Part 7

I told you that to us, the Talent that Jesus spoke of is not money, but something more precious still, which we are given by God to trade with.

"Trade with?" you ask. Yes—that is the idea.

If we are God's servants, if we have taken Jesus Christ as our own Blessed Saviour, God expects us to try to get others to trust Him too, and so to multiply the Talents which He has given into our charge.

You will understand this a little better when you have read the true story I am going to tell you.

There was a lady taking a Journey a few years ago, and she had to pass through London and go to another terminus on her way.

She had one of God's "Talents" in her heart. She knew that Jesus Christ was a great and precious Saviour; and before she started on her journey she prayed:

"Make me a blessing to somebody as I travel!"

Well, by the time she had reached London, she was tired, and when she got to the other terminus, as she went along the platform she saw a man sitting in a carriage alone. But she passed on; she thought she was too tired to speak to that man.

So she hid her Lord's money!

But her heart smote her; and after a moment she got out, and entered the carriage where the man, who appeared to be a foreman in some works, sat in the farthest corner.

They were soon off, and though she felt very nervous, she moved nearer to him, and made a remark on the beautiful sunset!

He seemed surprised.

And when, further, she said, "How it reminded her of God's love."

He answered: "Oh, I do not think of those things! I leave that to my wife and daughters! I and my sons read different things from that! We do very well with our lives, and leave them to theirs!"

The lady hardly knew what to answer. She felt she was not "up" in all these unbelieving questions of the day.

But then she bethought herself: "I wish I could think of some word of God that would suit his case! For the Word of God is living and powerful."

And like a flash, she remembered the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, and she said, "Did you ever hear this?" And found herself able to repeat it to him word for word:

"Two men went up into the Temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican.

"The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are . . .

"And the Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other."

As the lady finished that parable, which God had so wonderfully helped her to repeat, the train began to slow down at the next station. The man gathered up his things, came to her side and shook her hand warmly.

"Thank you very much," he said earnestly, "for what you have said!"

And then he jumped out, and the train took the lady on to her destination.

All of us are given Talents, according to our several abilities.

Whatever it is—let each one of us do what we can to tell others of God's love in giving us a Saviour; and if we do, surely—yes, surely—God will say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servants, enter into the joy of your Lord!"

XXXIII. Hid in Three Measures of Meal

One day the Lord Jesus gave a very short Parable to His disciples of only one verse, but He would not have told it to us, if He had not intended us to learn a lesson from it.

I will copy the verse for you, because it is so very short, and then I will explain it afterwards.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."

Leaven is what we now call yeast.

In the dictionary, leaven, or yeast, is described as something "which pervades a mass, and changes its nature."

And so we will think of it in that light, and try to draw out from it something which may help us every day.

If the Kingdom of Heaven is hidden in our hearts, then it ought to pervade our whole lives.

I have seen an untidy woman, and an untidy home, perfectly transformed by the love of God, and her desire to please Him.

A year or two ago, I knew a woman who had become rather fond of drink. All at once she found that if she wanted to enter into "the Kingdom of Heaven," that temptation must be left off. So she told the Lord Jesus all about it, and then she left it off in the strength which He gave her; and she said to me: "I have never taken any since!"

So she found, like many others whom I have known, that when "the Kingdom of Heaven" takes possession of our hearts, our whole nature becomes changed, and we try to live to God's glory!

In the same chapter in Matthew, the thirteenth, that has in it the Parable about the leaven, our Lord gives us another picture of "the Kingdom of Heaven."

He describes a man who was digging in a field; who came by chance upon a great treasure.

The man hastily covered up the ground, and went to the owner of the field, and asked him to let him buy the whole field.

The price was very high, but the man thought of the treasure, and he did not hesitate. He went back, and sold all that he had, and came and bought the field. He did not grudge it, for the treasure was worth everything he possessed!

Then our Lord tells us of another man.

He was a merchant; and he travelled to far-off countries seeking beautiful pearls.

At length he came across the most beautiful pearl he had ever seen—it was of great price.

This man did not hesitate either. He saw the value of that pearl, and he sold everything he had and bought it!

In the twenty-fifth of Matthew, Jesus gives us another Parable, and it is about His coming back; and I am sure you will like to hear that one, for you have perhaps seen pictures of those Ten Virgins who went out to meet the Bridegroom, with little lamps in their hands?

Five of these Virgins were wise, and five were foolish. Why was it that some were wise and some not?

Perhaps you have a brother who has cycled into the country, and comes home later than you expected, and tired-out?

"Yes," he says, "I have had to walk my machine for half-a-dozen miles—my lamp went out, and there was not a shop to be seen!"

Yes, that was it; he had not taken oil to fill his lamp.

So the foolish Virgins took their lamps, but took no oil with them; but the wise took oil in their vessels, with their lamps.

The Bridegroom seemed long in coming, and they all fell asleep while they waited.

And at midnight there was a cry made: "Behold the Bridegroom cometh! Go ye out to meet Him!"

Then all the Virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are gone out."

But the wise answered that they must not do that, lest there should not be enough for them both; instead they advised the foolish Virgins to go and buy for themselves.

And while they went to buy, the Bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with Him to the marriage; and the door was shut.

Afterwards, when the other Virgins came back, they asked that the door might be opened; but the Bridegroom answered that He did not know them.

I am sure you will feel sad when you think that the foolish Virgins could not share in the Marriage Supper.

I think this is told us to warn us to ask God to give us His Holy Spirit in our hearts, which, like the oil in the little lamps, will show us the way, and keep us brightly shining for Him!

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Heavenly Bridegroom in this Parable.

When He was on earth, He told His disciples over and over again to watch most earnestly for Him to come back.

He warned all of us who love Him, to be ready to open to Him if he knocks; to guard against being so bound up in the pleasures of life that the day of His return should take any of us by surprise.

Jesus ends this Parable with these words—

"Watch therefore: for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."