200 The First and Great Commandment
likeness, and worship and obey the Father through the
Incarnate Son who reveals Him.
Ethics and the love and service of man are not to be
sundered from the giving of glory to God in the highest,
from true religion and true theology; because only true
belief in and obedience to God can lead to full belief in
and progressive practice of good-will towards men. As the
young men and the young women move on to their tasks,
let them in all sincerity realize the obligation of social serv-
ice; but let them first exercise their citizenship in heaven,
and through their worship of God equip themselves to be
lowly yet helpful representatives of His good-will to men.
Then, the commandment to love God comes first because
human creatures are His servants to whom He has entrusted
work to be done for Him and with Him. The obligation to
serve Him, to be profitable to Him, to render to Him
cooperation for the trust reposed; this rests upon us imper-
atively as essential destiny. To be ministers and stewards
and servants of God is the fundamental purpose of our
being. Our faculties and gifts, opportunities and resources,
may be misinterpreted by us, and appropriating them to and
for ourselves we may forget and deny the divine owner-
ship; and refusing service, we may run to ruin in miscalled
and false liberty. But it remains true that God has cre-
ated and called us for lowly yet genuine partnership with
Him; and the fulfillment of that mission, and the loyal
use of that glory, can alone satisfy human nature and meet
our responsibility.
With what power the parables of our Lord affirm these
truths, and particularly the parable of the talents.
“The Kingdom of Heaven is as a man going into a far
country, who called unto him his own servants and dis-
tributed unto them his goods.”