THE
PROPHET ELISHA.
JOHN MYLOWRIE, D.D.,
AUTHOR OF
"ESTHER AND HIER TIMES," "ADAM ANI) IIS TIMES," "THE HEBREW LAWGIVER," "A WEEK WITH JESUS," "THE TRANSLATED PROPHET,' ETC.
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED
A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
BY THE
REV. WILLIAM  D. HOWARD, D.D.,
PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF PITTSBURG, PA.
PHIL.ADELPIfIA:
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,
No. 821 CIIESTNUT STR'IET.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
THE TRUSTEES OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Conrt of the United States for the
Easterl District of Pennsylvania.
WESTCOTT & THOMSON,
Stereotypers, Philada......................




CO NTE NTS.
PArE
MEMOIR OF THIE AUTIIOR............................................   5
CHAPTER 1.
TIIE CALL OF ELISHA...................................................  27
CHAPTER II.
ELIJAH AND ELISHA.................................................... 37
CHAPTER IIT.
THE TRANSLATION OF ELIJAH............................................. 48
CHAPTER IV.
THE WATERS AT JERICHO HIEALED......................................  60
CHAPTER V.
THE JUDGMENT BY THE BEARS AT BETHEL........................... 64
CHAPTER VI.
THE DISTRESSED ARMIES DELIVERED...................................  77
CHAPTER VII.
THE WIDOW'S OIL MULTIPLED......................................... 94
3




4                         CONTENiS.
CHAPTER VIII.
PAGI
THE   SHUNAMITE...............................................................  114
CHAPTER IX.
THE SYRIAN LEPER........................................... 131
CHAPTER X.
THE HEALING WVATERS OF ISRAEL......................1........ 151
CHAPTER XI.
GEHAZI'S GUILT AND PUNISHMENT...................................... 162
CHAPTER XII.
ANGELIC MINISTRIES......................................................  172
CHAPTER XIII.
THE SIEGE AND DELIVERANCE OF SAMARIA.......................... 189
CHAPTER XIV.
ELISHA'S INTERVIEW WITH HAZAEL................................. 208
CHAPTER XV.
JUDGMENTS UPON THE HOUSE OF AHAB.......................... 231
CHAPTER XVI.
THE INIQUITY AND RUIN OF AHAB'S HOUSE.......................... 252
CHAPTER XVII.
DYING SCENES AND POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE.......................... 268




MEMOIR OF DR., LOWRIE.
BY THE
REV. W. D. HOWARD, D.D.
THE REV. JOHN M. LOWRIE, D.D., the author of the
following volume, as also of several others published by the
Board of Publication, was born in the city of Pittsburg on
the 16th of July, 1817. His father, the Hon. Matthew B.
Lowrie, was a native of Scotland, but immigrated to this
country early in life. The family settled in Western Pennsylvania, where, owing to their intelligence, integrity and
energy, they exerted a wide and wholesome influence. The
father of the subject of this memoir was for many years a
magistrate, first of the borough and afterward of the city
of Pittsburg, the duties of which office he discharged with
eminent ability and fidelity. At an early period of life he
became an avowed follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
from May, 1821, until his lamented death in 1851, with the
exception of a few years when he was absent from the city,
he was an active, useful and influential elder in the Second
Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg. To this faithful servant
of Christ belongs the chief honour of founding the first Sabbath-school, on the plan of the celebrated Robert Raikes,
1 *                                       5




6            MEMOTIR  OF DR. IOWRIE.
west of the Allegheny Mountains. Mr. 3I. B. Lowrie was
twice married. His first wife, aind the mother of all his
children, was Miss Sarah Anderson.  She was a woman of
unusual vigour of intellect and rare decision and energy of
character. She had much to do in training and disciplining
a large famltily, who are, in no small degree, indebted to her
wisdom and piety for the honourable and useful places many
of them have been permitted to occupy in society. One of
her sons became the chief justice of Pennsylvania; another
was an eminent physician; a third, the subject of this brief
biographical sketch, one of the most learned, laborious and
useful ministers of his generation.
Mr. Lowrie's early education, though confined to those
branches of learning designed to fit him fbr secular employments, was careful and thorough. His purpose was to devote himself to mercantile pursuits, and at an early age he
entered the service of a brother-in-law, then at the head of
a large and flourishing establishment. He had unusual
qualifications for this walk of life, and, had he devoted himself to it, would doubtless have attained both eminence and
fortune. But he sacrificed his pleasant position and flattering prospects to a conviction that he was called to a nobler,
but by no means so lucrative, a sphere of action.
When he was about seventeen years of age he became
more deeply interested in the subject of his personal salvation than he had been before, and in November, 1834, he
made a public profession of religion, uniting himself with
the Second Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg.  Fromn this
time his mind seems to have been so-absorbed with thoughts
of the ministry that, with little further delay, with the full




MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.                  7
consent of his parents and fiiends, he relinquished his business and entered upon a course of preparatory study for
this holy calling. He entered the preparatory department
of Jefferson College, and continued in that institution till
the close of his second collegiate year, when he transferred
his relation to Lafayette College, entering that institution
at the beginning of the Junior year in the fall of 1838, and
graduating with distinction in the fall of 1840.
Mr. Lowrie's collegiate course was marked by unusual
industry and fidelity. His love of learning was intense: he
was not satisfied to confine himself to the prescribed studies
of the college course, but was disposed, both in languages
and mathematics, to range over a much wider field. A
classmate thus speaks of these pursuits: " He read outside
of the regular course, while at Easton, Homer (Iliad and
Odyssey), Virgil, and several of the plays of Sophocles and
Euripides (perhaps others that I do not now recall), in the
original, and amused himself by putting some of them into
a metrical translation. " Another says: " One vacation was
spent, when at home from Easton, in prosecuting mathematical studies with a former classmate beyond the course"
either in Jefferson or Lafayette.
But though thus devoted to learning, he found time for
social intercourse, and especially for Christian labour. " His
whole influence," says one, "was on the side of right; and
yet he was a very cheerful and witty companion, and, whilst
he adhered strictly to principle, he was far removed fromu
moroseness."  And another: " His habits were eminently
devout, though with no parade or ostentation, and no sanctimoniousness."  And still another: "There could be no




8            LME'MOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.
mistake about his Christian character; hle was earnest, ardent, zealous, and always ready to'stand up for Jesus.' "
While at Easton "he was active in Sunday-schools and
other evangelistic operations, walking back in the country
two or three miles to a neglected and ignorant population,
where he, with other students, whom he interested in the
cause, maintained a Sabbath-school; and by the teachers'
imeetilgs, which he conducted, he continued to make it of
as much benefit to them as to their pupils."  But it was,
perhaps, among his fellow-students he accomplished the
greatest amount of good. An eminent servant of Christ,
who now occupies one of the most important positions in
the Church, thus writes: " It was by his Christian fidelity
and his earnest persuasions and prayers that I was led to
seek a personal interest in the Saviour's love." And there
can be no doubt he laboured thus with others, and possibly
with like success.
On the 5th of November, 1840, the first day of the fall
session, he entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton,
and pursued the full course of study in that institution,
though he left it a short time before graduating. In the
seminary as in college his habits were extremely regular,
and his devotion to study amounted almost to a passion.
One of his fellow-students says: "He stood high among
his classmates in point of scholarship in every department
of study. His habits, temper and whole deportment produced a conviction that his piety was genuine and profound,
and that the love of Christ was the governing power in all
he said or did."
On the 5th of October, 1841, he was taken under the




MEMIOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.                 9
care of the Presbytery of Newton as a candidate for the
holy ministry, and was licensed by that presbytery on the
27th of April, 1842. It was his purpose, cherished for a
long time, to spend his life in the work of a foreign missionary. His attention at one time seems to have been
directed to Afiica, and afterward to India, but the feeble
health of near relatives obliged him to relinquish his purpose in both instances. Had his design been carried out,
and his life spared for some years, there can be no doubt he
would have ranked, like others of his name and kindred,
among the ablest, most devoted and most successful missionaries our country has furnished. But it was wisely ordered otherwise. The theatre of his noble lifework was to
be his native land.
In April, 1843, Mr. Lowrie was married to Miss Hetty
Dusenbury, with whom he had become acquainted while a
student at Easton. This most estimable lady was the faithful and affectionate partner of his life, and now, with four
children, survives him. About this time he was called to
the churches of Blairstown and Knowlton, in Warren
county, New Jersey, and was ordained and installed there
on the 18th of October, 1843. With the diligence which
characterized him through life, he laboured in this field until
the 1st of April, 1845, when, on account of feeble health,
he sought a dissolution of the relation. He was dismissed
on the 27th of April, 1846, to join the Presbytery of Steubenville, having in the mean time been called to the church
in Wellsville, Ohio. He remained in Wellsville, the church
prospering under his ministry, until April, 1850, when he
was called to Lancaster, Ohio. There, too, his faithful and




10           MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.
assiduous efforts were blessed by the Head of the Church,
and after labouring for about six years in that place, he was
translated to Fort Wayne, Indiana, the last and most important theatre of his ministerial labours. He was installed
there in November, 1856, and entered at once with great
earnestness and zeal upon the duties of his office. He felt
that at length he had found an appropriate sphere of action.
The city was comparatively new, but promised to be of
rapid and substantial growth. In the midst of a large, increasing and intelligent community, his cultivated intellect
and vast stores of biblical and theological knowledge might
be expected to produce most happy fruits. Always systematic and thorough in his studies, wise in laying his plans
and prompt in executing them, when he entered upon his
work in Fort Wayne he marked out for himself a scheme
of labour unusual for its breadth and completeness, and then
pursued it with an ardour, zeal, self-devotion-ay, and selfsacrifice-to which there are, perhaps, few parallels. There
was nothing spasmodic in his efforts, no attempt at display,
nothing done for effect. There was in his work a steady
and beautiful development, the result of an intellectual and
spiritual life of unusual vigour. He was in the prime of his
days and the full maturity of his powers. One of the members of his session, speaking of his efforts, says: "He applied himself to his Master's work with untiring labour.
His labours were too abundant; he worked beyond his physical ability. His interest in and devotion to the spread of
the gospel, the building up of the Church here and elsewhere, were the guiding stars of every action and every
thought.




MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.                 11'Christ and his cross was all his theme.'
Bodily labor, mental effort and pecuniary means were all
laid upon the altar to further the interests of Christ's kingdom. " Such labours, and such a labourer, it is reasonable to
suppose, would be much blessed. At his installation there
were on the roll of the church one hundred and seventyone names. At the close of his ministry, as also of his life,
a period of less than eleven years, three of which were
years of suffering and declining health-years in which, unless inspired by an energy, hopefulness and love for the
Master's cause of very rare occurrence, no one would have
worked at all-notwithstanding all the changes by death and
removal, there were three hundred and eighteen names,
making it the largest church in the Synod of Northern Indiana. On three several occasions there were precious outpourings of the Spirit among his people. The first was in
1859, when thirty-three persons were added to the church on
profession of their faith; the second in 1864, when there were
eighteen; and the third in 1866, when there were forty-six.
The whole period of his ministry was something over twentyfour years, and there are probably but few who in that time
have done so much work and done it so well. These are
some of the principal events in the life of the Rev. John M.
Lowrie-a man distinguished for the beauty and symmetry
of his character, and remarkable alike for his learning and
piety, and for his industry and success in the holy ministry.
Dr. Lowrie was a man of much more than ordinary natural gifts. His intellect was clear and vigorous, his judgment
sound, his apprehension quick and his memory retentive.
He had a happy faculty both of acquiring and retaining




12          MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.
knowledge.  Nor was he by any means deficient in imagination. Most apposite and beautiful illustrations are found
liberally scattered through his works; besides which he is
the author of a number of hymns which have a high degree of poetic merit. But the logical predominated over
the imaginative in his mind. Ile excelled in systematic
arrangement, clear statement, together with forcible and
conclusive argument. Even in college he was an admirable
essayist and debater, and fully the equal of those among his
fellow-students who since have shown themselves, in various walks of professional life, to be men of rare ability.
These qualities were exhibited both in his preaching and in
his published works. If he did not possess brilliant parts,
he possessed parts which were far better. He was lucid,
forcible, compact, argumentative.  He was not the man to
sacrifice a thought, much less a truth, to an antithesis or a
trope. His chief aim was, not to please the fancy, but to
convince the judgment, arouse the conscience and affect the
heart. And to accomplish these ends his well-balanced,
well-furnished, earnest and logical mind was well fitted.
The surroundings of his childhood and youth were well
adapted to develop a noble character. Allusion has already
been made to his home, to the intelligence and piety of his
parents and the social position of his family. The community in which he lived exerted a happy influence on his
young mind. There was in Pittsburg sin enough, no doubt
-enough intemperance, profanity and Sabbath-breakingenough rudeness and lawlessness.  But nevertheless society
there had a healthy moral tone. It was a Scotch-Irish
community in great part, and they are a people who have




MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.                 13
great respect for the gospel, the Sabbath, the sanctuary and
its ordinances. They were a people remarkable for their
industrious habits, their commercial integrity and their
freedom  from  extravagant customs.  But besides this,
owing to the soundness of his judgment and the early maturity of his character, when very young he was engaged
in active business. He enjoyed what few of his co-workers
in the ministry do-a thorough business training. This
was of great advantage to him through life. It enabled
him not only to " guide his affairs with discretion," and to
give sound advice in regard to the secularities of the congregations he served, but fitted him to discharge with unusual ability many duties which devolve on members of
church courts. He had few equals, and perhaps not a superior, in the whole Church as a member of an ecclesiastical
assembly. Few could preside with more dignity and skill
over a deliberative body; few were more forcible, yet more
courteous in debate; and few were more efficient as a memuber of a committee.
Eminent spirituality was characteristic of him. There
was no parade or display about his piety; few men had a
deeper abhorrence of such things. Having maturely considered the doctrines of our holy religion, he was fully satisfied of their truth. To use his own language on his dying
bed: "I have examined all the historical connections of
Christ; the necessity of a Mediator and Redeemer; the
time and circumstances of all things connected with the
subject of salvation through Christ. I feel happy that I
have been able to examine all the truths of religion so thoroughly, and come to such conclusions that I am enabled to




14           MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.
rejoice in Christ and no other. I feel that he is all-sufficient
to present me faultless before his Father."  And yet his
religion was not a religion of the intellect alone. His affections also were profoundly interested. He loved his Saviour, loved his cause, loved his service, loved his people.
lHe was a man of much religious meditation, of much prayer
-one who was much with Jesus. One of the works he published bears the touching and beautiful title, "A Week
with Jesus."  It was prepared for the press-if not in considerable part written-during his protracted illness; and he
often wrote to Dr. Schenck, the Secretary of the Board of
Publication, while making arrangements for its issue, expressing in "'i very earnest and tender terms the benefits his
own soul had received while handling the precious truths
contained in it. "  To which Dr. Schenck adds: "He seems
to have been himself much with Jesus, and to have been
drinking in of his instructions and his spirit."
His preparation for the work of the ministry was more than
usually complete. Though he commenced his classical studies later in life than some do, he pursued them with such
assiduity that he reached a higher degree of perfection than
most. His scholarship was of a high grade. His attainments in the classics and mathematics, his acquaintance
with history, science and general literature, were extensive
and accurate. Few in the ministry, perhaps, have made
themselves so familiar with poetry, both classical and
English. The same winter he read Homer and Virgil in
the originals he read " Paradise Lost," thus perusing at the
same time the three great epics of Greece, Italy and England. Of all the British poets, if we except the hymnolo



MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.                 15
gists, for whonl he seems to have had a spcbial affection,
Milton, we presume, was his favourite.  His capacious
memory-a memory which, in his biblical studies, enabled
him to dispense with the use of a concordance-was stored
with the choicest passages of these authors, and he often
happily called them to his aid in elucidating and enforcing
truth. But it was in the department of theology that his
greatest attainments were made. His theological course, as
has already been stated, was thorough; and through the
whole course of his ministry his study of' this science was
pursued to a far greater extent than is usual. Nor did he
confine himself to the theology, so rich and abundant, of
his native tongue, but had recourse to the vast stores which
are locked up in the classical languages. Professor Green,
of Princeton, a most competent judge, in writing to the
author of this Memoir, says of him: "I doubt if any of our
ministry, not filling professorships, were as profoundly read
in Latin theology."
But notwithstanding these large general attainments, he
made the most careful special preparation for the pulpit.
Scarcely could any one be more industrious, conscientious and
prayerful in this matter than he. The whole structure and
habit of his mind led to this. He did not feel that it was
sufficient to harangue a congregation. There was nothing in
his nature, especially in his nature as sanctified by the
Divine Spirit, to lead him to make a display of his talents
or his learning; he was too earnest and sincere a man for
any such mockery. He felt himself called upon to instruct
his people —to instruct them systematically; to instruct
them not only in the doctrines, but in the historical portions




16          MEMO()IR OF DR. I.OWRIE.
of the Bible. Hence his "Adam  and his Times," his
"Esther and her Times, " his " Hebrew  Lawgiver,"  his
"Week with Jesus," his " Translated Prophet," his "'Prophet Elisha," and the like-all of which, or nearly all, went
through the pulpit. This method gave a delightful variety
to his ministrations, and made them especially interesting
and profitable. And in all this there was nothing irksome
to him. He loved this careful, thorough, systematic work;
it was in harmony with his nature, and easy from longestablished habit. He said to one of his elders on his deathbed " that his heart had always been in his work. " How
immeasurably better is this plan of pulpit ministration than
the desultory method in which many pastors indulge!
HIow pleasant is this to the labourer himself, how beneficial
to a congregation, and how worthy the imitation of all engaged in preaching the gospel!
From this it is plain he was a man of pre-eminent industry. He was, indeed, a most persistent worker. Work
was a pleasure to him. He was always in advance of his
work. It was never with him, as with so many of his
brethren, "from  hand to mouth."  He always worked
more than the circumstances demanded. It was so in college; it was so in the seminary; it was so in his pastorate;
it was so in regard to his works for the press. The pulpit
never pushed him-he always had sermons in advance; the
press never pushed him —he always had books in advance.
At his death he had two manuscript volumes in the hands
of the Board of Publication, and even these did not exhaust
his labours in this department. This industry was one
chief cause of his unusual success. All his rare talent and




MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.                 17
ample preparation would have availed but little had he
been a less earnest and constant worker. And in this he is
worthy the imitation of all his brethren, young and old.
His moral courage and firmness of purpose were frequently put to the test, and he was found to possess these,
as so many other excellent qualities, in a high degree. He
was as far removed as possible from harshness or obstinacy.
But when principle was involved, and when he had carefully made up his mind on any question of duty-any question in politics, morals or religion-he was as firm as the
hills which girdle his native city. He ever earnestly and
fearlessly opposed wrong-doing, no matter who were its
agents. He had no fear of the face of man, and was just as
ready, if, indeed, not more ready, to grapple with the advocates of wrong or the assailants of right when they occupied high social or civil positions, or were distinguished for
their ability or wealth, as when they belonged to the baser
sort.
In all the relations of life, as son, brother, husband, pastor, friend, citizen, he was exemplary. He was a sincere,
conscientious, upright, devout man. In the recent national
struggle with armed rebellion he stood firmly by the government. He had not a shadow of doubt as to the righteousness of the national cause, and was ever full of hope as to
the successful termination of the war. With other humane hnd Christian men, he deplored the necessity of the
conflict, but he believed, through the overruling providence
of God in removing slavery and its concomitant evils, it
would result in good to the country and the world. He regarded it as a special privilege to be permitted to live and
2




18           MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.
to take part in the stirring and most important events of
his time. But he shone brightest as a Christian man and
a Christian minister. He was wholly devoted to Christ and
his cause. "For him to live was Christ." He studied
Christ; he preached Christ; he imitated Christ; he had
much communion with his divine Master, and was never so
happy as when labouring with tongue and pen to promote
his cause. The members of that beloved congregation in
the midst of which he spent the last years of his life can
bear witness how gentle and yet how firm, how tender and
yet how true, how loving and yet how faithful, how benevolent and yet how discreet, how devout and yet how cheerful
he was. His beautiful life was daily before their eyes, and
was as instructive as his rare and unvaried labours.
As a preacher Dr. Lowrie was not, as the phrase is now
by many understood, an eloquent man. His voice was not
good, and he was indifferent to the graces of manner. He
was too quiet, too undemonstrative, too sparing of gesture,
too meditative to be classed among pulpit orators. Indeed,
for very much of what goes under the name of eloquence he
could scarcely conceal his contempt. Not more ready was
the poet himself than he to say:
"Avaunt all attitude and stare,
And start theatric, practiced at the glass!
I seek divine simplicity in him
Who handles things divine; and all besides,
Though learned with labour, and though much admired
By curious eyes and judgments ill informed,
To me is odious."
In another passage of the same poem we have his por



MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.                   19
trait so admirably drawn that the inclination to reproduce
it cannot be resisted. Emphatically he was
"Simple, grave, sincere;
In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain,
And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste,
And natural in gesture: much impressed
Himself, as conscious of his awful charge,
And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds
May feel it too; affectionate in look
And tender in address, as well becomes
A messenger of grace to guilty men."
His published works partake very much of the character
of his discourses. Indeed, in the main they are his discourses recast, and yet they do not afford a complete idea
of his method as a sermonizer. In these works he confined
himself to historical portions of Scripture, for which he had
a special fondness, and from which he had a rare faculty of
deriving practical instruction. His writings are characterized by clear statement rather than novel views; by a perspicuous rather than an ornate style; by affectionate appeals
to the heart rather than attempts to please the fancy.
They are methodical, original and earnest. His descriptions are graphic, his figures animated, his diction vigorous,
his doctrines sound, though, as he wrote for the unlearned,
not expressed in the language of the schools, and his aim
the instruction and salvation of his readers.
But there was nothing more beautiful nor more instructive than his death. His illness was protracted and painful.
When at length he was obliged to suspend his labours and
seek relief, he visited his native hills, and no doubt, had




