The Power of Little Things
Chapter 6
The Power of Little Things
In Exodus 25:1-9 we read: And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the sons of Israel that they bring me an offering; of every man that gives it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. And this shall be the offering which ye shall take of them: gold and silver and brass and blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen and goats’ hair and rams’ skins dyed red and badgers’ skins and cedar wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense, onyx stones and stones to be set in the ephod and in the pectoral. And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its vessels, even so shall ye make it.
I’m glad this has been recorded for our instruction. It should encourage us all to believe we can each have a part in building up the walls of the heavenly Zion. In all ages, God has delighted to use weak things. In 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, Paul speaks of five things God uses: God has chosen that which is the foolishness of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen that which is the weakness of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and that which is vile of the world and that which is despised God has chosen, and things which are not, to bring to nought the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence.
Notice the five things mentioned. God uses foolish things, weak things, base things, despised things, and things which are not. What for? That no flesh should glory in his presence. When we are weak then we are strong. People often think they don’t have strength enough. The fact is, we have too much strength. It is when we feel we have no strength of our own, that we are willing for God to use us and work through us. If we are leaning on God’s strength, we have more than all the strength of the world.
This world isn’t going to be reached by mere human intellectual power. When we realize we have no strength, all the fullness of God will flow in on us. Then we will have power with God and with people.
In Revelation, we read that John wept at a sight he beheld in heaven. He saw a sealed book and no one was found worthy to open the book nor to read it neither to look upon it (Revelation 5:4). Abel, that holy man of God, wasn’t worthy to open it. Enoch, who had been translated to heaven without tasting death, wasn’t worthy. Elijah, who went up in a chariot of fire, and even Moses, that great lawgiver, or Isaiah, or any of the prophets − none was found worthy to open the book. As he saw this, John wept much. As he wept, someone touched him and said, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, who has overcome to open the book and to loose its seven seals (Revelation 5:5). When he looked to see who this Lion of the tribe of Judah was, whom did he see? The Lion was a Lamb! God’s Lion is a Lamb! When we are like lambs, God can use us, and we are strong in His service. We can all be weak, can’t we? Then let’s lean on the mighty power of God.
All the men Christ called around Him were weak men in a worldly sense. They were all men without rank, without title, without position, without wealth or culture. Nearly all of them were fishermen and uneducated men, yet Christ chose them to build His kingdom. When God wanted to bring the children of Israel out of bondage, He didn’t send an army. He sent one solitary man. So, in all ages, God has used the weak things of the world to accomplish His purposes.
I read about an incident some time ago that illustrates the power of a simple tract. It talked about a society established to distribute tracts by mail in the higher circles of society. One of these tracts, titled Prepare to meet thy God, was enclosed in an envelope and sent by post to a gentleman well known for his ungodly life and his reckless sinfulness. He was in his study when he read this letter among others. When he saw it, he said, “What’s that, ‘Prepare to meet thy God’? Who had the nerve to send me this hypocritical and sanctimonious jargon?” And, with a curse word toward his unknown correspondent, he arose to put the paper in the fire. But then he paused. “No, I won’t do that,” he said to himself. “On second thought, I know what I will do. I’ll send it to my friend B—. It will be a good joke to hear what he’ll say about it.” So he enclosed the tract in a fresh envelope, and, in a fake handwriting different than his own, he directed it to his companion who lived much the same as him.
When Mr. B— received the tract, he cursed just like his friend, and his first impulse was to tear it in pieces. But then he thought, “I’ll not tear it.” The title, Prepare to meet thy God, grabbed his attention immediately and pierced his conscience. The arrow of conviction entered his heart as he read, and he was converted. One of his first thoughts was for the ungodly people he knew. “I’ve received such blessed light and truth; shouldn’t I do my best to share it with others?” He folded the tract and enclosed it in an envelope and directed it to one of his companions in sin. Wonderful to say, the little arrow hit the mark, again. His friend read it and was also converted. Now both of them walked as the Lord’s redeemed.
In Matthew 25:14-15 we read that the kingdom of heaven is like a man travelling into a far country, who called his own slaves and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each one according to his faculty, and straightway took his journey.
