l and doing good are in providence
conceded to every one of us; and the law announced in another parable
holds good here; If we improve aright the talents which we possess, more
will forthwith be entrusted to us.

There is room for advancement; and, when grace is begun, it is sweet to
grow in grace. If we had power to add cubit by cubit to our stature, we
should have far to grow ere our head should strike the heavens; and in
bearing meekly, and acting righteously, and living purely, we have room
enough to expand: it will be long ere we have done all, and so our
progress be stopped by striking the boundary. Forgetting the things that
are behind, and reaching forth to those that are before, we may press on
and ever on; yet there is room.

Nor let any one think that bearing and doing God's will must be less
blessed when we learn that God did not need this at our hand, and that
we do not thereby lay him under obligation to us. When one is truly
taught of the Spirit, it will increase and not diminish the pleasure
which he enjoys in obedience, to learn that all he is, and has, and
does, comes from God. A dependent is happier than an independent
position for human beings, if he on whom they hang is great and good.
The life of a child is happiest during the period when he has no
possession of his own, and desires none,--when he gets all as he needs
from his father; on this side, as well as on others, we must receive the
kingdom as a little child.

Here is a little stream trickling down the mountain side. As it
proceeds, other streams join it in succession from the right and left
until it becomes a river. Ever flowing, and ever increasing as it flows,
it thinks it will make a great contribution to the ocean when it shall
reach the shore at length. No, river, you are an unprofitable servant;
the ocean does not need you; could do as well and be as full without
you; is not in any measure made up by you. True, rejoins the river, the
ocean is so great that all my volume poured into it makes no sensible
difference; but still I contribute so much, and this, as far as it goes,
increases the amount of the ocean's supply. No: this indeed is the
seeming to the ignorant observer on the spot; but whoever obtains deeper
knowledge and a wider range, will discover and confess that the river
is an unprofitable servant to the sea--that it contributes absolutely
nothing to the sea's store. From the ocean came every drop of water that
rolls down