that group of maidens, and in particular the unselfish tenderness which
must have characterized the wiser five, we should expect to learn that
they had generously resolved, at all hazards, to share their oil to the
last drop with their unfortunate companions. But this, though consonant
with nature in the external body of the parable, would have been
incongruous with the spiritual truth which the parable has been framed
to convey. In the structure of the parable provision is made for
defining sharply the spiritual lesson, even at the expense of some
measure of harshness left on one feature of the story. True Christians
cannot impart a share of the grace that dwells in their own hearts to
deluded formalists in their departing hour. On the spiritual side such a
distinction cannot be made, and therefore the Master represents the wise
virgins as distinctly and peremptorily refusing to share their store of
oil with their improvident companions.[52]
[52] They turn themselves to the wise, whom, perhaps, they had
lately laughed at, with the prayer: "Give us of your oil, for our
lamps are gone out." They betake themselves, if they are Catholics,
to the dead saints, if they are Protestants, to the living, whom
they have been accustomed to revere as their guides on account of
their wisdom and grace, and plead, Help us, comfort us, pray for us,
that we may be brought into a state of grace. In vain. They answer:
Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you. What you desire is
impossible. None of us has any surplus merit out of which he could
give a portion to another.--_Arndt_, ii. 177.
"Go to them that sell, and buy for yourselves." The advice was the best
that in the circumstances could be given. The mention of "them that
sell" calls up all the scene of the preceding day. Oil was plentiful in
the town; the five wise virgins having gone by daylight to the stores
with their vessels, had experienced no difficulty in obtaining a supply.
The same method was open to the rest: they failed to secure a store in
the daytime, and then they tried in vain to make good the deficiency at
midnight, after the merchants had retired to rest. This feature of the
parable intimates that those who are found destitute at the coming of
the Lord, enjoyed their day and their opportunity, but neglected them:
they allowed the day of mercy to run out, and cried frantically for
mercy after the merciful Saviour had wearied waiting and gone away.
While the foolish virgins are absent on this errand, the bridegroom
comes up. They that are ready go in with him to the wedding, and the
door is shut. Christ calls away his own at some midnight hour when they
are off their guard; but though surprised, they are not hurt. The five
wise virgins were asleep when the approach of the bridegroom was
announced, and yet they were ready to meet him. Their safety resulted
not from their fluttering activity at that moment in the trimming of the
lamps, but from their wise foresight on the preceding day. The
salvation of a soul depends not on frightened earnestness in the moment
of departure, but on faith's calm closing with Christ, before the moment
of departure comes. In the vessels of the wise there was store of oil,
and it was easy for them at any time or place to refresh the fading fire
of the torches which they bore. Deep in the hearts of those disciples
dwelt the spirit of Christ, and the light of their profession which had
shone brightly in a time of ease, burst into greater brightness in the
hour of their extremity. An abundant entrance was administered to
them,--an entrance into the joy of their Lord. The door was shut!
Suffering, sorrowing believers, do you hear the clang of that closing
gate! Be of good cheer, disciples; when your Lord and you go in, the
door is shut behind you, and nothing shall enter that defileth. Heaven
is for the holy, and for them alone; if it were open for all it would
not be heaven.
The foolish virgins went away after midnight to seek a supply of oil;
but we are not informed whether or not they obtained it. The omission is
significant; this word of Jesus gives no encouragement to delay in the
matter of the soul's salvation; not a ray of hope is permitted to burst
through the gloom that shrouds these hapless wanderers. The sole lesson
of the parable is a simple, sublime warning that sinners should close
with Christ now, lest they should be left to invoke his name in vain at
the hour of their departure. This parable is a voice from an open heaven
promising all grace now, but refusing to promise any then.
They came afterwards to the door and cried bitterly for admission, but
the Lord answered from within, I know you not. As the omniscient he knew
them; he was acquainted with all their ways. He knew them, for they had
crucified him afresh by their neglect. But he did not know them, as he
knew the poor bashful woman who crept near in the crowd and by her touch
drew saving grace from his overflowing heart; he did not know them by
feeling their weight, like John's, leaning on his breast.[53]
[53] The concluding application is well expressed by
Arndt:--"Perhaps the breaking heart grasps at the Bible; it has only
spikes and nails, but no balm of consolation. Perhaps the dying man
calls in those who have the care of souls; the words of comfort
slide over the ears, while the Holy Spirit seals none of them upon
the heart. Perhaps he partakes of the Holy Supper: ah, the feast is
to him not a feast of blessings, but an eating of judgment. Perhaps
he prays to the Lord himself: the Lord answers, I know you not.
