talents bring eternal loss even if the soul is not lost. People are accountable for time, influence, abilities and skills held in trust, and using them in earnest work for humanity's good is carrying out God's plan, with those who serve remaining learners as well as teachers.

Bringing other five talents means working to save souls, for salvation of one soul means saving of many because through that one Christ can work, letting heaven's light shine into the heart to be imparted to others. This faithful increase is expected and required of all with talents of intellect and money used to advantage of God's work, not hidden in business tending to peril rather than saving of soul, and gain must be made now while it is day for night comes when no man can work. No one is to give entrusted capabilities to another or give up stewardship of means for another to use, for that is unfaithfulness putting it out of his power to do work God lent him talents to do. The Lord would have every man and woman manage his own business, handle his own talents, invest them in His cause, pray and work and study and plan and acquire more correct knowledge of working, doing wise trading with every dollar, because all means belongs to God and is to be appropriated as necessities of work demand including helping the poor and lifting the standard of truth. Young people by grace of Christ with opportunities to know God can make this faithful productive use and return increase.

What is entrusted is sacred capital still belonging to the Lord including the increase, purchased at great cost by blood and sufferings to secure willing service, and no one with reason can excuse neglecting to return to God what is His. The servant coming with five more shows diligent use must double the trust in God's service, and doing so reveals God's character to a sinful world. Abilities and resources are loaned to be wisely improved, and faithful use even begun with little can multiply what is entrusted and bring revenue to God's work with divine commendation. The talent grows through exercise, and faithful use of what a person has leads to greater responsibility and influence through giving self to God and letting the Holy Spirit shape character. Talents are abilities suited to work He calls to do, not distributed capriciously, and no one is to sleep at post of duty, with responsibility growing more urgent as end of earth's history approaches. Houses, lands and money are also trusts for which account is owed, to be put to fruitful use seeking opportunities to do good and advance His cause, for rescuing even one soul is worthwhile because that soul is worth more than a world.

Servants must learn to trade before they can accumulate more, for the Master sees no profit in giving most precious truth to those who wait and do not use what is already committed. Every servant is to begin trading on the very first endowment at once by putting goods out to the exchangers, calling attention of others to their value, presenting sacred truth by precept and example, seeking wisdom daily, searching Scriptures diligently and working in conscious partnership with God. In that faithful trading the Lord educates workers and develops executive ability, the gospel becomes power and wisdom to the worker, life and character are transformed into Christ's until he is a living epistle known and read of all men, and efficiency comes from the Spirit working in the contrite humble soul sensing weakness and casting helplessness upon Christ. No gift is too small to matter, and even the least talented can enlarge capabilities by doing best, for the Lord can use the smallest gift to advance His cause when its possessor has faith. A small ability used faithfully from love is noticed and blessed, and a small offering given cheerfully is not despised, while God does not require the poor to give what they lack nor mourning over never-entrusted talents.

Christ's servants are entrusted with His interests during His absence and must faithfully use what He gave and give account at His return, with ministers and members responsible for caring for His work. Abilities and opportunities are to be developed and used faithfully to cultivate powers and prepare to bear responsibilities, not to exalt self but to glorify God. Each must ask how the Lord's talents are being used and not betray trust by giving strength of purpose, tact and skill to earthly things and only feeble diseased service to God, for God will not accept that and the eternal must not be made secondary to the temporal. Faithfulness means Christ dwelling in the heart, showing forth praises of Him who called out of darkness into marvelous light, falling not short in duty and being doers of word and not hearers only in whole-hearted effort to make His name a praise in earth.

Faithful stewards use means to advance God's cause and bless others and receive greater responsibility and resources as they dispense them, returning talents with increase at reckoning. Gaining other talents requires education disciplining the mind, developing powers and directing them with understanding to be useful in advancing God's glory, including a school for entering ministers to learn common branches and more perfectly truths of God's word for this time with lectures on prophecies, so good abilities are greatly benefited by even a few months' instruction. The church must improve what God committed to trust, and light received makes it responsible to let light shine that others glorify God. A person shut away by selfishness can become useful and work with Christ if selfishness shutting away from God's light and love is broken down. Talents represent the Lord's goods including money and gifts of mind and body to be used for the Owner and extension of His kingdom, with account at Christ's second coming revealing whether wisely invested and reward according to works, so spending needlessly or withholding from God's work is unfaithful.

The present time is the period of stewardship when servants must trade with the Lord's goods, which are means, speech, influence and every capability to be used in Master's service and multiplied by wise investment through increased capacity. God requires proportionate gain: three entrusted cannot return only two, while even one doubled secures place in Christ's service and final approval. Devoting time, means and energies to self is terrible mistake for a professed Christian; faithfulness means denying self to follow Christ even accepting loss of life for His sake to find it unto life eternal. Faithful trading means using light and means to sustain work in hard discouraging mission fields, so able workers are raised to carry last mercy message where truth never had standing and representatives sustaining work in all branches are added to the church. The barren unworked condition of cities testifies to failure, and criticizing others instead of entering neglected fields and showing what can be done blocks wheels for those trying to work.

Every position of trust and honor is stewardship, and all influence, capability and knowledge are the Lord's goods to be returned by trading for Him, putting goods out to exchangers for advancement of cause to save souls. Talents must be increased so truth and the third angel's message go to places never heard, doing work intelligently, not tying goods in business but using them to bring souls into truth. Improving talents as faithfully as if reaping all benefits for self, manifesting unselfish interest in His property in word, spirit and deed as example of truth, causes His property to accumulate and spread knowledge through advance moves lifting standard in new places while way is open, and if faithful it will become steward's own through identification with the Redeemer. Trading means employing whole mind, soul, heart and strength now, preparing soul to labor, seeking Lord in full surrender to do anything He directs, using means to bring souls to present truth rather than investing in worldly business binding resources needed for God's work. As people receive truth and use talents the work advances and talents increase, and stewards must account and return with increase laying treasure in heaven.

