April 6

Use or lose

“He . . . hid his lord’s money” (Matt. 25:18).
“Take therefore the talent from him” (Matt. 25:28).
God’s law in the spiritual life is “use or lose.” The unused faculty dies out. The capacities we have for loving and serving God are taken from us. That which was once possible becomes forever impossible. The future once open to us is closed. We are permanently crippled, limited, paralyzed, deadened.
Had we followed the openings given to us, had we used the talent committed to us, endless expansion and fullness of joy would have been ours, but now our chances are past. We have had our opportunity, we have for years been on probation, but now it is over for us. How gladly would a man renounce all that sin has brought him, if only he could stand again with his talent in hand, and all life’s opportunities before him.


If there is one truth more than another on which the young may begin to build their life, it is this: that each time you decline a duty to which your better self prompts you, you become less capable of doing it; and, on the other hand, that each humble and painful effort after what is good is real growth in character.
—Marcus Dods.

Paganini, the world-famous violinist, left his greatest treasure, his violin, to his native city of Genoa. For reasons of his own he made the single condition, that the instrument should never be played again. Today we see what a mistake this was for like all other things made of wood it deteriorated more rapidly with disuse than with the constant handling.
And now as it lies worm-eaten in its lovely case it is only valuable as a relic. What a striking reminder of a law that governs our lives. When we cease to serve others we become useless to God and to man. We must use or lose.

It was only one talent the servant received,
And its value of so little worth;
But the lord of that servant was painfully grieved,
Because it was hid in the earth. . . .

The talents God gave you indeed may be few,
It may be He gave you but one;
But trade on the one He has given to you,
If you hope to receive His “well-done.”

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