Lyrics
In the harvest field now ripened,
There's a work for all to do;
Hark! the voice of God is calling,
To the harvest calling you.
Little is much when God is in it,
Labor not for wealth or fame;
There's a crown, and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus' name.
Does the place you're called to labor
Seem too small and little known?
It is great if God is in it,
And He'll not forget His own.
When the conflict here is ended
And our race on earth is run,
He will say, if we are faithful,
"Welcome home, My child, well done!"
Public domain hymn text and tune (published 1924). Words and music by Kittie L. Suffield.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Kittie Louise Suffield trained as a classical singer and pianist before her conversion redirected her talents entirely toward evangelistic ministry. She wrote both the words and music of "Little Is Much When God Is in It" in 1924, out of years spent, alongside her husband Fred, laboring in small and often overlooked congregations far from any spotlight.
The couple's own meeting has become part of the hymn's retelling. Kittie had traveled to Winchester, Ontario, to serve as soloist for a week of special meetings when a severe winter storm buried the train she was returning home on in snowdrifts, stranding it a few miles outside the station. Fred Suffield, a young farmer whose land lay only a few hundred yards from the stalled train, hitched his horses to a sleigh and made repeated trips through the blizzard to bring stranded passengers back to his home for the night. Kittie was among those he rescued; the two were married not long after.
That background of quiet, unglamorous rural ministry shows plainly in the hymn's central claim — that a small, obscure place of service is no less significant to God than a famous one, provided He is present in it. The refrain deliberately avoids any language of ambition or renown: no crown for wealth or fame, only for faithful labor in Jesus' name.
Almost exactly a century after it was written, "Little Is Much When God Is in It" remains a staple of evangelical hymnody, sung most often not in large city churches but in precisely the kind of small, easily overlooked congregations it was written to encourage.