The lesson applies to ministers who must faithfully develop gifts, serve with self-denial and Christlike character and keep advancing rather than becoming self-confident, careless or irreligious. It applies to physicians whose opportunities to speak for Christ are precious, illustrating value of using and exchanging abilities to reach people and serve truth where different gifts and shared responsibilities help work prosper. Talents represent abilities and powers to be increased by faithful use, employed to bless others and honor God. Entrusted talents including influence are to be carefully used to bring people to Christ, not turned into jest or denial. Different servants have different gifts and none has every qualification, so they should work together rather than act independently, envy others' gifts or depreciate their work, making most of what is given to honor Him. Faithfulness belongs in daily business with self-sacrifice after Christ who suffered the just for the unjust.

Measure and Faithfulness

All powers of mind and body belong to God by purchase and are lent in trust to be cultivated, strengthened and increased by use for His glory, never to be spent in pleasing self or in harmful indulgence such as tobacco, nor withheld for worldly ambition. Every youth is formed for activity with varied mental, moral and physical capabilities, time and intellect, and no one is his own master to do as he pleases; stewardship binds every believer through successive generations, including the sharing of light, and even the lowest humble service done for His will is accepted. Each worker must value, develop and put to active diligent use the gifts and judgment entrusted, rather than leaving them unused or relying on a leader to direct every matter, for applying what is learned can draw others to seek training for Christ's service. Ability rightly recognized, prepared and employed according to capability grows by trading, so that humble visiting work may accomplish what brilliant gifts cannot, and rejecting the gospel and failing to use what is entrusted leads to loss of immortal life.

The servant who received five talents put them to productive use, gained five more, and returned all ten, illustrating wholehearted accounting in which all that is held is acknowledged as entrusted by Jesus and used not for self-serving but in complete service to God. Faithfulness in what is least prepares for greater trust, while laziness and careless idleness contrast with the diligent steward; entrusted abilities and resources, great or small, are to be used humbly in God's work and in sharing knowledge with others. Resources lent by the Lord are to be used wisely when called upon to advance His cause, for God holds each accountable for opportunities and expects diligent improvement through thorough, painstaking effort that yields greater service and helps others. Added stewardship beyond present ability and responsibility becomes a burden that cannot be managed well, as when taking a father's property enlarged W. C.'s trust beyond what he could use for good and God's glory rather than selfish gain; returning what is lent sustains salvation against darkness, and growth in capability bears upon eternal destiny.

Greater gifts bring greater responsibility and require much accomplishment, with increase returned through good works, sharing truth, and saving others. The time of trust will be followed by a day of reckoning when each must answer for gifts and opportunities, and unused capacities also count in the judgment; returning the means entrusted through faithful service leads to greater responsibility, and duties done in His name are rewarded and bring happiness. All who profess Christ are accountable for gifts and for light and truth given them, must show union with Him through character and works, and that light will testify against those who turn from it. To do nothing with talents and make little effort to share Christ's grace is sinful neglect that will meet the neglected at the judgment with conviction, for consecrated abilities are to be diligently increased and put to work for others.

Influence, possessions, means and knowledge are entrusted by God to be devoted wholly to His glory and used for His call, and accountability covers not only what is done but abilities and opportunities that could have been used; unused powers bring loss. Varied gifts must be multiplied by active, zealous, self-denying work, learning how to employ talents by using them even with mistakes and correction, doing the work faithfully to the best of ability amid hardship rather than wasting opportunity in idleness. Money is to be put into missionary fields while opportunity lasts rather than into banks, for God proves stewards to see whether they will acknowledge Him in His gifts, advance His glory without exalting self or oppressing the poor, and render to Him what is His. All the earth, its treasures, cattle, gold and silver remain His; He requires no offering for His need but receives the freewill offering of the humble contrite heart as grateful obedience, rewards with richest blessing, accepts improvement of time and talents as fruit of love, and counts obedience better than sacrifice, while without pure love even the costliest offering is too poor to accept.

Keeping entrusted blessings to self instead of sharing repeats unfaithful stewardship, and each must administer the trust personally under God rather than shifting responsibility to another body such as the conference. The talent means personal testimony, influence, strength, help and burden-bearing to bring souls to truth and sustain the church, and it must not be buried on the plea that testimony is unneeded where many believers already meet, by laying off burden and doing scarcely anything. Faithful use demands double energy, watchfulness, prayer and diligent duty, taking special burden where labor would otherwise remain undone; burying brings dearth of soul, dwarfed spirituality, idleness in the vineyard, dead weight upon burden-bearers, and a fast-withered branch. The church is weighed by whether its moral and spiritual condition matches the light, benefits and blessings given, and unused talents, imperfect fruit, or light become darkness leaving it wanting; faithful ministry means not merely preaching but coming close to hearts with skill and wisdom to present precious testing truth winsomely to win souls.

Condemnation comes not from lack of knowledge but from refusing advancing light, which becomes darkness proportionate to the light despised. God alone judges capability and scrutinizes returns, expecting return proportionate to hereditary and cultivated ability, and He increases the gifts of faithful users unto eternal life while what does not grow is cut off. The five talents are every physical and mental capability to be carefully preserved and put to best and highest use to advance His glory by availing of provision made through Christ; to pervert powers and abuse gifts is failure to gain, bringing strict account for good that might have been done, since He claims the working of every faculty. Wealth and other resources are talents for God's glory and human uplift, not self-indulgence or self-glorification, and faithful use includes giving and working with God for others' good rather than selfish gain.

Wholehearted service is required because destiny hangs between being found wanting and joining the white-robed throng, and humble use whether great or small prepares for greater work. Entrusted goods include resources to advance God's work and relieve sufferers, and to ignore that duty while spending on what harms others fails to return to God what is His. Talents improved by wise use and accounted for to the Lord build the church through wise instruction, so that established resources help new fields even through self-sacrifice; pursuits that educate and benefit others make powers fruitful, while useless games engross the mind, lead to neglect of God, and waste what was given. Diligent use of opportunities is demanded, with thorough effort doubling what was lent for greater service to others.

