1 Kings 17:15

She went and did according to the saying of Elijah.

Modern liberality, and the widow of Zarephath

I. The treatment he received was verily the manifestation of the woman’s mind towards god himself. Were it otherwise, it would be hard to point out anything in which we could be pronounced as doing it for, or contrary to the will of Almighty God. He has Himself, however, placed this matter beyond all dispute, for He has said, “He that giveth to the poor leadeth to the Lord”; and Christ represents the judgment scene in telling you that He will welcome His people with the assurance, “Inasmuch as ye did a deed of charity unto one of these My brethren, ye did it unto Me.”

II. This gift is to be no act of necessity, but one of pure oblation To grudge while you give, or to give because the necessity of fashion, or custom, or demand is laid upon you, is to spoil the gift altogether. That is but half a gift which is not brought freely home. It is one thing to give of our substance in obedience to a reiterated request; it is another thing to bring it unto God freely and with delight.

III. Observe what it is which God demands? Satan, the world, or vanities, let these obtain your service, and you are speedily enhanced in their thraldom, and all is sure to be at length drawn into and swallowed in their insatiable vortex. You cannot, even if you would try deliberately to make the compromise, arrange for the bestowment of a certain portion of your means, or time or thought, upon unhallowed pursuits. All absorbing is the power of sin. The energies of body and mind insensibly flow into its channel, and the votary becomes the slave, and ultimately the ruined victim. But what is His demand of you, whose service is perfect freedom? Not so much as He has a right to demand; far less than many, moved by His grace, are willing to bestow. Sin, which absorbs all if it can, is but a robber at the best, for it can lay claim to no sort of right whatever, while God, who has a right to all, demands but little. What I do here claim, however, is, that though the requirements of God be comparatively small, they are, nevertheless, universal.

IV. No act for God is performed without his favour, and the “blessing of the Lord it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it.” (G. Venables.)