| The Joy of Service |
Chapter 7 |
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It may be set down as a principle that the true test of a life is found in the things that are done when no eye is watching, – the things of the quiet days. The ten thousand little acts and words and manifestations of disposition, which make up the substance of living, much more fairly index the real character than do the one or two things which people talk about.
After all, the greatness is not in the conspicuousness of that which is done, but in its spirit, its moral quality. “With God there is neither little nor great; there is only straight or crooked.” That which we do really for God is great, though it seem but a trifle in human eyes. That which we do only for men is small, though in bulk large as a mountain.
We never know what will be in the end of the smallest good we do in this world. It may start a series of blessings which shall extend, with increasing benefit, through centuries. There are single sentences in the Bible which have been helping, comforting, strengthening, guiding, cheering, and inspiring men and women for thousands of years and in all lands. There have been single acts of simple kindness, done even without the thought that they would be helpful, which have proved the beginning of endless chains of blessing. Says Faber, “When men do anything for God, – the very least thing, – they never know where it will end, nor what amount of work it will do for Him. Love’s secret, therefore, is to be always doing things for God, and not to mind because they are very little ones.”
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