"Oh, it is sad to be so near heaven, and yet to be lost--to be
almost saved, and yet altogether lost. Were it not the Lord who
speaks here, Jesus Christ, the Life Eternal, the Judge of the living
and the dead, our feeling would be mightily to resist the terrible
conclusion of this parable, which cuts all and every hope clean
away, and leaves not an If or a But behind, nor any other possible
interpretation. But he speaks; and before his words every mouth is
silent in fear and adoration. He writes into our breast, with a
glowing iron pen, the warning word--therefore watch, &c.
"Short is life; fleeting is time; quick is death; long is eternity.
Therefore what thou desirest to do, do it quickly."--_Gleichnisse_.
After the parable is finished the marrow of its meaning is given in one
short sentence by the Lord: "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the
day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." Let us take heed here,
lest after all the pains we have bestowed on this scripture, we should
miss the portion for ourselves with which it is charged. This parable
was not spoken for the purpose of kindling an agony of repentance in the
hour of death. It describes a sudden call, and an eager upstarting, and
a fruitless effort, and a right prayer uttered too late, and final
rejection, and a fearful doom,--but it reveals this dreadful close of a
life, in order to show us what we should be and do before the close of
life comes on. The end of the foolish five is unveiled in order that we
may be wise unto salvation in the beginning of our days. The lighthouse
reared on a sunken reef flings its lurid glare far through a stormy air
and over a stormy sea, not to teach the mariner how to act with vigour
when he is among the breakers, but to warn him back, so that he may
never fall among the breakers at all. Even so, the end of the lost is
revealed in the word of God, not to urge us to utter a very loud cry
when the door is shut, but to compel us to enter now while the door is
open.
"Behold I stand at the door and knock." His word to-day runs, Soul,
soul, open for me: if that tender plea is echoed back from your closed
heart in a beseeching Saviour's face to-day, your cry, "Lord, Lord, open
to me" will come back to you in empty echoes from a closed heaven.
The foolish five came to the door only a little too late, but it was not
a little damage that they suffered thereby. In the matter of fleeing to
take refuge in Christ, to be late by a little is the loss of all.
XIV.
THE ENTRUSTED TALENTS.
"For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country,
who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And
unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one;
to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took
his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and
traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise
he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had
received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.
After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth
with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought
other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five
talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His
lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou
hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over
many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had
received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me
two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou
hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over
many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Then he which had
received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou
art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering
where thou hast not strawed: and I was afraid, and went and hid thy
talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord
answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou
knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not
strawed: thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the
exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own
with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him
which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given,
and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be
taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable
servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth."--MATT. xxv. 14-30.
The owner of a large property has occasion to leave the country for a
time and reside in a foreign land. His possessions, consisting of "his
own servants" and "his goods," must necessarily be left in the country,
and naturally he considers how he may so dispose of them during the
interval that they may yield to him the largest profit at his return.
Two distinct principles were open to his choice corresponding to the
methods of day's-wages and piece-work in modern social economics; he
might either confide to his servants generally the management of his
estate, and give them wages according to time, or give each a certain
amount of capital, to be exclusively at his own disposal, promising to
reward him according to his diligence and success. The latter method is
obviously the one which contains a spring within itself constantly
urging to diligence. With a set of slaves who are ignorant, degraded,
and suspicious, this plan would not be practicable, but if the men
possess a certain amount of moral principle, self-reliance, and
intelligence, it is safest and best.
The master accordingly, counting on the good-will and honesty of his
dependants, frankly entrusts each with a certain amount of capital,
graduated according to their capacity for business. Nothing is said in
the record regarding the terms of the compact, but it is implied that
these were clearly understood between the parties. The money was given
in order that it might be laid out to the best advantage, primarily for
the owner's interest, and secondarily for the due remuneration of the
faithful servant. This practice was carried to a great extent among the
Romans; the owner of a skilful slave could make a greater profit by
giving scope to the man's energies than by confining him forcibly to
menial occupation.
It is by no means necessary to determine the precise character of the
bond which united the servant to his master in this case. The
circumstances of the parable will suit equally the supposition of
absolute right on the part of the master and a voluntary contract
between him and his servant for a limited time. Whatever may have been
the amount of service due to the master at the time of his
departure,--whether the whole life and energy of a slave, or a limited
quantity of work from a servant,--that service was his property, and he
desired to turn it to the best account.
