it on his own bed, and, as though he would have infused Hfe into him out of his own body, thrice stretched himself upon the corpse ; and, after crying earnestly to the Lord in behalf of the child, restored him back again to the mother a living child. This was a wonderful deliverance to the afflicted mother : let us notice,
1. How it was wrought —
[It were absurd to imagine, though some have been guilty of the absurdity, that the animal warmth of the prophet had any efficacy towards restoring a dead corpse to life : it was by prayer alone that he prevailed. He begins with an humble expostulation with the Deity ; not as though he thought the stroke unjust, but as fearing lest the enemies of Jehovah should take occasion from it to represent him as a hard master, whom it was in vaiji, and even dangerous, to serve. Such was the expostulation which Moses offered, when God had threatened to destroy the whole Jewish nation'': and no doubt, when dic- tated solely by a concern for the honour of the Deity, it is highly pleasing unto God ; as its prevalence on this occasion fully proved. Next, he offers a petition, such as never had been before offered : " O Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again ! " What a wonderful petition ! How presumptuous does it at first sight appear ! But it is our misfortune and our fault that we are not more enlarged in our petitions at the throne of grace. I mean not to say, that we are authorized to ask for such an exertion of Omnipotence as this ; but this I say, that " we are not straitened in God, but are straitened in our owii bowels ; " and that that is the true reason of our receiving so little from God. However " wide we might open our mouths, God would fill them," provided we asked in faith, and according to liis will. Great as the pe- tition was, God answered it in its utmost extent, and enabled the prophet to present to the widow her child restored to life.]
2. How it was received —
[We may in some measure conceive the joy that would pervade the minds both of liim who had obtained the blessing, and of her who received it. But the effect which the deliver- ance produced in enlarging her knowledge and confirming her faith, is that wliich particularly calls for our attention. Her trial had so discomposed her mind as for a moment to shake her faith in God. ' How can this be the true God, who, after all his mercies to me, afflicts me thus ? and how can this be a man
<= Numb. xiv. 13—16.
343.] THE widow's son RAISED BY ELIJAH. 397
of God, who makes me such a recompence for all my attention to him ? ' Nor let us wonder that a poor Gentile was thus shaken in her faith, when a similar effect was produced by an unexpected trial on one of the most distinguished servants of the Lord. Joshua, on the discomfiture of Israel before Ai, and the loss of about six and thirty men, actually expressed more than this poor widow even ventured to imagine'^. Indeed this is the common fruit of affliction on our impatient minds : we are ready to ask, " Is the Lord among us, or not<=?" But the manifestation of God's power and mercy dispelled the cloud, and led her to confess him as a gracious and faithful God. This was the effect produced on Moses after the passage of Israel through the Red Sea^: and it is the proper effect to be produced on all.]
Let US LEARN then from this history, 1. How to interpret providences —
[We are apt to listen to sense rather than to faith, and to say, " All these things are against me." But how can they be really against us, when God has promised, tliat all things shall work together for our good. Against us they may be in some jyoints of vietv ; but they shall be for us on the tvhole. With what abundant benefit did this widow receive her child again! It is needless to repeat the benefits which Jacob ultimately received from the dispensation which he regarded as so calamitous. You all "know also the end of the Lord" in reference to Job, how abundantly his happiness was in- creased after his afflictions s. It may be that your temporal happiness may not be increased ; but the loss of it shall be more than counterbalanced by your spiritual prosperity. What our Lord said respecting Lazarus, may be justly applied to every afflictive dispensation ; " This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby '^ : " and the reproof which oiu* Lord afterwards gave to Martha, may justly be given to most of us ; " Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God^?" Let us learn to regard afflictions as blessings in disguise ; and let it be our endeavoui to walk more by faith and less by sight ; according to that direction of the prophet, " Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light ? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God''." If the dispensation be impe-