1. Little Things that Make for DESTINY
1. Little Things that Make for DESTINY "Who has despised the day of small things?" Zechariah 4:10 The question of comparative values is an important one. How to estimate properly the worth or service of one event in comparison with another, how to form a just judgment of the relation of one truth or fact to another-cannot be permanently determined.
Values change with the changes of time and circumstances and conditions. That which was adjusted yesterday, in the scale of relative importance--may tomorrow rise in value or become of little worth. Hence, he is reckless who undertakes to classify in order all the events or forces of human life, despising the one and exalting the other according to his judgment, finite and limited as it is. The possibilities of good or of evil in any act or person cannot be ascertained by other than God Himself. The far-reaching influence of a word or a deed is limited by the horizon of the finite one, while great expectations have been subjected to sore disappointment. That which cost time and thought and treasure, that which occupied the attention of a nation and stirred into activity--may have soon subsided and assumed its proper place in history as onlya ripple on the placid sea of human interest. But what momentous events have been recorded whose beginnings could scarcely be traced, so insignificant were they! History is crowded with facts illustrative of this truth.
Scientific discoveries are due largely to simple hints, which to an unobservant mind would never have been heeded. As the whole realm of nature, of mental activity, passes in review before us, how large do "small things" appear!
If, then, these little things with which we have to do conceal within them such possibilities--is it not wise for us to reconsider from time to time our former estimate of their values--and look, indeed, upon perfection and magnitudes as having been made up from, or the outgrowth of--the minute and simple things of nature and of life?
Horace Bushnell said: "God descends to an infinite detail, and builds a little universe in the smallest things. He carries on a process of growth in every tree and flower and living thing. He is as careful to finish the insect as He does the planet, both because it consists only with His perfection to finish everything, and because the perfection of His greatest structures is the result of perfection in their smallest parts or particles. On this patience of detail, rests all the glory and order of the created universe."
If, then, God does not trifle--how can man, His supreme work on earth, consider any item or atom of His creation, or any law or event of His ordering--as insignificant, and despise its day or its deed?
1. Value of Surroundings.
Things material and things immaterial are moved, shaped, influenced by little things surrounding. If, as it has been said,we are largely the creatures of circumstances--then how can we be indifferent to those things that harm us, or negligent of those that make for our growth and development? A page in Herbert Spencer’s great work, "Synthetic Philosophy," contained a picture. It was a simple thing, and yet it suggested a great question. It was an imperfect leaf, curled and deformed, because it grew too near a branch of the tree and was denied space and light and motion. Its companions were large and well-developed and beautiful. Not so this hapless one. From this illustration the author proceeds to show that natural objects and man and nations are effected, shaped, molded by surroundings. Where a man lives may determine what he is, or what he may be. The dwellers among the mountains are more independent and fearless than those whose view of life is clouded by the density of the forest. "Backwoodsman" is a term descriptive of surroundings. Take his children to the broad expanse of the prairie, let them catch the inspiration of mountain height, or feel through youth and manhood the breath of old ocean’s ceaseless swell--and a different class of human beings will result therefrom.
2. Influences of the Past. That which modifies, counteracts, and influences the more positive and powerful things of the present, as they surround us and make us know of their presence by their constant contact--are the little and yet large things of the past. Our names connect us with generations that have ceased to live, and yet who live in us far more than we are willing to admit. Our speech perpetuates a language replete with thoughts, opinions, ideas, not our own in originality--ours only by heredity. Try to escape it as we may, the shadow or the light of the past is here with us in the life of the present.
Because of the cosmopolitan spirit of our age, it is no uncommon thing for an East Indian student to find his way into an Anglo-Saxon civilization; or a Japanese to find a home and a companion in an American Commonwealth. The effect of study, travel, religion, social customs--may harmonize the extremes of a world-wide origin and of a long distant past--with the life and thought and feeling of the present. Yet the influence of the past, whatever the surroundings of the present may be, whether we will it or not--has its decided effect upon the life of today; for it is in the blood, in the brain, in the heart. Change of dress, change of speech, change of religion even, adoption of new methods of domestic comfort and business life, preference for different means and measures for human happiness--will not utterly cut us off from the influence of the long line of deeds, words, and thoughts, born and nurtured in the ages of the past.
