ew. To each is given "according to his several
ability." Diversity of condition is accepted as a natural feature of
human life, just as the hills and valleys make up the landscape. The
parable does not make of life a prairie.

Where then, in this diversified life, is justice, the social justice
which men in our time so eagerly and so reasonably claim? There is no
justice, answers the parable, if the end of life is to be found in
getting the prizes of this world; for some are sure to get more than
others. The justice of this diversity is found only in its relation to
God. It is in the proportional responsibility of these holders of
different gifts. Of those to whom much has been entrusted much will be
required; of those who are slightly gifted the judgment will be
according to the gift. There is no absolute standard. The judgment is
proportional. One man may accomplish less than another, and yet be
more highly rewarded, for he may do the less conspicuous duty laid on
him better than the man with the larger trust does his. The parable
humbles the privileged and encourages the disheartened. {126} There is
no distinction of reward between the five-talent man and the two-talent
man. Each has done his own duty with his own gifts, and to each
precisely the same language of commendation is addressed. They have
had proportional responsibility, and they have identical reward. Both
have been faithful, and both enter into the same joy of their Lord.

{127}

LI

THE LAW OF INCREASING RETURNS

_Matthew_ xxv. 14-30.

The parable of the talents adds to its doctrine of responsibility a
second teaching. It is its doctrine of interest; the return to be
looked for from investment in the spiritual life. The economists have
a law which they call the law of diminishing returns; but Jesus calls
attention to the converse of that principle,--the law of increasing and
accelerated returns. We see this principle on a great scale in the
world of money. Money has a self-propagating quality. It breeds
money. If you should ask a very rich man how he accumulated his
fortune he would tell you that the first savings involved great thrift
and wisdom or great good luck, but that after a while his wealth flowed
in upon him almost in spite of himself. He began to get money, and the
more he got the more easily he got more. Now this law, says Jesus,
which is so obvious in the business world, is true in a much deeper way
of t