This great miracle, we are further told, produced an extraordinary effect in Joppa, and was the occasion of many conversions. “Many,” Luke says, “believed in the Lord.”
Doubtless, Tabitha, when she realized what the Lord had done for her, for the remainder of her life, said:
“I shall go softly,” since I’ve found
The mighty arm that girds me round
Is gentle, as it’s sure and strong;
“I shall go softly” through the throng
And with compulsion calm and sweet
Lead sinners to the Saviour’s feet.
Tabitha, in her good works and alms-deeds, and in her garments that she made, is not a fashion-plate, but a model for every Christian woman. We may learn, in her life, the glorification of little things. She was not rich, at least we are not told that she was, and yet how she glorified her needle, until a whole city is moved to bitter weeping at her death. Her needle brought her unsought fame. Little acts are the elements of all true greatness. They test our disinterestedness. The heart comes all out in them. It matters not so much what we have, as to what use we put that which we have. A man who had made an immense fortune out of a factory in which its builder had sunk $75,000 and failed, said, “I am always here to watch the little things, to pick up a bunch of cotton, to tighten a screw, to turn on a nut, to regulate a machine, to mend a band, to oil a dry place, and so prevent breakages and stopping of the work. These little wastes of material and machinery in time will eat up the profits of any business. These little things I attend to myself. I can hire men to attend the large things.”
This is the secret of success in every department of business and walk of life. The principle is equally applicable to women’s work. Perhaps no class of people ought to look after little things more than the house-wife. Certainly every woman ought to know that careless extravagance, and the little wastes in many ways, destroy the profits. There are a thousand ways in which opportunities for good may be wasted. Never wait for the evil to increase. “A stitch in time saves nine,” saves a rent, and, under the well-trained eye of Tabitha, saved a garment. Heavy doors turn on small hinges. Fortunes turn on pivots. Look out for small things. They are the atoms, the trifles, that make up the large things. A stitch is a small thing, but led by the needle of Dorcas, the garments and coats multiplied.