Note that he gave every man according to his faculty. He gave each servant just the number of talents he could care for and use. Some people complain they don’t have any talents, but we each have the number of talents we can properly employ. If we take good care of what we have, God will give us more. Eight talents were distributed among three people. The master gave to one five, two to a second, and one to the third. The man went away on his journey, and the servants fully understood he expected them to improve their talents and trade with them. God isn’t unreasonable. He doesn’t ask us to do what we can’t do, but He gives to us according to our peculiar capabilities, and He expects us to use the talents we have.
As we continue in the passage, we read:
He that had received five talents came and brought another five talents, saying, Lord, thou didst deliver unto me five talents; behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful slave; thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou didst deliver unto me two talents; behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful slave; thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord (Matthew 25:20-23).
The one who had only two talents also doubled them, and so he had four talents. To him also, the Lord said, Well done, good and faithful slave; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
If the man who had the one talent had traded with it, he would have received exactly the same approval as the others. But what did he do? He put it into a napkin and buried it. This is how he thought he would take care of it.
After the lord of these servants had been gone a long time, he returned to compare accounts with them. What does he find in the case of the third servant? He has the one talent, but that’s all.
I read about a man who had a thousand dollars. He hid it away, thinking he would take care of it in that way so that when he was an old man he would have something to fall back upon. After keeping the money for twenty years, he took it to a bank and got just one thousand dollars for it. If he had put it in an interest-bearing account, in the usual way, he might have had three times the amount. He made the mistake that a great many people make today throughout Christendom, of not trading with their talents. My experience, as I’ve gone about in the world and mingled with professing Christians, has been that those who find the most fault with others are those who have nothing to do. If a person is busy improving the talents God has given him, he will have too much to do to find fault and complain about others.
God has given us many opportunities for serving Him, and He expects us to use them. I’ve frequently heard people say, “I have a right to do what I want with my own,” because people think their time and property are their own.
On one occasion, a friend stood beside the bed of a dying military man who had held an important command in the successful Indian wars. He asked him if he was afraid to die. He instantly answered, “I am not. I have never done any harm.”
The other replied, “If you were going to be tried by a court-martial as an officer and a gentleman, I suppose you would expect an honorable acquittal?” The dying old man lifted himself up and with his frail, limited energy, exclaimed, “That I would.”
“But you aren’t going to a court-martial. You are going to Christ, and when Christ asks you, ‘What have you done for me?’ what will you say?”
The military man’s countenance changed. As he earnestly gazed at his friend, he answered with an anguish-filled, “Nothing! I have never done anything for Christ!”
His friend pointed out the awful mistake of habitually living with an awareness of our relationships with one another and forgetting our relationship to Christ and to God. The mistake is of thinking that doing no harm, or even doing good to those around you, will serve as a substitute for living for God. The big question is: What have you done for Christ?
Days later, he called on the old man again and asked, “Well, sir, what do you think now?”
The man replied, “I am a poor sinner.”
He pointed him to the Savior of sinners, and not long afterward, he departed this life as a repentant sinner, resting in Christ. What an awful end would have come to the false peace in which he previously trusted. And yet it is this type of peace the multitudes trust in, but when they stand at the judgment seat of Christ they will find they were deceived.
If this world is going to be reached, I am convinced it must be done by men and women of average talent. After all, there are comparatively few people in the world who have great talents. One man has a single talent, another has three. I may have only half a talent. But if we all go to work and trade with the gifts we do have, the Lord will prosper us. We can double or triple our talents. We must be up and about our Master’s work, every man building alongside his own house. The more we use the means and opportunities we have, the more our ability and our opportunities will be increased.
Consider this Eastern allegory. A merchant, going abroad for a time, gave two of his friends two sacks of wheat each, to take care of until he returned. Years passed, and when he came back he requested to see them. The first took him into a storehouse and showed them his sacks, but they were mildewed and worthless. The other led him out into the open country and pointed to field after field of waving grain, the produce of the two sacks given him. The merchant said, “You have been a faithful friend. Give me two sacks of that wheat. The rest will be yours.”
