There did not seem in the whole of that great city that morning a more
completely insignificant knot of people than the little weather-beaten
Jew, travel-stained, of weak bodily presence, and of contemptible
speech, with the handful of his attendants, who slipped out in the
early morning and wended their way to the quiet little oratory, beneath
the blue sky, by the side of the rushing stream, and there talked
informally and familiarly to the handful of women. The great men of
Philippi would have stared if any one had said to them, 'You will be
forgotten, but two of these women will have their names embalmed in the
memory of the world for ever. Everybody will know Euodia and Syntyche.
Your city will be forgotten, although a battle that settled the fate of
the civilised world was fought outside your gates. But that little Jew
and the letter that he will write to that handful of believers that are
to be gathered by his preaching will last for ever.' The mightiest
thing done in Europe that morning was when the Apostle sat down by the
riverside, 'and spake to the women which resorted thither.'
The very same vulgar mistake as to what is great and as to what is
small is being repeated over and over again; and we are all tempted to
it by that which is worldly and vulgar in ourselves, to the enormous
detriment of the best part of our natures. So it is worth while to stop
for a moment and ask what is the criterion of greatness in our deeds? I
answer, three things--their motive, their sphere, their consequences.
What is done for God is always great. You take a pebble and drop it
into a brook, and immediately the dull colouring upon it flashes up
into beauty when the sunlight strikes through the ripples, and the
magnitude of the little stone is enlarged. If I may make use of such a
violent expression, drop your deeds into God, and they will all be
great, however small they are. Keep them apart from Him, and they will
be small, though all the drums of the world beat in celebration, and
all the vulgar people on the earth extol their magnitude. This altar
magnifies and sanctifies the giver and the gift. The great things are
the things that are done for God.
A deed is great according to its sphere. What bears on and is confined
to material things is smaller than what affects the understanding. The
teacher is more than the man who promotes material good. And on the
very same principle, above both the one and the other, is the doer of
deeds which touch the diviner part of a man's nature, his will, his
conscience, his affections, his relations to God. Thus the deeds that
impinge upon these are the highest and the greatest; and far above the
scientific inventor, and far above the mere teacher, as I believe, and
as I hope you believe, stands the humblest work of the poorest
Christian who seeks to draw any other soul into the light and liberty
which he himself possesses. The greatest thing in the world is charity,
and the purest charity in the world is that which helps a man to
possess the basis and mother-tincture of all love, the love towards God
who has first loved us, in the person and the work of His dear Son.
That which being done has consequences that roll through souls, 'and
grow for ever and for ever,' is a greater work than the deed whose
issues are more short-lived. And so the man who speaks a word which may
deflect a soul into the paths which have no end until they are
swallowed up in the light of the God who 'is a Sun,' is a worker whose
work is truly great. Brethren, it concerns the nobleness of the life of
us Christian people far more closely than we sometimes suppose, that we
should purge our souls from the false estimate of magnitudes which
prevails so extensively in the world's judgment of men and their
doings. And though it is no worthy motive for a man to seek to live so
that he may do great things, it is a part of the discipline of the
Christian mind, as well as heart, that we should be able to reduce the
swollen bladders to their true flaccidity and insignificance, and that
we should understand that things done for God, things done on men's
souls, things done with consequences which time will not exhaust, nor
eternity put a period to, are, after all, the great things of human
life.
Ah, there will be a wonderful reversal of judgments one day! Names that
now fill the trumpet of fame will fall silent. Pages that now are read
as if they were leaves of the 'Book of Life' will be obliterated and
unknown, and when all the flashing cressets in Vanity Fair have smoked
and stunk themselves out, 'They that be wise shall shine as the
brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars for ever and ever.' The great things are the Christian
things, and there was no greater deed done that day, on this round
earth, than when that Jewish wayfarer, travel-stained and
insignificant, sat himself down in the place of prayer, and 'spake unto
the women which resorted thither.' Do not be over-cowed by the loud
talk of the world, but understand that Christian work is the mightiest
work that a man can do.