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 other day I met with a curious myth illustrative of this point. It comes from the East, from Mohammedanism; but it is very expressive. A tribe of men dwelt on the shores of the Dead Sea. They had forgotten all about truth, and had taken up with lies; and were fast verging towards the saddest possible condition. Whereupon it pleased a kind Providence to send them the prophet Moses with an instructive word of warning. But no — the men of the Dead Sea discovered that there was no comeliness in this Moses — no truth in his words; they received him with scoffs and jeers. Moses withdrew, but the laws of nature did not withdraw. The men of the Dead Sea, says the narrative, when next he visited them, were all "changed into apes;" sitting on the trees there, grinning now in the most unaffected manner, gibbering and chattering very genuine nonsense. There they sit and chatter to this hour, "only, I believe, every Sabbath there returns to them a bewildered, half consciousness, half reminiscence," seeming to have some distant idea that once they were of another order, They made no use of their souls, and so they have lost them. Their worship on the Sabbath now is to roost there, and half remember that they once had souls. There is no little truth in this old Moslem myth. They made no use of their souls, and so have lost them. Brethren, that is God's law. We keep what we use. We lose what we neglect to use. (R. Thomas.) 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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