20           MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.
his disease not been too deeply seated for any human remedies to reach, rest from his exhausting toils and the pure
air of that healthful region would have restored him. This
failing, at the urgent solicitation of anxious friends he went
abroad, hoping to be benefited by foreign travel. To a
man of his culture and tastes this was pleasant not only,
but profitable, and, in some little degree, beneficial to his
health. But all efforts failed fully to accomplish what was
desired. If there was any relief, it was only temporary.
Disease had taken too deep a hold to be shaken off. But
neither distance nor disease could banish his flock from his
mind, or induce him to relinquish his efforts for their edification. His plans of usefulness, his habits of thought, his
habits of work went with him, so that in the intervals of
travel he was engaged in writing discourses he purposed to
deliver when restored to them. One which he had proposed to preach immediately upon his return he had finished,
when, on a Sabbath morning, in the city of Calvin, he repaired to the room of two pious young relatives, in whose
company he travelled, for the purpose of reading it to them.
He commenced, but, before he had proceeded far, his emotion choked his utterance, and thoughts of -his famlily, his
home and his flock made him weep like a child.
Upon his return from Europe he partially resumed his
labours, but never with sufficient health to pursue them
with safety or vigour. At length the insidious disease
which had so long preyed upon his system assumed a new
form, and he was laid upon the bed from which he never
rose. Faithful friends and constant attendants-one an
elder in his church as also his family physician, and another




MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.                21
member of his session-have furnished some of his last
words.
He spoke of his work. This seems scarcely to have been
absent from his thoughts. There was much he yet purposed to do-much he "yet wanted to do." He desired
to pursue his "systematic discussions in the pulpit" and
to prepare other volumes for the press. But he had
scarcely uttered the words when he checked himself, saying, "I give these things into the hands of God. Should I
live twenty years longer, it would to me probably appear
the same. God knows best when each man's work is done. "
Then, like Paul, he was ready to say, " I have finished my
course. "
The prosperity of the cause of Christ among his people
occupied much of his thoughts. He was deeply interested
in a mission enterprise they had commenced at his suggestion, with the ultimate purpose of organizing a second
church in Fort Wayne. He spoke affectionately of the
brother having charge of it, and felt assured, as it was
begun under the evident smile of Providence, it would prosper. His own congregation, for which he expressed the
deepest solicitude, he committed to God, expressing the
hope that no root of bitterness would spring up among them,
and that in choosing a pastor they would be led to choose
one after God's own heart. He prayed most earnestly that
" God the Father would bless the Church." He was very
solicitous that the utmost harmony should continue among
its officers; " that no discordant element or thought would
spring up among them, but that harmony and good-will
might characterize all" their actions. It was his desire




22           MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.
that they should " study well the interests of the church,
and especially its peace in all things."'-' May they be
united," was his prayer, "in the bonds of brotherly love
and friendship, working together for the good of God's
Church." Just before his departure his mind again reverted to his people, and among the last objects for which
he audibly prayed was the beloved people whom God had
committed to his care: " May God bless the First Presbyterian Church! Amen."
He was deeply interested in the children and youth of
his congregation, and' spoke of them during the last hours
of his life with the utmost affection. He deeply regretted
that he had not been able to be oftener among the children,
and said that their teachers had claimed his particular anxiety.  " Many of them," said he, " are Christians, and are
undoubtedly prepared to teach the way of salvation to
others; but many are strangers to the covenants of promise
and know not Christ themselves, and are therefore unable
to teach those under their care." He further said: " The
young ladies and gentlemen of the church have always been
a source of solicitude to me. There are many who have
embraced Jesus Christ and are giving evidence of a Christian life, but some, I am fearful, have forgotten God.
Those who are yet strangers to grace have had my prayers,
and I humbly hope they may embrace the Saviour."
But his thoughts were not confined to the people of his
charge. A few days before his death by a friend he sent
the following message to his presbytery: " Tell my brethren
in the ministry that this is the testimony of twenty-five
years' service. My foundation of faith standeth sure, rest



MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.                 23
ing in Jesus Christ. Though I have many imperfections —
and no one knows them better than myself —yet his blood
has blotted them all out. I approach him not in my own
righteousness-that would not stand a single glance of his
eye-but in his spotless righteousness."
His interviews with his family were especially touching.
A few days before his death he called them around his bed,
and after addressing himself to each one, he requested them
to sing a part of that sweet hymn which has been such a
solace to many pious hearts:
"Just as I am, without one plea,
But that thy blood was shed for me,
And that thou bid'st me come to thee,
0 Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Happy day, happy day!
Here in thy courts we'll gladly stay,
And at thy footstool humbly pray
That thou would'st take our sins away "
Of his personal views and feelings he spoke with the utmost confidence: "I wish it understood, that in view of
the testimony I have borne in the pulpit and otherwise on
the subject of religion, and on the doctrines of the Bible, I
would change nothing. My views are the same as heretofore. " As to his personal acceptance in Christ, he said, " I
have not a shadow of doubt. The great source of my comfort and joy is in the full and free promises of God. " Contemplating his departure, he said:
"Sweet to rejoice in lively hope
That when my change shall come,




24           MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.
Angels shall hover round my bed,
And waft my spirit home."
And again:
" Jesus can make a dying bed
Feel soft as downy pillows are,
While on his breast I lean my head,
And breathe my life out sweetly there."
His courage, faith and hope rose as his bodily powers
failed; and but a short time before the spark of life was extinguished, upon being handed a glass of water from his
own well-water for which he had a special fondness-he
remarked, " I think it will not be long now till I taste the
water of the Great Fountain and never thirst again. Oh
for that one draught! that would be enough! Come, Lord
Jesus, come quickly! Why, oh why, do thy chariot wheels
delay? I long to depart and be with Christ!" And then,
feeling that his time had come, and that, indeed, " angels
were hovering round his bed to waft his spirit home," he
seemed fully to realize that his last enemy was overcome,
and he exclaimed, " The battle's fought, the victory's wo.'"
Fitting words with which to close an honoured and useful
life! But it must not be supposed he was exulting in his
own strength-that he was assuming any honour to himself, or claiming that anything had been effected by his unaided power. No, he would have been the first to say, in
his own calm, clear, earnest way, " It is all of grace."  lie
was a victor by the grace of God. Every enemy was conquered-even the last, which is death; and as he saw them
prostrate at his feet, with his very last breath he shouted
victory! but had he been able to add more, it would have




MEMOIR OF DR. LOWRIE.                 25
been, " Not unto me, O Lord, not unto me, but unto thy
name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake."
" That man lives greatly,
Whate'er his fate or fame, who greatly dies,
High flushed with hope, where heroes shall despair."
Thus passed from among us, in the prime of his days,
on the 26th of September, 1867, this faithful and accomplished minister of Jesus Christ.  " It is the Lord's doing;
it is marvellous in our eyes."  But, conscious that God is
infinitely wise.and good, and that he knows far better than
we what is best, both for his servants and his Church, we
bow to his holy will and say, with the smitten patriarch,
"The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed
be the name of the Lord!"








THE PROPHET ELISHA.
CHAPTER I.
THE CALL OF -ETISHA.
THE first mention we hlave of the prophet Elisha
occurs in the divine direction given to Elijah
for his anointing in the elder prophet's stead. This
command implied important purposes on the part
of Jehovah, that were directly adapted to encourage
his servant in a time of overwhelming dejection.
Elijah was a man of bold and energetic decisions,
but just such men as he are quite prone to indulge
sanguine expectations at one time, and at another
to fall into the opposite extreme of an unreasonable
despondency.  We admire the courage of this
prophet when he dared to rebuke the guilt of
Israel's perverse king; when he challenged the
priests of Baal to a public controversy; when he
dared to carry out the divine law by shedding the
blood of the vanquished idolaters at the foot of
Mount Carmel. Yet we wonder that so bold a man
quails so easily at the threat of an imperious woman.
It seems a strange inconsistency that he so quickly
27




28          THE PRtOPHET ELISHA.
betakes llimself to flight and strives so hard to save
his life, while so lately he voluntarily put that life
in peril, and indeed now querulously wishes it were
taken away from him.  The truth is, Elijah was a
disappointed man-disappointed as a servant, who
ha(l zealously and faithfully attempted to do his
Lord's will; the high expectations he had formed
of usefulness had suddenly been dashed down. But
he was disappointed according to the usual disappointment of pious men, not because their Lord is
unfaithful, but because they themselves are foolish,
self-willed, shortsighted. When the onward progress of Elijah's success took a sudden and apparently a disastrous turn, he rashly concluded that
all his efforts had been in vain. He had supposed
that his great victory at Carmel would put down
at once all opposition to the cause of true religion,
would cause a reaction throughout all Israel in
favour of their forsaken duties, and would revive
everywhere the neglected worship of Jehovah's
altars. But the fierce message of Jezebel seemed
to blight all those fair anticipations, and the sanguine prophet sank into the depths of a despondency
as inconsistent as it was unbelieving.
Here are valuable teachings for all later times,
for not only.are we here reminded that the most
eminent of the ancient prophets were still men of
like passions with ourselves (James v. 17), but we
have evidences as excellent that the divine mercy
forsakes not even his erring servant, and that God




THE CALL OF ELISHA.             29
condescends to meet them on the low ground of
their infirmities. Though Elijah fled for his life
without the divine direction, he did not go without
the divine care; and though, at the end of his
journey, the reproving voice asked, " What dost
thou here, Elijah?" yet, through angelic ministry
and with particular kindness, strength for that
very journey had been specially afforded. The
people of God may often recognize a divine, and
indeed a special, care over them wherever they go,
without being justified in arguing from this the
divine approval of their thoughts and conduct.
Even when Elijah was fed by an angel, he was a
wandering prophet, and the extraordinary presence
of his God upon Horeb is to inquire what call of
duty had brought him there. God forsakes not,
though man is ignorant, self-willed, easily dejected,
ready to form rash conclusions.
Elijah, in this desponding hour, made many mistakes. He was mistaken in estimating his own
usefulness, and in thinking that his labours were
thus far in vain. He was mistaken in supposing
that he alone was faithful among the tribes of
Israel. He was mistaken in judging that the work
to which he had devoted his life could be completed as rapidly as he had recently hoped, or
arrested as easily as he had more lately feared.
The divine voice, directly or indirectly, corrects all
these mistakes. Instead of his standing alone in
all Israel, he is directly assured that there were




