saintly guise of desire to do spiritual service. Let us take care
of that. This 'minister,' who was not a minister at all, in our sense of
the word, but only in the sense of being a servant, a private attendant
and valet of the Apostle, was glad to do that work all his days.

That was self-suppression. But it was something more. It was a plain
recognition of what we all ought to have very clearly before us, and
that is, that all sorts of work which contribute to one end are one sort
of work; and that at bottom the man who carried Paul's books and
parchments, and saw that he was not left without clothes, though he was
so negligent of cloaks and other necessaries, was just as much helping
on the cause of Christ as the Apostle when he preached.

I wonder if any of you remember the old story about an organist and his
blower. The blower was asked who it was that played that great sonata of
Beethoven's, or somebody's. And he answered, 'I do not know who played,
but I blew it.' There is a great truth there. If it had not been for the
unknown man at the bellows, the artist at the keys would not have done
much. So Mark helped Paul. And as Jesus Christ said, 'He that receiveth
a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward.'

IV. Take as the last lesson the enlarged sphere that follows
faithfulness in small matters.

What a singular change! The man who began with being a servant of Paul
and of Barnabas ends by being the evangelist, and it is to him, under
Peter's direction, that we owe what is possibly the oldest, and, at all
events, in some aspects, an entirely unique, narrative of our Lord's
life. Do you think that Peter would ever have said to him: 'Mark! come
here and sit down and write what I tell you,' if there had not been
beforehand these long years of faithful service? So is it always, dear
friends, 'He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also
in much.' That is not only a declaration that faithfulness is one in
kind, whatever be the diameter of the circle in which it is exercised,
but it may also be taken as a promise, though that was not the original
intention of the saying.

For quite certainly, in God's providence, the tools do come to the hand
that can wield them, and the best reward that we can get for doing well
our little work is to have larger work to do. The little tapers are
tempted, if I may use so incongruous a figure, to wish themselves set up
on loftier stands. Shi