She sticks not at the water; she would not stick at the bread, if necessity had not pressed her; As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; and behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it, for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.'

If she knew not the man, how did she know his God? And if she knew not the God of Elijah, how did she swear by him? Certainly, though she were without the bounds of Israel, yet she was within the borders. So much she had gained by her neighborhood, to know an Israelite, a prophet, by his habit; to know the only living God was the God of the prophet, the God of Israel: and if this had not been, yet it is no marvel, if the widow knew Elijah, since the ravens knew him.

It was high time, for the prophet to visit the Sareptan. Poor soul! she was now making her last meal: after one mean morsel, she was yielding herself over to death. How opportunely hath God provided succors to our distresses! It is his glory, to help at a pinch; to begin, where we have given over: that our relief might be so much the more welcome, by how much it is less looked for.

But oh, what a trial is this of the faith of a weak proselyte, if she were so much! Fear not; go, do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it to me, and after make for thee, and thy son: for, thus saith the God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, nor the cruse of oil fail, till the day that God send rain on the earth.' She must go spend on a stranger part of that little she hath, in hope of more, which she hath not, which she may have. She must part with her present food, which she saw, in trust of future, which she could not see. She must rob her sense, in the exercise of her belief; and shorten her life in being, on the hope of a protraction of it in promise. She must believe God will miraculously increase, what she hath yielded to consume. She must first feed the stranger, with her last victuals; and then after, herself and her son.

Some sharp dame would have taken up the prophet; and have sent him away, with an angry repulse: Bold Israelite; there is no reason in this request. Wert thou

a friend or a brother, with what face couldest thou require, to pull my last bit out of my mouth? Had I superfluity of provision, thou mightest hope for this effect of my charity: now, that I have but one morsel for myself and my son, this is an injurious importunity. What can induce thee to think thy life, an unknown traveller, should be more dear to me than my son's, than my own? How uncivil is this motion, that I should first make provision for thee, in this dying extremity! It had been too much, to have begged my last scraps. Thou tellest me the meal shall not waste, nor the oil fail; how shall I believe thee? Let me see that done, before thou eatest. In vain should I challenge thee, when the remainder of my poor store is consumed. If thou canst so easily multiply victuals, how is it that thou wantest? Do that beforehand, which thou promisest shall be afterwards performed, there will be no need of my little.'

But this good Sareptan was wrought by God, not to mistrust a prophet. She will do what he bids, and hope for what he promises. She will live by faith, rather than by sense; and give away the present, in the confidence of a future remuneration. First, she bakes Elijah's cake; then, her own: not grudging, to see her last morsels go down another's throat, while herself was famishing. How hard precepts doth God lay, where he intends bounty! Had not God meant her preservation, he had suffered her to eat her last cake alone, without any interpellation: now, the mercy of the Almighty purposing, as well this miraculous favor to her as to his prophet, requires of her this task, which flesh and blood would have thought unreasonable. So we are wont, to put hard questions to those scholars, whom we would promote to higher forms. So in all achievements, the difficulty of the enterprise makes way for the glory of the actor.

Happy was it for this widow, that she did not shut her hand to the man of God; that she was no niggard of her last handfull. Never corn or olive did so increase in growing, as here in consuming. This barrel, this cruse of hers, had no bottom: the barrel of meal wasted not; the cruse of oil failed not.' Behold, not getting, not saving, is the way to abundance, but giving. The mercy

of God crowns our benefieence, with the blessing of store. Who can fear want, by a merciful liberality; when he sees the Sareptan had famished, if she had not given, and by giving abounded? With what thankful devotion must this woman every day needs look on her barrel and cruse, wherein she saw the mercy of God renewed to her continually! Doubtless, her soul was no less fed by faith, than her body with this supernatural provision. How welcome a guest must Elijah needs be to this widow, that gave her life and her son's to her, for his board! yea, that, in woful famine, gave her and her son their board, for his house-room!

The dearth thus overcome, the mother looks hopefully on her only son; promising herself much joy, in his life and prosperity; when an unexpected sickness surpriseth him, and doth that which the famine but threatened. When can we hold ourselves secure from evils? No sooner is one of these sergeants compounded withal, than we are arrested by another.

