Small Things Not to Be Despised

Great numbers of persons do despise “the day of small things.”

If they were wise, they would not do so; for it is not wise to despise anything, and to despise a thing because it is small is great folly.

A small thing may be greatly good, or terribly evil; and in neither case would it be prudent to despise it.

It is usually God’s way to begin his great works with a day of small things.

Thus it is seen that there is nothing in the means themselves.

Thus the divine power is more fully displayed.

Thus faith is exercised, and made to learn many lessons.

Why should men despise what God ordains?

Who are those persons who dare act thus contemptuously? They are not entitled to give themselves such airs: yet they dare to do so.

They show their contempt in various ways.

They affect pity for such feebleness. Nehemiah 4:2.

They decry, and find fault. 1 Samuel 17:28.

They sneer, and ridicule. Matthew 13:55. Acts 17:18.

They leave alone, with silent neglect. Acts 5:38.

It is a sad pity when this contempt is poured upon a beginner in grace, for it may cause him sad distress and discouragement.

Our object at this time is to reprove those who despise the earlier and weaker works of grace in the soul. True it is “the day of small things,” but this is to be rejoiced in, and is not to be despised.

Let us commune with—

I. THOSE WHO DESPISE OTHERS WHO ARE IN THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS.

1. Do you not know that there are babes in grace, and that these are true children of God? Do you doubt that evident fact?

2. Were you not once such little ones yourselves? If you never were, who are you to despise your betters?

3. Were not the greatest of the saints once very feeble? Would you have acted thus to them?

4. May not the strong be glad at times to be as sure of salvation as these little ones? Why despise those whom you may yet envy?

5. Does not our Lord care tenderly for the lambs? Is. 40:11.

6. Has he not threatened all proud despisers? Matthew 18:6.

   • Who then dares despise the day of small things?
   • Who are those who are so wicked? They are the proud, the ignorant, the thoughtless, the unfeeling, the profane, and such like.

II. THOSE WHO DESPISE THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS IN THEMSELVES.

1. They will frequently fail to notice and nurture thoughts and feelings which would lead them to Christ.

2. They cannot believe that salvation can come by ordinary means, or through their present knowledge and emotions: these are too small in their esteem, they crave for signs and wonders.

3. Therefore they endeavor to kill their own thoughtfulness at its birth, and quench the spark of desire before it can become a flame. Yet these despised things might have led on to salvation.

4. If they would nurture their weak desires, and feeble resolves, and faint beliefs, and trembling hopes, good would come of them.

5. No doubt many think ill of their own condition when God thinks well of them. They judge that little faith, and little life, and little strength are useless; but the Lord thinks not so.

   • It is wise to look away, both from small things and great things, to Jesus. Let us see his day, and be glad. John 8:56.

Let us trust in his finished work, and rejoice in his continued work. “Rejoice, and see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel.” See context.

III. THOSE WHO DO NOT DESPISE THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS.

1. Hopeful pastors. We are looking out for gracious signs, and are more apt to be misled by our sanguine hopes than to fall into the opposite fault of despising the day of small things.

2. Anxious parents. They long to see buds of grace in their children. The smallest signs of spiritual life would charm them.

3. Wise soul-winners. They rejoice to see “first the blade.”

4. Jesus himself. He loves the little ones. Mark 10:14.

   • Come you to him, all you trembling souls!

Multum In Parvo

When the boy began to draw portraits upon his slate, and to sketch with charcoal, the great artist was in him in embryo. It was not every eye that could perceive his budding genius, but he who did so, and encouraged the youth to pursue are as his vocation, found a life-long satisfaction in having helped him. Had he sneered at the young draughtsman, he would have lived to see his folly; but now he takes pleasure in every triumph of the renowned painter. Some such joy, only of a higher and more spiritual order, will be yours if you stimulate early piety, and teach the tender heart the way to peace and holiness. To repress desires which are heavenward, because they are attended with something of childishness, is wicked cruelty: prune the vine of its wild shoots, but do not uproot it. Foster and nurture even the tiniest sign of grace. “Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it”: Is. 65:8.

FEEBLE MIND.—I do not yet know all the truth; I am a very ignorant Christian man; sometimes, if I hear some rejoice in the Lord, it troubles me because I cannot do so too. It is with me as it is with a weak man among the strong, or as with a sick man among the healthy, or as a lamp despised. “He who is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease”: Job. 12:5. So that I know not what to do.

GREAT-HEART.—But, brother, I have it in commission to comfort the feeble-minded, and to support the weak. You must needs go along with us; we will wait for you, we will lend you our help, we will deny ourselves of some things, both opinionative and practical, for your sake; we will not enter into doubtful disputations before you, we will be made all things to you rather than you shall be left behind. (Romans 14, 1 Corinthians 8, 9:22.)—Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress.”

One afternoon, I noticed a young lady at the service, whom I knew to be a Sunday School teacher. After the service, I asked her where her class was. “Oh,” said she, “I went to the school, and found only a little boy, and so I came away.” “Only a little boy!” said I; “Think of the value of one such soul! The fires of a Reformation may be slumbering in that tow-headed boy; there may be a young Knox, or a Wesley, or a Whitefield in your class.”—D. L. Moody.

The little lichen imperceptibly deposits the first layer of soil upon barren rocks in mid-ocean, from which grow up all the luxuriant wealth and beauty of the spice-island. Ferns have seeds so extremely diminutive that for a long time it was doubted if they existed at all. Yet such a seed, altogether invisible to the naked eye, floats on long journeys through the air, and falls on some lichen-covered island, where it immediately fructifies, and covers the place with vegetation.

The moss is but a very little plant, yet when its seeds fall on deep, swampy, treacherous morasses, they grow up, and bind the ground together with such bands that it becomes quite safe to pass over,—building, in fact, a broad and durable bridge. “Throughout creation the grandest and most complicated ends are obtained by the employment of the simplest means.”—James Neil, in “Rays from the Realms of Nature.”