3. Effects of Things to Come. But the civilization of the present is not the sum-total of the things of today, nor yet of the civilizations of the past, mighty and powerful--as those "small things" are which enter into life and character.
We catch the breeze of a coming day. If the ideal did not readjust itself and expand on the coming of the morrow--we would soon cease to plan, to strive, and would be content with the measure of each day’s work done or attempted. The coming season compels planning. The reformation needed, gives hope to righteous endeavor. What life would be with this improvement and with that, enters into our thought, our conversation, our choice of companions and fellow-associates. The vision of a better state and condition of affairs, universally pervades and influences the present. But pass beyond the limits of the immediate future, and notethe effect of eternity upon the things of time.There is a power that sustains and blesses, that builds up and makes strong this present life that comes to us from the endless life. If tomorrow we die, and death ends all--then how different all life would be! The beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the insects of the day and of the hour, live to better purpose, from instinct, than would man, with highest possibilities of vigorous thought, if there comes not to him the knowledge or the assurance, or even the hope, of a future life. "To eat and drink and be merry," would be the universal creed and practice if tomorrow death put an end to all. The merriment of a limited life would be tinged with the sadness of abandonment, if in this life only we had hope.
So, add the effect upon us of a future life, to the influence of the past, and the hard lines of the definite and conscious present will be modified, and we become less and less the helpless creatures of circumstances, and more and more the creators and modifiers of all that surrounds us.
4. The Inner Life.
How great and how serious life becomes, when we consider the conflicting forces of the thingspresent, the antagonistic influences of the things of thepast, the uncertainties offuturedays and years and realms--all of these little things centering within us, producing another set of emotions that have so much to do with human life. The things we think about,
those things we love or hate,
the judgments we form,
the words we speak,
the life we live--
all these, small as they may be, concern us infinitely.
Judgments that are formed upon insufficient knowledge; based upon limited observation; influenced by personal feelings; circumscribed by narrow views; expressions that fix our relation to others, that are the exponent and representation of our convictions--"little things," we say, yet so effective and sometimes so destructive upon human life.
"Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." "For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly!"
Yes, and our Lord said also, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." As the fountain is--so shall the stream be. If the issue, the result of life, is ever to be foreknown, its prophecy may be read in the condition of the heart.
5. The World Beneath.
There is an element of evil that must be considered in the consideration of the forces with which one must deal in the development of character: "Things also from beneath."
Such things do not overwhelm the soul with an irresistible avalanche of destruction, but with cunning, with subtlety, with deceit, with false promises; by the little things, overlooked because of their insignificance, yet fearful in their results--these are the forces and the methods of the things from beneath.
They are not to be ignored. They are not always easily discerned. Not asorrowknown in all the world but had its origin from beneath. Not atearbut can be traced to that active agency, that has made and is making such havoc in this world of ours. Despise not the day, the hour, the moment, when there come to you suggestions, intimations, inducements from thedark underworld of evil. For by our indifferent attitude to these "little things," come the horrors of death.
6. Things from Above Our hope is not fromwithin, nor of thepresentorpast, nor indeed of thefuture, blissful as we may imagine it to be--surely not frombeneath.The little things that have to do with life come from every source, from all directions.This central life is swayed by breezes from every land, from every climate. He has not begun to live, who does not realize the seriousness of life, who has not learned that pressure and influence are exerted upon him from various quarters. Independent and free as he is, man is yet subject to impressions, persuasions, allurements, weighty and powerful, although apparently insignificant and trivial.
