Lord, I would rise, and run to Thee, — Christ of God, who didst die for me; But my feet are bound with the chains of sin, And my heart is ashes and dust within.
Lord, I would rise, and run to Thee If Thou'dst open mine eyes and let me see How beautiful shines Thy deathless love In Thy face that is bending my face above !
But sometimes come drifting the mist of tears, And shadows of sorrow, and clouds of fears; Till night sinks around me o'er sea and land, And I know not whether to move or stand.
Yet I'd wait without dread till the dawn came sweet As a dream of Thy beauty about my feet. And I'd stretch out my hands and run to Thee If Thou'dst open mine eyes and let me see.
* J. Kelman, Ephemera Memiiatis, 278. ^ G. Matheson, Lecuvesfor Quiet Hours, 126.
ST. LUKE XV. 17-20 303
Lo, the arms of Love are opened wide. "Child, see the wound in My broken side. And thy weariness lies on the heart of Me ! " Lord, I will rise and run to Thee.^
* L. Maclean Watt, In Poet's Corner, 75.
Faithfulness in Little Things.
ST. LUKE — 20
Literature.
Bushnell (H.), The New Life, 191.
Byles (J.), The Boy and the Angela 105.
Cowl (F. B.), Digging Ditches, 54.
Ellis (J. J.), Through Christ to Life, 131.
Fiirst (A.), Christ the Way, 138.
Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year : Sundays after Trinity, i.-xii.
283. Lang (C. G.), The Parables of Jesus, 159. Lyttelton (A. T.), College and University Sermons, 256. Maclaren (A.), Sermons preached in Manchester, i. 265. Miller (J.), Sermons Literary and Scientific, ii. 361. Peabody (F. G.), Mornings in the College Chapel, i. 140. Purves (P. C), The Divine Cure for Heart Trouble, 61. Pusey (E. B.), Parochial and Cathedral Sermons, 131. Raymond (G. L.), Suggestions for the Spiritual Life, 217. Walker (G. S.), The Pictures of the Divine Artist, 153. Wilmot-Buxton (H. J.), New and Contrite Hearts, 93. Children's Pulpit : Third Sunday in Advent, i. 196 (J. N. Hallock) ;
First Sunday after the Epiphany, ii. 340 (G. M. Mackie). Christian World Pulpit, x. 277 (J. R. S. Harington) ; xvii. 115 (F. 0.
Morris) ; xxxi. 140 (H. W. Beecher). Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd Ser., iv. 77 (H. G. Youard). Good Words, 1872, p. 694 (D. Macleod). National Preacher, xxxii. 252 (Gordon Hall) ; xxxiii. 208 (A, L. Chapin).
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Faithfulness in Little Things.
He that is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much : and he that is unrighteous in a very little is unrighteous also in much.— Luke xvi. lo.
1. There is a quality of daring about this story which at first sight perplexes many people. It is the story of a steward who cheats his master, and of debtors who are in collusion with the fraud, and of a master praising his servant even while he punishes him, as though he said: "Well, at least you are a shrewd and clever fellow.'*' It uses, that is to say, the bad people to teach a lesson to the good, and one might fancy that it praises the bad people at the expense of the good. But this is not its intention. It simply goes its way into the midst of a group of people who are cheating and defrauding each other and says : " Even such people as these have something to teach to the children of light."
2. The essential thing in the parable is not the craft, the unscrupulous character, of the steward, but his forethought. He looked ahead, accepted the inevitable, and prepared for it. And, says our Lord, there is far more prudence, prescience, and common sense manifested by men in the pursuit of small ends than by Christian people in the service of God. And lest any man should complain of the slenderness of his equipment, the straitness of his circumstances, or the weakness of his opportunities, it is laid down as a rule that it is not quantity but ability, not abundance but the way in which we handle trifles, that decides our place and doom. Even a fragment of humanity, with a scrap of a life, should diligently use that particle, so as to employ it for the highest and best end. In God's sight many bulky things are very little, and many small things are very great ; for this reason that
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3o8 FAITHFULNESS IN LITTLE THINGS
He seeth the heart and the hidden springs of action there, and judges the stream by the fountain.
The Little Things of Life.
1. Let us glance first of all at the little things of life ; and let us begin with its small events. Little things constitute almost the whole of life. The great days of the year, for example, are few, and when they come they seldom bring anything great to us. And the matter of all common days is made up of little things, or ordinary and stale transactions. Scarcely once in a year does anything really remarkable befall us.
If we were to begin to make an inventory of the things we do in any single day, our muscular motions, each of which is accom- plished by a separate act of will, the objects we see, the words we utter, the contrivances we frame, our thoughts, passions, gratifica- tions, and trials, many of us would not be able to endure it with sobriety. But three hundred and sixty-five such days make up a year, and a year is a twentieth, fiftieth, or seventieth part of our life. And thus, with the exception of some few striking passages, or great and critical occasions, perhaps not more than five or six in all, our life is made up of common and, as men are wont to judge, unimportant things. But yet, at the end, we have done an amazing work, and determined an amazing result. We stand at the bar of God, and look back on a life made up of small things — but yet a life, how momentous for good or evil.