Job 8:7 Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end should greatly increase. Small beginnings, in certain cases, are productive of great ends. I. THE CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS. Though obvious and simple, they are very easily overlooked. A pure motive seems the first. A double aim rarely succeeds. The man who has only one aim has only one enemy to encounter. Another "condition of success" may be found in the nature of the aim. Where we aim at that which is good — that which conduces to God's glory, or man's benefit, or to both — we have singular advantages on our side. The waves are on the side of God's enemies; they "cast up mire and dirt," but that is all. The current is on the side of His friends — of those, as we said above, who seek to do good. One other condition of success, always infallible, if not always essential, is a distinct promise on our side. What God promises, He predicts; what He predicts, He performs. II. SOME OF THE SPECIAL CASES to which these considerations apply. And the preaching of the Gospel in the world as a "witness," is that which comes to hand first. How insignificant and small was its beginning! It is true that other religions also have prevailed widely from a small beginning, but they are only subordinate illustrations, so to speak; for they prevailed, so far as they did, from the modicum of Bible truth which they had in them as compared with the religions they displaced. Thus, Buddhism and Christianity, for example, were each founded by one man; but the man in one case was a peasant, in the other was a prince. So Mohammedanism spread by conquering; Christianity, by being conquered. Brahminism, again, prevails in India, but in India alone, I believe; in all other lands it is an exotic which cannot maintain life; whereas Christianity holds sway, even if hated, among all the leading races of the world. Another case is that of the growth of grace in the heart. In this let no one despise the day of small things; let no one be surprised not to find himself a full-grown Christian in one night. If in other respects your beginning seems right, it is all the better, if anything, for being small. The work of God's Spirit is gradual, as a rule. (Mathematicus, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.WEB: Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase. |
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