I heard a person once say that she wanted assurance. I asked how long she had been a Christian. It had been a number of years. I said, “What are you doing for Christ?”
“I don’t know that I have the opportunity of doing anything,” she replied.
I pity the person who professes to be a Christian in these times, and who says he can’t find opportunities for doing any work for Christ. The idea of anyone knowing the Lord Jesus Christ in this century, and saying he has no opportunities to testify for Him, is absurd. Surely, no one needs to look far to find plenty of opportunities for speaking and working for the Master, if he only has the desire to do it. Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest (John 4:35). If you can’t do some great thing, you can do some little thing.
A short time ago, a man sent me a tract titled What is that in your hand? and I am very thankful he sent it. These words were spoken by God to Moses when He called him to go down to Egypt and bring the children of Israel out of bondage. You remember how Moses tried to excuse himself. He said he wasn’t eloquent – he wasn’t this and that − and he couldn’t go. Like Isaiah, he wanted the Lord to send someone else. Finally, the Lord said to Moses, “What is that in your hand?” He had a rod in his hand. It might have been that a few days before he had wanted something to drive the sheep with and he had cut this stick for that purpose. He could probably have gotten a hundred better rods any day. Yet with that rod, he was to deliver the children of Israel. God linked His almighty power with the rod and that was enough.
I can imagine that as Moses was on his way down to Egypt, he may have met one of the philosophers or freethinkers of his day, who might have asked him where he was going. “Down to Egypt.”
“Really? Are you going down there again to live?”
“No, I’m going to bring my people out of bondage.”
“What! You’re going to deliver them from the hand of Pharaoh, the mightiest monarch now living? You think you are going to free three million slaves from the power of the Egyptians?”
“Yes.”
“How are you going to do it?”
“With this rod.”
What a contemptible thing the rod must have been in the eyes of that Egyptian freethinker. The idea of delivering three million slaves with a rod! We had three million slaves in this country, and before they could be set free, half a million men had to lay down their lives. The choicest of the nation marched to their graves before our slaves gained their deliverance.
Here was a weak and solitary man going down to Egypt to meet a monarch who had the power of life and death. All he had to deliver the people from bondage was this rod, but we see how famous that rod became. When Moses needed to bring up the plagues on Egypt, he just had to stretch out his rod and they covered the land. He only had to stretch it out and the water of the Nile turned into blood. Then when the people came to the Red Sea and they wanted to go across, he only had to lift up the rod and the waters separated, so the people could pass through on dry land. When they were in the desert and wanted water to drink, again he lifted this rod and struck the flinty rock, causing the water to burst forth, and they drank and were refreshed. That contemptible rod became mighty to be sure. But it wasn’t the rod − it was the God of Moses, who humbled Himself to use it.
Let us learn a lesson from this history. We are required to use what we have − not what we don’t have. Whatever gifts or talents you have, take and lay them at the Master’s feet. Moses took what he had; and we see how much he accomplished. If we are ready to say, “Here am I, ready and willing to be used,” then the Lord will use us. He will link His mighty power with our weakness, and we will be able to do great things for Him.
Look again and see Joshua as he goes up to the walls of Jericho. If you had asked what the Israelites had to bring down the walls of that city, it would have been only a few rams’ horns. They must have looked poor and detestable in the eyes of the men of Jericho. Perhaps the city contained some men who were giants. As they looked over the walls and saw the Israelites marching around the city blowing these horns, they must have appeared very insignificant. But God can use the base things, the despised things. However contemptible a ram’s horn may have appeared in the sight of man, the people went on blowing them as they were commanded. At the appointed time, down came the walls, and the city was taken. The Israelites had no battering rams, no great armor or mighty weapons of any kind. They simply took what they had, and God used it to do the work.
Look at Samson going out to meet a thousand Philistines. What does he have with him? Only the jawbone of an ass (Judges 15:16). If God could use that, surely He can use us, can’t He? There isn’t a person young or old whom He can’t use, if we are willing to be used.
