Over Work! Poem by Martin Greyford

The strength of the mother should be tenderly cherished.
Instead of spending her precious strength in exhausting labour.
Her care and burdens should be lessened.
Often the husband is unacquaited with
The physical laws which the well being of his family
Requires him to understand.
Absorbed in the struggle for a livelihood,
Or bent on acquiring wealth
And pressed with cares and perplexities,
He allows to rest upon the wife
And burdens that overtax
Her strength at the most critical periods,
And cause feebleness and disease.

Many a husband might
Learn a helpful lesson from the
Carefulness of the faithful shepherd.
Jacob, when urged to undertake a rapid
And difficult journey made answer,
"The children are tender
and the flocks
And herds with young ones are with me,
And if men should overdrive them one day,
All the flock will die.
I will lead on softly
According as the cattle that goeth before me,
nd the children be able to endure."