Jesus' parable of the talents indicates that there is no essential difference between one, two, and five talents. They designate variety, not quantity. According to Christian Science there is but one quantity—the essence of the universal substance of Spirit, God, from which all qualities or attributes emanate. Talents are illustrative of the multifarious aspects of God. Thus one talent is as precious and as important as five talents to the infinite intelligence and so to the world.
Is not the underlying purpose of the parable to set forth the impartiality of God in a partial concept of creation and the equality of man's potential regardless of the scope of one's human operation? Is not the one-talent individual in reality as capable and as competent as the two or five-talented ones, with respect to opportunity and achievement and productivity? The divine demand is that one's talents be employed. A recompense of profit will not accrue to the indolent.
Jesus believed in the just reward of industry, in individual responsibility to produce, to multiply and replenish the earth, to gain and possess and dispose. He taught that to him that has exercised his talents well shall be given a recompense of reward. And the inevitable recompense of loss is to him that refuses to employ his talent. And he taught and proved that as Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, states it (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 199), "The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes the achievement possible."