Christ has entrusted treasures to the church across generations, the gifts first given to the twelve passing to present workers, and each is accountable for abilities, influence and opportunities used in truth and cooperation with God; burying or wasting opportunity is unfaithfulness. Bringing gain requires daily consecration, thanksgiving and tithes as property accumulates, holding all gifts, strength, faculties and capabilities as lent treasures to be used to best advantage for highest service and God's glory with nothing withheld, improved and perfected by use under a sense of wise and judicious accountability. Talents include abilities, influence, intellect, workers, facilities, time and tenderness to bless humanity and restore His image, to be cultivated day by day through service and learning from Christ rather than wasted in idleness, folly or vanity during the probation given for improvement. For a man with a family this requires right example and training children by precept and example to be intelligent, useful, educated and disciplined stewards who carry forward His work, each using God-given ability wherever placed to become a blessing beginning in the home, especially in labor to save souls in the cities rather than in self-service.

Trading Gaining Souls

The servant who received five talents and brought five more shows that every believer is accountable for putting influence and ability to daily use for the Master during a probationary season, cultivating gifts through service rather than wasting them in idleness, folly, vanity, pride or self-indulgence, with neglect itself counted as sin and unfaithfulness forfeiting reward. During Christ's absence His servants are to remain on duty to uplift those for whom He gave His life, working in faith as vessels of honor and putting the members to work instead of relying on preaching alone, in view of His soon coming and with destiny decided by faithfulness. What is entrusted must be improved by diligent work while time lasts, with humility and careful judgment, for even what seems little is to be used to save perishing souls and honor Christ.

Trading on the Lord's goods is the privilege of displaying heaven's precious truth with tact, planning and personal labor to win all classes, giving the testing message, drawing souls to the spread table and compelling them to come in. It includes winning influential persons, preserving institutions, caring for body and soul in cooperation with Christ, relieving those fallen into distress, and laboring together with prayer as His right hand to work out benevolent purposes. Those who hide their means make no use of them and will be called to account as slothful, while those who feel responsibility and work with every power are the faithful who use means to best advantage and gain increase to give. Talents in this trading include reason, intellect, precious opportunities and entrusted means, to be improved rather than frittered on amusement and self-gratification, for indifference imperils eternal interests and lets the enemy conquer.

Exercising God-given ability brings grace for grace and endowment with the Holy Spirit, just as experience teaches success in temporal business, so workers become wise and faithful in spiritual and eternal things. Unused talents are to be brought into operation and developed by use, with cultivation extending from education in the church to regions beyond, and each generation receives its own trust on which future welfare depends. Talents are to be constantly multiplied without resting, especially as the end nears, with lamps replenished and work done while time remains before night, for they are gifts of grace entrusted as stewards to be faithfully improved. What is lent includes money, possessions, intellect, ability, knowledge and affection, to be valued through the love of Christ and used wisely in unselfish, self-sacrificing service to honor Christ and bless humanity rather than for selfish gratification or display.

The verse pictures faithful servants using five to gain five more who will be rewarded, in contrast to slothful servants who hide, waste or turn gifts to wrong purposes while complaining the Lord is unfair. Talents must not be slighted or abused but developed with a deep sense of accountability and a highest desire to magnify truth by practice, for in the day right upon us every steward will give account of use or abuse. Faithful increase means employing every faculty to scatter blessing, shield the fatherless and defenseless, help the needy and destitute, supply means for education and the cause, economize and save instead of spending in prodigality, display, amusement and pride, since every wasted dollar robs God's treasury. Such service under Christ's supervision, including work for the suffering and needy and energetic use of influence and money to save souls, bears great results, grows grace and knowledge, develops efficiency, brings increased light and enters the Lord's joy.

Believers are to increase talents by quickened zeal to win souls, sowing good seed beside all waters in His vineyard and reaping the harvest so the Master may receive His own with usury. The faithful steward perseveringly seeks the Lord, gives himself wholly, is willing to be and do anything even in humblest unpleasing circumstances, holding every capability and every dollar not as his own but as trustee to misapply not a farthing with eye single to God's glory. Whether one or five or ten, the requirement is the same to endure God's proving, to improve means, ability and intellect for His glory, to seek His Word and share knowledge of God, laying up heavenly treasure rather than spending on earthly advantage. Wealth so used is a sacred loan made spiritually successful by humble Christlike service to the needy and suffering in Christ's place, laying up treasure beside God's throne.

One talent rightly worked may gain another just as five gained five more, for gifts grow by faithful use in the given responsibility instead of idleness. Reward is not all gathered in this life but when judgment sits and books open, when earnest striving in self-denial and self-sacrifice will be seen and some of ordinary talents will be found to have striven more earnestly than those with larger trusts. Time itself is a trust to every man, woman, youth and child, honored by valuing moments and keeping usefully employed to benefit self and bless others rather than misusing hours in doing nothing. Refusing to work because highest wages cannot be had is idle folly, for it is better to work for moderate wages and appreciate labor, and giving money cannot replace this personal service of time on which missionary prosperity depends. Doubling talents means being a working Christian as Christ worked, helping and blessing with unselfish love, preaching the gospel, healing suffering, avoiding criticism, and so being approved good and faithful, made ruler over many and entering the Lord's joy.

What is entrusted must sustain God's work, save the lost and bless others, with unselfish use credited in heaven and sheaves at harvest as recompense, expressed also by giving God the best possessions and service. Workers hold commission from God, acknowledging Christ as Master and no earthly master, and in the last days amid temptation and departure faithfulness means genuine gospel medical missionary work, intelligent speech on truth's sacredness, pointing to present needs, bearing an inspiring message against perverted principle, watching for souls as those who must give account, and pointing to God's standard of righteousness. Even the drunkard proves talents are given to honor God and bless the world as one capable of better things, and those who snare his soul, rob and degrade him while living in luxury will be required at God's hand who marks first cause and last effect and hears the cries of those made in His image and purchased with blood. Mental faculties given to men and women must not be perverted to Satan's service by mingling error with truth and tampering with false leaven, which prostitutes power, obscures landmarks and brings weakness, but are to be kept by jealously guarding simplicity of faith, warned by Solomon's apostasy against joining darkness with light.

