also," &c.); as if the widow by whom he bad been housed, and who had hidden him at the risk of her life, was to be requited with cruel punishment for her good deed. But let us now see in Zarepbath II. A FURNAOE OF TRIAL FOR THE WIDOW. It was this in two ways- 1. A stranger demands a share of her last meal. Or, rather, he demands the first she.re. '' Make me a little cake first." Now consider her position. She is reduced to her last morsel. So sore is the famine that she and her son, after they have eaten this meal together, are about to lie down and wait for death. They must have suffered hunger enough already; they must have dreaded the hunger even unto death which awaited them. At this moment a. stranger suddenly appears before her, and says he must eat first. It is true that he wears the aspect ot a prophet, and appeals to the Lord God of Israel, but prophets were often deceivers (cha. xiii. 18; xxii. 12), and foreign gods could be expected to show her no favour. And at home, her own flesh and blood, the son of her womb, stretches out his skinny fingers, attenuated by famine, and cries for all she has to give. More- over, if this prophet could multiply food, as he professed to be able to do, why should he ask her for bread? Was it reasonable that she should part with her last morsel on the strength of such a promise ? 11 Charity begins at home.'' "Let the children first be filled.'' " Shall I take my bread and my water and give it to one that I know not whence he is" (1 Sam. xxv. 11)? Thus she might justly have argued. We could not have wondered had the ordeal been too great for her; had she kept fast hold of her children's bread and denied it to II dogs." But, like that other Syro-Phoenician woman (Matt. xv. 21 sqq.), her faith was equal to the test; she II went and did according to the saying of Elijah.'' And, therefore, of her also it might justly be said, 11 I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel.'' 2. Her son falls sick and lies apparently lifeless. The tie between a mother antl an only son is, perhaps, the closest and tenderest of all blood relationships ; ancl it bas been remarked that it is peculiarly strong and sacred in the East. '' The only son of his mother and she was a widow" (Luke vii. 12): who does not feel the pathos of these words? And the tie would be all the stronger in this case because they bad suffered together; because he had been given back to her from the jaws of death (ver. 12). It is said by some that we value things in proportion to what they have cost us, and on this principle they would explain the deep love of the mother for her offspring. Goethe's mother used to say that II she and her Wolfgang had always clung to eaoh other, because they had been young together; " but to have hungered together, to have, hand in hand, looked Death in the face, to have seen the spectre retreating, sw-ely this communion in suffering, this (11Jµ1ra9E1a, this compassio, would beget e. much profounder sympathy. And now this boy, whose life bad been miraculously preserved, is so sick that there is no breath left in him. What could this fond and anxious mother think? Was the prophet who had given them bread unable to defend them from sickness ? Or was this God's recompense for her hospitality? She might have had hard thoughts of God, or unworthy thoughts of the prophet. It is n wonder she held fast her integrity. But she only thought ha,rdly of herself. It must be, she nrgnecl, a. judgment for her sin. The man of God had read her life ; had brought her sin to the remembrance of his Master (ver. 18). It never occurs to her, strong as was the temptation, to arraign God's providence. But her faith and patience must have been sorely tried. It now remains for us to consider how these assays of faith, which have given to this Phoenician workshop its fame and immortality, were II more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire " (1 Peter i. 7). In that workshop God Himself sat "as a refiner and purifier of silver.'' It is saicl that when the crucible, the fining pot for silver (Prov. xvii. 3), is put into the furnace, the chymist has a sw-e and ready test of its purity ; a means of knowing when his long processes have accomplished their object. When he sees his face reflected in the glowing and untarnished metal, he knows that the purification is complete. It was that EJijah and his hostess might learn to know God, might be trans- 898 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [ CH, XVII, 1-24,
formed int.o the image of God, that they experienced this two yea.rs' pnr~a.tion in the fimmce. It was that the dross might be vurely purged, and the tin taken away (Isn.. i. 25) ; that they might be changed mto the image of their Crea.tor (Col. iii. 10 ; 2 Cor. iii. 18). Now the historian does not record the results of this o.ssa.y, except inoidentally. But we ce.n clearly see that the faith of Elijah and the widow alike grew stronger by the exercise. How much Elijali gained; how the discipline told on bis subse- quent career; how the trying of his faith wrought patience (Ja.mes i. 8), we cannot now di~cover. But we can see that it resulted in the widow's conversion, or in the confirmation of her faith, and in the glory and praise of God (ver. 24). And that is not alL Its issues are in eternity. The oross was the forerunner of the crown (James i. 12).