Into that life may come also, the saving grace of God--love and light from above, to reform, to re-establish, to rebuild for time and eternity. Despise not you the day of the coming of a still small voice, for God may be in that voice. God can . . .
change the being within,
dominate and conquer those things without,
make helpful the things of the past,
rearrange the plans of the future,
drive back into the bottomless pit the demons of destruction from beneath,
and make peaceful and perfect the soul itself!
It is because we have despised the day of small things that such unbelief possesses us. The destruction of sin, the salvation of the soul, the revelation of the Father, and an example of a sincere and pure soul in a world of deceit and vileness--was the object of God’s coming into this world in the person of Jesus Christ. Like unto the influences of the things about, beyond, beneath, behind, the things from above come quietly; "come not with observation;" come to influence, not to overwhelm; and because we do not know how sensitive, how delicate, how easily affected is this being within us called a soul, we esteem lightly, if not despise--the agency, the influence, and the day of small things.
Open the windows of your soul, let in the life, the light, the love that comes from above--and then down into this lowly abode will come the Holy Spirit, to germinate, develop, and to grow, bringing forth blossom and fruit for another world.
Each holy thought,
each breath of prayer for better things,
each belief in a promised blessing,
each kindly word--
is so much toward strength and beauty of character, multiplied a thousand times because God is in the thought and the deed. "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty." God was not in the great and strong wind that rent the mountains before Elijah. Neither was the Lord in the mighty quaking of the earth. Nor was He yet in the direful conflagration that burned so fiercely in the sight of the prophet. But after the storm and earthquake and the fire--there came a still small voice. There was power in the voice. It brought the prophet out from the darkness of the cave, out of his fear and his anguish, out into the presence of duty and his Lord. Things from above! How much needed in our world! They come as fast as we make room for them, and, by their coming . . .
keep out things from beneath,
sweeten things present,
glorify things to come.
Said a great artist: "One ought to see at least one good picture each day, hear one pure sweet song, say a few reasonable words daily, and thereby be all the better for the day."
How many servants to help us may we have, if we will! They may be little, but, being many, make quick work. How many hard masters we may serve, if we so choose! Which shall it be, serve or be served? If we seek to serve the highest and the noblest, we shall in turn be served, because we have thus allied ourselves with Him who has put all things in subjection to Him. If our talents are few and small--then all the greater reason for diligence and activity in their employment. If we had ten talents--then we would have ten times the responsibility resting upon us that comes as a burden to the neighbor possessing but one talent. If we do not seek to increase the talent God has given us, would we be more faithful with the larger treasure of time and talent and opportunity? The combination and co-operative services of the marine insect builds for us the coral reef. "All at it, and always at it!" So the mighty task is done by these mites of feebleness, in the multiplied moments of time.
Systematic persistence is needed in the material and intellectual world. So great do small things become, that we might well tremble at the thought of any word expressed, or deed done, or influence exerted.
Prayer for Divine guidanceis absolutely needed to be able to make the most of life. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord." "When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with Him." The mighty forces of the universe are, after all, quiet--they are combinations of minute things that hold in even balance magnitudes of infinite value. The human soul is subject to a multitude of forces seeking to sway it, having an influence one way or another. These forces are often small in ordinary estimation, yet are not to be despised. They are all about us, are the circumstances of our every-day life,makingormarringour happiness. They come also from the past--constant reminders of other days, of a time beyond our time--and must be made to adjust themselves with the present or become anarchists and outlaws, destructive of present peace and order. They are met by the forces from the future, the aspirations and hopes and dreams of better times and better things and a brighter hopes. But all these enter the crucible of the inner consciousness, and, according to the will of him who lives within, there comes forth a belief, an opinion, a judgment, right or wrong, as the dross or the pure truth has been accepted or rejected. From beneath, waging warfare upon the forces from above, secretly, stealthily come evil spirits to entice us. In the center of all these conflicting, antagonist oppositions, the life of every individual soul exists.
Woe, then, to him who, witnessing the marshaling of these forces under mighty leadership, shuts his eyes to the result and despises the day and the deed of small things!