Entrusted talents must advance the work by faithful investment including building meetinghouses, establishing sanitariums and starting schools that train workers, winning people to truth and hastening Christ's coming rather than selfish investment alone. They include wisdom and understanding to be developed by deeper experience of God and imparted as channels of blessing, and churches are to train members to carry truth and establish new churches. All powers and blessings are a trust to bless the world and honor the Creator, grounded in humanity formed in His image and pronounced very good, and when all was lost by sin redeemed by the gift of His dear Son so the fallen should live to use powers for others rather than self and perverse will. Laborers pure in heart and life who so use talents in the short time left, reaching common minds with plain pointed truth while souls perish for want of light, have God on their side and angels working with them, laying up eternal riches by winning souls instead of serving selfish desire.

Reckoning Reward Judgment

Resources put in human hands must be worked productively rather than squandered on pride or spent to foster idleness, and the larger the gifts entrusted the heavier the condemnation if they are turned to serve Satan. Abilities grow only by exercise, even in small matters and in practical missionary labor that joins selling books with personal work for others, seeking counsel from God and learning lessons by doing. Greater abilities are placed where they can be best used, and increase comes by diligent development that returns what was entrusted with gain. Parents are stewards of their children's minds and characters, accountable to train them in practical and literary learning and to sow truth in their hearts from earliest years, for neglect of that charge is unfaithfulness to be answered for. Talents are to be laid without reserve at Christ's feet in His service by unfurling true colors before men and angels through choice words and a consistent course, by propriety and earnest piety, by telling confession with Christ enthroned in the soul temple, after the pattern of Joseph and Daniel and his fellows who prized God's favor above princes, could not be tempted from integrity, refused any earthly mandate detracting from God's honor, confessed allegiance even in the king's court, and were signally honored under His shield. Leaders are therefore to give every member a part according to ability so none stands idle and the church does not grow fruitless, since neglected ability can be seized by the enemy, and wealth spent by children without understanding its value is a misused talent meant to accomplish much good.

No talent is to be left idle or surrendered to another's control, for mind and ability are given to think, plan, and act under God without surrendering reason, and the work advances when those powers are allowed to serve. The duty includes testifying to the praise of the Lord in the social meeting, where no one should fail to improve the opportunity to speak, since failure there forfeits experience God would give. Mere claim of ability or talk of what one could do is no substitute for action, for idleness wastes God's property, benefits neither others nor His work, and influence itself, every particle of it, comes from God to be increased in usefulness with self out of sight. Abilities given to those covenanted to His work are to be cultivated to the very best and highest account, carried forward intelligently and unitedly with mutual help, encouragement, and blessing under the Holy Spirit in ministering to the needy. All held by one who knows the truth — position, possessions, business in all its lines, income, opportunities — is held in trust, lent by God to test character and to be accounted for to Him by creation and redemption, to be used in carrying forward His great work of education by gaining the best knowledge of usefulness and laboring for perishing souls, which He will surely bless.

Entrusted talents are light of truth to be used with love for perishing souls to bring additions to the church and souls to Christ, in the greatest work for which Christ paid His blood. Those occupied with their own work who bring none stand responsible for neglected work, rest under displeasure, and have unfaithful stewardship written against their names in the heavenly record. Every child of God, not ministers only, is responsible to put every capability and resource to active use with increase, practicing self-denial rather than turning gifts to self-gratification or self-glory. Personal abilities, means, and influence are to be wisely directed where need arises rather than concentrated in one institution or branch, and those with means should use them wisely at the call of the cause rather than on selfish pleasure, denying self and taking up the cross, and blessing follows. Service must not be divided between God and the world, for even one talent is for Christ's service and divided service spoils for both, while right use puts talents out to exchangers to spread heavenly truth to faithful people who will teach others also, so faithful use improves and increases them, with the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom and instruction from God giving enlightenment.

In every age the Lord gives talents for the saving of the world — powers of mind and body and all resources — to be surrendered as a willing offering, consecrated to His honor, and wisely improved in aggressive missionary work, with His faithful people sustained as light-bearers to the nations including through institutions from which truth shines to every part of the world. They are to be put to work for Him in daily life and in serving those around, to increase His revenue, for failure to serve faithfully robs Him of His own, and those who so fail are the ones who complain most about God and brethren. The talents include the varied abilities of church members for advancing His work and meeting the needs of the poor, with faithful stewardship refusing to withhold tithes and offerings from His treasury. Every talent and opportunity is a trust to be faithfully used so it increases, put to work for the good of others and the saving of souls rather than selfish gratification. The faithful use of five to gain five more measures stewardship, for the Master will reckon with each according to individual ability at His coming, and truth entrusted is to be used in fruitful work that brings others to it.

The talent of means is entrusted to win souls back to God and lay up treasure in heaven, and every steward must render account for goods entrusted. The faithful steward uses the Lord's money for upbuilding the cause, as the one who received five brought back five more, while the unfaithful uses it to glorify self in selfish indulgence and unnecessary display, which harms the soul, hinders advancement, is worse than lost, and is written in the open book before the Watcher who bought His stewards with His blood that they might inherit eternal life and dwell in everlasting mansions. Entrusted capital is not one's own to use as pleased or withdraw selfishly as personal property, and institutions are likewise accountable, for selfish appropriation and investment in worldly schemes dishonor God and fail the trust. Lent talents double when improved and not misapplied, by the same law of accumulation by which evil influence and an example of forgetting God also increase and strengthen sinners' hands. Trading upon the Lord's goods means putting received truth and spiritual gifts to work by sharing what is learned, beginning at home and extending to neighborhood and church, in willing humble service joined with living faith, accompanied by the Holy Spirit and developing greater tact and wisdom, while ability and knowledge are to be used humbly and practically rather than accumulated, imparting what is received to be given more richly.

