None but God left now

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 10, 1856

None but God left now.

"I have none but God left now!" said a poor widow, who had been freely pouring out her troubles to an aged friend. She was dressed in black, and had years on her brow, while her face had in it a mournful and anxious expression; but the relation of her sorrows seemed to give relief to her heart.

By this poor widow's account she had passed through deep waters of affliction, and endured, as she said, more than her "share of trouble." One of her two children had been drowned, and the other was then in a lunatic asylum. She had lost her brother and sister, and only three weeks before had buried her husband, being left alone, and in poverty. "All the day long," said she, "I am grieving; and when I awake in the morning, my pillow is wet with tears. Every thing seems to have melted away, and I have none but God left now."

"None but God left now!" poor, broken-hearted pilgrim. Knowest thou Him who is yet left to thee? Hast thou felt that God is good? Hast thou tasted that the Lord is gracious? If not, no wonder, then, thy trouble is heavier than thou canst bear. Hasten to him with thy burden. "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord;" then thy language will soon be, "Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him." Ps. xxviii.

"None but God left now!" poor desolate widow, "tossed with tempest, and not comforted." He who has wounded thee can heal thee; and he who has bereaved thee, can be to thee more than a husband, and give thee a better heritage than that of sons and daughters. Full as thy cup is of sorrow, peace and joy may yet be thy portion, for the promise of the Redeemer has gone forth: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matt. xi, 28.

"None but God left now!" poor, poverty-stricken mourner. Knowest thou not that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the silver and the gold, the beasts of the forest, and the cattle on a thousand hills?

Thy desires are not so large as his possessions. There is nothing that is good for thee that he cannot bestow. He can wipe the tears from thy weeping eyes, bind up the bones which he has broken, change thy gloom into gladness, and fill thy mouth and thy heart with thanksgiving.

Up and be doing, broken-hearted pilgrim. Onward and upward, desolate widow. To thy home, poverty-stricken mourner. If thou hast God left, then hast thou more need to praise him on an instrument of ten strings, than to hang thy harp on the willows. Go boldly to an ever-open throne of grace. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Matt. vii, 7.—Humphrey's Portfolio.