long it was after Elijah went to the widow’s house before the days of the famine were over.  But suppose we make a calculation about it.  The famine lasted for three years.  Now let us suppose, that the first half of this time was spent by the prophet at the brook Cherith.  Then his stay at the widow’s house must have been at least eighteen months.  And, if this miracle of increasing the meal and the oil was repeated only once a day, there would be for the first twelve months, or for the year, three hundred and sixty-five miracles; and for the six months, or the half year, one hundred and eighty-two more; and adding these together we have the surprising number of five hundred and forty-seven miracles, that were performed to reward this good widow for the kindness she showed to the prophet Elijah, when she gave him a piece of bread, and a drink of water!  What an illustration we have here of the truth we are considering, that giving is God’s rule for getting.

But the best illustration of this subject to be found in the Bible is given in our Saviour’s own experience.  He not only preached the lesson of liberality, but practised it.  He is himself the greatest giver ever heard of.  In becoming our Redeemer he showed himself the Prince of givers.  He gave—­not silver and gold; not all the wealth of the world, or of ten thousand worlds like ours; but “He gave Himself for us.”  He can say indeed, to each of us, in the language of the hymn: 

  “I gave my life for thee,
    My precious blood I shed,
  That thou might’st ransomed be,
    And quickened from the dead.”

And what is the result of this glorious giving to Jesus himself?  St. Paul answers this question when he says, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him; and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” Phil, ii:  9-11.  Because of what he gave “for us men, and for our salvation,” he will be loved and praised and honored in heaven, on the earth, and through all the universe, above all other beings, for ever and ever.  What a glorious illustration we have here of the truth of this statement, that “giving is God’s rule for getting.”  These are some of the illustrations of this lesson of liberality that we find in the Bible.

And now, let us look at some illustrations of this subject, that we have in nature.

Solomon suggests one of these when he says, “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth.”  Prov. xi:  26.  He is evidently speaking here of a farmer sowing his fields with grain.

Now suppose that we had never seen a man sowing; and that we knew nothing at all about the growth of grain, or how wonderfully the seed sown in the spring is increased and multiplied when the harvest is reaped.  Then, the first time we saw a farmer sowing his fields, we should have been ready to say, “What a foolish man that is!  He is taking that precious grain by the handful, and deliberately throwing it away.”