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cursions, built an apartment on purpose, and furnished it with every convenience for the accommodation of Elisha and his servant. Desiring to express his sense of their singular attention to his comfort, the grateful prophet en quired of his hostess in what way he could most acceptably requite their kindness. Should he recommend them to the notice of the king, or the commander-in-chief of the army Already blest with affluence, and not emulous of any courtly distinction above her neighbours, she declined the offered favour and professed her entire satisfaction in her present circumstances by one expressive sentence- "I dwell among mine own people." Considering then, that yet she had no child, he told her that in the following year, that blessing, so ardently desired by the Israelitish women, should augment her domestic happiness. Hardly could her joy and surprise subside into confidence even in Elisha but the word of inspiration was fulfilled in the precious gift at the appointed time, a gift which was to reward the virtue of the mother, and add another august evidence of the divine mission of the prophet.

At what age we do not learn, but while yet a child, this darling boy was one day brought to his mother from the field where he had been taken sick as he played beside his father. Solicitude and care were ineffectual-his disorder continued to encrease, and in a very few hours he expired in her arms!

It is one of the amazing ordinations of Providence that maternal love, the most subduing of all feelings that touch the human heart, does yet stimulate to active exertion, in circumstances the most deeply overwhelming! Whether this weeping Shunamite persuaded herself that one latent spark of life yet lingered in her beloved child, or whether

she had heard of the widow of Sarepta, some species of hope seemed to point to the prophet Elisha. Concealing from her husband the sad event, she only entreated that a servant might be spared from the harvest to attend her to their benefactor, and laying her son in the chamber of Elisha, she hastened to his dwelling on Mount Carmel. Rushing unceremoniously into his presence, her distracted air bespoke some unusual distress; but the almost reproachful expostulation-" Did I desire a son of my lord -did not I say, do not deceive me?" told the whole dreadful tale! His resolution was instantaneous; bidding his servant to go on before and lay his staff on the face of the boy, he followed the panting mother to his lodging at Shunem. There shut up alone with the breathless object of his affectionate solicitude, the prayer of faith was accepted, and the enraptured mother was presently called to receive her reanimated son!

CHARLES. Were these benevolent works of Elisha confined to his own nation?

MRS. M. Not altogether. He prophesied in Damascus, and performed a celebrated cure on a diseased nobleman of Syria.

CHARLES.

Why then did they not embrace the religion of the Hebrews, when they saw the divine power that attended its ministration ?

MRS. M. That was by no means a necessary consequence of allowing a due portion of honour to the God of the Hebrews. The heathen nations, whilst each had his own tutelar god, did not scruple to do homage to those of their neighbours. The Israelites were stigmatized as an unsociable people, because such intercommunity was forbidden by their law. A more exclusive conversion to the

God of Israel seems to have been effected in the Syrian officer, to whom I just now alluded. Naaman, a man of distinction in the court of Syria, was a leper, a species of distemper still prevalent in the east, but happily unknown to our temperate regions. "A little maid," who had been carried away amongst the captives, in a predatory incursion into Israel, became the servant of Naaman's wife. Seeing the affliction of her master, she humanely exclaimed "Would to God my lord were with the prophet in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy." The idea thus suggested, being reported to the king, he wrote a letter, and dispatched Naaman with a princely present to the king of Samaria. The letter addressed wholly to the king, without any mention of the prophet, was considered only as an artifice to involve him in a new quarrel with Syria, and he expressed his vexation by tearing his robes, and impatiently asking-"Am I a God to kill and make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?" Elisha hearing of the king's embarrassment, desired that Naaman might come to his house, and there learn that there was a prophet in Israel. At the door of Elisha, and still sitting in his chariot, he received only an order to go and wash himself seven times in the waters of Jordan. Accustomed to the delusive tricks of his own priests, and expecting something of the same sort from Elisha-his personal appearance at least the application of his hand, or an invocation to the God of Israel-he rejected the simple prescription, with proud indignation." Are not Abana and Pharpar rivers of Damascus," he exclaimed, "better than all the waters of Israel-may I not wash in them, and be clean ?" Health, however, was the one thing desired, and the suffer

ing Syrian was at length persuaded by his attendants, to make the easy experiment, which having done, he returned to Elisha with the grateful confession of the supremacy of the God of Israel! Resolving now to abjure the false deities of his own country, yet knowing only the foolish superstitions of paganism, he requested two mules' load of the sacred earth of Israel, wherewith he might erect an altar for sacrifice to the only Being whom now he would worship! But his office in the court of Syria obliging him to attend his master in the temple, " and bow himself down to the god Rimmon," Naaman deprecated before he left the prophet, the suspicion that might thence be cast on the sincerity of his conversion.

FANNY. Elisha, I suppose, could not sanction such apparent inconsistency, in the Syrian, as assisting in the rites of idols-whilst he professed to believe only "in Jehovah ?"

MRS. M. He merely bade him go in peace-trusting, probably, that his mind would be subsequently enlightened in his duty. If Naaman did ignorantly suppose, as some have imagined, that his dependent situation might excuse his apparent homage to an idol, it is but the transcript of our hearts, who are far better instructed. We have all the same fraudulent plea for some darling indulgence-some "besetting sin," for which we say with Naaman, "The Lord pardon thy servant in this thing!"

Two years after this event, Samaria was besieged by the Syrians, with excessive rigour. Provisions became so dear, as to be entirely beyond the reach of the poorer people, so that the bitterest curse which Moses had declared should befal their apostacy was now felt. Distracted mo

thers, in the madness of their hunger, devoured their own infants !*

Lamenting the miseries of his people, but not repenting his own sins-the procuring cause, the king put on a sackcloth under his royal robes, and walked out on the wall of Samaria. Whilst he ruminated on the sad state of his city, though he knew not yet the crisis to which it had arrived the voice of a woman, entreating most piteously for help, reached his ear. "If the Lord do not help thee," said he despondingly, "whence shall I help thee." Enquiring however into the occasion of her appeal, he learnt that the petitioner and another female, in the agonies of hunger, had agreed to prolong their lives a little space, by eating their own children! Her child had been accordingly devoured-but now she claimed the promise of her companion-the infant had been concealed, and the mother refused to produce him!

This shocking story inflamed the king's grief into rage -and Elisha must be the sacrifice! Messengers were instantly sent to arrest him, but too tardy for the impatient vengeance of Jehoram, he followed them himself to strike the fatal blow. But his intended victim met him boldly, and charged all the guilt on his own head!

The hour of relief to the sufferers was nevertheless at hand, and the inspired Elisha declared that Samaria should revel in abundance on the morrow. One of the King's attendants repelled the prophecy with scorn-such a thing would be impossible unless food were rained down from heaven into their hands! "Thou shalt see it," replied Elisha, "with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof !"

* Deut. 28, 57. 600 years before this event.

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