eousness and truth, by whom actions are weighed, challenged their consciences.

This was in season-repentance according to God— and Nineveh was spared. The conscience had bowed to God. The people of Nineveh heard the servant of God as sinners. He had nothing of the world to commend him, but their consciences bowed; they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and God repented Him of the evil that He had thought to do to them.

THE POT OF OIL.

2 KINGS iv.

THE touching narrative of the poor widow, recorded in 2 Kings iv. is full of blessing and encouragement for every tried soul. It speaks in every line of the secret treasures hid in the God of grace; and how He can cause all grace to abound unto all joyfulness when every other door seems shut, and no hope left. Such is His divine wisdom, that He is pleased in our weakness to perfect His strength, and to come to our rescue, and our help, when there is none to save, and no eye to pity.

A certain woman (a widow,) was in debt; and the creditor came to take unto him her two sons to be bondmen. What was she to do? She cried unto Elisha the prophet. The man of God asked her what he should do for her. "Tell me," said he, "what hast thou in the house?" "And she said, Thine handmaid

hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil." She had no possessions, no means to settle with the creditor;

The man of God then

her position so far was hopeless. She is directed by the prophet to borrow vessels not a few; to shut the door upon herself and upon her sons, and to pour out from her pot of oil into all the borrowed vessels. She did so, and they were all filled; there was not another to be had; and the oil stayed. bade her, "Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest." What sweet lessons of God's grace and faithfulness, and of faith, may the poor and needy servants of the Lord find here! What consolations and instruction for their widows and orphans! The husband of the widow, who had lived and died in the fear and service of his Lord, left to His divine and gracious care, his widow and his sons. They had struggled on until the creditor was about to strip the widowed mother of her children. This sorrow her faithful God spared her. Her husband's God wrought for her help. He heard the widow's cry, the cry of the needy one. He sets her free, saves to her her sons, and furnishes both her and them with a living also. Well may we say, Let not the widow nor the fatherless fear, but trust in the Lord. They are richer than they think, and mightier, through grace. The house is not empty. The well is not dry. In their very midst is a treasure and a fountain indeed. God, known in grace, can make all grace abound toward them. The husband may be dead, but God liveth, and His fulness in their very midst can neither be measured nor exhausted; liberty, victory, and abundant sustenance He can give.

The widow filled her vessels in secret, according to the prophet's directions. She shut the door upon her and upon her sons. She did it all in faith, in the secret

of God's presence. She obeyed the word of the Lord by the prophet, and received the answer and the blessing; even more than she had room to contain. To ensure blessing, we must exercise faith, and rely on the changeless word of our God. In the secret of His presence we shall find an abundant fulness. Our need sends us there, and He opens to us His gracious hand and pours forth abundant blessing. Oh! that our hearts could trust Him, as He would have us, and never for a moment doubt His love, or His ability to help in every time of need! His fountain is one of living waters, while all others fail. Paul was as poor as this desolate widow; yet he could speak well of his fountain, even of those resources he had in the living God. “As having nothing," he said, "and yet possessing all things."

Further we should not only come to God in times of trial, but we should daily and hourly live upon Him. Israel fed on the paschal Lamb, after they had obtained redemption. So our life should be one of constant faith upon the Son of God, an unceasing dependence upon Him, a continual drawing from His fulness. “Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he" (Pro. xvi. 20). He is the marrow and the fatness which satisfies the souls of His people. Throughout eternity, they shall be enriched by the rivers of His pleasure.

What a blessed and firm standing the widow now takes before the creditor! She is released upon the ground of payment of all she owed being made to him. The gospel does this for us; we meet God in the blessed confidence, that His Son has paid all our debts; that all our sins were laid on Him, and that He put them away for ever, by the sacrifice of Him

self. Such are the riches of divine grace, and such the portion of all, who have fled (to Jesus) to lay hold on the hope set before them.

May not the widowed Church also find instruction in this narrative? Her Lord has left her. We are orphans, left by Him under the care of the Spirit; yet the fountain of grace is ours. He who freely gave His Son, will also with Him freely give us all things. Jesus said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. He knows our need, and He will supply it. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and sympathises with us in all our sorrows. This is our pot of oil, and is ever with us, ever nigh at hand. Though our Lord be absent, as regards His person, he is ever with us in Spirit, to guide and tend the flock of God, even His widowed and bereaved Church. He causes His people to lie down in green pastures, beside the still waters. They know His voice, and they follow Him. Soon He will come again, and take His bride away from the tribulation of the world, for ever to be with Him in glory above. In the meantime, He is the Shepherd and the Bishop of His people; to Him we look, on Him we lean, in Him every want is supplied, and every desire met.

So very comprehensive is the word of God, that many forms of instruction, of different application, may be gathered from the same Scripture. In this narrative, we have traced the care and the grace of God to orphans and widows; we have also seen the history and characteristics of the Church of God, now sorrowfully realizing the absence of her Lord, but with the fountain of God's unfailing grace in her midst.

The same tale also unfolds God's grace to the house of Israel, now forsaken and in widowhood.

Jeremiah thus mourns over Israel, in his Lamentations, ch. i. 1,-"How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow!” In Is. liv. 4, the Lord comforts Israel,-"For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shall not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more." Further, we read in Hosea v. that Israel will seek the Lord in the latter day, in the time of their sorrow and trial," In their affliction they will seek Me early." In Is. lxi. we have the Lord's gracious answer to their cry. Israel is invited, as our widow was, to seek God in secret," Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast" (Is. xxvi. 20).

THOUGHTS ON THE DEATH OF LAZARUS.

JOHN. xi.

THE sickness and death of Lazarus procured for the loved family at Bethany a visit from the Lord-a circumstance in itself full of blessing and of promise; and in that visit, we see several things which may well engage our heart and attention.

He sympathises with the sorrow, and then removes the cause of it. He "wept" first, and afterwards said, Lazarus, come forth."

The purpose which He carried with Him of removing the occasion of the misery, left His heart still the seat of present compassion with it. It was so in the