taking the surest means to get more from him. He will be no man's debtor; and what he gets from us, through his children, he repays again with an abundant increase. This woman gave one meal to the prophet, and God sustained her for two years. Christ gave himself for sinners, and, lo! God has exalted him to the throne of mediatorial dominion, and is even now satisfying his heart by letting him see of "the travail of his soul." This is ever the divine law: we get by giving. We must sow if we would reap; we must open our hearts in love to others, if we would have God's love shed abroad in our own souls. It will not do, however, for us to have regard to the reward. We are to "do good and lend, looking for nothing again ;" and then it is that our reward shall be great, and "we shall be the children of the Highest." Nor is it only in the giving of supplies for the bodies of men that this principle holds good. It is as true of the labors which we engage in for their spiritual benefit. "He that watereth others, shall be watered also himself." Hence when we find our piety at a low ebb, or our happiness diminishing, the way to increase it is to go and try to make others better and more joyous. Very beautifully has this lesson been sung for us by the authoress of "The Schonberg-cotta Family" in these lines: "Is thy cruse of comfort failing? Rise and share it with another, For the heart grows rich in giving; all its wealth is living grain; Numb and weary on the mountains, wouldst thou sleep amidst the snow? Art thou stricken in life's battle? Many wounded round thee moan: Is the heart a well left empty? None but God its void can fill; We may learn, fifthly, that God's doings for us are often delayed till the very last, to teach us that, when relief comes, it comes from him. Not till the brook was quite dried up did Jehovah make provision for Elijah; and the widow was preparing her last meal when Elijah came, an apparent burden to her, but yet a real helper. "Man's extremity is God's opportunity." It is not till things "are at the worst" that they "begin to mend." Thus even the world's proverb recognizes this principle of the divine procedure. It was in the fourth watch of the night, when they were worn out by their long toil in rowing, that Jesus came walking over the sea to his disciples' assistance. It was after Lazarus had been buried that the Lord came to help his friends at Bethany; and though Jairus cried, “Come down, ere my child die," he let the child expire before he went. Let us not despair, therefore, no matter how dark may be the outlook. "In the mount the Lord will provide," and at the very moment of sacrifice a ram will be substituted for our Isaac. It were a sad thing to be in perplexity with no God to fall back upon; but while we have him saying to us, "I am thy God," all is well. The deepest agony is not that of the Christian when he is in extremity, for he knows that God is as omnipotent then as ever, and will take care of him; but, oh! it is sad, ineffably sad, when a man has nothing but earthly things to sustain him. The day will come when for him, too, the brook "The Women of the Gospels, and other Poems," by the author of "Chronicles of the Schonberg-cotta Family," p. 181. will fail, and the barrel become empty; and what shall he do then without a God? Let the godless before me ponder well the question. I can not conclude without directing attention here to God's care for the widow. He might have sent Elijah to some other poor household; but he chose a widow, to remind us, among other things, of his tenderness for those who have been thus bereaved. He is the judge of the widows. He takes them under his peculiar care. These are his precepts to his ancient people: "Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry."* He commanded that sheaves should be left for them upon the harvest - field, and gleanings from the olive - trees and from the vintage were to be reserved for them.† Go read anew the story of Naomi and Ruth, two widows in one home. Ponder well the teachings of this history which has been tonight before us. Think why, of all bereaved ones, Jesus chose to raise the son of the widow of Nain, and then say if we are not thereby taught to deal kindly with those who have been left to the dreariest loneliness the earth can know. And you, ye solitary ones, whom God has thus bereft of your beloved companions and protectors, hear ye not again tonight these words of promise, intensified by the story of my text?"Leave thy fatherless children. I will preserve them alive, and let thy widows trust in me." * Exodus xxii., 22, 23. † Deuteronomy xxiv., 19–21. E IV. DEATH AND RESURRECTION. I KINGS Xvii., 17-24. LIJAH must have sojourned with the widow of Zare phath for two years, during which he and his hostess were provided for by what seems to have been a regularly recurring miracle. The meal in the barrel was always just on the point of being exhausted; and the oil in the cruse was always just on the point of failing. Yet neither ever entirely gave out. There was never at any time in the house a store of either; yet as each new day dawned, the woman discovered that she had still enough for that day's necessity. Thus while she and her guest had always a sufficiency, they were at the same time always kept on the very confines of want; and so they were preserved from either sinking into despair or rising into presumption. God wished them both to depend directly and immediately upon himself, and therefore he allowed no reserve to accumulate in their hands lest they should confide in that, rather than in him. He gave them "day by day their daily bread." And though now such miracles as that performed for the widow are no longer wrought by him, we must neither forget nor despise the one great, constant miracle of his providence by which his universe is sustained and his people upheld. Is there not, in this regard, still too much ground for the appeal of the Christian poet when he says? "What prodigies can power divine perform More grand than it produces year by year, As once in Gideon, interrupt the race Of the undeviating and punctual sun, How would the world admire! But speaks it less An agency divine, to make him know His moment when to sink and when to rise, Age after age, than to arrest his course? All we behold is miracle, but, seen so duly, This witness is true. The hand that supplied our wants this morning is the same as that which provided for the widow of Zarephath and her exile guest; yet how little gratitude do we feel for this regularly recurring kindness from the Lord, as compared with that which would thrill our souls if some miracle were wrought for our behoof! Let us never forget, however, that what men call natural and what they call supernatural are both alike from God: only the natural represents his constant operations, the supernatural his occasional variations from his common plan. For the one, therefore, as really as for the other, he deserves, and should receive, our loving thanks. How Elijah was occupied during his sojourn at Zarephath does not appear; but the fact that he was, as it were, under hiding from Ahab, renders it, in a manner, certain that he was not engaged in any public effort for the spiritual benefit of the people of the place. Hence his attention must have been given almost exclusively to the duties of the closet and of the home. Much of his time would doubtless be given to devotional retirement; but he would also take the liveliest * Cowper's "Task," book ii. |