p. 7 | F. D. STARR by F. D. Starr

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Sep 29, 1904

F. D. STARR

By F. D. Starr

“By Little and Little”

F. D. STARR

The promise of God to Israel concerning the extinction of the heathen nations then occupying the land of promise, was, “By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.” Ex. 23:30. The same thing is stated in Deut. 7:22.

Some things in the Lord’s work are done suddenly. See Mal. 3:1; Mark 13:36. Mighty convulsions have taken place by which his power has been manifested to the great surprise of all who were connected with the events that occurred; but sometimes his work is done in a more gradual, progressive manner. While our God does great things, yet he likewise sometimes does little things.

Of the faithful martyrs who suffered during the Dark Ages, the years of pagan and papal persecution, it is said in Dan. 11:34: “Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help.”

Helped with a little help! Is that the way God helps his people?—Yes, oftentimes that is his chosen way of working, just enough help to keep the head above water, so to speak; just enough to keep them from perishing. If that is our experience, let us not become discouraged and doubt God because he does not do for us what seems to us to be mighty things. A little help is just as much a sign of his working as a great help would be.

In Rev. 3:8 are found these chosen words of courage and hope: “Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.” A little strength? Would not that be a sure condition of defeat and disaster? Can we be satisfied without the consciousness that we have great strength? If a little strength helped the believers referred to in the text, so that they kept the word of God, and did not deny his name, will not a little strength be sufficient to enable you to do the same?

By little and little is this work to be done. “Who hath despised the day of small things?”

Notice the littles in the experience of those who were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem at the time of the restoration, as noticed in Ezra 9:8: “For a little space grace hath been showed us from the Lord our God, to . . . give us a little reviving in our bondage.” A little season of grace, a little reviving in our bondage, are just as much tokens of the divine favor as the conversion of Nineveh, or the day of Pentecost, or some modern revival or religious movement of huge proportions.

How so?—Because it is God working in either case, in the great and in the small. While desiring the great, shall we not be thankful for the small? “Here a little and there a little.” That is so often God’s way of working, and in his working he gives us an example of how we are to work.

Notice carefully the final commendation: “Well, thou good servant: . . . thou hast been faithful in a very little.” A very little, can that be so? Another scripture gives it: “Thou hast been faithful over a few things.” Luke 19:17; Matt. 24:21.

But, somehow, we do not like to work that way; we prefer to see the work done up all at once. We would not mind giving quite a large donation once a year, or once every quarter perhaps, or making an extra effort once in a while, but this continuous giving, and this unremitting labor,—do we not get tired of it? and may we not be exempt from it? These feelings arise, and because of this the exhortation is given in Gal. 6:9: “And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

“Freely ye have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8); and we may say, Continually we have received, continually let us give. If even daily we have occasion to give to help the cause of God or needy humanity, let us not think the continual little acts of benevolence will wear the life out of us. No, if done with the right motive, they will put new life into us, and keep us fresh, like the waters of the mountain rivulet.

“Give, said the little stream.” As an example of a protracted good work, which could not be all accomplished in a month, nor in a year even, we might mention the sale of that most excellent book, “Christ’s Object Lessons.” That work was not finished in the short time we set for it to be done in. But shall we become disgusted with the “little by little” way in which it has been done? If all who can do anything in that work will repeat the efforts of the past, these littles will all make a large total indeed. This is a lesson with an intended moral to it.