XXII.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LITTLE THINGS.

BY REV. WILLIAM T. HAMILTON, D.D.,

PASTOR OF THE GOVERNMENT STREET CHURCH, MOBILE, ALA.

"Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth."-JAMES iii. 5.

THE theme of this discourse is the importance of little things. It is an observation neither the less true nor the less striking, because of its standing upon the sacred records of religion, "behold! how great a matter a little fire kindleth!" Why, my hearers, it was but an echo of this thought that was presented in that beautiful passage of a German writer who compares nature to a great poet, who produces his noblest efforts with the fewest means: a great thought and a few household words to clothe it in. If so, then how magnificently poetic must have been the mind of the old Hebrew lawgiver, Moses, who gave to the world that sentence unparalleled for sublime simplicity, "God said, let there be light; and light was!"

Ordinarily, when men undertake some great enterprise, they resort to means great and complicated, in proportion to the magnitude of the work contemplated. When, therefore, any result is accomplished through the agency of means apparently trivial and inadequate, it always exalts our ideas of the skill of the contriver! But simplicity of means in the production of great results, is characteristic of the great system of nature; or, to speak more intelligibly and more correctly, is characteristic of the operations of God. The great Author of Nature ever operates by little causes. The entire universe teems with illustrations of this truth. Everywhere, mighty effects spring from small and seemingly inadequate causes. Of this truth, each one of the great laws of nature is demonstrative. Wit

ness

1st. The single principle of gravitation-that mysterious influence which pervades every part of the known universe; which fixes the sun in his orbit, retains the stars in their places; which gives stability to the earth and motion to the sea; which renders the huge mountains stationary, and causes the rain to drop on the fields, makes the brooks and rivulets to course through the valleys, and

hasten to mingle in the waters of the deep. It is this influence, everywhere diffused, that like a direct exertion of divine power, keeps the planets each in its due position and regular order, so that their motions are performed without clashing or confusion. 'Tis this that gives stability to our buildings, and safety to our footsteps; 'tis this that causes the ship to float buoyant upon the surface of the ocean, and this that carries the anchor swiftly down to the bottom. 'Tis this that poises the eagle on steady wing high in the air, and this brings the arrow, however vigorously propelled heavenward, back to the ground. Search where you will, in heaven or on earth, on the lofty mountain or the wide plain, in the deep pit or in the mighty ocean, and everywhere you find this one simple principle operating, and producing results the most surprising, and at times, even seemingly contradictory:

But 2d. Other laws of nature, as they are termed, are nothing but the operation of causes equally simple and equally powerful, as the expansibility of vapors, gases, and all aëriform fluids.

To this simple property of expansibility it is owing that, like as when water is heated over fire, it passes off rapidly in the form of steam, rising in the atmosphere, and unless collected in appropriate vessels, is soon lost to our perceptions-so, also, from the vast extent of surface presented to the sun's rays, in the ocean, and the countless bays, lakes, gulfs, and rivers everywhere traversing the land, vapor is perpetually rising in the atmosphere, floating lightly far away to distant regions, settling around the summits of mountains, and feeding the springs of innumerable brooks that roll down the mountain's side, and gradually swell into large rivers; or, it hovers over the earth and descends in fertilizing showers to bless the labors of the husbandman, and supply food to every living thing.

To the operations of the same apparently trivial cause, we can trace some of the most remarkable phenomena of nature. Hence originate tempests, that blacken the heavens and deluge the earth with showers; and fierce winds that rouse the placid sea to wild commotion, and prostrate the tall trees of the forest, purifying the atmosphere and contributing to the health and happiness of mankind, whose proudest works they seem so often to menace with destruction. To the same cause, also, we trace the desolating earthquakes and the terrific volcanic eruptions. In those vast laboratories that God has built deep within the bowels of the earth, where fierce fires glow, and exhaustless materials are laid up to supply them, vapors and gases of various kinds, and in immense quantities, are generated, and are perpetually accumulating now in one place and now in another. When this accumulation reaches a certain point, the expansive force overpowers the resistance offered by the superincumbent mass of earth and rock, and mountain and sea, that opposes its escape; the surface of the earth heaves and trembles; the sea itself rushes suddenly on the before dry land, or retires back towards the great deep, and islands appear and mountains rise-or

they sink, and give place to wide, yawning chasms. The pent-up vapors escape; the fiery fluid whence it had originated, is disgorged in streams of burning lava; and then gradually the tremblings of the earth abate; its heavings cease-and tranquillity again rests on the scene of desolation, where lie the ruins of cities and palaces, of gardens and vineyards, the work of busy man, wrought in years of toilsome labor by thousands combined; but destroyed in a moment by the operation of one little cause, under the direction of the great Architect of the universe, who seeth not as man seeth, and whose ways are above our ways, as the heavens are higher than the earth! But 3d. In other instances, this peculiarity in the divine procedure is apparent.

The mariner who navigates the immense Pacific, and some parts of the Indian Ocean, finds great changes perpetually taking place. Where once lay the bright waters of a smooth sea, the white foam now tosses and breakers roar, for reefs and rocks have there risen up; and where, but lately, ran along ledges of sunken rocks, betrayed only by the dashing of the breakers, fair islets now stand covered with verdure, shaded by the tall palm-tree, and in some instances, affording secure habitation to birds and beasts, and even to man. Careful research has ascertained that these new creations, as they may be designated, are the work of countless myriads of little insects with which these seas abound, and which labor continually with incessant activity, raising up from the fathomless deep, or at least from the summits of deeply submerged mountain ranges, pile after pile of coral rock, a substance often as hard as marble, and a secretion from their own countless little bodies. Their work they carry forward with ceaseless accumulation till it reaches the surface of the sea, when it stops. But, on this naked surface of rock, a coating of light soil speedily appears, vegetation commences, and soil still further accumulates, until where once rolled the ocean wave unbroken and smooth, islands separately or in groups, spread their rich beauties to the sun, and become the resting-place and the home of man. And all these amazing results, to accomplish the least of which, would baffle the ingenuity and defy the power of the whole human race combined, are brought about by the noiseless and secret, but untiring action of countless millions of little animalculæ, totally unconscious of the nature and the extent of their operations, and hardly holding a place in the scale of animated beings. So obvious is it that in the works of nature, God operates by little causes, accomplishing great results by apparently inadequate

means.

