Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.

But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?

And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him and he [Jehoram] said, Behold, this evil is of the LORD; what should I wait for the LORD any longer?

Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.

Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

COMMENT.-One of the judgments foretold in the Book of Deuteronomy had been that God would bring down the strength of the rebellious people, and besiege them in all their gates, so that even the tender and delicate woman should be so ravenous with hunger as to eat the flesh of her own child.

This terrible prophecy was first fulfilled in the time of Jehoram of Israel, when Benhadad and his Syrian army besieged Samaria, so enclosing the city that no food could be brought into it, and the famine became such that the head of an ass—an unclean animal, whose flesh an Israelite would naturally loathe-was sold for eighty pieces of silver, equivalent to about five of our pounds sterling; and the fourth part of a cab (a measure a little under three pints)—threefourths of a pint, then-of what seems to mean small beans, fetched five pieces, and that far more dreadful food was eaten nay, so hardened had one unhappy mother's heart grown, that she came publicly before the king as he was going his rounds on the battlements, to ask him to do her justice on the other woman, who had agreed to devour the children together, and then with failing heart hid her own. The shamelessness of the appeal added to its horror, and the king, infinitely shocked and grieved, rent his clothes, and the people saw that beneath his robes he wore sackcloth, the token of fasting and penitence; but in his passion he broke forth into a wicked oath to cut off instantly the head of Elisha, probably thinking that Elisha could have saved him from this misery. All

along there seems to have been a struggle between the better and the worse in Jehoram. Perhaps this siege was one of the trials of his life-the crisis, perhaps. He knew it came from the Lord; he looked to Him for deliverance; he mourned and did penance, but his repentance was not entire; his heart was not turned; he came to thinking himself hardly treated. There was no prayer like David's "Let Thy hand be on me and on my father's house; but these sheep, what have they done?" No, but he flew into a rage, and threatened the life of God's prophet. Wicked men are never wanting to act on such threats, and a man hurried off at once to where Elisha sat in his house with the elders of Samaria round him. The prophet knew by God's inspiration how it was; he told his guests that this son of a murderer-of Ahab and Jezebel-had sent to take off his head; but he bade his servants detain the messenger of violence at the door, since his master was already close behind him.

And Jehoram had already thought better of his angry words. To his furious oath, the breach of the third commandment, he did not, like Herod after, add the further crime of carrying it out, and he seems to have followed on the steps of his messenger to save the prophet, but likewise to speak in complaint and anger. "This evil, the horrible famine, came from the Lord; why should he wait for (give such worship as his to) the Lord any longer?" That was all his notion of the Lord Jehovah : He was to be served just enough to keep off evil; and if it did not answer, Jehoram would carry his service somewhere else.

Oh, had he been patient a little longer! The trial would have been over, for the prophet's answer was that on the morrow one of the smallest coins, worth about eighteen-pence, should purchase an ample store of the wheat and barley so longed for.

An unbelieving courtier scornfully said, "If the Lord should make windows in heaven, might this thing be?" "Behold, thou shalt see it, but shalt not eat thereof," said Elisha.

It was a victory of the Lord, a deliverance for Israel; but the halfhearted Jehoram and his scoffing noble should have none of the glory of it. It is only those who "tarry the Lord's leisure" whose hearts are comforted.

LESSON XXXVII.

THE SYRIAN CAMP DESERTED.

2 KINGS vii. 3-20.

And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?

If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.

And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians : and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.

For the LORD had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.

Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.

And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.

Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household.

So they came and called unto the porter* of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were.

And he called the porters; and they told it to the king's house within. And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city.

And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed :) and let us send and see.

* Gatekeeper.

They took therefore two chariot horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see.

And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king.

And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD.

And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him. And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to-morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria :

And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.

COMMENT.-Now comes the fulfilment of Elisha's promise Close to the gateway of the city of Samaria was the lair of four unfortunate leprous men, most likely living in a hovel. Food had latterly failed them, and in their hopelessness they determined to go over to the Syrian army, since after all they could but die, whether they stayed or went. So in the twilight of the evening, fearing lest the Israelites should spy them, they stole out of the city and crept down to the enemy's camp. No watcher challenged them, no horse neighed, no dog barked-all was still. They went on meeting no one, and looked into a tent. There lay the rich armour, the garments and plunder of the Syrians, and, what was more welcome still, plenty of food and wine. For in the night the Lord had caused the Syrians to hear so terrible a sound as of chariots and horses, that they thought the Egyptians and Hittite kings of northern Canaan were coming to the aid of Samaria, and fled in exceeding terror.

At first the hungry lepers ate, and then began to secure the treasure for themselves; but soon they recollected that it was mean and selfish not to call their fellows to rejoice, and they went back, not creeping along this time, but calling boldly to the gatekeeper, and sending in the report to the King. Jehoram rose in the night, but, always inclined to despond, for want of real trust, he believed that the Syrians had only pretended to flee, and were hidden some

where near at hand, to fall on the Israelites when they came out to plunder the camp. One of his counsellors proposed to send out five men with horses to reconnoitre—though, as he said, the horses were like all Israel, nearly starved, and very few left. Two chariot horses were accordingly sent out, and their riders soon found that all the whole distance, from Samaria even to the Jordan, was strewn with garments and vessels thrown away by the Syrians in their panic. Out poured all Samaria to eat, and to gather in the huge stock of provisions that the enemy had left. Jehoram stationed the noble who had scoffed at Elisha at the gate to keep order, but the hungry multitude surged through the gate beyond all control; he was thrown down and trampled to death in the throng, and so it came to pass that he saw the abundance with his eyes, but never tasted thereof.

And we what thought shall we take to ourselves? Is it not this? Does not a host of temptations and trials and terrors besiege man's heart? But if prayer and patience fail not, shall they not be "as the dream of a night vision?"

"Down the broad vale of tears afar

The spectral camp is fled :

Faith shineth as a morning star;
The ghastly fears are dead."

LESSON XXXVIII.

THE APPOINTMENT OF HAZAEL.

B.C. 885.-2 KINGS viii. 1-15.

Then spake Elisha unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn : for the LORD hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years.

And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.

And it came to pass at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land.