A DEED AND A WORD

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 8, 1875

A DEED AND A WORD.

A little spring had lost its way Amid the grass and fern; A passing stranger scooped a well, Where weary men might turn; He walled it in, and hung with care A ladle at the brink; He thought not of the deed he did, But judged that toil might drink. He passed again, and lo! the well, By summer never dried, Has cooled ten thousand parching tongues, And saved a life beside.

A nameless man, amid a crowd That thronged the daily mart, Let fall a word of hope and love, Unstudied from the heart; A whisper on the tumult thrown, A transitory breath— It raised a brother from the dust, It saved a soul from death. O germ! O fount! O word of love! O thought at random cast! Ye were but little at the first, But mighty at the last! —Sel.