fore me."

Both the circumstances of the story and the application of the parable
were more readily apparent to the Jewish multitude than they are to us.
The departure of a certain nobleman from a vassal province to the court
of the suzerain to seek investiture of kingly authority, and the protest
of the citizens over whom he asserted the right to reign, were incidents
of Jewish history still fresh in the minds of the people to whom Christ
spoke.[1052] The explication of the parable is this: The people were not
to look for an immediate establishment of the kingdom in temporal power.
He who would be king was pictured as having departed for a far country
from which he would assuredly return. Before leaving he had given to
each of his servants a definite sum of money; and by their success in
using this he would judge of their fitness to serve in offices of trust.
When he returned he called for an accounting, in the course of which the
cases of three servants are specified as types. One had so used the
pound as to gain ten pounds; he was commended and received a reward such
as only a sovereign could give, the governorship of ten cities. The
second servant, with equal capital had increased it only five fold; he
was properly rewarded in proportion by appointment as governor over five
cities. The third gave back what he had received, without increase, for
he had failed to use it. He had no reason and only a very poor excuse to
offer for his dereliction. In justice he was severely reprimanded, and
the money was taken from him. When the king directed that the pound so
forfeited by the unfaithful servant be given to him who already had ten,
some surprize was manifest amongst those who stood by; but the king
explained, that "unto every one that hath shall be given," for such a
one uses to advantage the means entrusted to his care, while "from him
that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him"; for he
has demonstrated his utter unfitness to possess and use aright. This
part of the parable, while of general application, must have appealed to
the apostles as particularly apt; for each of them had received in trust
an equal endowment through ordination, and each would be required to
account for his administration.

The fact is apparent that Christ was the nobleman who was to be invested
with the authority of kingship, and who would return to require the
accounting at the hands of His trusted servants.[1053] But many of