A Lord, e'er he to distant regions goes,
Among his servants would his goods dispose;
Five talents one, the second two receives,
A single talent to the last he gives.

THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS.

The two, so well in trade the stock he lent
Improv'd, they gain'd their master cent, per cent.
The third with lazy stubbornness and pride,
His useless talent in the ground did hide.

"TO one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his ability; and straightway took his journey." (Matthew xxv. 15.) In this parable the master is Christ, the servants are Christians, his own servants, and should be devoted to his praise, and employed in his service.

Two of the servants were diligent and faithful; as soon as their master was gone, they applied to business. The endowments of the mind must be used in subservience to religion; the enjoyments of the world must be improved for the honour of Christ. The ordinances of the Gospel, and our op

portunities of attending them, must be improved to the end for which they were instituted, and communion with God kept up by them; and the gifts and graces of the Spirit must be exercised: this is trading with our talents.

Doubtless

The third servant did ill. there are many that have five talents, and bury them all; great abilities, great advantages, and yet do no good with them: and if he who had but one talent, be reckoned with for burying that one, much more will they be accounted offenders that have more.

He hid his talent in the earth (ver. 25), for fear it should be stolen; he did not misspend or misemploy it, but he hid it. Trea. sure heaped together is an evil, it does good to nobody; and so it is in spiritual gifts— many have them, and make no use of them. Those who have estates, and do not devote

them to works of piety and charity; those who have power and interest, and do not with it promote religion in the places where they live; and ministers that have capacities and opportunities of doing good, but do not stir up the gift that is in them, are slothful servants.

Christ will call those, and those only, good servants, that have done well; for it is by patient continuance in well-doing that we seek this glory and honour.

The master said unto each of the two diligent servants on reckoning with them, "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." (ver. 21, 23.)

The slothful servant is sentenced to be deprived of his talent. The meaning of this

part of the parable we have in the reason of the sentence, To every one that hath shall be given. This may be applied to the blessings of this life. These we are intrusted with, to be used for the glory of God, and the good of those about us. Now he who has these things, and uses them for these ends, shall have abundance.

The slothful servant is sentenced.-His doom is, to be cast into outer darkness. Here, as in what was said to the faithful servants, our Saviour goes out of the parable into the things intended by it, and this serves as a key to the whole. Outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, is, in Christ's discourses, a usual expression denoting the miseries of the wicked in hell.