\ Something led to our speaking of the small events which influence men's lives, and Mr. Robertson of the Foreign Office (son of Robertson of Brighton) said : " My father always main- tained that the whole course of his life had been changed by the barking of a dog. Once, when he was very ill, a dog belonging to Lady Trench, who lived next door, was terribly vocal. He was very good-natured about it, and formed thereby the ac- quaintance of its mistress. It was the influence of Lady Trench which determined him not to make his career in the army, as some seven or eight of his ancestors had done, but to take orders." *
* Grant DufF, NoUs from a Diary, ii. 296.
ST. LUKE XVI. lo 309
All service ranks the same with God:
If now, as formerly He trod
Paradise, His presence fills
Our earth, each only as God wills
Can work — God's puppets, best and worst,
Are we; there is no last nor first.
Say not " a small event " ! Why " small " ? Costs it more pain that this, ye call A "great event," should come to pass. Than that ? Untwine me from the mass Of deeds which make up life, one deed Power shall fall short in or exceed ! ^
2. Consider next the smaller duties of life. The smaller duties of life, because of their apparent insignificance and constant recurrence, are often harder to perform than the great ones. In times of excitement, or when we have the stimulus of great circumstances and the fervour of deep emotion to stir us with a sense of responsibility, it is not so hard to feel the call to act nobly as it is in the daily routine and drudgery of our common task, there to do the least faithfully as unto the Lord. On the day of battle, with its noise of trumpets and the enthusiasm of brave men a thrill of chivalry passes, like an electric shock, through an army. Every pulse beats with the throb of heroism. Excitement for a time exalts each soldier. But how difficult is it during the dull months of weary drill, and amid the petty details of military exercises, to act upon the same high principles ! It is thus in a sense easier to be faithful on great occasions than to bring lofty motives into the sphere of common duties.
^ Although there is nothing so bad for conscience as trifling, there is nothing so good for conscience as trifles. Its certain discipline and development are related to the smallest things. Conscience, like gravitation, takes hold of atoms. Nothing is morally indifferent. Conscience must reign in manners as well as morals, in amusements as well as work. He only who is " faith- ful in that which is least " is dependable in all the world.^
^ It is true that Eossetti was affectionate, generous and lovable, but he was not considerate in small things, and it is on
^ R. Browning, Pippa Passes.
* M. D. Babcock, Thoughts/or Every-Day Living^ 2.
3IO FAITHFULNESS IN LITTLE THINGS
that quality more than on any other that the harmony of domestic life depends.^
3. And now, let us ask what is meant by faithfulness in small things. We can see that it is more essential to be steadily faith- ful in small things than to flash forth in some great heroic act. All honour be to them who, spurred and stimulated by some sudden excitement, and borne up by the power that great sorrows and great difficulties bring, and consoled by the thought that the grief was but for a moment, and the glory would be for ever, have done and endured the things that have written their names high on the roll of the Christian Church ! All honour be to the martyrs and the apostles — the Pauls, and the Peters, and the Luthers ! but no less honour to the quiet Johns, whose business was only to " tarry till I come " ! All honour to those whose names are possessions to the whole Church for ever ! But let there be no less honour to those whose names, forgotten on earth, are written only in the Lamb's book of life, and who, with no excitement, on no lofty pedestals, with no great crises, have gone on in Christian faithfulness, and by " patient continuance in well- doing" have sought for glory, honour, immortality, and have received eternal life ! To keep ourselves clear from the world, never to break the sweet charities that bind together the circles of our homes, to walk within our houses with perfect hearts, to be honest over the pence as well as over the pounds, never to permit the little risings of momentary anger, which seem but a trifle because they pass away so quickly, to do the small duties that recur with every beat of the pendulum, and that must be done by present force and by instantly falling back upon the loftiest principle, or they cannot be done at all — these are as noble ways of glorifying Christ, and of being glorified in Hir., as any to which we can ever attain.
^ Faithfulness may be said to be the most beautiful and the most necessary characteristic in a true soul. However much we admire gifts and graces and beautiful characteristics, or incipient, or possible, or developed excellences in human character, there is one thing about which we are quite certain, and that is, that the real ground and bond of all that is truly lovely — if that loveliness is to command our permanent admiration and our