When I was in Great Britain ten years ago, I heard a Scotchman say that there probably wasn’t a man in all Saul’s army who didn’t believe God could use him to go out and slay the giant of Gath. But there was only one solitary man who believed God would use him. David went out to meet Goliath, and we know the result.
We all believe that God can use us, but we need to take a step further and believe He will use us. If we are willing to be used, He is willing to use us in His service. How contemptible the smooth stones David took out of the brook would have appeared to Goliath. Even Saul wanted David to take his armor and put it on. He came close to doing that, but instead took his sling and the five smooth stones and went out. The giant of Gath fell before him. Let us go forth in the name of the God of hosts, using what we have, and He will give us the victory.
When I was in Glasgow a few years ago, a friend was telling me about an open-air preacher who since then has gone to be with the Lord. One Sunday morning this man preached on Shamgar. And after him was Shamgar, the son of Anath, who slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad, and he also saved Israel (Judges 3:31). He said, “I can imagine that when he was ploughing in the field a man came running over the hill all out of breath shouting, ‘Shamgar! Shamgar! There are six hundred Philistines coming toward you!’ Shamgar quietly said, ‘You pass on, I can take care of them. They are four hundred short.’ So he took an ox goad and slew some and routed the rest, and the Israelites fulfilled before their eyes the words, one chase a thousand and two put ten thousands to flight (Deuteronomy 32:30).” Nowadays, it takes about a thousand to chase one, because we don’t realize we are weak in ourselves and that our strength is in God.
We need to remember that it’s as true today as it ever was that one will chase a thousand. What we need is Holy Spirit power that uses the weakest child and makes him mighty in God’s hand. Consider a mountain to be threshed, a bar of iron lying there, and a little weak worm. God puts aside the iron and uses the worm to thresh the mountain. That’s God’s way. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His plans are not ours. For my thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are your ways as my ways (Isaiah 55:8).
We say, “If such and such a man were only converted − that rich man or that wealthy lady − how much good could be done.” Very true, but it may be that God will pass them by and use some poor tramp and make him the greatest instrument for good in all the land. John Bunyan, the poor Bedford tinker, was worth more than all the nobility of his day. God took him in hand, and he became mighty. He wrote that wonderful book, The Pilgrim’s Progress, which has marched through the nations, lifting up many weary hearts, and cheering many who are discouraged and disheartened. If we are willing to be used, God is willing and waiting to use us.
I once heard an Englishman speak about Christ feeding the five thousand with the five barley loaves and the two small fish. He said that Christ may have taken one of the loaves and broken off a piece and given it to one of the disciples to divide. When the disciple began to pass it around he only gave a very small piece to the first, because he was afraid it wouldn’t be enough. But after he gave the first piece, it didn’t seem to grow any smaller. The next time he gave a larger piece, and still the bread wasn’t depleted. The more he gave, the more the bread increased, until all had plenty.
Before they started feeding the multitudes, all the food could be carried in one basket. Once the whole multitude had been satisfied, the disciples gathered up twelve baskets full of leftovers. They had a good deal more when they finished than when they began. Let’s be sure to bring our little barley loaves to the Master so He can multiply them.
You say you haven’t got much? Well, you can use what you have. The longer I work in Christ’s vineyard the more convinced I am that many people are kept out of the service of Christ − deprived of the luxury of working for God − because they are trying to do some great thing. Be willing to do little things. Remember that nothing is small when God is in it. Elijah’s servant came to him and told him he saw a cloud not larger than a man’s hand. That was enough for Elijah. Then Elijah said to Ahab, Go up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain (1 Kings 18:41). Elijah knew that the small cloud would bring rain. Nothing we do for God is small.
Some years ago, I met a young lady at the house where I was staying. She told me she had a Sunday afternoon class to teach in a mission school. At one of our afternoon meetings, I saw this lady sitting right up front. She must have arrived early to get a good seat. After the service, back at the house, I met up with her and said, “I saw you at the meeting today. I thought you had a class.”
“So I do.”
“Did you get someone to take it for you?”
“No.”
“Did you tell the superintendent you weren’t going to be there?”
“No.”
“Do you know who had the class?”
“No.”
