The joy of doing little things for God.
"I had rather be a doorkeeper;" literally, "stand or lie on the threshold." A missionary tells us that in India the office of doorkeeper is truly respectable and confidential. Doorkeepers of temples are men of the greatest dignity and power; whereas the psalmist was thinking of the lowliest and most humble situation. "I would rather choose to sit at the threshold." This is the situation of the devotee and the beggar. "Excuse me, sir, I pray you; I had better lie at the threshold than do that," is a frequent mode of expression among Orientals. The psalmist prefers the situation and attitude of a beggar, at the threshold of the house of the Lord, to the most splendid dwellings of the wicked. From 1 Chronicles 26:12-19 we learn that the sons of Korah, or Kore, were the porters of the gates of the Lord's house. "To these ministers of the sanctuary none seem so blessed as they who dwell in God's house, and are forever praising him. To these keepers of the temple gates one day in the sacred courts is better than a thousand spent elsewhere; and they would rather be doorkeepers in the house of God than sit and be served as chiefs in alien tents."
I. LITTLE THINGS ARE AS TRULY "SERVICE" AS GREAT ONES. They are necessary in their places. They are fitted to those of moderate or small capacities. To God the little things of service are as acceptable as the great things. Find any earthly sphere, and take the little things of it away. What an upset of the whole would result! The doorkeeper at the gate was as important in his way as the priest at the altar. We can do our "little things" for God cheerfully, when we can fully realize that they are service—just our service.
II. LITTLE THINGS CAN EXPRESS CHARACTER AS TRULY AS GREAT ONES. A little pool can mirror the sun as truly as the widespreading lake. A dewdrop can refresh the earth, in its way, as truly as the thundershower in its. God is the reader of motives, and accepts the actor rather than the act. It often, indeed, takes more and nobler character to do a small deed well than to do a large one. There is much to help a priest to be noble; there is but little to help a mere doorkeeper, and he has to fall back upon principle. Let but a man rightly esteem doing anything for God, and he will be full of holy joy in being permitted to do some "little thing."—R.T.
Conditional bestowments.
What God is to his people, and what he does for them, may be put into two figures, and expressed in two plain statements. But what he is to them, and what he does for them, depend on what they are in themselves, and what they are toward him. This the sincerely good man is always willing to recognize.
I. THE DIVINE BESTOWMENTS.
1. Suggested by two figures.
2. Suggested by two statements.
II. THE DIVINE CONDITIONS. "From them that walk uprightly." That being regarded as the sure sign that the heart is right with God. A man may walk uprightly before his fellows who is not heart right with God. But this is quite certain—if a man does not walk uprightly, he cannot be right with God. God is an unstinted Giver; we put the limitations by the failure of our faith, love, submission, and obedience. God would have his bestowmeuts to be the best possible blessing to us; and therefore they are withheld until it is quite plain that we are prepared to make the best of them.—R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT