tle boys. It has been said that
misfortunes do not come singly, but in battalions. This woman had
not only lost her husband, but a creditor was going to take her boys
and sell them into slavery. That was a common thing in those days.
The widow went and told Elisha all about it. He asked her what she
had in the house. Nothing, she said, but a pot of oil. It was a very
hard case.

Elisha told her to go home and borrow all the vessels she could. His
command was: "Borrow not a few." I like that. She took him at his
word, and borrowed all the vessels her neighbors would lend to her.
I can imagine I see the woman and her two sons going from house to
house asking the loan of their vessels. No doubt there were a good
many of the neighbors who were stretching their necks, and wondering
what it all meant; just as we sometimes find people coming into the
inquiry-room to see what is going on. If this woman had been like
some modern skeptics, she would have thought it very absurd for the
prophet to bid her do such a thing; she would have asked what good
could come of it. But faith asks no questions: so she went and did
what the man of God told her to do. I can see her going up one side
of the street knocking at every door and asking for empty vessels.
"How many do you want?" "All you can spare." There are the two sons
carrying the great vessels; some of them perhaps nearly as large as
the boys themselves. It was hard work. When they had finished one
side of the street, they went down the other. "Borrow not a few,"
she had been told; so she went on asking for as many as she could
get. If there were as much gossip in those days as there is now, all
the people in the street would have been talking about her. Why,
this woman and her boys have been carrying vessels into the house
all day; what can be the matter?

But now they have all the vessels the neighbors would lend. She
locks the door; and she says to one of the boys, "James, you are the
younger; bring me the empty vessels. John, you are the stronger;
when, I have filled them you take them away." So she began to pour.
Perhaps the first vessel was twice as big as the one she poured
from; but it was soon filled: and she kept on pouring into vessel
after vessel. At last her son says, "Mother, this is the last one;"
and we are told that the oil was not stayed till the last vessel was
full.

Dear friends, bring your empty vessels; and God will fill them. I
venture to say that the e