respectable class, reduced to poverty by the famine, and her keen
intelligence recognized at once in the hungry and needy stranger a
superior person,--even as the humble friar of Palos saw in Columbus a
nobleman by nature, when, wearied and disappointed, he sought food and
shelter. She took the prophet by the hand, conducted him to her home,
gave him the best chamber in her house, and in a strange devotion of
generosity divided with him the last remnant of her meal and oil.

It is probable that a lasting friendship sprang up between the pagan
woman and the solemn man of God, such as bound together the no less
austere Jerome and his disciple Paula. For two or three years the
prophet dwelt in peace and safety in the heathen town, protected by an
admiring woman,--for his soul was great, if his body was emaciated and
his dress repulsive. In return for her hospitality he miraculously
caused her meal and oil to be daily renewed; and more than this, he
restored her only son to life, when he had succumbed to a dangerous
illness,--the first recorded instance of such a miracle.

The German critics would probably say that the boy was only seemingly
dead, even as they would deny the miracle of the meal and oil. It is not
my purpose to discuss this matter, but to narrate the recorded incidents
that filled the soul of the woman of Sarepta with gratitude, with
wonder, and with boundless devotion. "Verily, I say unto you," said a
greater than Elijah, "whosoever shall give a cup of cold water in the
name of a prophet, shall in no way lose his reward." Her reward was
immeasurably greater than she had dared to hope. She received both
spiritual and temporal blessings, and doubtless became a convert to the
true faith. Tradition asserts that her boy, whom Elijah saved,--whether
by natural or supernatural means, it is alike indifferent,--became in
after years the prophet Jonah, who was sent to Nineveh. In all great