What shall I do? I expect to pass through this world but once. Therefore any good work, kindness, or service I can render to any person or animal, let me do it now. Let me not neglect or delay to do it, for I will not pass this way again. QUAKER SAYING

It isn’t the thing you do, dear, It’s the thing you leave undone, That gives you the bitter heartache At the setting of the sun; The tender word unspoken, The letter you did not write, The flower you might have sent, dear, Are your haunting ghosts at night.

The stone you might have lifted Out of your brother’s way, The bit of heartfelt counsel You were hurried too much to say; The loving touch of the hand, dear, The gentle and winsome tone, That you had no time or thought for, With troubles enough of your own.

These little acts of kindness, So easily out of mind, These chances to be angels, Which even mortals find— They come in nights of silence, To take away the grief, When hope is faint and feeble, And a drought has stopped belief.

For life is all too short, dear. And sorrow is all too great, To allow our slow compassion That tarries until too late.

And it’s not the thing you do, dear, It’s the thing you leave undone, That gives you the bitter heartache, At the setting of the sun.

ADELAIDE PROCTOR

Give what you have, for you never know—to someone else it may be better than you can even dare to think. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Well, I can do as much as that. I can do a kind act toward the Lord's servant. The Lord knows I love them all and would count it an honor to wash their feet. For the sake of their Master, I love the disciples.

How gracious of the Lord to mention so insignificant an action —"to give to drink a cup of cold water only"! This I can do, however poor: this I may do, however lowly: this I will do right cheerfully. This, which seems so little, the Lord notices —notices when done to the least of His followers. Evidently it is not the cost, nor the skill, nor the quantity, that He looks at, but the motive: that which we do to a disciple, because he is a disciple, his Lord observes and recompenses. He does not reward us for the merit of what we do but according to His riches of His grace.

I give a cup of cold water, and He makes me to drink of living water. I give to one of His little ones, and He treats me as one of them. Jesus finds an apology for His liberality in that which His grace has led me to do, and He says, "He shall in no wise lose his reward."

David said, Is there yet any that is left . . . of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan's sake?

Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Whosoever shall give to drink one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

To do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.