Norwich bulletin., 1917-02-10
Sunday Morning Talk
THE ESPECIAL VALUE OF INSIG
 NIFICANT PEOPLE.

It was Abe Lincoln who remarked that God must love common folks, since he made so many of them. To what observer of human life has not the same thought come? We note that the Uniest fraction of our race at tafns to distinction. The great re- nlainder is made up of humble, un- known folk expecting no '.heraldry and pomp Of power" and looking for no praise of anything they are or do
 One day in midocean. the engines of the liner stopped. for a few minutes, their steady pounding. There was a brief service on deck and then "a heavy shotted hammock shroud drops in it's vast and wandering grave" In quiry as to this death on shipboard elicited the information that the man was "only a stoker." As the great ship ploughed on. his fellow passengers could not even learn his name.
 Of what host is this poor work man, unwept, unhonored and unsung the representatives, Think of the for gotten millions who do the worlds work and make our civilization pos sible! Like the sands of the seashore for multitude, they receive no praise of men, nor stand for a minutes time under the calcium ray of fame. They are the sons of. Martha laboring all the days of their lives that others may eat the fruit of their labors.
 The sense of insignificance and ob- seurity that settles down like a pail on all of us at times has it's peril. It may become, for instance, a fruitful source of discontent- Anyone with a spark of ambition longs for some slight niche of his own in the hall of fame. Yearning for some performance little better than that of the com mon herd, he resigns himself at last to mediocrity only with pang.
 This sense of personal insignfacance, moreover. may Joe a source of tempta- tion- One may try to hide behind it. The man with one talent, or with half talent, decides that nothing much is expected of him. He refuses to make his humble contribution to life.
 The truth is that insignificant peo- ble are of more importance than they nal record is written 1t may appear that hewers of wood and drawers of water are on a par with kings and poets. Sometime, somewhere, the rec ognition due to common faithful lives will be accorded them.
 "In reading the life of any great man, says a discerning writer you will always chance upon some obscure individual who, on some particular oc- casion, was greater than him whose life you are reading" Back of the great one whom all the world knows about stands some unknown person whose help has made the startling success possible.
 biography of the famous Earl of Shaftesbury would be sadly incom- plete without the story of a faithful, old servant at B1enheim, Maria Millis. This good woman awakened the first music of the noble mans spiritual life. In her will she left her watch to her young master. To the day of his death, he never wore another, declaring, as he displayed 1t: This was given to me by the best friend ever had in the world"
 Stevenson dedicated one of his ia nous books ITO Alison Cunningham, from her boy" In days before he had reached fame he wrote to this well be- loved nurse: Do not suppose Cum my, that shall ever forget those long. bitter nights when I coughed and coughed and was so unhappy, and you were so patient and loving with poor, sick child. I wish I might become a man worth talking of. if it were only that you should not have thrown away your pains.n
 Though one Is bound down day after day to a commonplace task. it is plain that he need not live a coknmonplace life. He may be workman needing not to be ashamed. He may have a part in the ultimate plan The life is not insignificant but gloriously sig nifloant that cares less for reputation than for worth and is willing even to do chores for God.
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