Using Our Talents

PIERREPONT E. TWITCHELL

Jesus often taught his followers in parables. Some of his most valuable messages are brought to us by these stories. Carefully sowing the seed of Truth, he knew that at the right time it would germinate and grow, and that his hearers would awaken to the vastness of Truth.

One such parable concerned certain servants who were entrusted by their lord with sums differing in proportion to their several abilities. At that time one talent constituted a large sum. Our word "talent," which means superior ability, originated from this parable of the talents.

The message in this parable does not rest in the difference in the amounts assigned to the individual servants, it lies in the differing success of the servants in causing these to multiply. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 6), "The talents He gives we must improve." She also says (ibid., p. 323), "In order to apprehend more, we must put into practice what we already know," adding, "If 'faithful over a few things,' we shall be made rulers over many; but the one unused talent decays and is lost." "Must" is a strong word, indicating that we must use what we have.

When we first come to Christian Science, we gain a tiny treasure of understanding. Day by day with radiant joy we increase our talent. Later we find that, from the human standpoint, it is not so easy to turn one talent into two, to make five into ten, and ten into twenty. The buoyant happiness of our first experience does not always seem easy to retain.

Our Leader counsels us in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 195), "To do good to all because we love all, and to use in God's service the one talent that we all have, is our only means of adding to that talent and the best way to silence a deep discontent with our shortcomings." It is not so much a question of where one is in his journey along the path of life, as a question of whether one is progressing. It is steadiness of growth that counts.

There is no place on the upward pathway where we can stop. As a child, Jesus increased his talents, growing steadily "in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." In his lifework he earned the reward of fidelity, even as in his parable the faithful won the commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant; ... enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

Each of us may still have less than a grain of the faith the Master expected of us. We must do the works that he did, and do them with ease and sureness. When his disciples failed to still the storm, to heal instantaneously the epileptic boy, and thus to prove God's loving presence, Jesus used terms of surprise and protest, "How is it that ye have no faith?" and, "O faithless and perverse generation."

There is need for steady spiritual growth. Christian Science has given to us the "pearl of great price," the understanding of spiritual power. There are many mountains still unmoved. Each Christian Scientist today can use the talents he has, appraise them carefully, and renew his efforts. Into his heart then will sweep the reward of joy, peace, and harmony.

The servants with the talents were not required to gain more by one hasty transaction. But they were expected to make progress. Steady growth in understanding and demonstration is a necessity to the Christian Scientist. If into his life comes inharmony of any kind, he is wise if he searches his consciousness to find wherein he has need to grow.

Christian Scientists must progress all along the line. Christian Science is so unlimited in its possibilities, so absolute in its truth, that one is sometimes tempted to overstress some particular phase of work. To read the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly daily, to do church work, to help one's fellow men, to meditate long and earnestly on some metaphysical point—all these and other accepted means of growth are valuable and necessary. We must be careful, however, to progress steadily in every particular.

If we faithfully follow our charts, the Bible, our beloved Science and Health and the other writings by our Leader, and the authorized publications, we cannot wander from the pathway. But, as Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health (pp. 366, 367), "If we would heal by the Spirit, we must not hide the talent of spiritual healing under the napkin of its form, nor bury the morale of Christian Science in the grave-clothes of its letter." And a little farther on she says: "A Christian Scientist occupies the place at this period of which Jesus spoke to his disciples, when he said: 'Ye are the salt of the earth.' 'Ye are the light of the world.'"

A tender heart filled with childlike trust in God and with love for man is assured of that steady progress demanded by our Way-shower, Christ Jesus.

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