Of course she was. All God’s trains meet at the junction. They don’t have to wait for one another. Elijah had left Cherith because the brook had dried up, and his first request shewed that he was in need of water. The poor widow seems to have been relieved that water was all the prophet asked, but he called to her to fetch a bit of bread as well. This broke her down. “Ah, Master, we have not so much as a cake. I have only a handful of meal, and I had come out to gather some sticks that I might bake a little cake for me and the lad, and then we shall have to die of hunger!”

“Never fear, God has sent me, and with His servant there shall come a blessing.

MAKE ME A CAKE FIRST,

and then make for thyself, and God will keep on supplying our wants.”

The woman did so, and never wanted. If she had gone on the principle of

TAKE CARE OF NUMBER ONE,

she would soon have been in her grave, and the lad too, but the way to live is to care for others. “He that loseth his life shall save it.” While we are writing this, we are thinking of the great number who all through these bad times have fed the Preachers and their horses. God will see to it that they do not lose by their unselfishness.

Some will read this who are just on the point of leaving a place where God has cared for them, but they do not see their way in the future. Are you going on God’s errand? That is, are you in the path of duty? Then never fear. Ravens can wait at table as well as any tailed-coated white-cravatted serving man. And widows with only a handful of meal, can keep open house for God’s servants. My God shall supply all your need, and the less there is in the barrel, the more room for God’s hand!

“IT IS THE BLOOD THAT SAVES.”
EXODUS xii.

The Israelites were not saved because they were children of Abraham, but because they followed the plan of salvation. Even Moses “kept the passover and the sprinkling of blood,” or there would have been a dead man in the house. If you and I are saved, it must be by the blood of the Lamb. The father who put the blood on his door posts was not ashamed to own his need of Divine protection, or that he trusted the word of God.

There is a false sentimentality that is abroad to-day, which would make us ashamed to speak of the atonement. We are told that it is sickening to hear of such terms as “The Blood of Jesus.”

WHAT IS THE STANDARD OF TASTE?

We know of nothing higher than the word of God, and he whose fine feelings are shocked by Bible language, would find heaven not sufficiently aesthetic. May not such be said to count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing? When the destroyer is abroad, we shall be safe who hide behind the blood. We rejoice in the blood of sprinkling, when we believe there is wrath for the sinner. The giving God the lie, when He declares He will punish His enemies, fits the mouth of him who is too refined to speak of the precious blood of Jesus.