Success requires staying dependent on the Maker without shame, taking no credit, giving all honor to God before worldly men and brethren, and weeding from life all that would grieve His Spirit. Trading is improving every opportunity to add to acquirements according to holy principles laid down in the Word, which gives multiplied ability, by workers constrained by Christ's love who are not sluggards, not noncommittal, not divided, but of one mind and quick to detect and name error so no cheap work enters the cause. Entrusted resources including money are to be wisely used for the good they can accomplish to advance His work, for God entrusts according to each agent's known ability and expects faithful return, and wealth as a trust is to be returned to Him by opening the way for the gospel and salvation of souls. Human ability and wisdom are entrusted to prove whether gifts are rightly used, so business life must not omit heaven, leave the near eternal reckoning out of calculation, make religion subservient to the world, or put perishing things that are not heaven's golden currency and bear not His image and superscription first; right increase forbids trusting own ability and exalting own wisdom and requires renouncing self-trust, coming as little children to Christ, receiving inspiration from Calvary, and connecting with Him, lest there be only a form of godliness and dead legal religion destitute of grace, whereas the truly converted worker drawn out of self and blessed day by day becomes His human channel of light and blessing in successful work. God-given capabilities, powers of mind, time, and money are to be doubled by improving and using them in real service lasting through eternal ages, done now in this lifetime as school and probation for eternity where obedience or disobedience to His moral standard decides destiny and right to enter through the gates to the tree of life; to do little with what He furnished is inexcusable in light of eternal life and immortality offered through Christ the Restorer, and calls for valuing human powers, aiming at perfection as the Father is perfect, and stretching every muscle, faculty, and bodily power to fulfill His purpose of companionship with Himself as partakers of the divine nature, loving God supremely and neighbor as self, while parents are accountable to use faithfully what is entrusted and keep homes free from moral evil.

Fruitful use means employing God-given abilities and responsibilities to the fullest, as in faithfully cultivating land and educating students in domestic duties which can influence acceptance of unpopular truth. Stewardship is sacred, and talents lent by God must be traded upon diligently by communicating blessing and light in union with heavenly angels; right faithful use is recognized in heaven and fits for greater light, larger responsibility, and increased ability, as with Cornelius whose prayers and alms rose as a memorial showing faithful use that brought greater light. The talents are godlike qualities to be used and improved, not diminished but increased, with the future life kept in view; living for self and seeking own pleasure is irreparable loss, while faithfulness walks in light, self-denial, self-sacrifice, and leads others to consecration, and the gain beside the talents is golden sheaves brought to Christ, souls saved instead of hours devoted to self-service and souls lost; by heaven's record books all are judged, and the record of a spent year is to be met with joy not grief when armor is laid off because work was well done, with faithful increase leading to sitting with Christ on His throne and escaping a starless crown. Trading upon His goods is the privilege of laboring together with God by setting in operation what carries out His purposes, receiving day by day tokens of His love, goodness, and compassion, and not spending time and strength in selfish interests while His cause languishes unprovided for and His purpose for sanctifying created and redeemed beings is left incomplete. Those entrusted with much are to trade intelligently, bringing good things from the treasury of the heart, carefully caring for the body, especially stomach and digestion, so the brain is not congested and temper stays pleasant for clear intelligent holy work, surrendering all capabilities to Christ to be sanctified and employed, with no wasting or embezzling, for wasteful inconsiderate use of entrusted powers is robbery toward God and duty requires pure unpolluted service in body and spirit; and means tied up in unneeded buildings while work elsewhere, as in Africa, is delayed fails this rule, for using them for the work would have been like multiplying the talents.

Ability already given should be used rather than waiting for a different place or opportunity, for exercise develops it and improvement becomes evident. The servant who received five put them to work, gained five more, and reported his increase, illustrating faithful use with continuing active service rather than resting on what is accomplished, working diligently with abilities and opportunities rather than sitting idle or pursuing work for which one is not fitted, with faithfulness in appointed work bringing success and blessing. Every lent talent must be improved and returned with increase, with more received requiring more returned, as Israel with peculiar blessings was to let heaven's principles appear to men, with Christ as invisible Leader and giver of statutes and laws unchanging as His throne, never to be altered by jot or tittle, privileges other nations lacked because corrupted ways left them unable to discern God; that greater light laid greater responsibility to work the vineyard, which is the world, to keep learning better ways of glorifying God, and to show in purity, holiness, and sanctification that the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the whole man in heart, mind, strength, and purpose. Everyone joined to Christ is responsible to work for Him according to ability, whether with one, two, or five, a duty beginning when one obeys the call and binding young and old alike.

Warnings Against Burying

The servant who brought five more shows that what is entrusted must be put to use, for abilities and knowledge given by God are to be developed by practical consecrated use so that power to do good and bless others increases. Every man and woman is left with personal responsibility for using what is entrusted, and those with brain power to write books and the royalty means coming from them are to keep stewardship of their own productions, take a reasonable sum, retain control, and with keen perception use it themselves to relieve need and sustain the cause rather than make other minds stewards by giving away or selling the right. Day by day and hour by hour trading with the Lord's goods lays up material for the searching judgment, and the whole lifework is solemnly bound up with the second coming. The other five gained are means accumulated in God's service to be invested where they will continue to accumulate, with no partiality in investing overabundantly in one proud undertaking to show what "I can do." Faithful increase is consecrated effort for conversion of souls because thousands upon thousands perish without knowledge of truth, requiring every thought brought into subjection to Christ, all powers employed in saving souls, no sleeping but awaking to watch for souls as those who must give account.

