1 D. J. Burrell, The Unaccountable Man, 222,
ST. MATTHEW x. 42 243
Christ has evoked, it would be found that they have formed the starting-point of influences that have told materially upon the well-being of mankind.
Tj The other morning I saw an ingenious machine which told with the minutest exactitude the strength of a bar of metal put to the test. You had -only to look at the indicator, and it told you within the hundredth fraction of a pound what weight that bar of metal could bear. So the smallest thing may indicate the force of Christian life, the store of Christian self-denial, the power of Christian service, there is in you.1
2. Few men have the opportunity of performing great things in the cause of the Lord. There are few that have great things, as these words are generally understood, to do in the way either of service or of sacrifice for Christ. All men cannot be missionaries, or devote the whole of their time to direct work in the vineyard of the Lord. All are not blessed with temporal abundance. Most Christian men are occupied in the business of the world, and have to engage in toil for their daily bread. Some, indeed, can command all their time, but most have little more than their Sabbaths and their savings to offer to the Master. They can give only a portion of their means and shreds of their time for labour in the vineyard of the Lord. They can give no more, for they have no more to give. But we can all do little things ; and there are a hundred little things round about us which we can do, and which are crying to be done. In one of the very greatest of his poems Wordsworth speaks of
that best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered acts Of kindness and of love.
And that is surely what every good man feels. If ever we have performed Heaven's highest ministry, and done some service which angels might have coveted, it has been in some hour when on a bleak hillside we found a lost sheep of the Good Shepherd, and "bore it home to care, to love, and to safety. And it was all done so simply. No church was near. We came not to God by the path of beautiful service. We preached no sermon. We sat in the house of loneliness, where men go softly, as though they 1 J. M. Jones, The Cup of Cold Water, 13.
244 THE MINISTRY OF SMALL THINGS
feared a haunting spectre, and simply spoke of the many mansions in the Father's home. We watched for a brief hour beside a child while the fever held him in its power, and spoke words of delicate sympathy to the woman who was his mother. We smiled upon a man when he was in the bitterness of defeat. We spoke a word of encouragement to one who had a heavy burden to carry. And our acts were cups of cold water to dry and parched lips, and carried God's great hope and encouragement to hearts that were lonely and sad.
TJ Mrs. Deane, who had often been a guest at Bishopscourt, writes : " When I first went out to Capetown in 1898, a friend gave me an introduction to the Archbishop and Mrs. West Jones, and said to me, ' I have written about you to the Archbishop, and you will be right' And so, indeed, I was ! The friendship I found at Bishopscourt, and my frequent visits to that lovely home, were the greatest happiness in my life at the Cape. Whatever the Archbishop did, he put his whole heart into it at the time, and this, I think, was largely the secret of his great charm. When he was talking to any one, he made that person feel that, for the moment, he or she was his one interest in life. And so, again, his heart was in his work or in his recreation, whichever it might be. I think that the Archbishop will be remembered much by his ' faithfulness in little things' — all those small details which go to make life pleasant. He liked to recollect and mark birthdays and other anniversaries, to give wedding presents, and to do all sorts of little, charming, unexpected acts of friendliness. He never omitted to answer a letter, either personally or by deputy, and I believe that he really enjoyed being asked to do kindnesses, if he had not already discovered his own way first. In more important matters he was ever ready to give advice and sympathy. Every one who knew him loved him. And no wonder ! " l
What are we set on earth for ? Say, to toil ; Nor seek to leave thy tending of the vines, For all the heat o' the day, till it declines, And Death's mild curfew shall from work assoil. God did anoint thee with His odorous oil, To wrestle, not to reign ; and He assigns All thy tears over, like pure crystallines, For younger fellow-workers of the soil To wear for amulets. So others shall Take patience, labour, to their heart and hand,
1 M. H. M. Wood, A Father in God : Tlie Episcopate of W. West Jones, 448.