Dail;j) Devotional Home Readings Connected with International Sunday? School Lessons B5> FREDERIC W . FARR, D. D. '
talents and all ground for discontent in the case of those having but one. Each has exactly what is fitted to his circumstances. Each vessel is filled and there is no occasion for jealousy. The only, thing required in a steward is fidelity. THURSDAY, March 8. Luke 16:1-12. New Occasions Teach New Duties. By using what we have, we gain what we do not have. By doing what we can, we become able to do what we could not do before. The foundations of great fortunes in the financial world were laid in taking advantage at first of small opportunities. The true and only method of enlarging our sphere of service is to fill to overflowing that in which we are. The higher we climb the greater the horizon. It has been said that the best reward a man can have for doing good work is to have more work given him to do. Heaven will doubtless present new and greater opportunities of service to those who have made the best use of opportunities presented on earth. Faithful service multiplies and widens opportunity. This is the law of the kingdom on earth and in heaven. FRIDAY, March 4. Gal. 6:1-10. The Atrophy of the Soul. The man with one talent neglected his opportunity. He did not throw it away. He did nothing with it. It was not misused but unused. Good un willed is equivalent to evil willed. “To him that knoweith to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” Life like money should pay interest and be made productive. Life like seed is to be 1 scattered, not hoarded. A sick man need not take his own life. He only need neglect the remedy that will re-
TUESDAY, March 1. Matt. 25:14-30. The Intrusted Talents. The story of the intrusted talents is tme to the Oriental life of the period. When a man of affairs went away from home he was wont to make his con fidential servants his algents, telling them to till the land or leaving them money to he used in trade. There was an understanding that the servants would be rewarded for their fidelity. The interpretation is obvious. 'The master is the Lord Jesus Christ with drawing his visible presence from the earth. The servants are His professed followers. The talents are the spiritual gifts received and dispensed by Him for them, or in a more general sense the opportunities of service open to all. “After a long time” is the second com ing of Christ when the final reckoning will be made. The treatment of the servants indicates the principles in ac cordance with, which the Judge of all the earth will dispense His ultimate awards. . < WEDNESDAY, March 2. 1 Cor. 12:1- 18. Diversities of Gifts. There is the widest diversity exist ing between individuals in their op portunities of service in the cause of Christ. Some receive five talents, some two and some only one. At the first glance this may seem like inequality of distribution. The key to the situa tion however is “to every man accord ing to his several ability.” The tal ents do not appear to be the original endowments which men inherit so much as the obligations' and opportunities which arise out of ability and environ ment. This removes all ground for pride in the case of those having five
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