But 4th. In the movements of Providence towards men, a similar method of operation is apparent.

How often is it found that an event seemingly fortuitous and trivial, leads to consequences of a momentous character. The first interview of Paris, the son of Priam, with the Grecian queen Helen, might have been merely accidental, but it awakened in his bosom a

train of emotion, and it inspired him with purposes which led to the Trojan war, the theme of Homer's muse, and it elicited events which by their influence on that generation, and by the power which the poet's description of them has exerted upon the minds of thousands in every succeeding generation, from Alexander of Macedon to the present day, have contributed, to an incalculable extent, to mould the characters of the great leaders in human affairs, to determine the revolutions of empires, the progress or delay of civilization, and the whole aspect of society. So also in Rome, it was the ill treatment of one woman of lofty spirit, (Lucretia,) that overthrew the monarchy, established the Republic, and planted the seeds of that love of liberty which, for so many ages, influenced the movements of that extraordinary people, and which, to this day, is felt throughout every region of the civilized world.

It was a mere trifle that prevented Oliver Cromwell and several others who afterwards distinguished themselves as his associates, from emigrating to the colonies of the New World some time before the first steps were taken in that revolution which cost the monarch of England his head, expatriated his family, and elevated Cromwell to the seat of highest authority in the nation. Cromwell and his friends had engaged their passage to America, and were only awaiting the signal to embark, when, by some caprice of the court, they were prohibited from leaving the country. Had any accident occurred to delay the order of the court, until after they should have commenced their voyage to the American colonies, who can tell how different might have proved the course of events, and how different might have been the aspect of affairs over all Europe at the present hour. It is far from improbable that the destiny of the English nation and of Europe hung upon that single event, the arrival or non-arrival of the court-courier, before the change of wind to favor Cromwell's embarkation. The life of a monarch, and the destinies of a proud nation, hung upon the speed of a horse.

Another striking illustration of the influence of little things, is found in the history of the negro race. The celebrated Bartholomew de las Casas, a Spanish prelate who accompanied Columbus in his second voyage to Hispaniola, and on the conquest of Cuba settled there, moved by compassion for the suffering of the native Indians, who were worked as slaves in the mines by the Spaniards, conceived the idea of sparing this feeble race, that were fast passing away, by substituting negroes, a much more athletic race, and that were to be obtained from the Portuguese settlements on the coast of Africa. After petitioning to the Spanish government successively under Ferdinand, the regent Cardinal Ximenes, and then Charles V., he succeeded. In 1503 a few negro slaves had been sent into St. Domingo, and afterwards Ferdinand allowed the importation of large numbers. The labor of one negro was found equal to that of four Indians. Ximenes discouraged the traffic: Charles V. revived it, and conferred the privilege as a monopoly,

on a Flemish favorite. In 1518 the right was sold to some Genoese merchants, who reduced the traffic to a regular system. The French obtained it next, and retained it till it had yielded them a revenue of two hundred and four millions of dollars. In 1713 the English secured it for thirty years. For the last four of these years, Spain purchased the English right for five hundred thousand dollars.

Thus, through the mistaken benevolence of a Spanish priest, a measure was set on foot, which the cupidity of Christian Europe turned into a system of fearful cruelty, a system, by the operation of which the commerce of the world, and the aspect of all civilized society, has been affected. A system, which seems likely, in God's overruling Providence, to convulse one of the mightiest nations on the globe; and eventually to return light and peace, civilization and Christianity on the eighty millions of African tribes. How great a matter a little fire kindleth.

Another instance. In August, 1799, a French artillery officer, named Bouchard, when digging near Rosetta, in Egypt, for the foundation of a military work, came upon a huge block of basalt, marked with various strange characters, and hieroglyphics. These characters were found to exhibit three inscriptions, in three different characters, one of which proved to be the Greek. This was the celebrated Rosetta stone now in the British museum, which has been the subject of diligent investigation by learned antiquarians of every nation in Europe; and this stone, under the ingenious labors of Young, and Champollion, yielded, by a comparison of the characters found in the different inscriptions, a key to unlock the treasures of ancient wisdom, shut up for so many centuries, under the hieroglyphics of Egypt.

The discovery of a small obelisk on the isle of Philoe, in the Nile, in 1816, by Caillaud, the French traveler, on which was a Greek inscription containing the names of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, greatly aided Champollion in unraveling the mystery. Thus, as the result of the seemingly trivial event of finding an old broken stone at Rosetta, and a little obelisk, years afterwards, at Philoe; the industry of antiquarians was set to work, and that industry has been crowned with astonishing success.

The inscriptions found on the decaying monuments, and on the frail papyri of Egypt, are now quite intelligible; the ancient records of Egyptian dynasties are rapidly opening to the inspection of all men. Thence, the infidel is drawing largely his materials for renewed assault on the records of revelation; and the Christian is patiently awaiting the issue of a finished discovery among these old monuments, perfectly confident that the truth of human records. once fully made out, will fall naturally and inevitably into the train of the handmaids and supporters of revelation.

Little did the French artillery officer dream, when the men working under his direction, first heaved up that dark and mutilated block near Rosetta-that around that old stone, and over its muti