30          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
seven thousand men who sympathized with him.
These were not indeed of bold and open adherents
to Jehovah, otherwise the prophet could not have
been ignorant of them. Yet were they acceptable
befbre God, since they had not fallen in with the
dominant idolatry.  He was mistaken in supposing
that Jezebel could put a speedy end to his reforming labours. Such great things in the orderings of
God's providence usually proceed quite too slowly
for man's impatience; they are less advanced by
signal successes and less hindered by disheartening
reverses than man is prone to judge; and they may
be expected to go forward through more than the
lifetime of any single person. God's hand might
be in the prophet's labours, notwithstanding the sudden disastrous change that has disappointed Elijah;
and he is indirectly taught this by being told that
the work shall go on by those who shall be successors to Ahab and Jezebel and Elijah. The
token is, that Elijah must anoint successors for himself in the prophetical office, and for the rival
monarchs of Israel and Syria in the kingly. God's
\vork must go on after Ahab has ceased to withstand it, after Elijah has ceased to promote it.
This is the divine answer to human despondency.
The Church of God is not arrested for every bold
attack of blustering foes. Let (lisappointed believers
in every age put away their dejection by taking
larger views of the divine working. God's purposes fail not, though man mistakes their interpre



THE CALL OF ELISHA.             31
tation. Many friends and'foes of Zion shall pass
away, while, through many changes, God's great
plans move on.
And when Elijah was thus directed to call
Elisha to the prophetical office, lie was himself not
only encouraged by learning that his work was still
to go on, but he was directed into a new and important channel of usef:ulness.  Whllen the prophet
in his folly wished to die, God, who had provided
better things for him, made no answer to this request-took indeed no notice of it-but turned his
thoughts away to pressing engagements. That the
work of Elijah must go on after he has left the
earth is assurance that Ahab and Jezebel cannot
stop it. That Elisha is to be anointed includes a
new work of prophetical instruction, by the doing
of which Elijah shall be spleedily lifted from his
present dejection. Believers have oftentimes no
means of escape-from dejecting fears but in putting
forth energetic activities. The mind, doing nothing
abroad, eats in upon itself, like rusting iron; while,
according to the proverb, "The used key is always
bright."  Providence, by its manifest orderings,
may lay a nan aside from  active duties. In that
case he may be happy and cheerful while suffering
the will of God. But when a man is idle through
indolence or unbelief or dejection, though the path
of active duty lies open before him, it is no wonder
if he falls into discouragement and even despondency. This is the true solution of many com



32          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
plaints in the Church of God. Afflicted Christians
are often happy; a sick and dying chamber is often
a scene of triumph; an imprisoned apostle, who
would gladly drop his chains to wear himself out
in preaching, can yet joyfully say, God is doing
good by imy bonds. But inactivity must not be
self-imposed. Indolent professors of the name of
Christ give very poor evidences of piety, enjoy
few comforts of religion, and may go halting and
complaining until they arouse to their urgent active
duties. They who would enjoy the bread of our
Father's house must do the Father's will. " If
any man do not work, neither shall he eat." Elijah
was happy and the ravens fed him when the Lord
had bidden him sit down by the brook Cherith,
Elijah complains and wishes to die when, under
the impulses of his own despondency, he forsakes
his work and wanders off to the wilderness.
The direction to anoint Elisha as his successor
reminds us that the call to the prophetical office in
the ancient dispensation of the Church was special
and extraordinary.  There were teachers in that
age who did not possess prophetical gifts in the
higher sense; these were, sometimes at least, called
the sons of the prophets; and from these, as we
judge, men are divinely chosen oftentimes for the
more complete discharge of these great duties.
We have no instance of the exercise of the prophetical office except by the divine designation of
the person. But a divine call does not supersede




THE CALL OF ELISHA.             33
the propriety of instruction under competent teachers. That Elijah is to anoint Elisha-that the
)rophlletic spirit is to rest largely upon him —opens
a new sphere of duty, for Elisha became the pupil
of Elijah; perhaps ten years were spent by these
men conjointly, and at the end of this period they
were separated.  We do not judge that Elisha was
nothing but a pupil all this time. But when Elijahl began to teach, he taught others besides Elisha;
after a little time the younger prophet was associated with him in these labours; indeed other associates were also found. They seem to have established schools of the prophets at various places; at
Bethel, at Jericho, it may be at Samaria; by the
labours of these men, scattered over the land as
public teachers, the great reformation begun by
Elijah was even more effectively and rapidly carried on after he was gone; so that at last the worship of Baal, against which Elijah fought, was entirely extirpated from Israel under Jehu and Elisha
-that is, under the very king and prophet whom
God bade his desponding servant anoint.
There is no better way to bless a land than to
raise up for it religious teachers. We can scarcely
attach too great importance to the liberal establishment of those higher schools of learning by whose
efficiency young men are trained for the ministry of
the Church. The best prophets of the ChurchSamuel, Elijah, especially our Lord himself-spent
their best energies in training men who should go
3




34          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
forth as public teachers. A chief influence of our
Lord's own ministry was in this remarkable thing,
that in the three years of his public life he taught
and sent forth more than fourscore plreachers.
The call of Elisha was apparently unexpected to
him.  In this matter God deals with different men
in different ways. A man may be consecrated by
a mother's piety, and so trained that all Israel may
know from his childhood that the godly Samuel is
to be a prophet of the Lord; or he may be suddenly changed from a persecutor to a preacher, and
as unexpectedly sent " far hence to the Gentiles."
We have no iufirmation of Elisha's early life, no
insight into his spiritual history, no record that he
was called first to the faith and then to the ministry.  Yet his introduction is less abrupt than that
of Elijah himself, of whom we know nothing in
the sacred history until we hear of his denunciation of wrath upon sinning Israel.  We suppose
that Elisha was now in early life.  He was old
enough to have the charge of his father's servants
in the labours of the fieldc, yet he was young enough
to exercise his ministry for a length of time exceeded by only a few of the ancient prophets.
Samuel, called in his childhood, lived perhaps over
a hundred years; Isaiah lived in four, perhaps in
five, reigns; Daniel lived during the entire period
of the Babylonish captivity; Elisha lived in the
reigns of six kings. He was called perhaps as
much as ten years before the death of Ahab; the




THE CALL OF ELISHA.            35
four succeeding kings whom he survived reigned
fifty-nine years; and he probably died in the fifth
year of the reign of Joash. We may well consider
that as an important ministry which holds a position of great influence in Israel during a period of
seventy or seventy-five years and in eventful
ti mes.
Elijah passed by and laidl his mantle upon the
young man's shoulders.  Doubtless the coming of
the prophet awakened his respectful attention, but
this unexpected call stirred the very depths of his
soul. He is ready to go when called to such a service, and yet he goes not thoughtlessly.  He gives
a token that he knows somewhat of the path in
which he is beckoned forward, and that he feels
the responsibility he so cheerfully assumes. And
the elder prophet wishes him to understand and
weigh the responsibility, as his act and speech
would indicate. We need not suppose indeed that
Elijah said no more to him than is here recorded,
but all he said is consistent with the brief record
here made. He significantly cast his mantle upon
him.  When Elisha signified his readiness to accompany him as his disciple-perhaps looking
further to the prophetic office-and simply desires,
through natural affection, to bid farewell to his
parents, the words of Elijah are designed, possibly,
to test his thoughts. As Naomi bade Ruth return
to her kindred, though she was glad of her company, so Elijah bade this young man go back




36          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
again, to know what was in his heart. We are
not told that Elisha did go to kiss his father and
his mother, but he tarried long enough to offer
sacrifices to God, which betoken his serious sense
of those new engagements, and his anxious desire
to secure the blessing of Jehovah upon them.
Thus beginning his new course of lifelong duties, it may properly be thought that Elisha understood how serious were his new engagements. The
ministry he now began was undertaken in no ordinary times, and we may well anticipate an
energetic service from one who was willing to follow Elijall then. This young man was not ignorant
of the bold stand which the prophet had taken a
few weeks before, nor of the threats which Jezebel
had uttered, nor of the self-denials and perils to
which a companion of the Tighbite must be exposed.
There was as much true courage in beginning a
prophet's studies at such a time as this as in withstanding the gathered idolaters at Carmel. But
they who go at the Lord's bidding, go under the
Lord's protection; and ease, peace, and even personal safety, may be cheerfully surrendered by those
who have divine promises of returns an hundredfold.




CHAPTER I 1.,IJAH AND EIISHA.
ELIJAH and Elisha, associated together for so
many years and uniting their influence for
present and future good in Israel, were men of
widely different characters.  God employs various
servants for his great work, and it is an important
matter that we should wisely consider the diversities of his prophets. We see diversity as great in
our own day in the ministry of the gospel. Let us
not speak of the differences which spring from man's
folly and ignorance and sin.  Doubtless many
preachers of the word would be more acceptable
and useful toward man, and would bring more
honor to religion and to God, if they were more
prayerful, serious and diligent to learn and do the
duties of the sacred office.  But at the best, infirm
men minister in holy things; and this is divinely
allowed for many reasons-because they minister
to imperfect people, and speak to their necessities,
since they themselves "are compassed with infirmity;" because the mutual sympathies of minister
and people have much to do for the ends of the
ministry; because, especially, the feebleness of the
37




38          TIlE PROPHET ETLISHA.
instruments used magnifies that divine efficacy
which wins the souls of men, " we have this treasure in earthen vessels."  So long as any ministry
is sincere and truthful, let no man despise its feebleness nor scorn an humble sermon, for God may
magnify thus the excellency of his power.
But it is divinely appointed that the ablest
earthly ministries are wonderfully different.  One
man is a " son of thunder;" another, a " son of consolation;" one is better suited to awaken careless
consciences; another to direct inquiring penitents;
another to instruct the people of God.  Eminent
men are rare in the ministry; as indeed they are
in all the walks of life. One Paul, one Denlosthenes, one Newton may be found in the lapse
of ages; the mass of men learn piety and philosophy from ordinary teachers.  The various gifts
of men may be profitably employed with all their
differences.  The same tune may be played upon
an organ or upon a flute; both may be melodious, yet are they not alike.  Men are wise when
they listen to the voice of the gospel, no matter by
what lips or in what tones it is proclaimed in their
ears. Still is it the grand old tune" Salvation, oh the joyful sound!"
Our Lord censures the men of his age because
they found fault with John the Baptist and himself,
and found excuses for listening to neither.  One
mingled too much with the people; the other, too