Two of the servants traded with the capital entrusted to their charge
and doubled it ere the master returned; one from a morbid dread of his
master's severity, coupled with indolence in his personal habits, hid
the money in the ground, thereby deliberately sacrificing his master's
profit in order that himself might incur no risk. The two who had
successfully traded were commended and rewarded; the one who allowed his
talent to lie idle was condemned and punished for his unfruitfulness,
although no positive dishonesty was laid to his charge.[54]
[54] For the relation between the talents and the pounds, see the
exposition of the latter parable,--the last of the series.
* * * * *
We are now ready to proceed with the exposition. The proprietor who went
abroad represents Christ at the close of his ministry on earth leaving
his disciples and ascending to heaven. His continued presence
spiritually with his people is not inconsistent with this
representation, for our parable deals with the bodily and the visible.
His own servants, whom he called, like the ten virgins who went out to
meet the bridegroom, represent the whole number of those who are called
by his name and seem to be his disciples. The delivery of the master's
goods to these servants intimates that the Lord gives to every member of
the visible Church all his faculties and opportunities.
In this distribution different amounts are consigned to different
persons. Here the representation obviously accords with the fact: of
time, of intellect, of health, of learning, of wealth, scarcely any two
persons possess a precisely equal portion. There is a clause here
generally overlooked by expositors, but which must be intended to
express some feature of importance,--"to every one according to his
several ability." We can easily understand it as it occurs in the story:
the master, at the moment of his departure, graduated his gifts
according to the abilities and acquirements of the servants that he
might not throw a great responsibility on a weak man, or leave a man of
vigour only half employed. What doctrine does this feature represent?
Probably that, while all the gifts that a man possesses are bestowed by
God, some, such as bodily constitution and mental capacity are conferred
by God as governor of the world; while others are subsequently conferred
by the Lord Jesus as the king and head of the Church. I am inclined to
understand these latter gifts by the goods which the master bestowed on
the eve of his departure; these gifts are in some way proportioned to
the faculties of the receiver, so that one may not be oppressed and
another left with inadequate occupation.
The one who received most and the one who received a medium amount of
gifts and opportunities proved both faithful, and both faithful alike.
Although the first did absolutely more for Christ and the world than the
second, both were equally diligent and faithful according to their
means. Examples both of the likeness and the difference occur by
hundreds day by day before our eyes. A disciple with greater and a
disciple with smaller endowments labour in the Lord's work with equal
love, but the amount of fruit is greater where greater gifts and graces
have been received and employed. We shall learn soon how the two cases
are treated at the master's return, but in the meantime we have observed
what the two cases are.
The servant who had received one talent went and digged in the earth,
and hid his lord's money. The meaning of his conduct and its result we
shall discover more fully when we reach the record of the reckoning; at
present, and in general, we may understand that this man made no effort
to serve his lord, but devoted himself exclusively to one aim,--that he
might be able to stand at last on the plea that he had at least done his
lord no harm.
These three examples are obviously given in order to cover all cases:
they represent an indefinite and all but infinite variety in the measure
of the gifts.
Two are represented to have been diligent and only one indolent, but no
information is thereby given regarding the proportions of mankind in
general or within the Church who shall be found faithful in the great
day. Two cases were required in order to show that, where the diligence
of the workers is equal, the result may, in quantity, be unequal; and a
third case was required to show that, besides some who lack the power to
do much, there are some who lack the will to do anything at all; the
numbers have no other meaning.
Another very important question is suggested here,--What is meant by the
representation that the person who possessed only one talent became
unfaithful, rather than the person who possessed two, or the person who
possessed five? It is precisely analogous to the representation
contained in another parable that one man, and not ten or twenty, came
to the marriage-feast without a marriage garment. Most certainly it does
not mean that those who have few talents are more liable to be
unfaithful than those who have many; and yet something is gained by
making the servant who had received one talent rather than the servant
who had received five, the example of unfaithfulness. It does not mean,
If you have only one talent you will be unfaithful; but it does mean,
Although you have only one talent, you will be condemned for
unfaithfulness if you do not employ it. The lesson is much more
emphatically given than if the servant who received five talents had
proved unfaithful. Much of the master's property was entrusted to him:
if he had permitted it to lie waste, and been punished accordingly, it
might have been supposed that the essence of the guilt lay in the
largeness of the loss. As it is faithfulness, without regard to the
amount of capital at stake, that determines the sentence of approval; so
it is unfaithfulness, without regard to the amount involved, that
determines the sentence of condemnation. He who has least is bound to
serve the Lord with what he has; and if he serve the Lord faithfully
with little, he will be honoured and rewarded, while those who had
greater gifts, but less diligence, will be cast out.
