A striking message! And it was sent under circumstances that made it still more impressive. Further, it was sent by a Christian man, who illustrated his advice in his own life.
Uttered with difficulty because of breathing conditions, the message was brought from a death-bed to a number of young Christians.
The Christian man, who uttered it, was no Spurgeon or Moody, no super-organiser in Christian service. He earned his living, and devoted his spare time with a singular steadfastness of purpose in the interests of the Lord in a London Sunday School. He displayed no desire to be in the limelight. But he has left behind a memory of steadfastness and devotedness, which is inspiring.
“Do the little jobs well, and clear up as you go,” he said. Does not everyday life illustrate this? The doctor, who performs a delicate and important operation, must eat like anyone else. The little maid, who peeled the potatoes that the doctor might eat at dinner, and took care to put the peelings neatly into the dustbin, was doing a little job, and clearing up as she went. The signalman on a railway, who sees that a royal train is travelling in safety, is doing a useful job. Everybody cannot be a kings or a successful surgeon, or something important. But most of us can “do the little jobs well, and clear up as we go.”
So in the things of God, there are little jobs to be done. Do them! Do them right heartily as to the Lord! Do them as to Him, and they become invested with an interest and a glory that will entwine your affections round your work.
A servant of the Lord much used in conversions was about to preach the Gospel. A band of young Christians, brothers and sisters, spent two or three hours from door to door, earnestly inviting the people to attend. What a link such might prove to be between a soul, blessed at the service, and the Lord.
Yes, “do the little jobs well, and clear up as you go.” There may be wearisome and tedious work to do, moving heavy forms, stoking a fire or heating apparatus, reading to a blind person, caring for a sick child, a thousand and one things, perhaps some of a decidedly menial nature, but nothing is menial if done to HIM!
The writer remembers seeing five or six healthy young fisher lasses in a Scottish fishing village, advancing in a row, each with pail, scrubbing brushes, and cleaning cloths in hand, singing hymns as they came along. He enquired what it meant. He was told they had been washing the floor and seats of a very large meeting room, and that they did it weekly. Is this not a happy example of doing the little jobs well, and clearing up as they went?
It has often been pointed out that it is not the big jobs that test us, but the little ones; not the big trials, but the little ones. May we be found faithful. “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much” (Luke 16:10).
“Do the little jobs well, and clear up as you go.”