--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Hogenson, J. C. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 17 number: 11 published: 1914-09 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Hogenson, J. C., "Small Things Make Up Life", *Improvement Era* 17, no. 11 (September 1914): 1059–1060.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17011unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera17011unse start_page: 1059 end_page: 1060 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17011unse publication_year: 1914 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Small Things Make Up Life Small Things Make up Life BY PROFESSOR J. C. HOGENSON, OF THE UTAH STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE There are many people who seem to think that life for them ismade up of one or more big things, and that it is these few bigthings which they must always look forward to and work for. For a person who thinks and acts thus, life is often a failure, for the big things never come. Life for most people is made up of a thousand and one little things, and their success or failure in life will depened largely upon how well each small, seemingly unimportant, task and duty is done as it comes along. If the small things are done well and to the best of one's ability, then, later on, if big things do come they can be done much more successfully than they could have been done if the small things had been neglected. Small things well done prepare for larger things being successfully done. One of the songs of Solomon says : "Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes." This language is figurative and teaches that little things very often blight the fairest prospect of human happiness, and that great effects may, and often do, result from minute causes. A match in itself is a small, innocent thing, yet it may cause conflagration that means the loss of many human lives and millions of dollars of wealth. A spark of fire coming in contact with a magazine of gunpowder becomes an instrument of extensive mischief and destruction. A moment is scarcely noticed, but centuries are made up of them. The mountains in their massiveness are made up of grains of clay and sand. The mighty river rolling on its way to the ocean consists of drops. The majestic avalanche, sweeping destruction as it moves like a flash down the mountain side, is made up of flakes of snow. The man who tills the soil has many little things confront him which in themselves seem rather unimportant. He allows his plowed land to remain rough for a day or a week before harrowing. What does it matter? Many tons of water are lost from such a soil every dav through evaporation. Later when crops are growing upon that soil they suffer for the moisture that was allowed to escape. Harrowing would have prevented the evaporation largelv. He allows the manure to accumulate around the barn and vard. The rain, snows and sunshine leach out the 1060 IMPROVEMENT ERA fertility so that his soil suffers. He allows his machinery to stand out in all kinds of weather. Their life of usefulness is shortened at least one half. He plants poor seed. His crops are poor as a result. He allows his cut alfalfa to lie in the swath until dry. Most of the leaves are lost and, hence, about half of the feeding value of the hay. He puts his hay up into poor stacks — the rain spoils most of it. Each one of these seems small in itself but taken together they cause the doers of them to say that "Farming does not pay." They spell failure. It is the little sins that make the way for larger ones. "Vice is a monster of such fearful mien, That to be hated needs but to be seen. But seen too oft', familiar with its face. We first endure, then pity,then embrace." You remember the story of the shopman and the camel. The shopman had his shop along the road where camels passed. One day the shopman's door was open and one of the camels stuck his nose into the doorway. The shopman, thinking it was clever, did not rebuke the beast. The next day as the camel passed by, it stuck its head into the doorway. So each day it became a little more bold until finally it walked into the shop and did a great deal of damage. Little sins unchecked or uncontrolled lead to big sins. Guard carefully such little sins as bad temper, careless conversation or gossip, extremes in dress, bad associates, neglect of duties. These vices dull the conscience, and cause the Spirit of God to depart, and thus hinder spiritual growth and fruitfulness. Treat them as foes, for "the wages of sin is death." Remember that a little leaven causes the whole lump to rise, a little bullet may kill a man. A little leak in a big ship may sink it. A flaw in a good cause mars it; one little sin in our lives unrepented of, may shut the door to heaven and open wide the gate to destruction. It is not necessary to commit great sins to hide the light of God's countenance, or silence the whisperings of that still, small voice within us small ones will do it just as well. ; LOGAN, UTAH