How ready we are to mistake the grounds of our afflictions, and to cast them on false causes! The passionate mother cannot find whither to impute the death of her son, but to the presence of Elijah; to whom she comes, distracted with perplexity; not without an unkind challenge of him, from whom she had received, both that life she had lost and that she had; What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come to me, to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?' As if her son could not have died, if Elijah had not been her guest; whereas her son had died, but for him. Why should she think, that the prophet had saved him from the famine, to kill him with sickness? As if God had not been free in his actions; and must needs strike by the same hands, by which he preserved. She had the grace to know, that her affliction was for her sin; yet was so unwise, to imagine the arrearages of her iniquities had not been called for, if Elijah had not been the remembrancer. He, who had appeased God towards her, is suspected to have incensed him.

This wrongful misconstruction was enough to move any patience, Elijah was of a hot spirit; yet his holiness.

kept him from fury, This challenge rather increased the zeal of his prayer, than stirred his choler to the offender. He takes the dead child out of his mother's bosom, and lays him on his own bed, and cries unto the Lord; O Lord my God, hast thou brought evil also on the widow, with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?' Instead of chiding the Sareptan, out of the fervency of his soul, he humbly expostulates with his God. His only remedy is in his prayer: that, which shut heaven for rain, must open it for life.

Every word enforceth; first, he pleads his interest in God, O Lord my God:' then, the quality of the patient; a' widow,' and therefore, both most distressed with the loss, and most peculiar to the charge of the Almighty: then, his interest, as in God, so in this patient; with whom I sojourn;' as if the stroke were given to himself, through her sides: and lastly, the quality of the punishment, by slaying her son,' the only comfort of her life: and in all these implying the scandal, that must needs arise from this event, wherever it should be noised, to the name of his God, to his own; when it should be said: 'Lo how Elijah's entertainment is rewarded: surely the prophet is either impotent or unthankful!'

Neither doth his tongue move thus only. Thrice doth he stretch himself on the dead body; as if he could wish, to infuse of his own life into the child; and so often calls to his God, for the restitution of that soul.

What can Elijah ask, to be denied? The Lord heard the voice of the prophet; the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.' What miracle is impossible to faithful prayers? There cannot be more difference betwixt Elijah's devotion and ours, than betwixt supernatural and ordinary acts; if he therefore obtained miraculous favors by his prayers, do we doubt of those which are within the sphere of nature and use? What could we want, if we did not slack to ply heaven with our prayers?

Certainly, Elijah had not been premonished of this sudden sickness and dea.h of the child. He, who knew the remote affairs of the world, might not know what God would do within his own roof. The greatest prophet

must content himself, with so much of God's council, as he will please to reveal; and he will sometimes reveal the great secrets and conceal the less, to make good, both his own liberty and man's humiliation.

So much more unexpected as the stroke was, so much more welcome is the cure. How joyfully doth the man of God take the revived child into his arms and present him to his mother! How doth his heart leap within him, at this proof of God's favor to him; mercy, to the widow; power, to the child!

What life and joy did now show itself, in the face of that amazed mother, when she saw again the eyes of her son fixed on hers; when she felt his flesh warm, his motions vital!

Now she can say to Elijah, By this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.' Did she not till now know this? Had she not said before, 'What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God?' Were not her cruse and her barrel sufficient proofs of his divine commission? Doubtless, what her meal and oil had assured her of, the death of her son made her to doubt; and now, reviving, did reascertain. Even the strongest faith sometimes staggereth, and needeth new acts of heavenly supportation.

The end of miracles is confirmation of truth. It seems had this widow's son continued dead, her belief had been buried in his grave: notwithstanding her meal and her oil, her soul had languished. The mercy of God is fain to provide new helps for our infirmities; and graciously condescends to our own terms, that we may work out our faith and salvation. 1 Kings xvii.

ELIJAH WITH THE BAALITES.

THREE years and a half did Israel lie gasping under a parching drought and miserable famine.

No creature was so odious to them, as Elijah; to whom they ascribed all their misery. Methinks, I hear how they rail on and curse the prophet. How much envy must the servants of God undergo for their master! Nothing but the tongue was Elijah's; the hand was God's. The prophet did but say, what God would do: I do not