The talents are means, thinking ability, capabilities, genius and gained education to be exercised to lift others just where Christ would lift were He in their place, not hid under a bed or bushel but put to best use to bless fellow men by placing poor families in hovels and dire poverty on a footing where they can help themselves, teaching them to put vital forces to wise diligent labor to improve premises, cultivate land and waste no time. Knowledge of truth is committed to make light-bearers, not to quarrel over, and the Master requires returns in proportion to ability given, so each must persuade men to accept precious truth and reach all around for whom Christ died to make pure, holy and sinless by a life filled with good works and by sowing in meekness and faith seeds in all contacts that bring forth fruit unto righteousness. Resources given are to be used without selfishness so that means reveal saving grace, mercy, compassion and love and lead many to glorify God. The servant returns the five and reports five more gained, showing accountability to improve abilities and opportunities in service, for neglecting the trust loses good that could have been done and souls that might have been helped to save. Faithful stewardship does not require everyone to give away property but to serve according to what is entrusted, as by using time to lead others to truth, since talents include different abilities and opportunities.

Entrusted means are to be put to work for the Master by investing in gospel work to carry the message to waiting people and bring others into supporting it, keeping the Lord's money in circulation for saving souls rather than using it for speculation or purchase of land and houses. The increase shows profit from faithfully putting gifts to work for the good of others, and talents are not to be wasted in faultfinding and criticism but used in God's work to bring blessing and praise to Him. Varied abilities, skills and resources are given according to each person's capabilities to be used faithfully for corresponding return, as with experienced workers and tools and equipment offered for the Southern mission field to be employed in the Lord's work. Talents are to be improved to the fullest extent according to light given under Christ's oversight who paid infinite price for this service, and faithful improvement prepares to share His throne. God-given talents are to be cultivated and used faithfully to work together with other powers to form complete service, for the mind is God's garden to be diligently cultivated so character is formed after the divine likeness.

Education, influence, health, strength, intellect and time with the person belong to God by infinite purchase and are expected to be used to His glory in connection with His cause, so even one who feels little talent must not wrap it in a napkin and hide it in the world but employ all ability given in Christ's service, and if used to God's glory more and increased talents will be given, the sphere of influence will widen, and if one does all possible the Lord will do abundantly, bringing divine power to combine with human effort for day-by-day victory and increased ability to His name's glory. Those coming as learners like little children receive wisdom and are entrusted with highest kinds of talent, and gaining more means trading on what is entrusted and increasing it to God's glory for salvation of perishing souls. The steward is accountable to return what was entrusted with increase by training and employing all powers in Christ's service, requiring Christlike humility, self-denial and love, for without Christ's love the worker becomes self-sufficient and does poor work for others. No one lives to self but has entrusted talents to represent Christ in every place and circumstance, with self hid with Christ in God, for without Christ nothing can be done, and the Holy Spirit is given to help in every need, so capabilities succeed only through humble dependence, sense of insufficiency, and practicing Christ's teachings, with success not by chance, accident or destiny but by God's providence as award of faith, discretion, virtue and persevering labor making Christ's character principles the principles of character.

The five are Christ's own property in tact, skill and worldly treasure and money to dispense for Him, and the faithful servant is a producer not merely a receiver who cooperates with Christ in His great firm, uses wisdom aright without abuse, becomes a channel of blessings revealing His attributes by imparting wisdom, and puts money to work to relieve sufferers, feed hungry, clothe naked, care for widow and fatherless, draw near in love to Christ's family and advance the gospel kingdom, bringing recognition as faithful, while withholding means to accumulate riches for selfish luxury robs Him of glory, leaves needy unhelped, registers oppression, double dealing and fraud, loses heavenly treasure and makes the withholder poorest when God deals with unfaithful subjects. Entrusted goods belong to God and each is individually responsible to invest wisely and use gain to advance work, help needy and spread truth, a stewardship that cannot be handed to conference or council but requires own judgment and seeking wisdom from God. The same principle applies to the life to come, for powers and gifts faithfully used and kept from corruption here will be strengthened and employed on wider nobler scale in heaven. God expects each worker to use abilities actually given, not those not received, and work may take different forms rather than one rigidly prescribed method, with gifts used in cooperation and room given to work with the great Teacher. Among professing Christians are slothful servants who do not improve talents, but all truly believing and united with Christ will be faithful to principle and earnest stewards, for everyone has work in the great last-days work, and those who would meet Christ with joy must put God's kingdom first, give heart, mind, soul and strength, let not the world come between, since those without entire service have humanity not combined with divinity and will have no place in heaven.

Shifting stewardship aside is a serious mistake for motives that will not stand judgment, for God knows hearts. Means is a talent to be used in loans and gifts to place valuable sanitarium properties secured at low cost in position to do work without embarrassment, so through them a class reachable in no other way may be reached to God's honor and glory. What God entrusts is to be used, cherished and improved in His service, with each talent and faculty as His property cultivated and employed according to the Giver's will while preserved in healthful condition. Sacred trusts make each accountable, and God's purpose is that mind be educated to bring given talents into exercise to accomplish greatest good and reflect glory to the Giver, with all mental qualities owed to God to be cultivated and discreetly directed and controlled for His purpose. Abilities and influence are lent not owned, to be developed and used to produce increase returned to God. Talents are light and knowledge of truth, and faithfulness means using that light to give light to others instead of living far beneath privileges, for in judgment God will call for account of how light given was used.

What God gives is to be used for His glory rather than hidden or left unused, and the servant who hid his Lord's treasure represents those failing to use what is entrusted, whose unfaithfulness will be faced in judgment. Influence and means are talents of a man made steward by the Master who will ere long require account, and when soul and body are converted by faith and obedience, grace subdues, sanctifies, refines and transforms the natural heart and makes the steward an honor, doubling trust for good by spreading publications and presenting truth to large circles of acquaintances and relatives through which many come to knowledge and some receive it. Means and property belong to the Lord and faithfulness requires deliberate disposition to His treasury while life and reason are spared, especially in sickness, age and nearness to death, rather than leaving duty for others, lest property pass to enemies of truth to gratify worldly pride and ambition and build Satan's kingdom, and this present faithfulness is essential to being entrusted with eternal interests. The Lord gives every person work and imparts talents and requires return from every soul, and however wise in Bible knowledge, each must receive and believe in Christ, and those cooperating with God gain true knowledge which is life and peace, with faithfulness meaning ready minutemen engaging in aggressive warfare. Grace enables use of entrusted talents to produce harvest of souls, and the servant's increase represents fruitful service made possible by receiving Christ's life and salvation.