ELIJAH AND ELISHA.               39
little; one was too austere, the other too free.
"But wisdom is justified of her children."
These two great prophets of the ancient Church
were very different men.  They belonged to the
same general period: the younger loved the elder,
as a son loves his father; they laboured together and
aimed at the same great results, but they differed
from each other, as God's ministers often differ, who
occupy successively the same field of labor, and who
are often providentally fitted for co-operating influences only the better because they are not alike.
It is not needful, perhaps not possible, and
indeed it may not be desirable, to decide which was
the prophet of superior influence.  The remarkable
close of Elijah's career seems to give token of his
superior acceptance before God. Yet this may be
less so than our first thought would judge.
One of the most interesting and instructive lectures I have read from  the English preacher, Melville, is an elaborate effort to show that a larger
interest and usefulness gathers about the feeble
deathbed of the aged Elisha than belongs to the
splendid ascension of Elijah in the chariots of
Israel.
These prophets belong to an age of miracles.
Two things may attract our wonder in the sacred
Scriptures respecting miracles: First, That these
writings are attested to men by plain and abundant
miracles; and second, That the absence of miraculous powers is as remarkable during most of the




40          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
scriptural history as their presence at others.  A
boasted advocate of the Romish Church in modern
days has ventured the assertion that the whole history of God's people, from  the beginning of the
world down to the time of our blessed Saviour, was
nearly a continued series of miracles.*  The error
of this statement is nearly as gross as the affirmation
lie appends, that the Church of Rome attests her
divine origin by a continual appeal to miracles yet
wrought by her teachers. Only a Church that
neglects the study of the Bible could make the
blunder of declaring that miracles are a standing
mark of the true Church.  Rather, according to
the teachings of the Scriptures, the power to work
miracles has belonged to very few prophets from
the beginning until the time of Christ, and this is
but an occasional and not a permanent mark of the
Church.
There are two classes of scriptural miracles that
may be conceived of as entirely distinct:
1st. Those wrought directly by divine agency,
with little human instrumentality intervening, or
none at all.
2d. Those wrought by the hands of God's servants, and eminently by his incarnate Son, who
have thus given irrefragable proof of their divine
comnmission.
To the first class belong such wonders as the
Confusion of Tongues, the Flood, the Destruction
* Ailner's End of Controversy, Letter xxiii.




ELIJAH AND ELISHA.             41
of Sodom  in the earlier records; the wonders
wrought in Babylon as recorded in the book of
Daniel in later times, together with wonders announced, in judgment or mercy, by the prophets at
various times, which are clearly distinct from the
exercise of miraculous powers of the second class
we name. (See 1 Sam. vii. 10; xii. 18; 2 Sam.
xxiv. 13; 2 Kings xix. 35; xx. 10.)
To the second class appertain three cycles of
miracles. The most illustrious and the longest
continued of these was connected with the ministry
of God's own incarnate Son. When Christ came,
as was fitting, miracles were abundantly wrought
by him and his apostles to prove so great a thing
as the advent of man's Redeemer. So far from continual miracles before that great period, only four
men and only twfio periods in all the world's history
were distinguished by these marvellous proofs of
God's working by them. In one period, Moses
and his successor Joshua; in another, Elijah and
his successor Elisha wrought these wonders. We
have no record that Abraham, Samuel, David,
Isaiah or Danicl ever wrought miracles, though
they witnessed wonders wrought directly by divine
power. The especial reason for the exercise of these
remarkable powers by Moses, and pre-eminently by
our Lord Jesus Christ, lay in the propriety of
authenticating their divine commission.  Moses
was in a very high sense a revealer of the divine
will and the first of inspire(l writers. Christ Jesus




42          THE PROPHET ELISHIA.
made still higher claims and supported them  by
proofs  the  most illustrious.  The  reformation.wrought in Israel in the (lays of Elijah and Elisha
may rank in higher importance, because it was
marked by the exercise of these extraordinary
powers.
These two prophets were both workers of miracles, yet as their characters, so their ministries and
-thlleir miracles are widely different.  As we look
upon their miracles, those of Elijah are more stupendous, those of Elisha are more numerous.  The
elder prophet is bold and rational, the younger is
milder and more domestic.  The one addresses the
entire people, sends the dismay of a three years'
drought through all the land, boldly reproves the
wickedness of monarchs, engages in pu)blic controversy with the whole body of the idolatrous priesthood, and vin(licates human and divine law by their
slaughter on that fearful day of Carmel. The other
prophet comes into the faminlies of the land, heals the
dangerous spring and the poisoned pot; appreciates
the hospitality of the Shunamite, antd restores to
life the child of his benefactress; pities the poverty
of the prophet's widow; and if great men and kings
appear before himl it is not that he boldly approaches them, but rather that they seek him out for
counsel and relief.  It is not proper to leave the
impression  that these contrasts are  completely
characteristic and without any exceptions.  Elijah
did not wholly lack kindly sympathy and tile




ELIJAH AND ELISHA.             43
domestic feeling.  He dwelt in a widow's household, and he too raised to life the son of his benefactress. So Elisha had his public duties and
public influence. Yet in general the comparison is
just. Elisha mingled more with the social life of
the people, was more easily approached by them
when they needed sympathy, and found his usefulness in domestic scenes.
The miracles of Elisha are usually more beneficent than those of his predecessor. We stand in
awe of the stern tones and fearful wonders of the
Great Reformer. Doubtless the times needed such
a man, and he was equal to their worst aspects.
But to shut up the heavens for three long years, to
settle his dispute with Baal's prophets by the stern
arbitrament of the sword, and to call down fire
from heaven to consume the insulting messengers
of King Ahaziah, are the awe-inspiring tragedies
of Elijah's history. Even Elisha begins his separate ministry by the sternest scene of all his life;
and, not without good reason, brings a judgment
not easily forgotten upon the mocking youth of
Bethel.  Except this and Gehazi's leprosy, the
wonders recorded of this prophet are remarkable
for kindness and benevolence. He raised the dead,
cleansed the leprous, fed the hungry with means that
seemed quite inadequate, and relieved the poor;
while scarcely a harsh word escaped his lips and
scarcely a deed of severity marked his life.
We have suggested that the miraculous period to




44         THE I'ROPHET ELISHA.
which these prophets belonged is intermediate between two other periods-of Moses and of Christ.
We may further notice that the miracles of Elijah,
who stands nearer to Moses, are more like those of
Moses; and the miracles of Elisha, who of the two
stands nearer to Christ, are more like those of
Christ.  The same striking difference exists between Moses and Christ that also exists between
Elijah and Elisha.  The superior benevolence of
our Lord's miracles over those of Moses any one
may see. Christ upon one occasion refused to imitate
one of Elijah's miracles, and gave this significant
reason, "The Son of man is not come to destroy
men's lives, but to save them," Luke ix. 56. Moses
was a prophet of the law and its judgments. Ite
scourged guilty Egypt with terrible plagues, and at
last drowned their hosts in the Red Sea. But the
great Author of the gospel came upon a different
errand, and he marked his life by wonders which
in every instance were benevolent.
Now as Moses and Elijah seem to bear like characters, so the character of Elisha seems similar to
that of Christ. It was even his peculiar privilege
to anticipate and foreshadow the workings of our
blessed Lord; so that, though Christ Jesus, as becomes the Son of God, has a signal pre-eminence
over all the servants in the Lord's house, we can
scarcely read the miracles of Elisha without being
reminded of those of Christ. Especially the healing of Naaman's leprosy, the restoring of a dead




ELIJAH AND ELISHA.              45
body to life and the feeding of a hundred men with
a few loaves, are miracles, like in kind, though of
inferior magnitude, to Christ's healing lepers by a
word, raising the dead body of Lazarus and feeding
thousands with a few barley loaves. And none
but Elisha ever did anticipate, even in feeble measure, the gracious workings of Christ.
And not only the works, but the spirit also, of
Elisha is more Christ-like.  We find no fault with
the prevailing spirit of the respective ministries of
Moses and Elijah in the sphere assigned to each by
divine providence.  Various as are the works and
ways of God, they are not clashing. In the economy of nature the thunderstorm  that awes us by
the fierce warring of the elements is as needful in
its time -as the bright shining of the vernal sun or
the mild breathing of the evening zephyr. In llthe
moral world man needs the fire, the storm and the
earthquake, as well as the still small voice. This
is a world of sin, and we cannot dispense with the
awe-inspiring terrors of God's violated law.  We
recognize the truth and righteousness of that law
whose.ministers these elder prophets were. Neither
does Christ make war against Moses, nor Elisha
against Elijah, though between them the differences
are so marked.  Those who preach the law with
all its terrors serve in the same ministry with those
who commend the gospel in all its grace.  Moses
was faithful in all his house as a servant; the close
of Elijah's ministry sufficiently attests his acceptable




46         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
service.  But the ministry of Elisha was milder.
To him might be applied Isaiah's language, anticipating the ministry of the Messiah: "He shall
not strive nor cry; neither shall any man hear his
voice ill the streets."
Perhaps the ministry of Elisha was needed to
supplement that of Elijah, and the success of the
truth among the Israelites of their age was due to
their joint labours. Our Lord sent forth his disciples two by two; it has often been noticed that
two men of dissimilar characters, exercising their
ministry together among the same people or succeeding each other, find increased usefulness from
their very diversities.  In such cases the bold
naturally comes first.  The stern, energetic Luther
needs the mild and scholarly Melancthon; the
bold Elijah is aided by the gentle, laborious Elislha;
even our Lord had a forerunner, who came in the
spirit and power of an Elijah.  Elijah's labours
were but preparatory. He was like John the Baptist; he called men to repentance; he bade them
"flee from the wrath to come." But alarming
preaching, however needful, is not complete. The
souls of men need what our elder divines would
call a law ministry; but the law works wrath, and
in its best offices but leads to Christ. Perhaps this
was the divine lesson taught to Elijah in that great
vision of the storm, the earthquake and the fire,
and the Lord not in either of them. Elijah was
like the ploughman who is needed to break up




ELIJAH AND ELISHA.             47
the ground, but the casting in of the seed is a
quieter work which must needs precede the harvest.
And Elijah learned the lesson.  Associating with
himself the son of Shaphat, they bent their joint
efforts for ten years to the quiet duty of raising up
religious teachers; they touched the hearts of' the
peol)le by the still small voice of instruction, and
precious results were soon visible. The ground
had been thoroughly broken, and now, the seed
grew rapidly.  When Elijah fled to Horeb, so few
effects of his law ministry were visible that he
complained that lie stood alone; yet from the call
of Elisha and their joint ministry we read of no
more persecutions; the people seem to have gradually returned to the worship of Jehovah, notwithstanding the unfriendly influence of Ahab and
Jezebel; and only two years after Elijah's ascension the new king, Jehu, by one single stroke, utterly blotted out Baal-worship from  the kingdom
of Israel for ever.
As the highest model of the ministry is found in
our Lord Jesus Christ, we may justify the doctrines
and influence which God honours in any man, but
we may rather admire those who are most like the
great Master.  This honour belongs in no ordinary
degree to the prophet Elisha: his history may enforce to us many a precious lesson of the gospel of
Christ; and our interest should be the greater as we
learn that the old and new in the Church of God
affirm the same law and testify to the same grace.




