p. 379 | Only a Grain of Sand

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Oct 21, 1875

Only a Grain of Sand.

A MAN who had for years carried an old and cherished watch about him, one day called on its maker, and told him it was no longer useful, for it would no longer keep time correctly.

"Let me examine it," said the maker; and, taking a powerful glass, he looked carefully and steadily into the works, till he spied one little grain of sand.

"I have it," he said; "I can get over your difficulty."

About this moment, by some powerful but unseen power, the little grain, suspecting what was coming, cried out:

"Let me alone. I am but a small thing, and take up so little room I cannot possibly injure the watch. Twenty or thirty of us might do harm, but I cannot, so let me alone."

The watchmaker replied: "You must come out, for you spoil my work, and all the more so that you are so small, and but a few people can see you."

Thus it is in the home. One cross feeling, one hasty word, one angry look, may mar and hinder the running of the perfect machinery. We may go alone, and with God set again the time-piece; but if we do not trust in his keeping power, how soon the old enemy is on hand to thrust in again the little grain which will impair the works and hinder the wheels, and present a false face to all who are around! Let us then look to our Saviour as one who is able to "keep us from falling," and trust him as the God who will deliver in the temptation and keep the home watch running perfectly.

—Selected.