St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-09-04
The Small Cares and the Great Plans.

The Small Cares and the Great Plans.
If only great things were independent
Of the little ones what record of success
we should have in every department of
affairs; for there are thousands who can
plan, who fail in carrying out design.
Sometimes it is lack of patience and
persistency, but very often the failure
comes through the ignoring of the i'm
portance of what we regard as being
only little things.
1t is such a pity that this is so, for
often the greatest results are thus lost to
the world very often, perhaps oitenest,
it is the genius who fails in recognizing
the necessity of attending to the minute
concerns OF the day. His fire and impulse
and insight are the qualities that he
enlists toward victory, and there is
natural rejection of those little contin-
gents that seem sort of padding rather
than part of the means toward the
end. If this scorn of trihes is true of
public service, it surely is fact in the
home experience, and is a part of the
record of failure, where, but for it, there
might have been a history of success
There are women devoted to details
whose natures are such that they revel
in small things. And this proclivity is
apparent in all their social relationships.
If they write letter, all the slight
occurrences and circumstances are
recorded until one is worn out with their
littleness. Such people live pinched lives !;
they never rise to the plane of an out
look; they never feel TRANSPORTED
through the burst of glorious mission
upon their consciousness.
The question presents itself, How shall
one possess the visual power, and at the
same time comprehend the influence of
small things? Well, possibly it might be
said that insight and mental success are
gifts that are born with one, and vet
sometimes there is sort of new mental
birth that renews the mind, and brings
with it power of conception, of appreci-
alton, and an enlargement of the
capacity.
New standpoints are taken, and lifes
responsibilities, duties and ends are
viewed as never before; then gradually the
little things, because they are related to the
great outcome, become important and as
one by one they are considered, there is a
growing carefulness with reference to
them, and they become so really part
of the whole plan that they are lifted to
its wide plan, and nothing is small OF
insignificant.
The housekeeper becomes renewed in
her purpose, able to distinguish the
momentous from the less weighty, capa'
BILE also OF making the latter the hand
maiden OF the former by the same atti
tude OF the mind and heart that she
takes before the entrance to any king
dom that she would possess-it is the
position of childike inquiry, trust, hope
and'obedience that will open to her the
way where she may enter and find the
path broadening as she goes on. To
desire to learn the best methods; to be
willing to mind the little duties; to take
up the cares that fret and wear, and
belittle the one who is half equipped for
service, and to bear them because the
purpose is so large and grand, unsel6sl
and beautiful, is to enter this broad way
that leads to victory.-[The Christian
Work.