“The children were quite willing to follow the suggestion of their parents, and after I had passed, the door opened, and the children stepped upon the pavement, and kept near me, till I entered my church, when they followed me, and seats were given them.

“When they returned home, they sought their parents and eagerly exclaimed:  ’He is a minister, and we have found his church, and he preached a beautiful sermon this morning.  You must go and hear him next Sunday.’

“It was not difficult to persuade the parents to go, and guided by their children they found their way to the church.  They, too, were pleased, and other members of the family were induced to come to the house of God.  God blessed what they heard to the good of their souls, and seven members of this family have been led to become Christians, and join the church, and, I repeat what I said before:  ’they were all brought in by a smile.’”

What a little thing a smile is!  And yet, here we see how God made use of so small a thing as this, to make seven persons Christians, and to save their souls forever!  Of the God who can work in this way, it may well be said that he loves to work by little things.  It is the way in which he is working continually.

How eagerly, then, we may try to learn and to practise what has been very sweetly expressed in

The mite song.

  “Only a drop in the bucket,
    But every drop will tell,
  The bucket would soon be empty,
    Without the drops in the well.

  “Only a poor little penny,
    It was all I had to give;
  But as pennies make the dollars,
    It may help some cause to live.

  “A few little bits of ribbon,
    And some toys—­they were not new,
  But they made the sick child happy,
    And that made me happy, too.

  “Only some out-grown garments;
    They were all I had to spare;
  But they’ll help to clothe the needy,
    And the poor are everywhere.

  “A word now and then of comfort,
    That cost me nothing to say;
  But the poor old man died happy,
    And it helped him on the way.

  “God loveth the cheerful giver,
    Though the gifts be poor and small;
  But what must he think of his children
    Who never give at all?”

God loves to work by little means.  We see this when we think of the men whom Jesus chose to be his apostles.  The first thing about this subject is—­the men.

The second thing to speak of, in connection with this subject, is—­the work—­they had to do.

What this work was we find fully stated in the fourteenth chapter of St. Matthew.  In this chapter Jesus told the apostles all about the work they were to do for him, and how they were to do it.  In the seventh and eighth verses of this chapter we have distinctly stated just what they were to do.  “As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand; Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils.”