IV.  Again, I learn from my subject that events which seem to be most insignificant may be momentous.  Can you imagine anything more unimportant than the coming of a poor woman from Moab to Judah?  Can you imagine anything more trivial than the fact that this Ruth just happened to alight—­as they say—­just happened to alight on that field of Boaz?  Yet all ages, all generations, have an interest in the fact that she was to become an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all nations and kingdoms must look at that one little incident with a thrill of unspeakable and eternal satisfaction.  So it is in your history and in mine:  events that you thought of no importance at all have been of very great moment.  That casual conversation, that accidental meeting—­you did not think of it again for a long while; but how it changed all the phase of your life!

It seemed to be of no importance that Jubal invented rude instruments of music, calling them harp and organ; but they were the introduction of all the world’s minstrelsy; and as you hear the vibration of a stringed instrument, even after the fingers have been taken away from it, so all music now of lute and drum and cornet is only the long-continued strains of Jubal’s harp and Jubal’s organ.  It seemed to be a matter of very little importance that Tubal Cain learned the uses of copper and iron; but that rude foundry of ancient days has its echo in the rattle of Birmingham machinery, and the roar and bang of factories on the Merrimac.

It seemed to be a matter of no importance that Luther found a Bible in a monastery; but as he opened that Bible, and the brass-bound lids fell back, they jarred everything, from the Vatican to the furthest convent in Germany, and the rustling of the wormed leaves was the sound of the wings of the angel of the Reformation.  It seemed to be a matter of no importance that a woman, whose name has been forgotten, dropped a tract in the way of a very bad man by the name of Richard Baxter.  He picked up the tract and read it, and it was the means of his salvation.

In after-days that man wrote a book called “The Call to the Unconverted,” that was the means of bringing a multitude to God, among others Philip Doddridge.  Philip Doddridge wrote a book called “The Rise and Progress of Religion,” which has brought thousands and tens of thousands into the kingdom of God, and among others the great Wilberforce.  Wilberforce wrote a book called “A Practical View of Christianity,” which was the means of bringing a great multitude to Christ, among others Legh Richmond.  Legh Richmond wrote a tract called “The Dairyman’s Daughter,” which has been the means of the salvation of unconverted multitudes.  And that tide of influence started from the fact that one Christian woman dropped a Christian tract in the way of Richard Baxter—­the tide of influence rolling on through Richard Baxter, through Philip Doddridge, through the great Wilberforce, through Legh Richmond, on, on, on, forever, forever.  So the insignificant events of this world seem, after all, to be most momentous.  The fact that you came up that street or this street seemed to be of no importance to you, and the fact that you went inside of some church may seem to be a matter of very great insignificance to you, but you will find it the turning-point in your history.