The Ohio Democrat

"TRUST GOD AND WORK HARD."

A pious mother, with a family of children was left a widow. Her husband had been able by his daily toil, to maintain the family from year to year, had laid up little or nothing was long confined to a sick bed, and when taken away he commended his wife and a little one to the God of the widow and fatherless; he had nothing but his blessing and his example to leave behind him. The pastor, of whose church he was a worthy member, called on the widow in her affliction, and found her deeply dejected, not only on account of the loss she had experienced in the removal of him on whose arm she had leaned, but dejected in view of the dark prospect before her. The thought of supporting herself and her children appeared so great that she was ready to sink under it, and womanlike, she freely expressed her gloomy apprehensions to her minister, and asked him what she should do. He sat for a moment without speaking, and then said with seriousness. "Well, I know not what you can do but trust God and work hard." Dependence on God and on her own exertions was so happily expressed in this remark that it reached her heart and roused her mind. She saw that she had been distrusting Him who had given her the most abundant promises of his willingness to take care of His people, and she resolved to commit herself and her children into the hands of a covenant keeping God. But the counsel of her pastor included her own efforts, and she determined to do what she could. With firm resolution she went to work, and the blessing never left her or hers. The family of children were brought up respectably; the oldest were soon enabled to maintain their mother and assist the younger, and the motto of that household is, and ever will be—'Trust God and work hard'—New York Observer.