back to his mother, and she held him on her knees till noon, when he died. Then we see the deep, quiet faith of the mother. She laid the little corpse on the prophet's bed. She told none how it was, but merely asked her husband for an ass and a man to lead it. He could not understand her desire in the press of harvest, when it was neither sabbath nor the feast of the new moon; but she was not a woman of light fancies, and her quiet "Well" satisfied him. And when we trust our troubles to God, "it shall be well."

LESSON XXXI.

THE RAISING THE SHUNAMMITE'S SON.

2 KINGS iv. 25-37.

So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite :

Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, Well.

And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the LORD hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.

Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?

Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.

And the mother of the child said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her.

And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awaked.

And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed.

He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the LORD.

And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up,

and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.

And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out.

COMMENT. With all speed the Shunammite mother rode to Mount Carmel, ten or twelve miles off, where she knew she should find the prophet. Her answers to Gehazi, “It is well,” came from the yearning haste of her faithful heart. Well it must be, since God had done it, though as yet she knew not how it would end. She could not speak the word; she could not find the entreaty; she only clung to the prophet's feet in the dumb earnestness of her supplication. Gehazi would have thrust her away, as Judas spurned the Magdalene, lest her touch should bring uncleanness; but the prophet rebuked him, for he saw her soul was vexed within her. Even then her words only reminded him of her first entreaty, that the promised joy might not be a disappointment. Then he knew all, and sent Gehazi to lay his staff on the child; but the mother's heart foreboded that this would not serve, and she would not leave the prophet till he himself could follow. We know not wherefore the sending the staff-the token of the Cross-failed. It may have been from the unworthiness of Gehazi, which was not yet known to Elisha. It was like the failure of the disciples to heal the lunatic boy, because "this kind goeth not forth but by prayer and fasting." At any rate, it was not till Elisha himself had prayed fervently, and stretched himself upon the child twice, that God gave back the life that had departed, and the boy was restored to that faithful mother, who must have had the remembrance of the widow of Zarephath on her mind all the time, though in her deep humility she never presumed to plead it. For though both had fed the prophets, she had done so out of her abundance, while the widow had fed Elijah in time of dearth with her last handful of meal. But God, who accepteth a man according to that he hath, and not according to that he hath not, chose for the subjects of these crowning miracles of the times of prophecy, the poor widow and the rich lady, that so we may learn that it is the spirit which owns Him and His messengers that He blesses, not merely this or that station in life.

And so again did Elisha foreshadow Him who gave back the widow's son and raised Jairus's little daughter, and even now, though the deceased do not sit up and speak, still wakens by His Voice and His Breath the dead in trespasses and sins, and gives them back to the weeping friends who pray for them, and to their mother the Church, who continually falls at His feet for "all such as have erred and are deceived."

LESSON XXXII.

THE LEPROSY OF NAAMAN.

B.C. 891.-2 KINGS V. I-14.

Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.

And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife.

And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.

And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.

And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.

And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.

And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.

And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.

So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan en times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. t Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought,

He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?

Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

COMMENT.-Look back at the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy (Vol. I. Lesson lxxii.), the great warning by Moses of the effect of breaking the Law. We have seen how drought and famine had Here we see that the sons and daughters of Israel were given to another people, while their parents' eyes looked after them in vain, for behold

fulfilled that word.

"The little maid

From Israel's breezy mountains borne ;.
No more to rest in Sabbath's shade,

Watching the free and wavy corn."

a

Poor little Israelite girl, she had been carried away from her burning home, and most likely the slain corpses of her father and brothers, by a company of fierce Syrian horsemen belonging to King Benhadad, and she must remain a slave all her life to the stately wife of the general of the army. And yet, piteous as the fate seems, God can and will always bring blessing to those who remember Him faithfully and do their duty. Naaman, the master of this little maid, was a brave, much-respected man, and it is said by some Jews that he it was who shot the arrow which slew Ahab ; but if so, Benhadad would hardly have recommended him to Ahab's son, and it is far more likely that he had fought for his master against Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, who, it appears from the records on the wonderful bricks of Nineveh, was twice repulsed by Benhadad of Syria. He was a leper. Now, the leprosy is a horrible disease, perfectly incurable, though very slow in its progress. It begins with a white scaliness, and gradually eats further into the flesh, which dies away under it, till the joints of the fingers drop off, and the whole body becomes consumed piecemeal. It used to be very common in

the East, and lingers there even now, though it has been nearly driven out of the West by cleanliness. It was marked by the Law of Moses as peculiarly a type of sin, eating into the soul; and on this account, as well as to cut off the contagion, the leper was set apart from his kind. He was to put a covering upon his upper lip, and warn all men from approaching him, by crying, " Unclean, unclean,” nor could he ever join in a sacrifice, worship in the Temple, nor eat with his friends, but lived cut off from all men. No cure was known, but men did sometimes recover, and two chapters of the Book of Leviticus are spent in telling the priests how to distinguish real leprosy, how to make sure whether a person was recovered, and how to cleanse and receive him again if he were really well. The ceremony for reconciling the leper was a most clear type of the manner in which Christ's precious Blood heals and frees the soul.

Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:

And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water:

As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water :

And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.

And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days.

There were further sacrifices which we need not here repeat, but this was the chief. However, the Syrians did not esteem a leper unclean, and Naaman kept his charge; but he suffered so much that the little maid's pity was excited, and she told her mistress of the wonders wrought by the prophet Elisha. Naaman must have been a good man, as far as he knew, loved by his servants and valued by his master; and Benhadad at once, on his entreaty, gave him a letter to the King of Israel, fancying that it was he who could work the cures. Jehoram, who was always half-hearted, and therefore easily daunted, having no trust in God, fancied it a mere excuse for quarrelling with him, to ask him to do such an impossible thing; but Elisha sent a stern rebuke for his want of faith, and bade him send the leper to him.