Every one possesses some talents. He who has bestowed them expects that
we shall diligently improve them. He has departed, but he desires that
we should act as in his presence. In this respect he is never
absent--"Lo, I am with you alway." Now is the time for laying out our
gifts in the Lord's service; for it will be too late to begin, in
terror, when he comes to judgment.
"After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with
them" (ver. 19). The time is not long in the account of the Lord
himself: his latest warning to the Church is, "Behold I come quickly;"
and with him a thousand years are as one day. Nor is the time long to
ungodly men; for in such an hour as they think not, the Son of man
cometh. At whatever time he comes, he comes too soon for them who would
give all the world, if it were theirs, that he should not come at all.
But to the true disciples of Christ, especially in times of persecution,
the period of his absence has often appeared long: they have often
borrowed the unbeliever's cry, "Where is the promise of his coming?" and
used it with a new significance. But to saints and sinners, whether they
long for his presence or loathe it, he certainly will come at length.
The two who had received from their Lord unequal gifts, and had laid
them out with equal faithfulness, give in their account with joy. They
are equally approved; and either is rewarded with the fruit of his own
diligence.
The case of the unfaithful one, in accordance with the obvious design of
the parable, is given with much greater fulness of detail than those of
the faithful two. Permitting our comment on this point to mould itself
after the proportions of the text, we shall look more narrowly into this
man's character and conduct. All the more willingly shall we devote the
most of our attention to the darker side of the picture, that the
evangelical obedience of the faithful servants may be most distinctly
seen in the dark mirror of the opposite unfruitfulness.
In the case of the unprofitable servant, as it emerges in the latter
portion of the parable, three points demand our attention separately and
successively,--the Reason, the Nature, and the Reward of his
unfaithfulness.
1. The reason of his unfaithfulness, as explained by himself, is, "I
knew thee that thou art an hard man," &c. The naive confession of this
man is a very interesting feature of the story, and a very precious
lesson to us regarding the deep things of God. Through this opening
light is thrown at once upon the spring of continued disobedience in
human hearts, and upon the nature of the remedy which the ailment needs.
Some persons take much pains to extol a good life at the expense of the
mysteries of grace. They know not that they are endeavouring to break
the upper links of a chain, while themselves are suspended on the lower.
All the value of service rendered by intellectual and moral beings
depends on the thoughts of God which they entertain; and the thoughts
which they entertain of God depend on the attitude in which he presents
himself to them--that is, upon the revelation of the Father in the
person and work of the Son.
Obviously the conception which this man had formed of his master's
character, was the direct efficient cause of his unprofitable idleness.
The picture, at this point, represents a human heart secretly conscious
of guilt, not reconciled through the Gospel, and dreading the wrath of
the righteous Judge. When one is at peace with God in the Redeemer,
perfect love casteth out fear; but here, in the absence of this
reconciliation, perfect fear casteth out love. Love is the fulfilling of
the law; and without love there can, in God's sight, be no obedience.
Thus, by a few links which can neither be obscured nor broken, active
obedience is bound to faith in Christ. Where faith in the Mediator is
wanting, God, as shown in a guilty conscience, is dreaded as an enemy;
and such fear produces no obedience. You might as well sow stones in
your field, and expect them to produce bread.
It is not necessary to examine in detail the continuation of the
unfaithful servant's answer. When he had taken his ground on a sullen
plea of not guilty which threw the blame upon his Lord, it was natural
that he should endeavour to justify himself and fortify his position by
specific averments of hard treatment; but the essence of his answer lies
all in his first words, "I knew thee hard." The meaning cannot be
mistaken here. These words do not make known to us what the master's
character really was: the only thing which they determine is the
servant's conception of the master's character. The servant's conduct
is, in point of fact, regulated not by what the master absolutely is,
but by what he is in the belief and regard of the servant.
The parable represents at once, with rich pictorial effect and strict
logical exactness, the legal relation of sinful men to a righteous God,
apart from the peace that comes through the Gospel. While you think of
the Judge, recording now your thoughts, words, and actions, in order to
render unto you what you deserve in the great day, you cannot love him,
and you do not like to retain the knowledge of him in your mind. The
Bible calls him good, and perhaps your lips have pronounced him good in
your prayers and hymns; but what you really know of him in your heart is
his hardness. This hard measure expected, haunts you like a spectre, and
casts a dark shadow over your path. Whatever your ears may hear or your
lips may speak, you know God only as the disturber of your joy in life,
and the inexorable exactor of impossible penalties at last.