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company of the king of Judah; for as soon as this distress for water was felt, he asked if there was no prophet of the Lord among them.

E. I am afraid Elisha was not there, mamma; for you

know he went to Samaria; and I saw on the map just now that Samaria was a long, long way from the wilderness of Edom.

M. It was, my love ; but the prophet had probably been directed to join the camp of the kings of Israel and Judah; for as soon as Jehoshaphat inquired if any prophet of the Lord was among them, he was told that Elisha was there. “So the king of Israel and the king of Judah went to Elisha.” But Elisha would not have any thing to say to the king of Israel; he told him to go to the prophets of his father Ahab, and his mother Jezebel; and had not Jehoshaphat been with him, he and his armies might have died of thirst.

For the sake, however, of the king of Judah, who served the Lord faithfully, Elisha had pity upon their distress, and said to them, “Thus saith the Lord; make this valley full of ditches, for ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain, yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye and

your cattle.”

In the morning it was as Elisha had said; the whole country was filled with water, and that without any rain, and without any of those violent winds, which generally in those countries bring on the rain.

Nor did the help of Elisha end here. The Lord gave them an entire victory over the Moabites.

E. How did he do this, mamma?
M. As soon as the Moabites had heard that the

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turned to their own land, a poor widow woman in Israel, whose husband had been a man who feared the Lord, came to the prophet Elisha in great distress: her husband had left her so very poor, that she was not able to pay her debts; and now the persons to whom the money was owing were going to take her two sons away from her as slaves, that they might thus get, at least, a part of what she owed them.

E. Was not that very cruel, mamma?

M. It seems a little hard, my love; but the law of the Jews allowed children to be sold, in order to pay the debts of their parents. The case of the poor widow was a sad one, indeed : she had lost her best earthly friend, her husband ; she was suffering all the miseries of poverty; and, besides all this, which must have filled her heart with sorrow enough, she must now part with her children, the only comfort that was left to her.

E. I am glad the prophet Elisha was there; I dare say he could do something for her, mamma?

M. He was both able and willing to help her; the first words he spoke to her must have been most cheering: as soon as he had heard her tale of sorrow he said, “What shall I do for thee? Tell me what thou hast in the house."

The poor woman told the man of God that she had nothing in the house but one pot of oil. Little did she think what a treasure that oil would soon become. The prophet desired her to borrow of her neighbours a great number of empty vessels; and when she had come into her house and shut the door, she was to pour out the oil into the vessels. I dare say she wondered why she was to get such a great number of resu

sels, when she had not oil enough, most likely, to fill even one of them: but she asked no question of the prophet; she simply did as he told her, and her faith was abundantly rewarded. The blessing of God was on her cruse of oil; so that vessel after vessel was filled from it, until there was nothing left into which she could pour any more. Full of wonder at the sight, she ran to tell the man of God what had happened but what must have been her joy, when he told her to go and sell the oil to pay her debts, and to support herself and her children with that which should be left after every one to whom she owed any thing was paid.

E. How happy she must have been, mamma!

M. Happy, indeed! She had not asked in vain for the prophet's help. We are not told any thing more about her in the Bible; but we can easily imagine what her feelings must have been, when she found herself able to pay all her debts, and to keep her dear children with her also. No doubt she blessed the prophet who had thus comforted her in her desolate condition, and made her widowed heart to sing for joy no doubt she looked beyond the prophet, and offered her grateful thanksgivings to that Almighty and Gracious Being, who has been pleased to call himself, in the Bible, "the Father of the fatherless, and the God of the widow ;" and who has with the most tender compassion invited such mourners to look to him for comfort, saying "Leave thy fatherless children, and I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me."

E. Oh! mamma, I like that story very much; have you any other to tell me about the prophet Elisha?

M. I have, my love: the Bible gives us, immediately after this, another most interesting history of a miracle which he worked at Shunem, a city not far from Samaria. At this place there dwelt a great and rich, and, what was far better, a religious woman; who, seeing the man of God pass by, persuaded him to come into her house and eat bread; glad, no doubt, to show respect and kindness to the holy prophet. Now, Elisha was a great deal in the country round about Samaria, and used to pass the house of this rich and good woman very often: and, seeing how glad she was to have him under her roof, he used to go in whenever he went by, to rest and refresh himself. This made her very happy, for she thought it a great honour to entertain so distinguished a servant of the Almighty; and she felt that so holy a man as Elisha could not visit her house without bringing blessings along with him. At length, in her great desire of honouring him, she wished exceedingly that he should not only visit, but dwell under her roof; and she begged her husband to have a little room built, on purpose for him, separate from the rest of the house, that the holy man might be quiet and undisturbed.

Her husband very willingly agreed to do this, and a small chamber was built, and in it there were placed a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick, and every thing which this good woman thought necessary for the comfort of the prophet. All this was done whilst Elisha was absent from the place; and the next time he came that way he slept in this room, which had been so kindly prepared for him.

E. How pleased he must have been, mamma!

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