CHAPTER  III.
THE TRANSLATION OF ELIJAMH.
PERIOD  of perhaps ten years intervened
~from the first call of Elisha until the translation of Elijah. Encouraged by the assurance that
there was so large a number of faithful men in
Israel by the direction to anoint successors for the
kingly and prophetical offices, and especially by
the divine declaration that Elisha should live to
complete the reformation from Baal-worship, now
happily begun in the land; instructed doubtless by
the great vision on the holy mount, and cured for
the rest of his life of his tendencies to despondency
in the Lord's work, Elijah returned  from  the
wilderness, called Elisha to share his labours, and
spent his remaining years in new and more quiet
forms of service. There were indeed public acts in
the life of Elijah Nvhieli belong to a later period
than his association with Elisha, but they confirm
the idea that a great change was secured by the
controversy at Carmel. With all her fierceness of
tone, Jezebel did not venture to carry her threats
into execution. From this time forward, persecution of the prophets ceased and quiet reigned in
48




THE TRANSLATION OF ELIJAH.        49
Israel. The royal family was not reformed, but it
was awed.  The seizure of INaboth's vineyard
shows, on the one hand, how an humble man dared
to stand up for his rights even against the court,
though, on the other hand, it exhibits the cunning of
the unscrupulous queen to effect her wicked end.
Arbitrary power dared not openly show itself, as
heretofore; the laws of the kingdom were sustained
by public opinion, as they were not in the earlier
years of Ahab; even the king must cover up his
violence under the form of legal proceedings; and
Jezebel would not resent the prophet's bold and
open reproof which denounced her own and Ahab's
death for their iniquity against Naboth. The controversy on Carmel was not in vain. Elijah had
fled from the land, driven by false fears. The people felt as they had not before; with all her malice,
Jezebel would not have dared to execute her threat:
perhaps the very warning given to the prophet was
proof of her weakness; Elijah was safe on his return, as he would have been safe if he had not fled
at all.
Under these favourable changes in public opinion
the two prophets began their joint ministry. A few
years after this, Ahab died by wounds received in
battle, and the dogs of Samnaria licked his blood, according to Elijah's word. Meanwhile the prophets
were doing a needful work.  God forsook not
Israel. In his great love to a degenerate people,
more excellent prophets were given in this age to
4




50          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
Israel than to Judah, because they were more
needed; and the pious portion of the people required special support (Patrick). We will not attempt, however, to describe the humble labours of
which so little is said. It often happens that the
most valuable work done for the good of any community attracts but little notice and receives but
brief record. Like the foundation of a magnificent
building, which is costly, but not sightly, and
which indeed is hidden under the ground, while it
supports the whole of what is visible, the labours
of teaching are modest, little appreciated and little
spoken of; but they are truly the foundation upon
which individual and national greatness must hereafter rest.
But the time came when these two prophets were
no longer to be associated. Elijah in his petulance
had wished to die prematurely; God dealt with him
better than this; the prophet was not to die at all.
Almost alone of all the human race, it was the
privilege of this holy prophet to leave the earth in
an extraordinary manner, without the pangs of
dying.
"The second man that leaped the ditch
Where all the rest of mankind fell,
And went not downward to the sky."
We are not told how much anticipation Elijah
had of this wonderful event, but it seems evident
from the narrative that it was separately revealed
to both the prophets, and either gathered from




THE TRANSLATION OF ELIJAH.         51
their serious demeanour, or learned also from on
high, by their disciples. What seems strange is,
that the elder prophet seems unconscious of the
penetration of the younger, and disposed to separate from his company, that he may meet this great
change alone. But Elisha, fully aware that their
parting hour drew near, though perhaps having as
yet no understanding of the method by which it
should be effected, desirous of prolonging their
intercourse while he may, and anxious to render
any service which might possibly belong to the
mysterious event before them, refused to be left behind on any pretext whatever. So they journeyed
both together, and this perhaps for several days
before the final parting. Elijah was desirous of
visiting the various schools of the prophets, and of
addressing to them his last counsels, yet without
the formal announcement that they should see his
face no more. Even between the two, the deep
consciousness that these are their last days of
earthly friendship seems to have found no expression in words.
The elder prophet has lost none of his interest in
his earthly work because it is so nearly done and
heaven is just before him.  This is one of the
excellences of religious services, that our work
gives more abundant satisfaction as we draw near
the confines of eternity-our interest in it abides and
follows us beyond the grave. How gladly would
we listen while Elijah and Elisha talk of their




52          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
great duties so near to their parting! Yet how
singular to notice that they keep down all allusions
to the event so close at hand, at least until just before the grand conclusion! This may have been
from that natural feeling which we so often find it
hard to break over-L-that in ordinary life makes us
shut our eyes to our evidently approaching separations. Our brethren languish before our eyes;
dangerous symptoms warn us, fearful forebodings
depress us: friends tell us, " IKnow ye not that the
Lord is about to take away;" yet we refuse to
realize the unwelcome eraching; we bid them hold
their peace, as we hold our own, and we are surprised at last by the unexpected close at which no
one else is surprised. Yet the prophets are more
communicative when Elijah knows that Elisha
will not leave him. We may properly believe that
they spent their final hours in closing counsels, to
be recalled and valued by Elisha for many days
afterward.
As they passed on, the tokens of the great event
became more manifest.  Leaving Jericho, they
approached the Jordan. In the ordinary language
of our religious life, we are so accustomed to speak
figuratively of the river Jordan, that divided the
wilderness where Israel so long wandered from the
Canaan of their promised rest, to make it significant of death itself, that like a narrow river separates our earthly trials and duties from our
immortal life, that we see a great propriety in




THE TRANSLATION OF ELIJAH.          53
Elijah's last miracle. He who is about to be
translated that he may not see death may well
cleave the Jordan and pass through dry-shod.
And having thus signified to Elisha what is so soon
to happen, he throws off his reserve, speaks directly
of being taken from him, and gives him the opportunity of asking what he will before their parting.
And Elisha asked, what even Elijah esteems a
hard thing: "And Elisha said, I pray thee let a
double portion of thy spirit be upon me." Commentators differ as to the meaning of the request.
They judge it lacks modesty to ask for twice as
large a portion as Elijah had: they usually prefer
to understand the double portion as a reference to
the privilege allotted to the first-born son, to whom
was given eminence over his brethren, and, as a
token of it, a double portion of the father's estate.
See Deut. xxi. 17. So Jacob took away Reuben's
birth-right for his misconduct, and gave Joseph a
portion above his brethren, Gen. xlviii. 22.  "So
the birth-right was Joseph's," 1 Chron. i. 2.
They therefore judge that among the sons of the
prophets Elisha desires to be declared the successor
of Elijah. But it is inconceivable that of such a
request Elijah would say, "Thou hast asked a hard
thing." For Elisha seems to have been designated
for his successor; and God's positive direction for
his anointing was given respecting none other, and
the assurance was a(lded that he should complete
Elijah's work. "Elisha shalt thou anoint to be




54          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
prophet in thy room," and "him  that escapeth
from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay," I Kings
xix. 17, are words that sufficiently designate his
succeeding to Elijah's work.
Perhaps we may get a better and simpler understanding  of this request by remembering that
Elijah's prophetic spirit was itself a twofold portion
above God's ordinary prophets; and this Elisha
desires to secure.  We have already noticed that
the power of working miracles was uncommon in
the Church. Up to this period of the world's
history before Elijah, only Moses and Joshua had
possessed the rare faculty. Eminent prophets had
spoken in the name of God, but had wrought no
miracles. This was an extraordinary combination
of spiritual gifts. Elijah had it; would it be given
or withheld from his successor?  This was a question too hard for the prophet to answer. He must
refer it directly to God; all he can do is to suggest
the token of a favourable answer. And Elisha
said, " Let, I pray thee, the portion of double, which
has been on thy spirit, be also upon me." He
desired the elder prophet's DOUBLE-PORTION'ED
GIFTS. He had asked what Elijah thought a great
thing; but that God who is never offended by his
people's large requests was pleased to answer.  He
did see the elder prophet as he was taken from him;
moreover he did possess this twofold honour, and
wrought miracles more abundantly than did Elijah;
and it seems to have been at the sight of his first




THE TRANSLATION OF ELIJAIH.          55
miracle that the sons of the prophet recognized in
him all he had thus asked. They easily discerned
that he no longer possessed simply the ordinary
powers of a prophet, but the extraordinary qualifications of Elijah. They saw the parted waters of the
Jordan, and said, "The spirit of Elijah does rest
on Elisha."
After the request was made, the two walked and
talked together, and soon after were suddenly separated. A chf'hiot of fire and horses of fire appeared; Elijah was borne aloft; Elisha was left
alone. Yet it was a great privilege that he saw the
ascension.  It was a sight never to be forgotten;
often recounted perhaps in the ears of his people;
often recalled to furnish glorious hopes of immortality; and the expression he used in parting with
Elijah was to be repeated by bereaved friends long
afterward at his own lamented departure. Why
others of the people or the sons of the prophets
were not allowed to witness this scene, we do not
know. Some suppose that the sons of the prophets
saw the translation across the Jordan. At least the
apostles were allowed to see the simpler and more
glorious ascension of Jesus.  Doubtless the doctrines of the translation of Enoch and Elijah, in
their respective ages, were explained and enforced
in the hearing of their assemblies by their religious
teachers, and the evidences and the consolations of
piety were thereby increased.  The august scene
we vainly attempt to imagine. Elisha saw it. His




56          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
prayer was granted. iNot only so. In token that
he needed earthly garments no more, and that
Elisha was to possess all it signified, the ascending
prophet dropped his mantle to the earth.
Elisha not only cried out, but gave also the usual
Oriental sign of grief in that he rent his own.
clothes. It would seem to us surely that in this
case, if in any departure from earth, there need be no
lamentation, but Elisha might have been justified
in a song of triumphal congratulation to the glorified prophet ascending thus in the chariots of Israel.  But indeed here is substantially the same
cause of sorrow that usually belongs to us when
pious friends are removed.  We mourn the righteous dead for our own sakes, not for theirs.
"When such friends part,'tis the Saviour dies."
Even the translated Elijah is the lamented prophet.
No matter how triumphant is the departure, the
loss to the Church is the same; we are comforted
concerning those that are prepared to go; and yet
after all those who are most ready we may truly
mourn, for we can little afford to lose them. Yet
the very source of our sorrows in our loss should
moderate our grief; especially when we reflect that
the Lord God of Elijah removes his servant, and
himself forsakes not his people.
So, as Elisha took up the prophet's mantle and
turned his steps homeward, he gave proof of his
faith in the pledge he had received by repeating