“Do you know if anyone attended?”
“I am afraid there was nobody, because I saw a good many of the teachers of the school at your meeting.”
“Is that the way you do the Lord’s work?”
“Well, you know, I have only five little boys. I didn’t think it would make any difference.”
Only five little boys. Why, there might have been a John Knox, or a Wesley, or a Whitefield, or a Bunyan there. You can’t know what these boys might become. One of them might become another Martin Luther. There might be a second Reformation asleep in one of these five little boys. It’s an important thing to take “five little boys” and train them for God and for eternity. Such work can set a stream in motion that will flow on after you are dead and gone.
Little did the mother of the Wesleys know what would result when she trained her boys for God and for His kingdom. See what enormous results have flowed from that one source. It is estimated that there are twenty-five million members of the Methodist faith today, and over five million people who pass on the good news. It is estimated there are 110,000 regular and local preachers in the United States alone. Two new churches are being built every day of the year, and the work of the Methodist church is spreading over this great republic. And all this has been done in about a hundred and fifty years. Don’t let mothers think their work of training children for God is a small one. In the sight of God, it is very important, and the result may be that many rise up in eternity to call them blessed.
Another mother who comes to mind has twelve boys. They’ve all grown up to be active Christians. A number of them are preachers of the gospel, and all of them are true to the Son of God. Very few women in our country have done more for the nation than that mother. It is a great thing to be permitted to touch God’s work and to be a co-worker with Him.
A bridge over the Niagara River is one of the great highways of the nation. Trains pass over it every few minutes of the day. When they began to build the bridge, the first thing they did was to take a boy’s kite and send a little thread across the stream. It seemed a very small thing, but it was the beginning of a great work. In the same way, if we only lead one soul to Christ, eternity alone can tell what the result of that conversion will be. You may be the means of saving someone who will go on to be one of the most distinguished men in the service of God that the world has ever seen.
We may not be able to do any great thing, but if each of us will do something, however small it may be, very much will be accomplished for God. For many years, I’ve made it a rule not to let a single day pass without speaking to someone about eternal things. I started this habit years ago, and if I live the life allotted to man, there will be 18,250 people spoken to personally by me. That of course doesn’t take into account those to whom I speak publicly. How often we as Christians meet with people and might be able to turn the conversation onto a path that will lead them to Christ.
Burdened hearts are all around us. Can’t we help remove these burdens? I’ve heard someone represent this world as two great mountains − a mountain of sorrow and a mountain of joy. If each day we take something from the mountain of sorrow and add it to the mountain of joy, a lot will be accomplished in the course of a year.
A few days ago, I heard Mr. Spurgeon talking about when Moses went to tell the king of Egypt that he would call the plague of frogs upon the land. The king may have said, “Your God is the God of frogs, is He? I am not afraid of them. Bring them on. I don’t care about the frogs!”
Moses says, “But there will be very many of them, O king.” And he found that out.
We may be weak and contemptible individually, but there are a good many Christians scattered all over the land, and we can accomplish a great amount between us. Suppose each person who loves the Lord Jesus resolved today, with God’s help, to try and lead one soul to Christ this week. Is there a professing Christian who can’t lead some soul into the kingdom of God? If you can’t, I need to tell you that there’s something wrong in your life. You had better straighten it out right now. If you don’t have an influence for good over someone among your friends or neighbors, then something in your life needs to be put right. May God show it to you today.
I can’t understand the idea that a Christian man or woman has to live for years before they can have the privilege of leading anyone out of the darkness of this world into the kingdom of God. I also don’t believe that all God’s work is going to be done by ministers and other officers in the churches. This lost world will never be reached and brought back to loyalty to God until the children of God wake up to the fact that they have a mission in the world. If we are true Christians, we should all be missionaries. Christ came from heaven on a mission, and if we have His Spirit in us, we will be missionaries too. If we have no desire to see the world discipled − to see man brought back to God – there’s something very wrong in our walk of faith.
