The Cafe of Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath confidered.

I KINGS XVII. 16.

And the barrel of meal wafted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord which he fpake by the prophet Elijah.

T

HE words of the text are the record of a miracle wrought in behalf of the widow of Zarephath, who had charitably taken Elijah under her roof, and adminiftered unto him in a time of great scarcity and diftrefs. There is fomething very interefting and affectionate in the manner this ftory is related in holy writ: and as it concludes. with a fecond ftill more remarkable proof of God's favour to the fame perfon, in the reftoration of her dead fon to life, one cannot but confider both miracles as rewards of that act of piety, wrought by infinite power, and

pulfe the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook; till by continuance of drought (the windows of heaven being fhut up in those days for three years and fix months, which was the natural caufe likewife of the famine) it came to pafs after a while. that the brook, the great fountain of his fupport, dried up; and he is again directed by the word of the Lord where to betake himself for fhelter. He is commanded to arife and go to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, with an affurance that he had difpofed the heart of a widow woman there to fuftain him.

The prophet follows the call of his GOD: the fame hand which brought him to the gate of the city, had led alfo the poor widow out of her doors, oppreffed with forrow. She had come forth upon a melancholy errand, to make preparation to eat her laft meal, and share it with her child.

No doubt, she had long fenced against this tragical event with all the thrifty

who would be

virtuous firng

ty of the timer

wire ; and he was in wty prey to it, wher the place where the wa

220 ber, and jaid, Fer ang tot, a little water in a veli And as he was going u

a cand unte lor, and faid, Ering ma, a more of bread in thine is the Lord thy Gud

: a cake, but a handful of a little oil in a crufe: athering two hicks, that it for me and my son, and die. And Elijab not, but gr, and do

but make me thereof a

it unto me, and

after make for thee and for thy fon. For thus faith the Lord God of Ifrael, The barrel of meal fhall not waste, neither shall the crufe of oil fail, until the day that the Lord fendeth rain upon the earth.

True charity is always unwilling to find excufes-elfe here was a fair opportunity of pleading many: fhe might have infifted over again upon her fituation, which neceffarily tied up her hands -fhe might have urged the unreafonableness of the requeft;-that he was reduced to the loweft extremity already -and that it was contrary to justice and the first law of nature, to rob herself and child of their laft morfel, and give it to a stranger.

But in generous fpirits, compaffion is fometimes more than a balance for felfprefervation. For, as GoD certainly interwove that friendly softness in our nature to be a check upon too great a propenfity towards felf-love-fo it seemed to operate here.-For it is obfervable, that though the prophet backed his requeft with the promife of an immediate