05.01 The strict account

I. THE STRICT ACCOUNT THE parables of the Ten Virgins and of the Talents are so closely connected both in the order of S. Matthew’s narrative and in their own inner meaning that we must pass at once from the former to the latter. In the. last chapter the parable of the Ten Virgins taught us the necessity of keeping the inward spiritual life true and fresh. It was a call to spiritual renewal. Now, we are to learn from the parable of the Talents that a real spiritual life must manifest itself in vigorous and efficient service. The true object of “salvation,” of inner Tightness with God, is not to save one’s own soul, but to do God service; it is not that we may be secure, but that God may be glorified.

We are saved in order that we may serve, and if we refuse the service we may lose the salvation. Many a spiritual “revival” has led to disappointment and even shame because this elementary truth has been forgotten. In this parable, as it has been truly said, “Christ represents Himself to us under the figure of what we should call an exacting man of business of the best type.” Such a figure may at first sight surprise us. But our ordinary human experience teaches us that it must be true. Strictness is the truest kindness. An indulgent master demeans and spoils his servants. A strict master honours and raises them by entrusting even the meanest with a definite responsibility, and expecting him to fulfil it. So God’s justice is part of His love. Because He loves He trusts: He invests His servants * Bishop Gore’s “Charge to the Diocese of Worcester,” p. i. with the honour of responsibility; and because He trusts, His claims are high and His demands exacting. His love gives responsibility; His justice demands efficiency of service. We dishonour God if we think of His love as a mere tolerant good nature; God would dishonour us if He accepted indifferent and casual service. The central figure in the parable is the timorous and diffident servant. Our Lord often surprises us by selecting for special warning those whom the world would be ready to excuse or even to admire. Here we would expect Him to select one of those to whom great opportunities were given as His example of the abuse of trust. As for this obscure servant, with his one poor talent he is respectable, he is honest, he is neither wasteful nor fraudulent; he is only distrustful of himself, diffident, and unambitious. Surely he might be excused. But no: it is just he who is sent into “the outer darkness.” His very diffidence is turned against him if he was not largeminded enough to understand his Master’s purpose, or brave-spirited enough to make ventures in His cause, at least his very fear might have impelled him to be active.

“Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I did not scatter: thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received back mine own with interest.” It is true that God’s claim is always in proportion to the opportunity He gives: that to whom little is given of him little shall be required. But the lesson of the parable is that that little shall be required exactly and with interest. Are there not thousands of quiet, respectable men and women, who shelter themselves behind the obscurity of their lives and the smallness of their endowments, and never venture forth under the pressure of a great ideal, and contentedly believe that God cannot expect open and strenuous service from them? It would never occur to them that they of all people were in special danger of the doom of the outer darkness.

TAGS: [Parables]