Faithful improvement comes through resistance of inclination and victory over temptation, producing noble character marked with firmness, stern integrity, virtue, faithfulness and noble perseverance battling for right, a blessing to God's cause, a stay to parents, with name registered among angels in glory, while burying talent in earth is the opposite of living spasmodically by feeling like a boy, indulging passion and appetite against health reform light to injury of physical and moral strength, debasing moral nobler higher powers, thinking only of temporal interest regardless of religion, regardless of God, indifferent to due influence on fellows, serving creature rather than Creator. Every talent must be improved and put to active earnest labor for souls, including working cities, selling literature and keeping fellow workers alive and interested, with courage in the Lord because He is soon to come. In responsible position one consecrating heart, mind, soul and strength to God can serve faithfully with excellent record before heaven and people, while refusing to serve leaves undesirable record, for talents are the Lord's entrusted gifts and reckoning day will bring account of use. Servants must keep working faithfully rather than relax efforts to gain eternal life, with doubled talents illustrating active fruitful service in vigilant watching and sanctified waiting. Powers and abilities are to be employed for God's glory when selfishness and self-confidence are put aside, the Holy Spirit governs, and powers are wisely governed and set apart for good ends including sustaining those bearing heavy responsibilities.

Knowledge of truth and capacity for special work, as with Edson, is a talent to be used through Christ's grace to serve as representative of truth and help save souls by sharing the word of life, putting what the master gave to work and returning it with equal gain. Capabilities and means in possession are to be employed faithfully and productively to advance righteousness and truth, build up God's work and enlarge His kingdom for His glory and the world's benefit. Christ Himself lays hands on every believer who has tasted powers of the world to come and eaten flesh and drunk blood of the Son of God, even without ordained ministerial hands, commanding to trade on given talents by denying self, lifting cross and carrying Christ's burdens in reflecting light, because ordained ministers are not enough, which means being witnesses, being light as a city on a hill that cannot be hid, letting light shine in good works glorifying the Father. Time is a talent and wasting hours without benefiting self or others fails stewardship for which each is answerable, so one should work even for moderate wages rather than refuse work seeking highest pay, and faithful use of time can advance missionary work. Each must answer for own stewardship and look to Christ for strength to serve wholeheartedly by improving entrusted talents faithfully in service.

Possessions are lent by God to be used for His glory and returned with increase, including helping His institutions in need. Abilities God gives are to be developed and employed to increase usefulness, acknowledging dependence on God and giving Him credit for accomplishment. God-given abilities are to be put to use and increased by faithful effort, for unused ability has no value while diligence and advancement are required, and people reap what they sow including consequences of indolence and ignorance. Every entrusted talent must be put to work with earnestness and zeal proportionate to greatness of truth shared, with self dying so work is in unity with Christ rather than own mind or will.

Faithful Practice Daily

Natural quick understanding is found among common people, and humble consecrated men who follow on to know the Lord and serve Him with consecrated minds are made fit to understand His work and are entrusted with the Lord's goods to trade upon even though they are not ordained ministers. Followers should ask how to use their gifts in the best way, and faithful use can increase them. Property possessed or acquired is likewise a talent to be put to wise use and increased in God's service. Money is entrusted to stewards to be traded without delay by putting means into circulation to provide facilities where many can learn truth, to help build meetinghouses, to help establish sanitariums where the sick receive physical and spiritual healing, and to help start schools where youth are trained for service so workers can be sent to all parts of the world. Investing in land is not the faithful use, even when friends advise it, because those bought with a price owe a better investment of means for His cause. The talent is a gift or light entrusted, and those who receive truth are to make it known to others, with genuine reception shown by transformed character and active service, while hiding means failing to live and share the light received.

The talents are borrowed treasures — life, time, ability, and other gifts — to be put to work and returned with increase in God's service. Human effort can bear good fruit only through divine power, for God honors people by joining their work with His, accepts wholehearted service, and makes up its deficiencies. A faithful steward therefore serves without envy or self-confidence, trusting God to accomplish what human weakness cannot. What God entrusts is to be put to work for His cause, and giving possessed resources to sustain His work is stewardship calling for the best of life and learning used in His work through diligent, sacrificial work. Ability such as to write a book is such a gift, and its possessor must use it faithfully rather than place it under the control of others.

Entrusted talents represent God-given means for which account must be given, and neglecting suffering people while spending those means on luxury and appetite is a misuse that will be judged. Faithful use wisely improved can benefit people within influence and build moral power to bring light to others in darkness rather than be abused. All money and reputation belong to God, and for a little time He allows man to be His steward to test character and see how opportunities will be used, with character decided in the time given. One not in harmony with the will and work of God cannot belong to the royal family but is a self-seeker whom the Lord will not place where greed for money and display can be manifested. Silver and gold are the Lord's, and misapplying His money leaves a serious account for greed and covetousness, so that abusing granted probation receives the reward of the unfaithful servant.

Means entrusted are talents for which stewards are accountable, to be used faithfully including to relieve suffering and supply needs of others, for neglecting this duty wastes goods, leaves people in want, and brings reproach, while faithful stewardship calls for gratitude rather than complaint. The talents are the service of the entire being with all parts brought into action, including physical life, intellect and every reasoning power, conscience in supremacy, and mental and physical powers with affections, all to be carefully educated, cultivated and developed to highest efficiency and not neglected, misused, or deprived of health and efficiency. By such painstaking use Christ is represented to the world and man is qualified to cooperate in saving souls unto eternal life. Gifts and power within churches must be cultivated to the utmost and called from dormancy into active service, with all working and training minds to engage in service, for churches thrown upon their own resources can bless and strengthen themselves and gather sheep and lambs, and from established churches men must be taken to carry truth to others and raise new churches.

