made more than gain, "All these things shall be added unto you". Are you called to take

up more time in the Lord's service? Prudence, your own plans and the advice of your

friends will tell you that you cannot afford it. Remember the Lord's "Prove me now

herewith". Is there some service opening before you that will take more of your money?

Consider! Compare the blessed experience of the widow of Zarephath ("the place of

refining") with that of the people addressed by Haggai and Malachi. Let us render to the

Lord unstinted service, let us accept His blessed "Herewith".

While the reading of these two passages together produces the feeling of a

contradiction, that feeling is superficial, for it is an instance of the proverb

"Circumstances alter cases".

The quotation from Exodus refers to Egypt, the quotation from Numbers refers to the

wilderness. The first passage stands at the head of a long line of passages, all of which

teach in type, prophecy and doctrine the blessed truth, that salvation being by grace

through redemption, is thereby indefectible. Of all who are typified by Israel in Egypt

under the shelter of the shed blood it is true, "They shall never perish". Were we

concerned to develop the doctrine known as "the final perseverance of the saints", we

could easily fill more space than is at our disposal with passages of scripture which

would prove beyond question that those who have once passed from death unto life, can

never pass back from life into that death again.

The second passage equally stands at the head of another long line of passages, all of

which, in type, prophecy and doctrine, emphasize that over and beyond the blessed fact

of an unconditional salvation, is placed a conditional prize or crown or recompence of

reward. Again, the passages which speak of present endurance being linked with a future

glory, present conflict with a future crown, present denial with the attainment of a future

prize, are too numerous for such a short article as this must be.

Together with these passages come the converse, those which speak of the possibility

of even Paul himself being disapproved ("castaway", A.V.), and of Moses, that man of

God, forfeiting his right of entering the promised land. The believer who has been

delivered from the bondage of sin and death cannot be left behind in Egypt--"not a

hoof", but by reason of unfaithfulness, of murmuring, of the worship of self instead of the

whole-hearted following of the Lord, many who were thus redeemed from Egypt fell in

the wilderness.