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The drop of water, and a giant being!
水滴与巨人！
(Charles Spurgeon, “God’s Estimate of Time” 1862) LISTEN to Audio! Download Audio
(司布真《神对时间的估量》1862年) 收听音频！下载音频
“Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust!” Isaiah 40:15
“列国在祂面前好像水桶中的一滴；祂看列邦如天平上的微尘；祂举起众海岛，好像极微之物！”以赛亚书40:15
Within the compass of a drop of water we are told that sometimes a thousand living creatures may be discovered; and to those diminutive creatures, no doubt, their size is something very important. There is a creature inside that drop which can only be seen by the strongest microscope, but it is a hundred times larger than its neighbor; and it feels, no doubt, that the difference is amazing and extraordinary.
在一滴水的范围内，我们得知有时能发现上千个生物；对这些微小的生物来说，毫无疑问，它们的大小对它们而言是非常重要的。在那水滴中有一种生物，只能通过最强大的显微镜才能看见，但它比邻近的生物大一百倍；毫无疑问，它觉得这种差异是令人惊叹和非凡的。
But to you and to I, who cannot even see the largest of these creatures with the naked eye, the larger animalcule is as imperceptible as his dwarfish friend; they both seem so utterly insignificant that we squander whole millions of them, and are not very penitent if we destroy them by thousands.
但对于我们这些肉眼甚至看不见这些生物中最大者的人来说，较大的微生物和它矮小的朋友一样难以察觉；它们看起来都如此微不足道，以至于我们浪费了数百万个它们，即使毁掉它们数千个也不会感到太过懊悔。
But what would one of those little imperceptible animals say if some prophet of its own kind could tell them that there is a giant being living, that would reckon the ‘whole world of a drop of water’-as nothing; and could take up ten thousand thousand of those drops and scatter them without exertion of half its power; that this ‘giant being’ would not be encumbered if it should carry on the tip of its finger all the thousands that live in that great world, a drop of water; that this ‘giant being’ would have no disturbance of heart, even if the great king of one of the empires in that drop should gather all his armies against it and lead them to battle!
但如果这些微小难见的生物中的某个先知告诉它们，有一个巨人存在，祂会把’整个水滴世界’视为无物；祂能够举起成千上万的水滴并挥散它们，甚至不需用上一半的力量；这个’巨人’即使用指尖托起生活在那伟大世界（一滴水）中的所有千万生物也不会感到负担；即使那水滴中某个帝国的伟大君王集结所有军队对抗祂并发起战斗，这个’巨人’的心也不会有丝毫波动！
Why, then the minuscule creatures would say: “How can this be? We can hardly grasp the idea?”
那么，这些微小的生物会说：”这怎么可能呢？我们几乎无法理解这个概念？”
But when that microscopic philosopher could have gotten an idea of man, and of the utter insignificance of its own self, and of its own little narrow world-then it would have achieved an easy task, compared with that which lies before us when we attempt to get an idea of our great God.
但当那微小的哲学家能够理解人的概念，认识到自身的完全渺小，以及它那狭小世界的微不足道时，与我们试图理解伟大的神相比，这反而是一个简单的任务。
We think of the infinite nature of God in being able to marshal all the stars, and govern all the orbs which bespangle the brow of night; but I take it to be quite as great a wonder that He should even know that such insignificant nothings as we humans are in existence, much more that He should count every hair of our heads, and not allow one of them to fall to the ground without His express decree.
我们思考神那无限的本质，祂能统领所有星辰，管理点缀夜空的所有天体；但我认为，更令人惊叹的是，祂竟然知道我们这些微不足道的人类的存在，更令人惊奇的是，祂数算我们每一根头发，若非祂的明确旨意，一根也不会落在地上。
The Infinite is as much known in the small, as in the magnanimous; and God may be as really discovered by us in the drop of water as in the rolling orb! But this is astonishing of God-that He even observes us!
无限在微小之中与在宏大之中同样彰显；我们在一滴水中能像在运行的星球中一样真实地发现神！但最令人惊叹的是神竟然关注着我们！