parent till her tears and scbs almost choke her utter ance, she reminds them that if they follow his faith and patience, they shall soon all meet in the presence of Christ to part no more.

Widow of the departed christian, forsake not then the God of your husband, and your own God too: follow him in his piety, and follow him to glory, and let it be the solace of your widowhood to remember. that

The saints on earth and all the dead,

But one communion make;

All join in Christ their living head,
And of his grace partake.

And in order to cleave to your husband's God, cleave to his pious relatives. Imitate Ruth in this. It may be that like her, you have been called out of a circle in which true piety had neither place nor countenance. Your own relatives are of the earth, earthly, and holding lax views and sentiments with regard to religion, they are likely, if much associated with, to divert your thoughts, and turn the current of your affections away from things unseen and eternal, to things seen and temporal. They will, perhaps, wish to recover you back to your former indifference to these important matters, and propose means recreate your spirits very alien from all your present convictions and tastes. It will be their especial effort, probably to draw you out of the circle of your husband's religious friends, and bring you back to the

to

gay circle you have left. Such effor.s must be judiciously and kindly, but, at the same time, firmly resisted. Without alienating yourself from your own worldly friends, you must not allow yourself to be separated from his pious ones. In their society you will find, not only the most precious and sacred consolations, but the most likely means to establish you in the faith and hope of the gospel, and to perpetuate your enjoyment of its rich privileges.

This is important on account of your children also. You are desirous of bringing them up in the fear of God, and the love of Christ, according to the plan and design of their departed father: and to accomplish this, it is necessary to keep them as much as possible from such associations as would defeat your hopes, and to place them in the way of others, whose example and influence would conduce to their accomplishment. Character is formed in a great measure by imitation, and if we place the young and susceptible mind in the way of such examples as are altogether worldly, even though they may not be Vicious, we are exposing them to great hazard, and are putting in jeopardy their eternal salvation.

CHAPTER II.

THE WIDOW OF ZAREPHATH.-1 Kings, xvii.

An example of trust and kindness to such widous as are poor.

THE prophet Elijah, after having been miraculously fed during a long famine, by ravens at the brook Cherith, found it necessary to quit his retreat in consequence of the failure of the stream which had nitherto supplied him with water. There is a mysterious sovereignty running through all the ways of God, extending also to his miraculous operations. He works no more wonders, and gives no more signs, than the exigency of the case needs. He that sent flesh by a bird of prey, could have caused the brook still to resist the exhausting power of the drought, or have brought water out of the stones which lay in its dry bed: but he did not see fit to do so. When the brook fails, however, God has a Zarephath for

his servant; and a widow, instead of ravens, shall now feed him; for all creatures are equally God's servants, and he is never at a loss for instruments either of power to destroy his enemies, or of love to succour and help his friends: what he does not find he can make, and here, therefore, is a firm ground of our confidence in him: "They that know his name will put their trust in him." "Arise," said God to the prophet, "get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman to sustain thee there." Every thing in the injunction must have been confounding to reason. "What! go to Zarephath! a city out of the boundaries of the land of promise! the native country of Jezebel, my bitterest foe! Go to such a distance in a time of famine! What am I to do, and how am I to be fed on my long and toilsome journey? And when I shall have arrived there, am I to be dependant on a woman, and she a widow?" Did Elijah reason, and question, and cavil thus? Nothing of the sort, for what is difficult to reason, is easy to faith. God had commanded, and his commands imply promises. It was enough, "Go, for God sends thee;" and he went nothing doubting, nothing asking, nothing fearing.

Arrived at the vicinity of the place about eventide, and looking round, of course, for the female hand that was at once to guide him to a home, and feed him too, Elijah saw a poor woman gathering a few sticks, which the long drought had scattered in

abundance. Ier occupation, as well as her appearance, proclaimed her poverty. He saw no one else; "Can that be my benefactress ?" we can fancy him asking himself. Remembering, however, the ravens who had been his purveyors for a whole year, he knew that help could come by the hand of even that feeble instrument. An impression, such as those who had been accustomed to receive revelations from God well understood, assured him that his deliverer was before him. "Fetch me," said he, 66 a little water in a vessel that I may drink." Such a request was asking for more than gold. Yet awed by the prophet's appearance, and influenced by the prophet's God, she set out immediately in quest of the precious liquid, but was stopped to hear another request: "Bring me a morsel of bread in thy hand." This second request drew from the poor woman one of the most affecting statements that even poverty's self ever made: "As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse, and behold I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress for me and my son, that we may eat it and die." Alas! poor mother, thy condition is sad indeed, thou art, in thine own apprehension, about to make thy last meal, with thy fatherless child, and then with him to yield yourselves to death. It was time for the prophet to visit this widow, to whom he was evidently sent, more on her account than his own. How little could she have imagined when she ut