THE TRANSLATION OF ELIJAH.         57
Elijah's wonder that he might recross the Jordan.
He smote the river with the nmantle, as he had seen
Elijah do; he called upon the God of Elijah; the
waters divided as before, and Elisha passed through.
Both these miracles of the divided waters seem to
have been witnessed by a company of the sons of
the prophets to the number of fifty men, who had
followed them as far as the river, but were not permitted to cross-who had wished to see the mysterious closing scene, but doubtless did not. As the
time was short from Elisha's first crossing until his
return alone, these men tarried still by the Jordan;
and when they saw him repeat the wonder of Elijah, they readily recognized his right to wear the
prophet's mantle and to take his place.
Yet these men could not realize the stupendous
wonder that had taken place. Elijah had not died;
lie was still in the body; he was taken up by the
winds; might he not be cast down again in some
place where lie might stand in need of their assistance.  This expression seems to imply that the
Spirit of God did sometimes miraculously transfer
the prophets from one place to another. So when
Obadiah was sent to tell Ahab, " Behold, Elijah is
here," he feared that while he went the Spirit would
bear the prophet away, 1 Kings xviii. 12. So the
Spirit took up Ezekiel and transferred him to the
children of the captivity, Ezek. iii. 12, 14; so the
Spirit caught Philip away from the eunuch's chariot,
Acts viii. 39. Indeed the question, What became




58          THE'PROPHET ELISHA.
of Elijah? has given great perplexity to the Jews
in far later times; this none the less because of
Malachi's prophecy that Elijah should come again.
This we know our Lord interprets of John the
Baptist, who came in the spirit and power of Elijah, Matt. xvii. 10-13; Luke i. 17. The sons of
the prophets, in indefinite fears respecting him, requested permission to search for him. Elisha knew
that all their searchings would be in vain, and refused to let them go. But upon their persistent
importunity-he granted permission. He was willing that they should be satisfied upon the subject;
he would not seem wanting in any proper respect
for Elijah; he would not assume authority too peremptory in such a case as this. But they thus
learned their first lesson of Elisha's competency.
As he said, so it proved. Their search was vain.
Elijah was no more on earth, but had gone to the
heavenly Paradise.
We may reasonably believe that the translation
of Elijah was a great aid to the future influence of
Elisha, so that it is impossible for us to judge of
the usefulness of these two prophets as of two separate interests. There were not wanting some in
that age that were skeptical and scoffing concerning
the fact of Elijah's ascension-a skepticism which,
as we shall see, laid the foundation of a divine rebuke which doubtless silenced all opposition in that
matter.  But we know that the enemies of good
men often praise them after they are gone; and it




THE TRANSLATION  OF ELIJAH.               59
would not be strange if they, the very opponents of
Elijah, felt a new reverence for his counsels after he
was taken away in a manner so remarkable. This
event was designed to have its influence upon the welfare of the Church.  Henceforward the friends of
piety would find a large increase of faith and boldness, would rejoice in the divine consolations, would
have higher anticipations of the future life. The
ascension of Christ, we know, was the great joy and
strength of his disciples. Elijah as a servant could
not rise to the high measure of his Lord, yet it is
reasonable to think that his translation was a glory
and a power in that age to strengthen the hands of
godly men and to confound the thoughts of opposers.
NoTE.-The mantle of Elijah is not once mentioned after
the recrossing of the Jordan. No matter of what materials or
shape, it is used in the inspired narrative as a symbol of Elijah's prophetic character; we need go no farther in our inquiries concerning it than to know this; and we have personally
no sympathy with the affected discernment of that style of
learning that finds in Elijah an exemplar of the Oriental dervish, or would speak of him as " the great Israelitish dervish."
Smith's Dictionary, ii. 232; Stanley's E. Church, 443.




CHAPTER IV.
TH-E WATERS AT JERICHO MHEALED.
RlE first miracle recorded of Elisha was perhaps, as we have seen, in the sight of fifty men,
the sons of the prophets. The new characteristic
of his ministry, as foreshadowing the beneficent
works of Christ, immediately appears. For the
first time in the history of the Church, application
was directly made to a prophet of God to do a
beneficent miracle on behalf of the people. MIoses
brought water out of the rock to answer the murmurings of Israel; Elijah raised to life the widow's
son when she, doubtless, looked for no such relief;
but here the elders of the city, with a new sympathy toward a milder prophet, whom they may veunture to approach, request Elisha to grant them a
m uch-needed relief.
The city of Jericho had been destroyed lby
Joshua, and he had uttered a solemn curse against
the man who should dare to rebuild it. This curse,
in the days of Ahab, had fallen upon the family
of Hiel, a man of Bethel, a city of whose wickedness we shall soon have further occasion to speak.
Partaking of the unbelief of his people, he defied
60




THE WATERS AT JERICHIO HEALED.    61
the warning of Joshua, and paid the penalty in the
partial or entire destruction of his family. It may
be that Joshua's curse was further fillfilled in the
barrenness of the ground by reason of some peculiar quality of the water.
Modern travellers speak of a fine spring yet
flowing near Jericho, which may be the one here
spoken of.  Dr. Thomson says: " In the afternoon
we visited again Ain es Sultan" (i. e., the Fountain
of the Sultan; it is sometimes called the Fountain
of Elisha).  "This fountain rises at the base of a
hill which has the appearance of an Indian mound,
though rather too large for a work of art. But
there are many similar tells in the plain, and they
were probably thrown up for the same purpose as
those which are so numerous in America. The
water is sufficiently abundant to turn a large mill,
is beautifully transparent, sweet and cool, and
swarms with small fish.  There seems to be no
reason to doubt the tradition that this is the identical fountain whose bitter waters Elisha healed." *
To this we add from Mr. Stephens that "several
streams constantly running firom it refresh and
fertilize the plains of Jericho." t
It is made then an appropriate beginning of
Elisha's ministry, since his prevailing spirit is
evangelical, to remove the curse which had been
pronounced by a sterner prophet; and the wonder
* The Land and the Book, ii. 449.
t Incidents of Travel, ii. 200.




62          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
becomes typical of Elisha's prophetic services. The
city was pleasantly situated; but of what avail are
other advantages if an element so important as water
is wanting; or, worse than this, if unwholesome
waters flow there?  So may we judge in all moral
matters. Here is a community having distinguished
advantages of wealth and intelligence and freedom
and influence; but what are all these if the waters
of barrenness, unrighteousness and irreligion flow
forth to curse the people? Here is a Church, possessing the Bible and the sanctuary and the ministry; but what are even these if the barren waters
of formalism, falsehood and worldly conformity
flowv forth there?  Here is an individual, who has
his lot in a land of pleasantness and dwells in a
goodly heritage; but he drinks not of the waters of
salvation, and has not in him the grace of the
Spirit springing up unto everlasting life. The design of the gospel is to heal the barren waters; its
power alone can effect this. Let the salt of divine
grace be cast into the springs of influence and the
waters are changed. The pleasantness of the city
becomes an abode, not cursed, but blessed of God.
Elisha's miracle healed the waters by simple, apparently inappropriate means.  He called for salt
and a new cruse. All suspicion of any natural
energy in the means employed is put away. He
uses a new vessel, that the virtue may not be ascribed to something it had formerly contained; he
uses salt, which is usually thought to induce rather




THE WATERS AT JERICHO HEALED.   63
than to cure sterility; so the power of healing is
evidently from God, whose name he invokes. So
Elisha's ministry is to be a blessing, and it has this
appropriate beginning. From this miracle comes
the familiar phraseology by which we speak of the
salt of divine grace being cast into the sources of
influence.
In his Synopsis, Matthew Pool quotes authorities
for declaring that the Romish Church takes the
practice of sprinkling holy water from this miracle
of Elisha. "I wonder," he quaintly adds, " why
it does not use figs, because Isaiah used them in
healing Hezekiah's sore!" But Middleton proves
that "holy water " has a pagan origin.




CHAPTER V.
TH-E JUDGMENT BY THEB BEARS AT BETHEL.
WE may give a more carefill consideration to
the next miracle recorded of this prophet.
Leaving Jericho, Elisha came to the city of Bethel.
Here he was met by a crowd of rude boys, who
mocked and jeered at him as he passed by the way.
To understand this case, let us notice its several
parts:
I. We are told there came forth "little children."
But from the use of this term we are unable to decide much respecting the age of these persons. The
same term is used in the Scriptures for persons who
are doubtless far past the age of childhood. Isaac
is termed a lad at a time when he was over thirty
years old; and Solomon calls himself a "little
child" when he was forty years of age, and actually
king of Judah.  See Gen. xxii. 12; 1 Kings iii.
7. So in various passages this word is used of
adult persons, though not there usually with the
word "little" (1 Sam. xxx. 17). The same may
be said of a different word used in this narrative
(in verse 24), which in 1 Kings xii. 8 is used for
the young men, associates of King Rehoboam, he
64




JUDGMENT BY THE BEARS AT BETHEL.  65
being then forty years old, who counselled him
contrary to the advice of the old men. It is proper
to judge that at least the ringleaders of this mob,
upon whom fell the curse of the prophet, were of
that larger class of riotous boys who are so often
the pests of a disorderly town, whose reformation
awvakens the anxiety of our best citizens, and whose
control demands the wisdom and energy of our best
police.
1I. This thing occurred at Bethel.
The name signifies " the house of God," and the
early associations of the place are sufficiently delightful. There the weary patriarch Jacob laid him
down to sleep, saw in a vision the angels of God
ascending and descending, anointed his altar and
bestowed the name-This is Bethel, the house of
God, the gate of heaven! But, alas! times have
changed in Bethel and with the descendants of
Jacob! Wre may judge of the character of any
people when we know  what are their religious
p)rofessions, and what are the institutions maintained and cherished among them. For eighty
years past, Bethel had been one of the chief abodes
of idolatry as practiced among the ten tribes of
Israel. When Jeroboam became king of these
tribes, he was afraid that his people, if allowed to
go freely to worship at Jerusalem, might become
reconciled to the family of David, and might overthrow the new kingdom. Accordingly, he wished
to provide religious services at home. Himself
5




66          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
corrupted with the idolatry of Egypt, where he had
been long an exile (1 Kings xi. 40), he introduced
the worship of two golden calves; erecting one at
Bethel and the other at Dan, with the usual train
of priests to maintain a magnificent style of worship. Thus he attempted to draw off the people
from their allegiance to Jehovah. During the two
or three generations that had passed away up to the
times of Elisha, this corruption had filll time to
work; and we may easily judge that during the
reign of Ahab the city of Bethel, as one of the
chief seats of idolatry in the land, would be a warm
partisan of Jezebel, and would be thoroughly hostile to the reforming efforts of Elijah.
It speaks well for the bold faithfulness of the
Lord's prophets that they were ready to do their
work even in the idolatrous city of Bethel.  Elijah and Elisha established here one of the schools
of the prophets. Thus they confronted idolatry in
its very stronghold, and beyond question they
used all their influence to bring the guilty inhabitants of the place to repentance.  It is easy to.tinderstand that the power and influence of idolatry
were greater in Bethel, because for the whole kingdom it was one of two great centres for that kind
of worship, and doubtless of greater importance
than the rival city of Dan. If Jeroboam  had
erected a golden calf in every town, then Bethel
might have been no worse than neighbouring places.
But the tribes all around them, in the most popu



