CHAPTER III.

THE INVESTMENT OF TALENT AND ITS RETURN.

In all ages man has been stimulated to sowing by the certainty of
reaping. Tomorrow's sheaves and shoutings support to-day's tearful
sowing. Certainty of victory wins battles before they are fought.
Armed with confidence patriots have beaten down stone castles with
naked fists. Uncertainty makes the heart sick, takes nerve out of arm
and tension out of thought. The mere rumor of war along the
border-lines of nations destroys enterprise and industry. Men will not
plow if warhorses are to trample down the ripe grain. Men will not
build if the enemy are to warm hands over blazing rafters. Why should
the husbandman plant vines if others are to wrest away his fruit? The
individual and the race need the stimulus of hope and a rational basis
of security that nothing shall cut the connection between the causes
sown and the effects to be reaped. Therefore, the divine word: "Send
forth thy gift and talent, and nature and providence shall invest it
securely and give the talent back with interest and increase."

What a promise for civilization was that of Christ: "Give and it shall
be given unto you!" Let the husbandman give his seed to the furrows;
soon the furrows will give back big bundles into the sower's arms. Let
the vintner give the sweat of his brow to the vines; soon the vines
will give back the rich purple floods. Give thy thought, O husbandman!
to the wild rice; soon nature will give back the rice plump wheat.