WHY is the one-talented man chosen as an illustration of these talent-burials? It is to show the responsibility of those who have least–that the Lord expects even the least of His consecrated people to know of and to use the talents he has in his possession, and that He will not hold guiltless even those who have the smallest ability to serve Him and His brethren and His truth, and who neglect to use it.

We are not alone in the world; for we have the blessed promise, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” (Heb. 13:5) Nor is the smallest interest of ours overlooked.

The old Lollards were called “Holdfasts,” not only because of their firmness under persecution, but of their strong grasp of the truth. Coleridge said, with a practical aptness unusual with him: “What does not withstand has no standing-ground.” “Hold fast, then, the form of sound words, in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.” Be modest, unostentatious in all that is your own, willing to concede everything you have a right to yield, but be scrupulous and immovable about all that is Christ’s.

WHILE anger, in the nature of hatred, malice, strife, envy, should be put away by all who are seeking to be copies of God’s dear Son, anger in the sense of righteous indignation against wrong-doing, sin in its various forms, is proper; and although it should be used with great moderation, backed by love, there are circumstances in which it would be wrong not to have righteous anger and use it.

SOME may fail to see the particular interest which the Lord takes in each one who is His. Every true child of God is the Lord’s in the particular sense of having entered into a Covenant of Sacrifice. We should always remember this….The Master emphasized His peculiar and personal interest in each of His followers. He calls Himself their Shepherd, and says, “He calls His own sheep by name, and leads them out.” This means a very special supervision of the affairs and interests of each one of His true disciples. Whatever may come to these is not a matter of chance or luck.

YOU that discern the prize of your high calling, and who are endeavoring to press along the line toward the mark, “gird up the loins of your mind”; strengthen and fortify your purposes and efforts; renew your determination; redouble your diligence; cast aside the weights of unnecessary worldly cares; increase your zeal; and, as the apostle urges, run with patience the race set before you. Run, not like one who is merely beating the air, but like one who has a purpose in view, and who, in desperate earnest, is determined to make his calling and election sure.

THIS is a message from the Master’s own lips. He gives us the key to a clear knowledge of His doctrines, namely, that the student must be fully consecrated to God and fully desirous of knowing His will and His Plan. In order…to see the Truth, from the Divine standpoint of the Divine revelation, we must draw near to God in the spirit of our minds, consecrated in our heart. We must will to do His will….It is to these that the promises of our text apply….Shall we not…determine in our wills to do God’s will? If so, following the instructions of the Word of God…we shall doubtless be blessed and enabled fully to know, to appreciate, to understand, the doctrines of Christ–the deep things of God, which are revealed to this class by the Spirit of God.

COURAGE is always admirable, but there is a moral courage which should rank higher far more than physical. This moral courage is greatly needed among the Lord’s people; without it they can do nothing, and many of their difficulties in the Christian way are because they fail to appreciate this matter and fail to develop this courage. It requires real courage of the highest order to stand for the Lord’s truth and his people when these are misunderstood, misinterpreted, and antagonized. It takes real courage to stand for the light when the great Adversary with a world-wide influence brands it as darkness and leads an assault against it. It requires real courage to denounce the darkness meekly, and persistently, when it has on its side wealth, culture, influence, and churchianity.

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13) Faith is an essential; but we must have crossed the Jordan; we must have been justified; must have partaken of the antitypical passover; must have been sanctified before we could have received of the Lord either a promise of victory over our Jericho, or before we could exercise such a faith as would result in that victory. If in the type faith could bring the fall of the strong walls of a city, how great must be the value of faith in the antitype! “This is the victory which overcometh the world, even your faith,” but only so long as we trust in the Lord and seek to do those things pleasing to him, can we exercise this overcoming faith.

NOR will any other creatures either in heaven or in earth receive such marks of special favor as are and ever will be the portion of the beloved Bride of Christ. Although the whole family in heaven and in earth will be blessed through Him, His Wife, co-operating with Him in His work, will alone be His companion, His confidante, His treasure.