Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/509



I. "  Who,  thinkest  thou,  is  the  faithful  and  wise  steward!" (Luke xii.  42.)  Christ  finds  few  of  this  character, and therefore  He  speaks  in  the  style  of  wonder. He requires of  His  servants  that  they  be  faithful,  prudent, charitable to  others,  and  persevering  in  good  works,  in order  that  when  the  hour  of  death  comes  He  may  find them "so  doing." Examine how  you  conduct  yourself as His  steward,  and  whether  you  engage  yourself  in  the cause of  God  with  fidelity  and  perseverance,  or  whether you seek  in  it  your  own  interest  and  satisfaction  rather than the  glory  of  God;  whether  you  perform  your  actions with  proper  deliberation  and  circumspection; whether you  attempt  to  render  your  means  and  talents conducive to  the  benefit  of  others;  and  finally,  whether you persevere  in  doing  good.

II. The wicked  servant  says  to  himself,  "  My  Lord  is long  a  coming." And therefore  he  imagines,  that  he has  a  long  time  to  live;  he  acts  like  the  unwise  man  in the  Gospel,  who  said,  "  I  will  say  to  my  soul:  Soul,  thou hast  much  good  laid  up  for  many  years." (Luke xii. 19.)  He  injures  and  insults  his  fellow  servants,  "  he shall  begin  to  strike  the  men-servants  and  the  maidservants." He surrenders  himself  to  sensuality,  for  he begins  "  to  eat  and  to  drink  and  be  drunk." Resolve to avoid  all  these  vices,  and  recollect  that  they  draw  their existence from  the  persuasion  of  enjoying  a  long  life and a  forgetfulness  of  our  last  end.

III. The reward  and  punishment  of  these  different  servants. Of the  former  it  is  said,  "  Blessed  is  that  servant; he  will  place  him  over  all  that  he  possessed!." But the  fate