God-given abilities should be put to useful service, and using them to study and explain the Bible can increase effectiveness in helping others embrace truth, with answer required for use of abilities and opportunities. The talent applies to precious time and opportunities as gifts to be used in service showing appreciation for compassion, and neglecting them means losing time and opportunities. Those entrusted with resources are accountable to use them productively and double them as the servant doubled five talents, including using entrusted means to advance work such as lending money to strengthen a missionary institution. What is entrusted is to be put to good use and increased, and reasoning powers given to children and youth are precious talents with every talent and faculty to be improved for service to Christ and uplifting fallen humanity, for which education including schools should prepare them. When all consecrate themselves and use abilities faithfully and rightly, far more work can be accomplished, as shown by the servant bringing back more than five entrusted.

Human inventive ability also comes from God who can use it for His purposes, and rapid travel was provided for the great day of His preparation, while people remain accountable for what they do with entrusted talents in His work. God-given abilities are to be used productively, and standing is measured by how powers are employed especially for good of others, as the servant who received five used them faithfully, gained five more, and gave account. Talents include God-given ability and physical strength as precious treasure to be guarded and made most of for those in care, and disregarding laws of being injures those talents and does injustice to others. Faithfulness requires not using up all strength but keeping reserve and complete self-control so unexpected emergencies can be met without serious blunders. Service is measured in relation to value placed on abilities and work, so those setting high estimate on themselves must render service proportionate to that estimate.

Abilities entrusted are to be used thoughtfully and skillfully, including inventive power, scientific skill, organizing ability, and judgment to look ahead and establish work on a sound, lasting basis. To every man God gives work with talent and ability for helpful service in every land and community including helping families along spiritual lines, and the servant gaining other talents first gives himself to the Master, then the Master works with him as he uses what was delivered. Faithful use means not hoarding money when missionary work is to be done but spending means such as royalties for missionary work, translation and distribution of books, and support of new enterprises. Words are talents belonging to Him to be used only for His glory and benefit of all around, requiring thorough conversion of soul producing conversion of tongue and lips so the soul's treasure house becomes full of precious truths through study of Christ's character. Those so trading with words are blessed as overseers and shepherds, exemplifying Christ's character before the flock to lead them to practical religion and godliness rather than mere form or theology.

Applied to parents, children and their capabilities are God's entrusted property, and parents must train and cultivate them for Him so none is lost, for neglecting this robs God of influence they could exert in home and beyond. Resources must not be buried in worldly enterprises but used to carry truth throughout the world, as the servant used five entrusted and gained five more. A talent is mental and spiritual power and influence given to be rightly employed to do good to church and world, and right employment under the Holy Spirit makes a man and wife useful powerful instruments, while putting it under the enemy's training to speak evil, plant suspicion and untruthful distrust, reject counsel and resist light lays it in ruins. Then the mind once active in creating distrust breaks down to childlike helplessness, and both become almost useless and remain as a monument of displeasure that nothing but judgment can meet. Money belongs to the Lord as sacred trust to be used faithfully in advancing His work, as the servant receiving five returned five more reporting faithful trading.

Talents are means, brain power, and mechanical power, and faithfulness means binding them with interests of the cause and setting all at work in various ways including good liberal work for needy fields such as Australia. Talents entrusted are to be used wisely and developed through exercise, becoming more effective in service. Talents received are given to be employed in serving the Lord, and faithfulness requires surrendering all now and using them continually. What is entrusted includes life, means, and received grace and knowledge of truth to be shared to spread light for God's work rather than for self-indulgence or laying up earthly treasure. Gifts of mind and body like entrusted money are to be used in service so the Master suffers no loss, and needlessly spending money or leaving it idle in banks or investments withholds it from work where it should be put to wise use.

Human life is under God's disposal and in His hands, and entrusted gifts include time, influence, means, and all other gifts for which everyone must answer. No one is his own, for he is bought with a price and owes life-service to God, so placing God second to men and binding the mind by promises to men to do or refrain shows a strange idea of God. Mistakes in how workers are treated must be recognized and corrected, including paying ministers what labor deserves, for God entrusts talents and expects faithful use of what is given. Means invested in the cause continually increase because instrumental in bringing souls into truth who serve God and lead others in turn, becoming part of the work and investing time and talents, with enlightened understanding, growing consecration, and increased capacity to press gospel triumphs. The Lord bestows goods and expects corresponding returns, and those receiving light of truth and heavenly gift are under solemn obligation, because coming is soon, to let light shine to others in darkness and impart what was graciously given.

No one approved waits in idle expectancy dwelling on theory or doctrine of coming yet doing little to share received light. Entrusted capital is meant to advance the kingdom throughout the world and be accounted for, and using it to do more harm than good or concentrating it in one place while other parts of the vineyard are hindered is unfaithful stewardship. Faithful service puts entrusted abilities and work to use rather than living idly or for self, with human effort cooperating with the Spirit, God supplying power to will and act, and glory belonging to Him. Doubled talents show faithful active work with what was given, applied to sharing light of truth which also helps others and advances work. Talents including means received from unbelievers are to be applied wholeheartedly to advance cause and honor Him, as the servant used five entrusted and gained five more.

Trading talents means putting resources to work not hoarding them, including in business earning honestly and rejecting deceit and fraud. Capabilities are to be faithfully improved and used for glory with increase returned, acknowledging dependence on God and praising Him for trust, with faith working by love and purifying the soul sustained by daily communion belonging to this service. Those receiving light should share it rather than confine benefits to themselves, as the five-talent servant put gifts to work and gained five more, with accountability to use and increase usefulness. Means entrusted are now called to be invested in work, and when the cause is embarrassed by empty treasuries workers should lay them before the Lord and plead for supply with greater faith that He will provide.