yet left her of discharging her debts : and being informed that nothing remained to her but a pot of oil, he directed her to borrow as many vessels as she could of her neighbours, and, with her doors closed in order to avoid the distraction which might be occasioned by impertinent curiosity, to pour out the oil into the vessels, under a full assurance that it should be so multiplied as to prove a supply for all her wants. The event fully answered her expectations : and in one hour she had enough to pay all her creditors, and to support herself and family for the future. Thus, in the hour of her necessity, did she experience the truth of that proverb, " In the mount the Lord shall be seen."]
But the point to which we wish more particularly to draw your attention is, the stopping of the supply, when there were no more vessels to be filled. And this, whilst it shews how large God's bounty is, shews also,
II. Whence it is that we also are not more enriched by it-
Our state accords in a measure with that of the insolvent widow, inasmuch as we are loaded with a debt which we can never discharge, and are threat- ened with everlasting bonds as the just consequence of our insolvency. But from God do I declare,
1, That relief shall be afforded you —
[God is both able and willing to relieve all who call upon him. He is able; as the Apostle has said: " God is able to make all grace abound toward you ; that ye, always having all- sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work''." And to God he ascribes all glory, in that precise view : " Now unto Him that is a1)le to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the Chvirch by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen''." And He is as willing as he is able. It is for this very end that he has treasured up in Christ all fulness for us, that out of it we may receive to the utmost extent of our necessities'^. In Christ is " the residue of the Spirit®;" whom he has " received without measure V' on purpose that he may impart of it unto us, even to the most rebellious amongst us^.]
2. That if we receive not to the fullest possible
b 2 Cor. ix. 8. <= Eph. iii. 20. ^ Col. i. 19. John i. 16.
e Mai. ii. 15. ^ John iii. 34. s Ps. Ixviii. 18.
362.1 THE widow's oil INCREASED. 479
extent of our necessities, it is " not in God that we are straitened, but in ourselves''" —
[Most free are the invitations given us to come and receive God's blessings "without money and without priced" And so largely is our Saviour willing to bestow them, that " they should be in us a well of water springing up unto everlasting life"^." Yea, to all, without exception, does he make an ofter, that, if they come unto him for the waters of life, "out of their belly shall flow rivers of living water." " And this spake he of the Spirit, which they that beheve on him should received" He is represented by the Prophet Zechariah as an inexhaustible fountain, even as that golden bowl which by golden pipes supplies with golden oil every lamp in God's sanctuary™. He bids us "open our mouth wide, that he may fill it"." He assures us that we may " ask what we wiU, and it shall be done unto us":" and that "according to our faith it shall be done mito us p." Why, then, have we for the most part so scanty a supply of God's Holy Spirit? The reason may be seen in the conduct of king Joash. Elisha had told him that he should destroy the Syrians who had oppressed him : and he bade the king to strike the ground with the arrows which he had in his hand. The king, being deficient both in faith and zeal, struck the ground only three times, and thereby greatly incensed the prophet against him ; and was told, that the mercy promised should be reduced to the scale which he himself, by his want of zeal, had dictated : for he should smite the Syrians only thrice ; whereas, if he had struck the ground five or six times, he should have utterly consumed themi. Thus, if we were more urgent in our prayers, and more enlarged in our expectations, who can tell what supplies of the Holy Spirit we might obtain ? Verily I speak not too strongly, if I say, that God would " pour him out so abundantly upon us''," that we should "be filled with all the fulness of God^"l