Matthew 25:14-30 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered to them his goods.… The average man is by far the most numerous man. The man who goes beyond the average, the man who falls short of the average, both of them, by their very definition, are exceptions. They are the outskirts and fringes, the capes and promontories of humanity. The great continent of human life is made up of the average existences, the mass of two-talented capacity and action. 1. It is so even in the simplest and most superficial matter of the possession of wealth. The great fortunes, with their splendid opportunities and their tremendous responsibilities, rise like gigantic mountains which everybody sees out of the general level of comfortable life. On the other hand, excessive poverty, actual suffering for the necessaries of life, terrible as it is, is comparatively rare. A part of its terribleness comes from its rarity. The great -multitude of men are neither very rich nor very poor. The real character and strength of a community lies neither in its millionaires nor in its paupers, but in the men of middle life who neither have more money than they know how to spend, nor are pressed and embarrassed for the necessities of life. 2. The same is true in the matter of joy and sorrow. The great mass of men during the greater part of their lives are neither exultant and triumphant with delight, nor are they crushed and broken down with grief. They do not go shouting their rapture to the skies, and they do not go wailing their misery to the sympathetic winds. They are moderately happy. Joy flecked and toned down by troubles; troubles constantly relieved and lighted up by joy; that is their general condition; that seems to be their best capacity. The power of the intensest joy and the intensest pain belongs only to rare, peculiar men. 3. Mental capacity. Most men are neither sages nor fools. Few men are either scholars or dunces. 4. Popularity and fame. Those whom the world praises and those whom all men despise are both of them exceptional. You can count them easily. The great multitude whom you cannot begin to count, who fill the vast middle-ground of the great picture of humanity, is made up of men who are simply well enough liked by their fellow-men. They are crowned with no garlands, and they are pelted with no stones. They have their share of kindly interest and esteem. You cannot well think of them as either losing that or as gaining much beyond it. 5. Character and religion. Here, too, it is the average Shut fills the eye. Where are the heroes? You can find them if you look. Where are the rascals? You can find them too. Where are the saints? They shine where no true man's eyes can fail to see them. And the blasphemers likewise no one can shut out of his ears. But the great host of men: do you not know how little reason they give you to expect of them either great goodness or great wickedness? You do not look to see their faces kindle when you talk to them of Christ. You do not either look to see them grow scornful or angry at His name. You do not count upon their going to the stake for principle. But you do count upon their paying their honest debts. You have to shut your thoughts about them in to this world, for when you think of them in eternity heaven seems as much too good for them as hell seems too bad. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. |
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