The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-02-04

7 the birds were about their Masters
business. There are ways beyond
mans reckoning whereby God cares
| for his own when they arr in need,
and beyond all apparent means OF
help. A multitude of witnesses can
testify that today Gods ravens are
still about his errands.
The First Foreign Missionary.
When water failed at Cherith the
prophet was sent up to the northwest
to Zarepeth, near Sidon, in Phoenicia.
| It has been said that this expedition
makes Elijah the first foreign mission
airy Phoenicia was one of the great
heather nations of antiquity; today it
| is known only for its ruins. The oc-
! casionaI tourist buys tear bottles
exhumed from the graves of these dis
coverers of the art of making glass.
Other antiquities of great value haYe
been dug from the tombs of this now
arid land; and it seems as the princi-
pal feature of the landscape of Phoeni-
cha at present is empty :ombs. The
glory of Tyre and Sidon has departed,
though one may still see the heaps of
murex shells from which the famous
Tyrian purple was extracted. Zarepeth
is pointed out as a mere bare promon-
| tory Of land.
Strange as it may appear, the King
of kings traff1cs more with the COM
mon people than with the rulers of
earth Thus when there was need
tndL the lJOTQ ) In6SSSuSSI 0llOulQ NC
cared for he was not sent to one of
royal courts of wealthy Phoenicia, but
to a poor widow. The poor have
ever been the best friends of God. Tn
encumbered by this worlds goods, they
take ON the precious soul cargo of
spiritual fruits. The bitter povery of
the East is unknown in any Christian
land, although there is more abject
misery in London than in any other
spiritual trust. The bitter poverty of
II. H. oI0 fa1 sac
it is represented in the case of the
widow. There was no home mission
airy society to lend assistance, no
city board of charity; nothing at all
except an occasional bit of neighbor-
illness. When the widows store of
meal failed, there was only starvation
ahead.
only few minutes ago saw a
woman going along the road, in the
tattered single garment of Syria's
poor. On her hip she carried a child,
and on her head great bundle of
thorns, which she had gathered for
fuel To this day. in the Orient, the
peasant women gather the fuel even
as the widow in this story is repre-
scented as doing.
The Shared Crust.
The widow perceived that this
hairy, strong featured man from Is
rael was religious. She had the East's
tolerance, or superstitious respect for,
all things marked religious and she
consented to share her last handful
of meal and her last drops of oil. with
the stranger who came appealing to
her hospitality. She did not know
that God never lets the giving hand
get empty; or, as the Book of Prov
CRIBS has it, 1.-The liberal soul shall
be made fat Some of the careful"
or thrifty" folk who are grumbling
about hard times, need to give away
a little money. And some churches
that are struggling along under fnan-
cial loads and an arid spiritual life,
need first of all to deal justly by their
pastor, in the matter of his salary.
The prospects of a revival throughout
the land are not good so long as the
prophets of God are lying awake
nights wondering how thS grocer is
to be paid. The call is less one for
more faith on the part of the preach
er than one for greater works on the
part of his people. The tithes must
be brought into the storehouse ere
the windows of heaven can be opened.
The widow shared with Elijah, and,
10, God gave her not only food for
herself in abundance, but he also,
through the prophet restored to life
her son when he died. The God
whom she had in ignorant reverence
honored, proved to be a greater than
she had dreamed, the very Lord of
life and death. God always shows
himself to the trustful as mightier
than even faith had imagined. And
that is the lesson Of this lesson
that God is great and sufficient, and
solicitous for all who dare to do or
endure for his word, Elijah's sermon
today is Have faith in God"
The Day of the Young People.
Terse Comments for February 5,
''Why Do You Believe in Christian
Endeavor?" Prov. 1876, S:12-17,