Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-02-23
Sermon Preached in Congregational Church, Tucson, Arizona by Rev.
 Howard BiIlman.

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 TExT:-"For who hath despised the day of small things?" Zach. "; 10.
 This question is one that grew out of the life and experience of nation. Is- rsel had just passed through the long, demoralizing aud dispiriting experien- c:s of the Captivity in Babylon.
 A remnant was struggling to restore the dwellings and walls of their Capi tol; and particularly to restore again that temple, at the bare remembrance of which they had wept by the rivers of Babylon.
 The situation was very dishesrtening. They were numerically weak, and lacked organization. Their beloved city was heap of ruins. Their enemies were insolent, active and boastful.
 "The glorious era of David and Solo, mon," said they, "hss departed forever. This nation has no future. We will hold them m bondage, and their tribute money shall enrich our coffers."
 The will of the Lord had determined other wise. He had selected his builders. His messenger said, "The bands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, his hand shall also finish it." "Who hath despised the day of small things?"
 We may not unsptly liken ourselves to Israel at that time; in that, as the citizens of this territory, we are in the era of laying the foundation and build ing. We are not yet state. No one can tell just what our constitution will be. We are struggling to establish and build up our educational and benevolent institutions. Our beloved church IS ex- ertlug herself to claim her place and in- fuepce in our midst, others may mock at our weakness; but let us believe that the Lord has already selected his build CTS and he is now saying to us: By their hands am laying the foundations: their hands shall also nnish." "Who hath despised the day of small things?"
 In forming judgment of the value of anything, two questions are always per tinent:-What Is the thing in itself; and what is the position it holds relative to other things? We must analiZs 1t to the very core, if posslble; and having determined it's own contents and char acter, holding these fixedly in the mind, complete the judgment of its importance or insignificance by forming a critical estimate of it's relation to and influence upon other things. It IS especially i'm pOrtant to cogsider substances and prin- ciples and forces in their relations. To illustrate, loaf of bread to the man trifie, to be purchased or sold for farthing. But to a man cast away on a desert island it is the one chief thing in all the universe, if he be at the verge of death from starvation.
 The throttIe-valve to an engine is re- lstively very small, but without 1t the engine is useless, the receptacle of a force running wild.
 When Sir Thomas More in his Utopia informed his contemporaries that in the world created by his own fancy, each man worshipped God according to the dictates of his own conscience, he little dreamed perhaps that then he was an- nouncing principal which was soon to shake church and state to their very centers and warm the hearts and fire the souls of men with courage to do and to dare even to the point of death, for the sake of this same principle. Now that same principle announced and eloquent ly enforced would commend itself to our minds as a pleasant truth already sufficiently apprehended by men, there fore calling for no special concern on our part. So you see that what is true of forces in certain circumstap ces is not all true of them in other circumstances All that which is true of principles at