If you can’t work among older people, you can go to work among the children. We need Christians who can speak kindly to these boys and girls about their souls. It is something they will remember all their lives. They may forget the sermon or a Sunday school lesson, but if someone speaks to them personally, they will say, “That man or woman must be greatly interested in me, or they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble to speak to me.” They may wake up to the fact that they have immortal souls, and even if the preaching goes right over their heads, a little personal effort can be a blessing to them.
This personal and individual dealing with others is perfectly scriptural. Philip was called away from a great work in Samaria to go and speak to one man in the desert. Christ’s conversation about being born again was addressed to one man, Nicodemus. He said to him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a person be born again from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). And that wonderful discourse by our Lord about the Water of Life was spoken to one poor sinful woman at the well. I pity those Christians who aren’t willing to speak to one person. They’re not fit for God’s service. We won’t accomplish much for God in the world if we aren’t willing to speak to one or two people.
Another thing: Don’t let Satan make you believe children are too young to be saved. Of course, you can’t expect to put old heads on young shoulders. You can’t make them into deacons and elders all at once. But they can give their young hearts to Christ.
Years ago, I ran a mission school in Chicago. The children were mostly from families with ungodly parents. I only had these children for about an hour out of the week, and it seemed as if any good they got was wiped out during the week. I used to think that if I ever became a public speaker, I would go all around the world and plead with parents to consider the importance of training their children for God and eternity.
On one of the first Sundays I traveled to Chicago, I stressed this to the congregation. When I finished my address, an old white-haired man got up. I was a bit nervous, thinking he was going to criticize what I had said. Instead, he said, “I want to give my support to all this young man has spoken. Sixteen years ago, I was in a pagan country. My wife died and left me with three motherless children. The first Sunday after her death my eldest girl, ten years old, said, ‘Papa, may I take the children into the bedroom and pray with them like Mother used to do on Sunday?’ I said she could.
“After some time, when they came out of the room, I saw that my eldest daughter had been weeping. I called her to me and said, ‘Nellie, what’s the problem?’
“She replied, ‘Oh, Father, after we went into the room I said the prayer Mother taught me to say. Then [naming her little brother], he said the prayer that Mother taught him. Little Susie didn’t used to pray when Mother took us in there because Mother thought she was too young. But when we got done, she said a prayer of her own. I couldn’t help but weep when I heard her pray. She put her little hands together and closed her eyes and said, ‘O God, you have taken away my dear Mama, and I have no mama now to pray for me. Won’t you bless me and make me good just as Mama was, for Jesus Christ’s sake? Amen.’”
“Little Susie gave evidence of having given her young heart to God before she was four years old. For sixteen years, she has been at work as a missionary among the unbelieving pagans.”
Let us remember that God can use these little children. William Milnor was brought up a Quaker, became a distinguished lawyer in Philadelphia, and was a member of Congress for three successive terms. Returning to his home on a visit during his last congressional session, his little daughter rushed up to him exclaiming, “Papa! Papa! Did you know I can read?”
“No,” he said, “let me hear you!”
She opened her little Bible and read: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart (Luke 10:27). It worked like an arrow in her father’s heart, for it came to him as a serious admonition. Out of the mouth of children (Matthew 21:16), God’s Spirit moved within him. He was driven to his closet, and a friend calling on him found he had been weeping over a Christian religious booklet titled The Dairyman’s Daughter. Although only forty years of age, he abandoned politics and law for the ministry of the gospel, and for thirty years he served as the beloved pastor of St. George’s Church in Philadelphia, the predecessor of the venerated Stephen Tyng.
Dear mothers and fathers, let us bring our children to Christ in simple faith. He is the same today as when He took children in His arms and said, Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of the heavens (Matthew 19:14).
I may not do much with all my care,
But I surely may bless a few;
The loving Jesus will give to me,
Some work of love to do;
I may wipe the tears from weeping eyes,
I may bring the smile again
To a face that is weary and worn with care,
To a heart that is full of pain.
I may speak His name to the sorrowful,
As I journey by their side;
To the sinful and despairing ones
I may preach of the Crucified.
I may drop some little gentle word
In the midst of some scene of strife;
I may comfort the sick and the dying
With a thought of eternal life.
– Marianne Farningham