# “He is great in little things” by John Newton

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2014/10/10/he-is-great-in-little-things-by-john-newton/
- Published: 2014-10-10T09:00:52-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“I heartily sympathize with you in your complaints; but I see you in safe hands.
The Lord loves you, and will take care of you.

He who raises the dead, can revive your spirits when you are cast down. He who sets
bounds to the sea, and says ‘Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further,’ can limit
and moderate that gloom which sometimes distresses you.

He knows why He permits you to be thus exercised. I cannot assign the reasons, but
I am sure they are worthy of His wisdom and love, and that you will hereafter see
and say, He has done all things well.

If I was as wise as your philosopher, I might say a great deal about a melancholy
complexion; but I love not to puzzle myself with second causes, while the first 
cause is at hand, which sufficiently accounts for every phenomenon in a believer’s
experience.

Your constitution, your situation, your temper, your distemper, all that is either
comfortable or painful in your lot, is of His appointment.

The hairs of your head are all numbered: the same power which produced the planet
Jupiter is necessary to the production of a single hair, nor can one of them fall
to the ground without His notice, any more than the stars can fall from their orbits.

In providence, no less than in creation, he is Maximus in minimis, ‘Great in little
things.’ Therefore fear not; only believe.

Our sea may sometimes be stormy, but we have an infallible Pilot, and shall infallibly
gain our port.

I am,

John Newton”

–John Newton, [_“_Letter IX – November 27, 1778](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0851519512?tag=toletaupanre-20)_
[” in The Works of John Newton, vol. 2](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0851519512?tag=toletaupanre-20),
_Ed. Richard Cecil (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1824), 247–248.

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