In the parables of the talents and pounds we
see a two-fold purpose - to give the servants
something to do for their Lord, and to train
them for their future work when the Kingdom
should have come. The first aspect is familiar
enough; the second has been to me in a very
vivid sense a new revealing of that wonderful
Day. The King knew when He went away that when
the Kingdom was His He would need "rulers,"
and all unknowing of what was coming of it,
His servants got their training, and thus they
were ready for rulership when He came back.
"They lived and reigned with Christ a
thousand years." This was to me vague and
intangible, but it has become very real, for
it will all be indeed real, that reign. Here,
down on this very earth of ours, with its
mountains and deserts and woods and clouds and
flowers just as they are today, and the same
races of men with all their nations and
tongues to be won to one King. Think of it!
The glory of seeing Him have His glory as
last; the unspeakable joy of bringing sheaf
after sheaf to lay at His feet where now the
seed only yields a few straggling blades. "The
joy of thy Lord" - " Thou hast to Him
increased the joy." "They joy before Thee
according to the joy of harvest, and as men
rejoice when they divide the spoil." Think of
seeing His joy in the travail of His soul -
the gladness of making God glad. Think of it
till the wonderful joy of it dawns.
Think of the lands, where we have toiled on
- some of us - with so little fruit to be
seen, springing up with the sudden golden
glory of harvest. The seed cast on the waters
in journeyings oft, found after many days;
desert lands, that we had left with a
heart-break for the dear souls who might only
have that one hearing, blossoming as the rose.
Think of places beyond that our hearts have
yearned over, but where the door has never
opened. Would it not be like the Lord Whom we
are learning to know, to let us go just there
when His Kingdom comes, with resurrection
bodies that will not flag or fail in any
climate, with the Lord’s power triumphing
gloriously instead of the weary fight, with a
thousand years in which to do the work instead
of these poor ten or twenty or thirty that we
feel so sadly short, when we look around and
see that all we can do barely touches the
fringe of what is left undone.
Think of the fellowship of the work - the
lonely scattered workers now with little of
the communion of saints here below. Think of
working alongside Rutherford and Terstegen and
Fletcher and all the lovely saints of all ages
and nations, to say nothing of the goodly
fellowship of the apostles and the noble army
of martyrs. And think of all authority being
on the side of Jesus. Some of us are working
here against the tide - then He will be
recognised over all the earth, King of kings
and Lord of lords.
Now take your eyes off this wonderful vista,
down again to the browns and greys of "this
present world." Has not a light come on some
of its mysteries? What if He sends out some of
His servants to heathen lands just to die in a
year or two? Do we not judge the matter as if
it were really bounded by the low narrow
horizon of this life? They have had their bit
of training and are ready for their work, that
is all. And those whose whole heart is in the
foreign field, but who through health or
circumstances cannot go - never mind, you will
be there some day, and the training is going
on now. The answer will be exceeding
abundantly above all you asked or thought,
just as wonderful as when in answer to Moses’
longing prayer, his feet stood with Jesus on
the Mount of Transfiguration. He went over
indeed to the goodly mountain whose top he saw
from Pisgah. God’s answers lose nothing by
being kept into eternity, and you who feel
powers beginning to fail and sadness creeping
over you at seeing the end of the blessedness
of a life spent for Jesus, oh! let us lift up
our eyes, we are coming to the end of our
training, and we are going to see that they
who sow in tears shall reap in joy. It may be
that in the fellowship of tears with Him you
are having a training to make you able to bear
the joy of that day. But oh! to be faithful in
the time that is! Infinite is gain carried
over into eternity and infinite is eternal
loss. "Thy pound hath gained ten pounds." What
is the multiple of fructifying power for the
gifts and probations that God has given us?
Not human toil and effort, not even the spirit
of faithfulness, but the Holy Ghost, the Lord
and Giver of Life.
Oh to enter on the life eternal, with every
fibre in character and brain and capacity
"alive unto God" through Him. Only so can His
pound gain ten pounds. But many of us are
having a mixed life of the flesh and the
Spirit - much that is gold, silver, and
precious stones, and much that is wood, hay,
stubble; and before His Kingdom is set up on
earth the fire must try every man’s work of
what sort it is. God grant us to judge
ourselves now that we be not judged of the
Lord hereafter.
