good^ As for himself, in obedience to the divine direction, he retired to the brook Cherith, and was for a long time supported there by ravens, which brought him bread and meat regularly twice a day : and, when that brook was dried up, he went to Zarephath, or Sarepta, which belonged to Sidon, and was there nourished by a widow woman, whom God had appointed to sustain him. Thus, whilst the iniquities of the nation were severely punished, the care which God takes of his obedient servants was the more signally manifested.
The account given us of his abode with the Sido- nian widow is very interesting, inasmuch as it dis- plays the unbounded goodness of God to her in return for her kindness towards his faithful servant. Let us consider,
I. Her work —
Elijah going, as he was commanded, to the city of Zarephath, found the widow gathering a few sticks for the purpose of dressing the last remnant of pro- vision that remained to her for herself and her son : and after soliciting a draught of water, he requested her to give him a morsel of bread. This led to a disclosure of the circumstances in which she was : but he assured her, that she need not fear ; for that God would so multiply her little store, that it should never be exhausted till after the famine should have ceased. On this occasion we behold,
1. The extent of her liberality —
[Having but a sufficiency for a single meal for herself and her son, and having no prospect whatever of obtaining from man any further supply, she imparted to this stranger a por- tion of her provision, and dressed it with her own hands on purpose for him. Perhaps since the foundation of the world there never was so striking an illustration of the character given many centuries afterwards to the Macedonian chiu-ches; of whom it is said, that, " in a great trial of affliction, their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality**." We admire, and justly too, the astonishing liberahty of the widow in the Gospel, who, possessing only two mites, cast
* Compare vir. 1. with Jam. v. 17, 18. ^2 Cor. viii. 2.