St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-09-27
By Little and Little.

fore thee.-Exodus xxiii 80
My text is representing the gradual
process by which God will exterminate
the Canaanites and give the land into
the possession of the Israelites. 1t will
not be by one fell blow, or iDstantane-
ously, but by "little and little.n In
deed, that is Gods usual way. Gradu-
ally the world was peopled. Gradually
the rocks wear away. Gradually great
changes occur. The limpets, the mus
cles, and the barnacles of the deep do
their little work, then vanish, leaving
place for other limpets and muscles and
barnacles. The world ages in being
built, the world ages in being redeemed.
Eternity is not a very great while to
God. We hasten and worry and die,
but God waits, and his stupendOus pro-
jects go on grandly, slowly, inch by
inch, "by little and little"
This theory of graduality has its il
lustration in the achievement of spirit,
ual knowledge and character, and the
driving out of Canaanitish ignorance
and Canaanitish sin from the heart. The
most accomplished rhetOrician or poet
who has filled a whole shelf with ad-
mirable books of his own began by
learning the alphabet. The mightiest
mental toll in which we were ever en-
gagged was the learning of our a-b-c's.
So you 60 on from one stage of knOwl-
edge to another, and if you have any
facility in expression by tongue or pen,
you did not come to that facility by one
great plunge, but ''by little and little"
The swiftest reportOrial pen failed once
in attempting to make a perpendicular
stroke on the boys cOpy-book. The
printer, whose fingers move with cleo
trio speed, once pulled out from the
lease" slowly, cautiously, studiously,
type by type. The boy who bounds over
the play ground with so much celebrity
that he does not seem to touch it, once
poised himself cautiously against the
wall, and could not be tempted to cross
the floor until he saw his mothers arms
out ready to catch him if he fell. So in
all spiritual knowledge, it is "by little
and little" that we advance. These
giants in battle once could hardly turn
the cradle. They went on from one at
tainment into another. Each of the at
tainments, perhaps, seemed to be very
small indeed, but they came On-now a
resolution added to a resolution, hope
added to hope, experience added to ex-
perience, JOY to joy, struggle TO strug-
gle, victory to victory. They did not
come up on this great mount of Chris
tan excellence by one great athletic
stride, but inch by inch, step by step,
"by little and little" Panl came to his
great attachments in piety gradually.
He had to take cOuIse of mObs, ship
wrecks, of scOurgings, of imprison-
ments, of excavations, before he came
to the rounding out of his character, and
every Christian now must come through
ups and downs. and losses, and Sights,
and blunders, and abuse, and struggles,
to that rounding out of his character.
A merchant tailor takes down the goods,
he unrOlls them, he makes the lines of
chalk mark, with his scissors he follows
the chalk-mark until the garment is cut
out, and though there may be many
pieces, the whole garment is made out
of one cloth. But it is not so in the
putting together of Christian charac-
ter. 1t is little of this to make the robe
of character, and little of that, a little
of the bright-cOlOred prosperity, and a
little of the dark Swallowed calamity
1t is a sort of patchwork. Little by lit
tie. Conversion is an instantaneous
work. Believing is becoming a Chris
tian. Before that everything goes for
nothing. After that nothing can change
the item of conversion. But there is s
great difference between conversion and
specification. Conversion is turning
around from the wrong direction and
starting in the right direction but
specification is keeping on in the right
direction after you have started. After
conversion, oh how much work
Princeton, Yorktown, Monmouth, came
after the signing of the Declaration of
Independence at Philadelphia. And
your greatest battles with the world,
the flesh and the devil will be after You
have declared against them. After this
process of conversion, there is procliv-
ity toward wrong action. Men think
after they are converted the work is
done. They suppose that in some way
there will be heaved up in their soul a
grand Christian character as an earth
quake heaves up a beautiful island in
the midst of the sea. No. No. By ''lit-
tie and little.' Troubles will help YOU.
There is no such thing as wrought
iron" without passing through the fire.
The seniors in Christ's college, of course.
know more than the freshmen. But be
accumulative every day. ''By little and
little.n
Again This theory of graduality has
its illustration in the formation of bad
habits. Look at that habit of falsifyipp.
The man began with what is called a
"white lie," or ''fib." He can stand
in his store, behind his counter, and up-
6lushingly, deliberately, calmly saw
that which he knows to be false, and
which you know to be false. He saws
that fabric came from Paris or Admins
ter, and while he is saying it, he looks
you unblushiDgly in the eve, when he
knows he is as far from the truth ms
Lowell from Administer. How did he
come to that habit? The first lie he
told was a little bit of lie. 1t was ONLY
half lie. Indeed by curious sopbis-
try he persuaded himself it was NOT a
lie at all. He said something after a
whlle ne knew to be false; but he said
"may-ben softly. Then he told a false
hood out of which he wronged a man
of twenty sbillings. He could not on
that occasion have been tempted to go
any farther. After while, by false
hood, he robs man of five dollars. He
goes on and on until after while there
is no limit to his falsehoods. You saw
where he started. You see where he
comes out. ''Fib" added to ''fib," pre-
varication to prevarieation, exaggera-
ton to exaggeratiOn, deception to de-
ception, "by little and little" SO in the
bad habit of using tobacco-and there
is no danger of my being personal, for
you all use it'll quit that habit be-
cause it made my hand tremble, and l
too easily lost my patience, and l