said, "Let God send me whither he will, and maintain me how he pleases."

A poor woman was gathering of sticks: and Elijah called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. And she told him her circumstances, and said, 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 cruise: 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. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not go and do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy For thus saith the Lord God of Israel. The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. Mark the power of faith, in true obedience to God. She went, and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail; according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.

son.

Let us first, contemplate, in this woman, THE CHILD OF PROVIDENCE: and, secondly, endeavour to derive from this history INSTRUCTION for ourselves.

I. Let us contemplate, in this widow of Zaraphath, the CHILD OF PROVIDENCE.

In one sense, we are all the Children of Providence the very ravens are such: for God feedeth them, and we are sent to them to learn. But some are the Children of Providence, like this woman, in a special respect; because they eye Providence: they trust it, and that with confidence: they see that all things are in God's hand; and that not a sparrow falls to the ground, nor a hair from the head, without his

knowledge; since he has numbered all these things, and sustains them according to his pleasure.

The Children of Providence are not only enlightened, not only have their ears opened to hear what God shall speak, and are satisfied with what he speaks, but their hearts are enlivened by faith, hope, and love, by the Holy Spirit's holy impression, and sealing of the word of God upon the soul. Had Elijah been sent to a whole nation of females in the circumstances under which he came to this widow, with what reception would he have met?" What! Take the only handful of meal in my barrel! the only drop of oil in my cruise! and give to you-a stranger! If you are a prophet of God, will you take my little all away? You can work miracles for your own relief." But she believed that he spake the word of God, and that God was faithful to his word; and that the barrel of meal should not waste, nor the cruise of oil fail: she casts anchor, therefore, on that word: she puts honour on God's prophet; and seems to say, "Let him command what he will; let him but give me faith." Brethren! many sit, and hear a preacher declare the mind and will of God, and then go away and act as if they had not heard it: but do ye depart and say, "I will trust the word of the Lord. He hath spoken: that is enough. I will trust him."

You may remark, too, in this woman, the exercise of that grace which God had given to her. She had endured, probably, much anxiety, and had encountered many afflictions: she had lost her husband, and she was now pinched by the famine. But the faith which she discovered seems even to have exceeded that of the widow who cast her two mites into the treasury she seems to have hoped against hope: she trusted and obeyed, without any listening to flesh and

blood.

You see also, in this Child of Providence, that she

was kept steady: she did not turn aside to crooked paths for meal or oil. The increase of this widow's faith was as great a miracle in grace, as the increase of her oil was in nature.

The Child of Providence, moreover, has communion with God, his leader, while walking in this path. Two men may walk together through the same trial, but in a very different manner. One may quarrel with God every step of his way: "There never was such a case as mine-such losses, trials, hardships!" The other may be taught to say, "It is the Lord! let him do what seemeth him good! my particular path of duty is, to glorify God in the fires!"

This widow appears also as the Child of Providence, in the strangeness of the relief which she obtained. We are taught by her history, that they who look to God shall see God. Brethren! all the children of God live too far from God! We limit his Providence. We cannot see therefore we say he cannot see. You have heard, no doubt, the enthusiastic and fanatical language of some, who pretend to trust God out of the path of duty; and expect miracles, where none need to be wrought, provided they continued in that path: but, because some are enthusiasts, shall we therefore become doubting Sadducees? Shall we talk of God in his Providence, as though we had no relation to God as a Father in Christ Jesus. Shall we forget his appeal to the ravens, the sparrows, and the lilies? Shall we trifle with his injunction, that we should take no anxious thought for the morrow? While we have before us an extraordinary method of relief, yet I doubt not but that many here could join me, and declare, if it were proper, "In our own particular cases, we could mention extraordinary instances of the interference of the hand of God in the greatest difficulties; so that we have reason to say, In the mount of difficulty his hand shall be seen."" You may remark also, in this history, that the Child

of Providence is under a peculiar teaching; and that it is the common education of the children of God, that where he gives faith he tries it. You here see a woman brought into the most dependent state; and, at the same time, independent of all but God. We have toiled all night, says the Apostle, and have caught nothing. No matter!-cast again!-if Christ bid, you shall not cast in vain. We have here five barley loaves and two small fishes; but what are they among so many?--Nothing!-Yet they are more than sufficient, if God please to employ them: they shall feed five thousand, and there shall be gathered up twelve baskets full of the fragments.

II. Having spoken of the Child of Providence in the text, let us now think of ourselves; and consider what we should LEARN from this history.

1. We are taught thereby, TO SEEK A SAVING AC

QUAINTANCE WITH THE GOD OF ELIJAH.

Many persons talk of God; and say that they trust in God, and hang all their hope upon him: but, when I have heard many speak thus, I have marked that they have talked of trusting a God, whom they knew not,- —a God out of Christ. They consider not that he is only to be found as a friend-helper-preserver -and exceeding great reward, in the way which he has himself declared :-dwelling in the midst of the bush, to teach us, that we must find him in Christ, or we cannot find him!

Oh, that every man before me might learn, whatever his plans, his projects, and his hopes may be, that he is wholly out of the way, and folly and vanity are written on his schemes, if he does not obtain the good will of him that dwelt in the bush.

I see here Parents who are toiling night and day. What are you doing? "I have a large family of children and I am endeavouring to lay up a portion for them." Why, then, do you not, in truth, lay up a portion for them? What! will you lay up a little

dust, and call that a portion? Is that a portion for an immortal soul? You are rather hanging a millstone about the necks of your children, which may sink them deeper into ruin. You may thereby tempt them to plunge into the world: and there they may scatter what you have treasured up, and called a portion! The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, is the declaration of David; and, till you lead your children to this portion, you are making no real provision for them.

Here are Schemers before me-persons fond of speculation! Oh, that such would remember what God says, by the prophet Haggai, on this subject :Ye looked for much and lo! it came to little: and, when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it! as if it were mere chaff, that he could blow away in a moment. And why? Because, saith the Lord of Hosts, of my house that is waste: and ye run every man to his own house. As though he had said, "You do not consider, that there is a better part, which cannot be taken away and I mean to pour contempt on such a miserable scheme as this, and to show the vanity and vexation of spirit of every thing under the sun, unless you enjoy it by faith, and under the favour of God."

:

He says again, in the second chapter, Since those days were, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the pressfat, for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty: Ismote you with blasting, and with mildew, and with hail, in all the labours of your hands: yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord. But he tells them, soon after, that, in returning to him, they should find the vine, and the fig-tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive-tree bring forth; and that from that day he would bless them. They are all his creatures, and shall do what he commands.

One thing, therefore, the Schemer lacks :-one