The Great Multiplier

Who has despised the day of small things?

Zechariah 4:10

In 1912, Dr. Russell Conwell, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Philadelphia, had a young student in Sunday school named Hattie May Wiatt. The church was crowded, and one day Dr. Conwell told Hattie May that he would love to have buildings large enough for everyone to attend.

When Hattie May became ill and died, Rev. Conwell was asked to preach the funeral. The girl’s mother told him Hattie May had been saving her money to help build a bigger church. Hattie’s purse contained coins amounting to fifty-seven cents. Taking the coins to the bank, Conwell exchanged them for fifty-seven pennies, which he put on display and “sold.” With the proceeds, a nearby house was purchased for a children’s wing for the church. Inspired by Hattie’s story, more money came in, and out of her fifty-seven cents eventually came the buildings of Temple Baptist Church, Temple University, and Good Samaritan Hospital.

Perhaps you feel your gifts, your time, your talents, and your efforts are too small to make a difference. But have you ever given them to God completely and asked Him to bless them richly? He’s the Great Mathematician, and He can take our words of witness, our undertakings, and our gifts and multiply them beyond anything we can ask or imagine.