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The Ministry of Health and Healing
I will preserve them alive;
And let your widows trust in Me.’”
Psalm 68:5; Isaiah 54:5;
Jeremiah 49:11.
Many a father, when called upon to part from his loved ones,
has died resting in faith upon God’s promise to care for them. The
Lord provides for the widow and the fatherless, not by a miracle in
sending manna from heaven, not by sending ravens to bring them
food, but by a miracle upon human hearts, expelling selfishness and
unsealing the fountains of Christlike love. He commits the afflicted
and bereaved ones to His followers as a precious trust. They have
the very strongest claim upon our sympathy.
In homes supplied with life’s comforts, in granaries filled with
the yield of abundant harvests, in warehouses stocked with the prod-
ucts of the loom, and vaults stored with gold and silver, God has
supplied means for the sustenance of these needy ones. He calls
upon us to be channels of His bounty.
Many a widowed mother with her fatherless children is bravely
striving to bear her double burden, often working far beyond her
strength in order to keep her little ones with her and to provide for
their needs. She has little time for their training and instruction, little
opportunity to surround them with influences that would brighten
their lives. She needs encouragement, sympathy, and tangible help.
God calls upon us to supply to these children, so far as we can,
what they lack from a father’s care. Instead of standing aloof, com-
plaining of their faults and of the trouble they may cause, help them
in every way possible. Seek to aid the careworn mother. Lighten her
burdens.
Then there are the multitudes of children who have been wholly
deprived of the guidance of parents and the subduing influence of
a Christian home. Let Christians open their hearts and homes to
these helpless ones. The work that God has committed to them as
an individual duty should not be turned over to some benevolent
institution or left to the chances of the world’s charity. If the children
have no relatives able to give them care, the members of the church
should provide homes for them. He who created us planned that we