We all want to do some great thing — to do what prophets, saints, heroes, and martyrs have done. But the small thing, the commonplace thing, the little trivial duty, the thing that has to be done out of everybody's sight — in the routine of business, home, or school — that seems poor work to do for God. But it is what He wants us to do. We all want to do some great thing. But God wants only a few of us to do the great, extraordinary things. He wants most of us to do the common things of life — the ordinary work of the world — and it is in these common things that we so often fail. Poor Naaman would not have minded doing some great thing, but his soul rebelled at the thought of the trivial task seven times repeated.
H God may have great things for us to do ; He certainly has A small. And in the small He gives us the opportunity to prove the sincerity of our desire to serve Him in what is greater. We must not deceive ourselves with good intentions, or by dreaming that we should act nobly on the larger stage, when it is only too evident that we do not think it worth while to take trouble over the little things, which we wrongly conceive to be beneath our notice. John Eliot, the missionary, was found, on the day of his death, in his eighty-sixth year, teaching the Indian alphabet to a child. When asked why he did it, he replied : " I have prayed God to make me useful in my sphere, and now that I can no longer preach, He leaves me strength to teach this poor child." " If," said John Newton, the City Eector, " as I go home a child has dropped a halfpenny, and by giving it another I can wipe away its tears, I feel I have done something. I should be glad, indeed, to do greater things, but I will not neglect this." ^
There are no little things on earth,
There's nought beneath the Christian's care,
No virtuous deeds of little worth; The flower, upon the mountain bare.
Where never came admiring eye.
The Lord has carved as curiously.
Has stained it with as gorgeous dye, As though a thousand looks were there.
* A. Vi^. Robinson, The Voice 0/ Joy and Ilcallli, 167.
2 KINGS V. T3 465
Deem not the simple charms, that dwell
In gentle tone and smiling face, The courtesy, that flings a spell
Of winning love and quiet grace O'er common deeds in silence wrought, Beneath the Christian's careful thought; Another love our Lord has taught,
Adorning many a secret place.
Upon the lonely mountain height
He bids His fair young blossoms swell,
For fragrance all and beauty bright
Forth bursting from each dark green shell;
And shall no flowers of courtesie
Within our lowly hamlets be,
To brighten with their fragrance free The homes where poor men dwell?
Oh ! yes, the temple stones of old
Admiring glances ever drew, Ail fair and beauteous to behold,
Kanged in their polished order due; And lovely deeds beseem us all. The stones in Christ's own temple wall. And nought is trivial, nought is small,
That we, for His great Name, can do.i
^ A man may easily be forgiven for not doing this or that incidental act of charity, especially when the question is as genuinely dilflcult and dubious as is the case of mendicity. But there is something quite pestilently Pecksniffian about shrinking from a hard task on the plea that it is not hard enough. If a man will really try talking to the ten beggars who come to his door, he will soon find out whether it is really so much easier than the labour of writing a cheque for a hospital.^
^ Was not the saintly Keble absolutely right when he wrote thus to a friend who had asked counsel on a point of conduct which had perplexed him ? " Almost every time I look into the New Testament I feel convinced that the more quietly and calmly one sets about one's duty, the less one breaks through established customs, always supposing them innocent in themselves, the
^ Cecil Frances Alexander.
2 G. K, Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World. DEUT.-ESTH. — 30
466 NAAMAN
more nearly does one act according to the great Exemplar there proposed.^
^ What is a great deed ? I saw one recorded the other day in half a dozen simple lines — a deed of heroism performed on the sea by a young fisherman. A fishing boat, named the Truelight, containing a father and four sons, was caught in a gale, foundered and sank. Three of the sons were dragged down with it, and instantly drowned. The fourth swam to a floating oar, and was about to seize it, when he observed his father already clinging to it. Well he knew it could not support them both, so he simply said : " Weel, weel, father, I maun just awa'," and he sank to rise no more.2
II.
Naaman's Submission.
1. It was well for Naaman that he had faithful and prudent servants, who, without in the least degree trenching upon the respect due from them to him, were yet able and willing to remonstrate affectionately with him, and to show him the un- reasonableness of his conduct. Second thoughts came to him; JVand with an angry man, second thoughts are always best. He listened to reason, and agreed to make the experiment. Perhaps he had no very great heart in the matter; but his case was hopeless, and he at least could be no worse off for trying the prophet's prescription. So he went down to Jordan and dipped in its waters once, twice, thrice, four times, five times, six times, and still no change. He dipped for the seventh time, and lo ! a miracle. His leprosy was gone in an instant, "and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child."