There was a family once in great affliction. The father had been sick all winter. The mother, who was an earnest Christian, had labored hard with her needle to get money’ enough to buy food and fuel for the family. She trusted in God, and this made her cheerful. She always told her children that the Lord would take care of them and give them what they needed.
But on towards spring her strength began to fail. She could not work as much as formerly. At last their money was all gone. There was only just wood enough left to make one more fire. Every morsel of food was gone. A slice of bread was borrowed from a neighbor to make a piece of toast for the sick husband and father. The children were obliged to go to school that morning without any breakfast. And as the hungry little ones were going out of the house, their mother heard Henry, the oldest, a boy about ten years old, say to his brother and sister, “I wonder what mother thinks of the Lord, now?”
It filled that mother’s eyes with tears to hear this. It brought a swelling feeling up into her breast and throat, that seemed as if it would choke her. She turned aside into a corner of the room, and kneeled down to pray. She told God again of their great need of food and fuel. She prayed him to remember his precious promises never to forsake those who trust in him, and not to leave her dear children to think that his promises were not true.
While she was praying she heard a noise in the street. She went to the window to see what it was. There she saw a load of wood, which some kind friend had sent her, thrown down at her door. Then she cried again, but these were tears of thankfulness.
Before she had fairly wiped those tears away there came a knock at the door. She opened it, and there was a man with a large basket filled with potatoes and bread and butter and tea and sugar and a leg of mutton. He emptied them on the table, but wouldn’t tell who sent them. Then that Christian mother cried again, a good, long, blessed cry.
And when the hungry children came home at noon, she showed them the wood. Then she opened the closet and showed them all the good things God had sent them. And then they all cried together for joy and gladness, and Henry threw his arms round his mother’s neck, and asked her to forgive him for what he had said in the morning. Henry never forgot the lesson he learned that day. It gave him such strong faith in the Bible that he never again asked the question, “I wonder what mother thinks of the Lord now?”
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