01 - Chapter 1
Chapter 1. Introduction. The Importance of Little Things.
Those who affect to despise the importance of little things, are in danger of becoming little people. Certainly no great man will ever do so. He will the rather prove his greatness by a hearty recognition of the truth of the wise saying, "He who despises little things, shall fall little by little." The Great Teacher drew some of His most beautiful and important lessons from little things, such as little flowers, little birds, little dew-drops, little children. He insisted on faithfulness in littles. My friend, life is great because it is the aggregation of littles. As the coral reefs which rear themselves high above the crawling sea beneath, are all made up of minute skeletons of microscopic animalcules; so life, mighty and solemn as having eternal consequences — life that towers over the sea of eternity, is made up of these minute incidents, of these trifling duties, of these small tasks; and only those who are faithful in the least are, or can be, faithful in the whole.
Little things make either . . .
the joy — or the sorrow,
the success — or the ruin,
the safety — or the danger,
the grandeur — or the smallness
— of human life.
Little NEGLECTS lead to great ruin. A captain who should say, "I have my vessel well built and well manned, my cargo is well secured, my men are at their posts, my charts and compasses are of the best, and all bids fair for a safe and speedy voyage; true it is, that I have no helm, but then that is such a little matter that I can well dispense with it" — would
Little PRECAUTIONS lead to great safety. The Syrian warrior refused to wash in Jordan according to the prophet’s direction, because he could not see how so little a thing could effect his cure; but, when persuaded to it by wise and faithful servants, he found that, as little as it was, it wrought his salvation.
Little WASTINGS make great losses. If we waste the pennies, we shall never save the dollars. Wasted moments make lost minutes and ill-used hours. So many lives are thrown away because their possessors do not understand the value and utility of small portions of time. "Gather up the fragments" said our Lord, "that nothing be lost." Henry Martyn, the martyr missionary, earned the noble reputation of being "the man who never lost an hour." What wonder, then, that his life, as a whole, was, despite its brevity, so
Or unimproved below."
Little SAVINGS make great gains. He would be a good friend to mankind, who would teach them how to save the littles. "Only a penny," is thought to be a sufficient excuse for spending it on any trifling folly.
Little TROUBLES make us miserable. Great ones do not often come, perhaps only once in a lifetime, and rarely more than two or three times in any life. When they do come, we brace ourselves up for the occasion — like a man who is about to carry a heavy burden, and bring in all the aids of philosophy and religion. The most treacherous of life’s ills are the small cares, the petty annoyances, and the little irritations that attend our daily path. For not only do they come more frequently than larger troubles, but they have, for many reasons, far more power to embitter life. The sting of a wasp is much more serious than the buzz of a fly, and yet, we suppose, the man does not live who has had a fraction of the annoyance from wasps that he has had from flies. "Do go away," said the dog to the fly; "I hate you."
"Why?" replied the fly, "I never bite you."
"I wish you would bite, and have done with it," retorted the dog. "I would rather have one bite than this everlasting buzz."
Happy the man who is free from little ills; happier still he who is blessed with so equal a temper, or who has cultivated so serene a piety, that these small annoyances fall upon him with as little effect as snowflakes upon