If we could only carry that clear conviction with us day by day into
the little things of life, what different things these, which we call
the monotonous trifles of our daily duties, would become! The things
may be small and unimportant, but the way in which we do them is not
unimportant. The same fidelity may be exercised, and must be brought to
bear, in order to do the veriest trifle of our daily lives rightly, as
needs to be invoked, in order to get us safely through the crises and
great times of life. There are no great principles for great duties,
and little ones for little duties. We have to regulate all our conduct
by the same laws. Life is built up of trifles, as mica-flakes, if there
be enough of them, make the Alpine summits towering thousands of feet
into the blue. Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it
is made in the small ones. So, life is meant for discipline, and unless
we use it for that, however much enjoyment we get out of it, we misuse
it.

III. Lastly, there is here a calming thought as to the variety of God's
methods with us.

'As the eagle stirreth up his nest.' No doubt the callow brood are much
warmer and more comfortable in the nest than when they are turned out
of it. The Israelites were by no means enamoured with the prospect of
leaving the flesh-pots and the onions and the farmhouses that they had
got for themselves in Goshen, to tramp with their cattle through the
wilderness. They went after Moses with considerable disinclination.

Here we have, then, as the first thing needed, God's loving compulsion
to effort. To 'stir up the nest' means to make a man uncomfortable
where he is;--sometimes by the prickings of his conscience, which are