Some Great Thing

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 2, 1903

“If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?” How many men there are who are anxious to do great things! If they can do some great work, and write their record on high; if they can attract the attention of the world, and have their names inscribed upon the scroll of fame or printed in the papers, then they will be content.

The Lord has many little things to do, and but few great things. He sometimes sets small men to do great things, and great men to do little things. What most men need in these days is to be ready to do anything God requires; to do little things,—things which anybody could do, but which nobody does do. And those who do such work for God, heartily and lovingly, grow great in his sight, and prosper beneath his blessing.

The little boy’s five barley cakes and two small fishes fed the multitude. The widow’s mite outweighed the rich man’s treasures. The cup of cold water given to a disciple shall never lose its reward. The visit to the sick or imprisoned, the bread dealt to the hungry, the clothing to the naked,—all these little things the Lord looks on, and weighs and counts and remembers.

What can we do? If we can not preach sermons, we can speak words of cheer to sorrowing and stricken hearts. If we can not travel on journeys to far-off lands, we may go across the road and around the corner to carry comfort to a stricken heart. If we can not reach the heathen in China, we may perhaps reach the heathen in our own back yard or around our front door. If we can not write books, we may perhaps give away a tract. If we can not organize great meetings, we may speak to one or two by the wayside, or by the well-side, as the Master did. If we can not deliver learned orations, we can say, “God bless you!” from an honest heart; and the little things which we do may be so blessed of God that they will be more useful and more fruitful than the great things which we desire to do, but never are able to accomplish.

Let us do our little! Let us begin to-day, and let us to-day finish up some little work which the Lord may accept and bless, and which his providence may make greatly useful to the souls and the bodies of men.—The Christian.