We are held back from the right thing by the fear of the loss which it
will involve.
We say with poor, frightened Amaziah, But what about the hundred
talents? They will be clean gone if I obey the voice of God. The
hundred talents take many forms, but the principle is always the same.
We shall lose a little in the way of business, if we make up our minds
to be scrupulously honest, and to speak the simple truth. We shall
forfeit a little of our present popularity, if we take the course which
conscience dictates. We shall have to forego and neglect certain
things, and suffer loss, if we undertake Christian work. We shall have
to give up many an easy hour, many a light and frivolous hour, many an
open and secret sin, sweeter to us than honey, if we confess the Lord
Christ, and take up the burden of discipleship. The hundred talents
block the way, and rather than let them go, we let God go, and
sacrifice all the sanctities, and all the precious and immortal things.
And this answer comes to all of us--the answer which the prophet gave
to the hesitating king as he stood balancing the hundred talents
against the duty of the hour: "_The Lord is able to give thee much more
than this_." Better to win thy great battle and lose the talents, than
keep the money and lose thyself and everything in the impending
struggle. God is not so poor that He cannot pay His servants as ample
wages as they ever get from other masters. It is not the same kind of
pay, but it is always, in the long-run, larger and better. No man ever
does the right thing at God's command, without receiving eventually
sufficient wages for it--joy even in this life. Whatever immediate
losses he may incur, there will be more than compensating gains. The
man who lives an upright, conscientious, pure and kindly life, wronging
no one, showing justice and mercy to all, is always the happier man;
richer in all his thoughts and emotions, richer in friendships and
affections, richer in peace of mind, in abiding satisfactions, richer
in hopes. He has within him a well-spring of joy which never ceases to
flow. Righteousness is not a losing business: it has the best part in
this life, and in that which is to come.
Whatever you resign at Christ's call: whatever His service costs you in
the way of sacrifice: however much you must give up in the shape of
pleasure, ease, and agreeable habits--there will be more given to you
in return. When Christ asked the disciples to leave all things and
follow Him, He said nothing about the rewards--not just then. He told
them to take up their cross and come after Him; that was all. He spoke
often to them about the pains they would have to endure, the scorn they
would meet with, the tribulation they would have to pass through. When
he called the last of the apostles, Paul, He even said, and it was the
only promise He gave, "_I will show him how great things he must suffer
for My name's sake_" (Acts ix. 16). No talk of rewards and gains at
first. He knew the men. He knew their eagerness to do what was right
and to obey the voice of God. Men who have the right spirit, men with
some fire of enthusiasm, do not need crowns held before them to draw
them into the true and noble way. They are almost glad to think that
crosses and self-sacrifices await them in that way. Christ spoke no
words at the beginning about gains and rewards. Come, because I want
you, and God asks you, and it is your duty: but afterwards, when they
had obeyed His call, He talked to them often about the gains. They had
begun to understand them then. There is no man who hath left anything
for My sake, who shall not receive a hundredfold in this present time,
and in the world to come, life everlasting.
And we all learn in a measure what that means, when we have faithfully
served Christ for a little time. You talk about the sacrifices and
losses of the Christian life. Yes, but no man is fit to be called a
Christian who has not found in Christ ten or twenty times as much joy
as he has lost. If there were no hereafter, no future crowns at all,
it would be a terrible disappointment, but even, apart from that, the
present life of every one who believes in Christ and does Christ's
work, and loves as Christ loved, is richer, fuller, wider, and happier
in almost every way than the life which knows Him not. What about the
hundred talents? you say, and I answer with the prophet, "_The Lord is
able to give thee much more than this_."