gathered the manna in the wilderness, did an unseen Hand provide - and that not only for herself and her

son, but for all "her household."

It was a constant miracle; but then we need, and we have a God Who doeth wonders - not one of the idols

of the heathen, nor yet a mere abstraction, but the Living and the True God. And we need in our Bible such

a history as this, to give us the pledge of personal assurance, when our hearts well-nigh sink within us in

the bitter trials of life - something which to all time may serve as evidence that Jehovah reigneth, and that we

can venture our all upon it. And yet as great as this miracle of daily providing seems that other of the faith

of the widow of Sarepta!

It was soon to be put to even greater trial - and, as before, not only she, but Elijah also, would learn precious

lessons by it. "Days" (time)had passed in happy quiet since God had daily spread the table in the widow's

home, when her son became ill. The sickness increased, until, in the language of the sacred text, "there was

not left in him breath."  304

There is something in the immediate contact with the Divine, which, from its contrast, brings sin to our

remembrance, and in consequence makes us feel as if it were impossible to stand unpunished before Him -

until our thoughts of the Divine Holiness, which in this view seems as consuming fire, pass into the higher

realization of the infinite love of God, which seeks and saves that which is lost (comp. Luke 5:8; also Isaiah

6:5). It was certainly not the wish that the prophet should be gone from her home, nor yet regret that he had

ever come to it, which wrung from the agonized woman, as she carried to him her dead child in her bosom,

these wild words, in which despair mingled with the consciousness of sin and the searching after the higher

and better: "What have I to do with thee (what to [between] me and thee),305 man of the Elohim? Come art

thou to me to bring to remembrance my sin, and (thus) to cause the death of my son?" The Divine, as

represented by Elijah, having no commonality with her; its fierce light bringing out her sin, and her sin

bringing down condign punishment - such were the only clearly conscious thoughts of this incipient

believer - though with much of the higher and better, as yet unconsciously, in the background.

Elijah made no other answer than to ask for her son. He took him from her bosom, carried him to the Alijah

(upper chamber) where he dwelt, and there laid him on his own bed. In truth, it was not a time for teaching

by words, but by deeds. And Elijah himself was deeply moved. These "many days" had been a happy,

quiet, resting time to him - perhaps the only quiet happy season in all his life. And as day by day he had

been the dispenser of God's goodness to the widow and her household, and had watched the unfolding of

her fait h, it must have been a time of strengthening and of joy to his heart As St. Chrysostom has it: Elijah

had to learn compassion in the house of the widow of Sarepta, before he was sent to preach to his own

people. He learned more than this in that heathen home. Already he had learned that experience of faith,

which, as St. Paul tells us, worketh a hope that maketh not ashamed (Romans 5:4, 5). But now it seemed as if

it were all otherwise; as if he were only a messenger of judgment; as if his appearance had not only boded

misery to his own people Israel, but brought it even upon the poor widow who had given him shelter. But it

could not be so -and in the agony of prayer he cast this burden upon his God. Three times - as when the

Name of Jehovah is laid in blessing on His people (Numbers 6:24, etc.),and as when the Seraphim raise their

voice of praise (Isaiah 6:3), he stretched himself in symbolic action upon the child, calling upon Jehovah as

his God, laying the living upon the dead, pouring his life, as it were , into the child, with the agony of

believing prayer. But it was Jehovah Who restored the child to life, hearkening to the voice of His servant.

They are truly human traits, full of intense pathos, which follow - though also fraught with deep spiritual

lessons. We can almost see Elijah as he takes down the child to his mother in that darkened room, and says

to her only these words of deep emotion, not unmingled with loving reproof, "See, thy son liveth!" Words

these, which our blessed LORD has said to many a weeping mother when holding her child, whether in life

or in death. And thus we can understand the words of the mother of Sarepta, and those of many a mother in

like circumstances: "Now - thus - I know that a Man of Elohim thou, and that the Word of Jehovah in thy

mouth is truth." She had learned it when first she received him; she had seen it day by day at her table; she

had known it when God had answered her unspoken thought, her unuttered prayer, by showing that mercy