It does not say, “Thou hast been rich,” or “great,” or “powerful,” or “brilliant,” but “faithful.” And it is remarkable that the master said exactly the same words to the servant who had the two talents, as he did to the one that had the five. They were not equally gifted, but both were declared to be faithful. This is a great encouragement for those who are conscious that they have not the same gifts as our venerable father. We may not have his powerful, and melodious, voice; his intimate acquaintance with our great English divines; or his marvellous power of exhibiting truth. We may have only two talents, or perhaps only one, when he had five; but God may give us grace to be faithful, and we may faithfully use that one talent to his glory. God said to Moses, “What is that in thine hand?” And, though there was nothing there but a common, rough, shepherd’s rod, God used it for the performance of the greatest miracles in Israel’s history. So he says to each of us, “What is that in thine hand?” And whatever it is, however humble, he gives us the sacred privilege of using it faithfully in his service. But I do not want to consider general principles this morning, so much as to turn your attention to the special case of him whom we have all known as so faithful a servant of his most blessed Lord and Saviour. (1) To appreciate that faithfulness, we must note first, that IT BEGAN IN EARLY LIFE. His was an early call. There is no age in life at which it does not please God to call his people to himself. We see people called sometimes in childhood, sometimes in middle life, and sometimes in old age when tottering to the grave. It is difficult to say at which age conversion brings the greatest joy in heaven. There is a marvellous mercy when the old man who has resisted every influence throughout a long life, is touched at last by the love of Christ, and brought with a broken heart to the throne of grace. But there is also a peculiar joy when the spirited boy is led in his boyhood to receive the message which his mother teaches him, and so to spend his whole life that he may say in his old age, as Obadiah did, “I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth.” Now this was the case with our friend. His faith in the Lord Jesus Christ was not an afterthought late in life. His father and grandfather were both pious men; and it was in his father’s parish, (for his father was a clergyman,) and in his father’s home, that as a spirited school boy he was first brought to the Lord. Even before he went to College he began to conduct cottage lectures in his father’s parish. That ministry therefore to which you used to listen with such intense interest, contained the ripened experience of a long life, from the beginning consecrated to God. Is there not a lesson in this for fathers and mothers? Is there not an encouragement to train up those committed to them in the Lord? Is there