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then is to be done for her?'

Gehazi answered, 'Verily,

Then Elisha

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she has no child, and her husband is old.' called her again and said, 'About this season in the next year thou shalt embrace a son.' And she said, 'Nay my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thy handmaid.' At the predicted time, a son was born to her, and the boy grew. Once during the harvest time it happened that he went out into the fields to his father, who was then among the reapers. The heat of the noontide sun struck the child, and he exclaimed piteously, My head, my head!' At his father's desire, he was taken back to his mother. Pillowed in her arms he died. She rose and carried him quietly into the chamber set apart for Elisha; and laying him upon the prophet's bed, she closed the door, and left him there. Then she requested her husband, who was probably still unaware of their son's death, to send her one of the young men and one of the asses, for she desired to go without delay to the man of God. Her husband remonstrated: Wherefore wilt thou go to-day? it is neither New-moon nor Sabbath.' But she merely answered, 'Let it be.' Then she mounted her ass, and bid her servant drive it on in haste. Elisha, looking out from his dwelling on Mount Carmel, recognised from afar the Shunamite, and full of concern for the hospitable and generous woman, he sent Gehazi to meet her and to ask if it was well with herself, her husband, and child. She only said, 'It is well,' and hurried on. At last she came to Elisha, and threw herself upon the ground, grasping his feet. Gehazi was about to thrust her away, when the man of God said, 'Let her alone, for her soul is vexed within her; and the Lord has hid it from me, and has not told me.' Then she said, ‘Did I desire a son of my lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?' These words were enough; Elisha divined all. He gave Gehazi his staff, and ordered him to go in

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breathless haste to the city of Shunem, and to lay his staff upon the dead child. The servant hurried on to do his master's bidding, and the prophet followed with the Shunamite. When they approached the threshold of the house, Gehazi came to meet them and said, 'The child is not awakened.' Then Elisha repaired to his own little chamber, where the child lay dead, and he prayed long and fervently to the Lord for help; after which he went up to the child and lay upon him, putting his own mouth upon the boy's mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, his hands upon his hands, until the child grew warm and opened his eyes. Then he bade Gehazi call the Shunamite; and as his master Elijah had said to the poor widow whose son he had restored, so Elisha now said to the Shunamite, 'Take up thy son!' And when she came, she fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground, and then, taking up her son, she went out.

From Shunem Elisha proceeded to Gilgal, which had been visited by a long dearth. He appeared before a large assembly of prophets who were suffering from the famine. He bade his servant set on a large pot and cook a meal for all the prophets; one of the young men went into the fields to seek for herbs; there he found a wild vine, of which he gathered a quantity of gourds; and returning home, he put them into the pottage. The wild gourds, if not poisonous, were at least very hurtful. When the pottage had been poured out, one of the men who had eaten of it exclaimed, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot!' But Elisha ordered them to bring some flour, which he mixed with the pottage, and which allayed the evil, so that the prophets could eat of the meal unharmed.

About that time a man came from Baal-shalisha to Gilgal, and brought Elisha twenty loaves of barley and full ears of corn in a sack. The prophet said, 'Give to the people that they may eat.' This seemed strange to

Gehazi, 'How should I set this before a hundred men?' he asked. But Elisha repeated, Give the people that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, They shall eat and leave thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat and leave thereof, according to the word of the Lord.'

But Elisha's fame reached Syria, and the name of the Lord was to be acknowledged and reverenced in the land of the heathen.

Naaman, the brave and successful general of the Syrian army, though prosperous and powerful, was unfortunately afflicted with that direst of Eastern scourges, leprosy. His wife had a little Hebrew maidservant, a captive out of the land of Israel, who saw with grief and pity the sad fate of the Syrian captain. Would God,' she said to her mistress, my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would restore him from his leprosy.' Her words were repeated to Naaman; and yet again were they repeated until they came to the ears of the king of Syria. The king, little imagining it was Elisha who could effect the cure, bade Naaman journey to the king of Israel with the most costly presents, and at the same time he 6 him a letter to Jehoram. Behold,' so wrote the gave Syrian monarch, 'I have therewith sent my servant Naaman to thee, that thou mayest restore him from his leprosy.' When Jehoram read this letter, he thought it was a snare to entice him into a feud; he rent his clothes and lamented; but Elisha, hearing of the king's alarm, sent a messenger to him with these words: 'Wherefore hast thou now rent thy garments? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.' So Naaman, the proud captain, came with his horses and his chariots, and stood at the door of the prophet's house. Elisha did not appear, but he sent down a messenger to say to him, 'Go, and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and

thou shalt be clean.' This simple request seemed like an insult to Naaman; he burst into a fit of anger, for he had expected that Elisha would come out and call upon the name of the Lord, and place his hand upon the leprous skin, and thus cure the evil. 'Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus,' he exclaimed, 'better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean?' But his servants calmed him, and confiding in the efficacy of the easy and simple remedy which the prophet had suggested, they said: 'My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? how much rather then when he says to thee, Wash and be clean!' Naaman was soothed and followed the advice; he went and dipped seven times in the Jordan, and his flesh came again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.'

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With sincere humility and gratitude he returned to Elisha, and standing before him, he said in the presence of all his people: Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; now, therefore, I pray thee, take a present of thy servant.' But the prophet refused everything, and firmly resisted Naaman's most urgent entreaties. Then the general departed, after swearing solemnly that thenceforth he would offer sacrifices to none but the one true God.

But when Gehazi saw the great captain leave Samaria taking all his costly presents back with him, he felt a strong temptation to obtain some of those precious treasures. So he hastened after Naaman, who, seeing him approach, alighted from his chariot, and, full of reverence and solicitude for Elisha, asked, 'Is all well?' Then Gehazi invented the following tale: 'My master has sent me, saying, "Behold, just now there came to me from Mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets; give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver and two changes of garments." Naaman at once replied, Be

content to take two talents.' And he urged him and bound two talents of silver in two bags together with two changes of garments, and gave these things to two of his servants to carry them before Gehazi. When he came to the hill near Samaria where he lived, he took the money and the garments from the men, and brought them into his house. After the Syrians had returned, he went to his master, and when he entered, he was asked by Elisha, Whence comest thou, Gehazi?' and he boldly answered, Thy servant went nowhere.' Then the prophet said sternly, Did not my heart go with thee, when the man turned from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money and to receive garments, and olive gardens and vineyards, and sheep and oxen and menservants and maidservants? The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave to thee and to thy seed for ever.' 'And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.'

Unlike Elijah, who commonly dwelt alone among the crags of rocks, or near some secluded brook or streamlet, Elisha was surrounded by a school of prophets, who were growing into such a numerous band that their ordinary place of abode became too small for them. So they suggested that they should all remove to the banks of the Jordan, and there cut down the trees of a dense forest, and build a large house where they might live together. Elisha not only approved of their proposal, but consented to accompany them eastward to the Jordan. There, at the riverside, a remarkable miracle was performed. Whilst one of the young men was hewing down the wood, his axehead fell into the water, and he exclaimed, Alas, master! and it was borrowed.' Then Elisha asked, Where did it fall?' and upon being shown the spot, he cast a stick into the water, and the iron was seen swimming on the surface. The prophet said, Take it up to thee;' and the young man put out his hand and took it.

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