Editorial October 2, 1915 Issue

Little Ministers

John B. Willis

For the most part for all, and altogether for the many, life is made up of a multiplicity of incidentals. Hence for those to whom these have only their superficial significance the bulk of experience is relatively meaningless. The unfathomed inconsiderables of "the daily round" may serve to consume time, but they utterly fail to constitute true living. When, however, little things become symbolic or otherwise suggestive of large things, in our thought, then we may both minister and be ministered to every hour of the day, since little things are always in sight and little events are always happening, even as little words of illumination and little deeds of kindness are always possible. The value of our gains from these lesser experiences is limited only by the depth of our vision, our capacity to interpret. Tennyson put this finely when he wrote of the flower in a "crannied wall,"—

If I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.

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