vealed will of God! Many seek even their religion from "broken cisterns" of their own, not remembering that Moses lost Canaan, for bringing water from the rock, by striking, instead of speaking to it! While on the subject of Jericho, Do you recollect how it was destroyed?

MARY. No, Mama.

MAMA. I will tell you. Lest the Israelites should imagine that their own might and valour had taken all the cities of Canaan, when they came to this last and strongest one, on the very borders of the promised land, God commanded their soldiers to stand still, and see what the Lord would do. He then ordered the priests to go seven times round the city, blowing with trumpets, and, at the seventh blast, the walls fell flat down, and every man walked straight before him into the city. Surely this was a conquest worthy to be had in remembrance! and God no doubt intended Jericho to remain a ruined monument to his glory to the latest posterity. Hiel chose to disregard the threatening of the Lord, and the lives of his sons paid for his bold impiety. But, let us hasten to the next chapter, to be introduced to Elijah. Who was he, my dear?

MARY. "A Tishbite," Mama; "of the inhabitants of Gilead."

MAMA. What was his first public act?

MARY. He went to King Ahab, and said, “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand,

there shall not be dew nor rain these

cording to my word."

years,

but ac

MAMA. Bold language, indeed, Mary! What did this prove Elijah to be?

MARY. A prophet, Mama, I suppose..

MAMA. "Yea, and more than a prophet," I think, Mary; for few of them enjoyed power over the elements, however they might foretell the future. Why did God immediately bid him conceal himself?

MARY. For fear Ahab should kill him.

MAMA. My dear, that was beyond his power, unless God allowed him ; but he might have suffered grievous persecutions from him, to procure rain, which God was determined for three years to withhold from rebellious Israel.. Where did Elijah hide himself at the Lord's command?

MARY. "By the brook Cherith," Mama, and the ravens fed him.

MAMA. Who feeds them, Mary? who "giveth the young ravens their meat in due season?”

MARY. It is God, Mama; and it was He who taught them to bring bread and flesh to Elijah. MAMA. Was any one else you remember, miraculously fed in the wilderness? (A pause.)

Who spent forty days there, Mary, and "was afterwards an hungered?"

MARY. Our blessed Lord.

MAMA. And what happened at the end of that time?

MARY. "Angels came and ministered to him."

MAMA. Very well! You see God can make every creature, from the fowls of the air to the loftiest angel, "minister unto them that are the heirs of his promise:" What drove Elijah from his retreat?

MARY. The brook dried up, and he could no longer drink.

MAMA. Where did God send him then?

MARY. To a city called Zarephath, where a "widow woman was commanded to sustain him. Mama, Why did God send the prophet to this poor woman, who was starving herself, when there were surely rich people in the place?

MAMA. To shew forth his own glory, Mary, as he does many things; and that Elijah's maintenance in the city might be as miraculous as his sustenance in the desert! But you might have wondered at something else. Do you know where Zarephath was?

MARY. No, Mama.

MAMA. It was no part of Judea, but a city of

F

Sidon, the very country of wicked Queen Jezebel; as if God had wished to shew that he had faithful servants everywhere, and was "no respecter of persons." Do you recollect how remarkably our Saviour applies this very circumstance, when rebuking his own countrymen for their unbelief, in spite of all their advantages? “ I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel, in the days of Elias the Prophet, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and when great famine was throughout the land; but unto none of these was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman who was a widow." Pray, Mary, is there any other woman of Sidon, whose remarkable history in the Gospel shews that there are persons "in every kingdom and nation," who, if they believe, are "accepted of God?"

MARY. I don't know, Mama.

MAMA. Who carried humility so far, my dear, as to liken herself, and her people, to "dogs picking up crumbs under their master's table?”

MARY. Oh! Mama, the woman of Canaan, whose daughter Christ cured, because she asked him so often.

MAMA. Yes, Mary, for faith, perseverance, and humility. Well! she came out of these very

"coasts of Tyre and Sidon," and, though a Greek or Syrophenician, and, consequently, a heathen, believed in Christ," and it was "counted to her for righteousness." What was the widow of Zarephath doing when Elijah met her?

MARY. Gathering sticks, Mama; and he asked her for a drink of water, which she gave him, and then for a bit of bread; but she told him she had not a morsel, only a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse......... What is a cruse, Mama?.........

MAMA. A stone pitcher, my dear.

MARY. .......And that the sticks she was gathering were to dress it for herself and her son, "that they might eat and die."

MAMA. A sad situation, indeed!

And did

Elijah still venture to ask her for part of her pittance?

MARY. Yes, Mama, and the first share too, and she gave it to him.

MAMA. That was carrying charity very far. MARY. But then the prophet had told her the meal and oil should last till the rain came.

MAMA. Ah! then, it is a sister-grace we must admire, as well as charity,-they are seldom far asunder! It was the widow's faith which made her obey Elijah. Was this faith rewarded?