“They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their dens; they will turn in fear to the LORD our God and will be afraid of you.” —Micah 7:17
There is a riddle. What is the greatest mill in the world? I feel sure you can never guess it. Let us count over all the mills we know. First of all there is the mill where grain is ground into flour. We call it a flour mill or a grist mill, and we have all seen those great flour mills where harvest fields of wheat are ground up to make flour for bread. It was of the miller of such a mill that the old folks used to sing:
“There was a jolly miller once
Lived on the River Dee;
He worked and sang from morn till night,
No lark more blithe than he.
“And this the burden of his song
Forever used to be,
‘I care for nobody, no, not I,
If no one cares for me.’”
He was a rather selfish, independent old miller, I guess. But a flour mill is not the greatest mill in the world.
Then there were the great steel mills of Pittsburgh that roared and flashed and smoked and sometimes made noises like thunder and sent out flames like lightning. They lined the banks of our great rivers for miles, but even they were not the greatest in the world.
The greatest mill in the world is quiet, and very still. It never thunders. It never roars. You could pass over it and never notice it. No, it is not a beehive, although that is a great mill, but it is not quiet and still, for bees buzz and fret and fume a great deal. No, it is not an ant hill, but you are getting nearer, “getting hot,” as we say. An ant hill is a great mill, and it is quiet and silent and so busy that if you put a thermometer right into an ant hill you will find there is a rise in temperature on account of the work done in that little mill. Will you give up? You can never guess. Let me tell you.
Well, the greatest miller in the world is—a worm. Yes, an earthworm, what we call a fish- worm, a common angle-worm. It is the greatest miller in the world and the greatest mill is the soil where the earthworms work and burrow. If the earthworms did not work and keep on ploughing and cultivating the soil this earth of ours would be cold and hard and barren, the soil would become hard and cold as rock. It would be like baked clay, but the earthworms plough and cultivate and make it porous and loose, so that the rain can filter down, and the plants and vegetables can grow and take root. You never thought of that, did you? You never knew these little, insignificant, harmless, horrid worms were so useful. Well, that is just the mistake we often make. We think we must be big, and great to be useful. Not at all. The little things are the most useful.
In an acre of land, a piece about as big as our church lot, a wise man counted 53,000 earthworms, and in a rich garden there would be over half a million. We are told that these worms pass ten tons an acre through their bodies and have been doing this for millions of years, grinding, ploughing, cultivating the soil and making it fit for things to grow in. You see then that the earthworms are our helpers, and though they are so little and so humble, yet they do very useful and necessary work. It is always so. Little things working together do great things.
Jesus said much about the value of little things. He said a cup of cold water given in His name was something done for Him. He said that any one who was faithful about little things would be faithful in great things. He praised the poor widow for giving two mites in the Temple offering. He tried to make us understand that the little things are after all the big things. Do you know that St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, one of the most beautiful churches in the world, was built out of sixpences, little English pieces of money like our dimes? How was that? Well, when they decided to build that great and wonderful cathedral they placed a tax of sixpence on every ton of coal used in the land, and out of this tax the beautiful cathedral was built. Little things grow into big things. You do not need to wait until you can do some great and wonderful thing. Some little word or act of love may grow into what will seem some day to be a miracle. Don’t wait for the big things. Do beautiful little things now. Kerr
“If any little word of mine
May make a life the brighter,
If any little song of mine
May make a heart the lighter,
God help me speak that little word,
And take my bit of singing,
And drop it in some lonely vale,
To set the echoes ringing!
“If any little love of mine
May make a life the sweeter,
If any little care of mine
May make a friend’s the fleeter,
If any lift of mine may ease
The burden of another,
God give me love, and care, and strength
To help my toiling brother!”
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