JUDGMENT BY THE BEARS AT BETHEL.  67
Ious part of the kingdom, came to Bethel to worship; it was the Jerusalem of the Israelitish State,
and the town owed its prominence, its worldly
prosperity and its wealth to its golden god. Thus
the Bethelites would naturally learn to glory in
that worship which brought population and honour
and wealth to their city; the golden calf which was
their shame became their boast, and they could bear
with nothing that in any wise reflected upon the
rising institutions of idol-worship. People easily
forget principles when their eyes are fixed on profits. The people of Bethel became deeply imbued
with the abominable sentiments of Jeroboam  and
Jezebel; they taught their children to uphold the
idol-worship, without which the flourishing city
of Bethel would be reduced to a level with the insignificant towns around; and no small hostility
was awakened against the school of the prophets, so
opposed, as they would argue, to the true interests
of the place. There would not be wanting men to
stir up the baser passions of the people by reminding them that by this craft they had their wealth,
and by the cry, " Great is the golden calf of Jeroboam!"  The institution for training prophets to
Jehovah was not popular at Bethel.
III. We may further notice the time and the
significance of the insult offered to Elisha.
The tile was upon his first appearing at Bethel
after the ascension of Elijah. Some days certainly
(2 Kings ii. 17, 18), or even some weeks, may have




68          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
passed since that event; and the tidings had spread
through Israel that the elder prophet had been
taken up to heaven. Surely an event like this was
adapted, if anything could be, to produce a deep
impression upon all the people, and even to soften
the hardened hearts of Elijah's nlost bitter enemies.
WMhen a good man is removed from the scenes of
earth, it is a common thing for the voice of hatred
and censure to die away; perhaps the respect due
to his memory is called forth from lips that have
reviled him; and indeed he may even receive loud
praises from those who love his principles no better
than before. That seems indeed a hatred more than
usually bitter that survives the death of its object,
and sends the shafts of calumny through the darkness that gathers over a grave. The ascension of
Elijah was a departure from earth even more remarkable than death; and we would think that so
signal a proof of the divine favour would secure,
if nothing more, the silence of his foes. Such a
life and such a departure! Could malice now say
aught against these or him?
In Bethel, Elijah was well known. How were the
tidings of his departure, in a manner so illustrious,
received among that people? Perhaps with unbelief.
Though they knew the proofs of divine power in
him, and the sincerity and truthfulness of both
the prophets, they may have ventured to attribute
falsehood to Elisha when he proposed, with so bold
a statement, to account for Elijah's disappearance.




JUDGMENT BY THE BEkRS AT BETHEL.  69
But if even they disbelieved the translation, they
doubtless believed that Elijah was no more on
earth, and would appear no more among them.
And these convictions filled Bethel with joy. This
belief soon spread from one end of the city to the
other; it was the theme on every lip, the topic of
conversation in every household, that the chief
teacher in that institution established to denounce
the existing worship in Bethel was no more upon
the earth. And now that Elijah was gone, they
would gladly be rid also of Elisha. This perhaps
was the sentiment of the city before they again saw
Elisha. So, upon his first return to Bethel, they
were prepared for his reception, and a rabble went
forth to meet him, and to scoff at him in language
personally insulting and jeeringly referring to the
glorious ascension of Elijah. We need not judge
that Elisha was really bald. He was scarcely old
enough to lose his hair through age; and indeed in
some Oriental countries this epithet is one of reproach applied to those that have plenty of hair.
They meant it as a reproach, whatever may have
been the prophet's personal appearance. But the
chief insult was in the words, " Go up." It may
have been the insulting language of unbelief. "Go
up now: you tell us your master has gone up; let
us have the proof of it in your own ascension before our eyes."  It may express the bitter hatred
the Bethelites bore toward these men of God;
"Go up nonw; we are glad Elijah has gone; we will




70          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
be glad also to be rid of you." PNor does there
seem to be any possil)le interpretation that can be
put upon the time, place, manner and terms of these
insulting expressions toward this man of God that
does not imply irreverence and hatred of all that is
holy and excellent and venerable.  A  man of
eminent purity of character is reviled; a prophet of
exalted authority is insulted; the thing is done in
the streets of a city where he spent at least a portion of his time, and had all the claims of a resident;
and the basis of all unquestionably is, that the
people were the degraded worshippers of Jeroboam's golden image, while this man was an
honoured servant of the God of Israel.
In view of such thoughts it seems a matter of
little importance to ask the age of the children who
use language like this toward Jehovall's prophet.
We gather from their conduct an estimate of the
state of family training in that entire community;
for if the household in Bethel had been respectful
to these prophets, or had taught the reverence due
from the people of Israel to the prophets of the
God of Israel, no such mob, composed of children
large enough to go out and meet Elisha, and to use
such language towardl him, could have been sent
forth from the city. In any way we look fairly at
the case, it is not hard to justify the prophet's curse.
He turned back and cursed them in the name of
the Lord. We must of course dismiss the thought
of passion or profanity in such a man as he, and




JUDGMENT BY THE BEARS AT BETHEL.  71
conceive of this thing as done with the utmost
seriousness.  He  did  this thing  so by divine
authority that his words fell not in vain. God
answered the prophet's language by sending forth
from the woods two fierce bears* which slew fortytwo-perhaps the ringleaders of the crowd.
Now if we suppose that these were children of
tender years we can justify this severity.  For indeed nothing is more shocking to every proper feeling than to see irreverence and disrespect of serious
things on the part of children. Let us not say that
these are to be excused because of the immaturity
of their faculties.  Rather it is the mischievous and
morbid maturity of principles that is exceedingly
unnatural in a child. Youth is the period of simple
and candid and respectful feelings; when children
are found pert, forward, disposed to trample on the
feelings or the rights of others, they have learned
lessons already that belong not to their age; for
when they are under a wise and wholesome discipline in the household, they pay a ready and cheerful homage to worth and piety. And what prospect was there that the boys of Bethel, who had already learned to mock at God's prophets and to
ridicule so sacred a thing as Elijah's ascension,
would become good and useful men ill later years?
If they were old enough to do this through their
own malice and wickedness, they deserved the
* The Syrian bear is perhaps equally to be dreaded with the
lion in a close encounter. The Land and the Book, i. 373.




72          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
judgment.  If they were so young that their youth
is any valid apology, then is the judgment and
evidence of the divine displeasure upon their
parents, without whose guilt no such scene could
have occurred, and who were scourged in this fearful bereavement.
Taking the whole transaction as revealing the
character of the population of that city, we may
learn important lessons. The people of Bethel had
gone far in apostasy from Jewish principles before
such a scene of wickedness could take place there
from any class of their children.  No one thing is
more characteristic of a true piety, according to the
teachings of the sacred volume, than a profound
impression of the importance and the responsibility
of the parental office, as we are bidden to watch
over, to rule and to train our children. But, alas!
it is no peculiarity belonging to the ancient city of
Bethel that a crowd of boys could be gathered
upon the streets to mock at good things and to
cast their ribald reproaches upon good men. There
is scarcely perhaps a Christian city in this land,
and in an age noted for its spreading light both of
piety and civilization, where the like might not
occur, and still cause but little surprise; and where,
if such conduct did occur, there might not be
found men to apologize for it on the score of the
youthfilness of the offenders.  As if, in view of the
morals of the community, it did not rather make
the matter worse to see depravity so ripe fiom seeds




JUDGMENT BY THE BEARS AT BETHEL.  73
so lately sown! As if the promise of future mischief was not even more dreadful when children
start so early on so bad a course! As if the vileness
of the young was not the worst possible token of
the state of religion and morals in the entire community! Why is it that men allow themselves to
be so deceived as to wink at juvenile depravity, or
to think that these things naturally tend to work
their own cure? Has not experience always proved
that evil habits grow stronger as the mind and
body become mature? Sin gathers strength as the
sinner grows older, and every evidence of youthful
depravity is a dangerous forewarning of ripened
iniquity in riper years.
Now we are taught by this judgment on the
rabble at Bethel that God looks not lightly on these
outbreakings of juvenile wickedness.  The Scriptures wisely say: "Even a child is known by his
doings," Prov. xx. 11. We may justly lay much
of the responsibility upon the parent when we see
early proofs of gross iniquity, but we are not to
excuse either the parent or the child. Any man
may, if he pleases, busy himself to define the exact
limits of personal responsibility in each; it is not
at all necessary for us to do anything of this kind;
God has blended together the interests, duties and
responsibilities of parents and children; and it is
not possible, nor is it of any practical importance,
to' run the line between them.  Our duties and
responsibilities may be understood and enforced,




74         THE PROPH ET ELISHA.
though our social relations increase rather than
lighten the burden. We are in no danger of putting too high an estimate upon a careful and religious training in early life; we should note here
that God marks the iniquities of even youthfuil
offenders; we should fear his judgments upon sinners, young or old, in Bethel or in ally Christian
city.
And indeed so long as man is the possessor of a
depraved nature these salutary lessons cannot become obsolete, but retain their value for every age
and community. Evils threatening the best interests of piety and the happiness of the young must
be guarded against in each succeeding generation.
There is perhaps a prevalent disposition for each
age and each community to look back and complain
of the decline of family order. How truly we
might do this, let us not now inquire; doubtless
many such comparisons are both incomplete and
unwise. Eccles. vii. 10. But we can discern that in
the families that usually fall under our notice, the
training and discipline of the household are not as
they should be; and if any other community is
worse in these matters than we are, it but needs a
deeper repentance, which yet lightens not at all the
burden of our responsibilities. We may justly acknowledge that in the prospering communities of
our Western States there is far more attention now
given than could be given in the forming state of
our society for the intellectual training of our chil



JUDGMENT BY THE BEARS AT BETHEL. 75
dren; while every true friend of education must acknowledge that much still remains to be done in regard to these important interests. But there are serious defects to be noticed and corrected in regard to
the higher education of the heart and the conscience,
and the preparation of the young for the direct service of their Creator. Take but this one suggestion.
Nothing is easier to effect, if parents are but properly disposed to secure it-nothing would give better proof of a deep interest in the religious welfare
of our families-few things are more important for
their bearing upon the future than the attendance
of our children upon the public services of religion.
The attendance of children in any community upon
the sanctuary and the Sabbath-school ought to be
larger than that upon our public week-day schools.
Many parents keep their children employed upon
other days; but employments should be no interference upon Sabbath attendance. Yet our public
schools are fully and punctually attended, as compared with the sanctuary and the Sabbath-school;
and it is to be feared that those who most neglect
these more public means of a religious education
do but little for the pious training of their children
in the household; and such contrasts are too good
evidence of lamentable neglect of those high interests.
And the proofs lie not only in such negative considerations. We cannot shut our eyes from things
that call forth a patriot's concern, a Christian's anx



76          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
iety. In all our streets we may hear the vile utterances of profanity from boys, not even half grown;
we may see their disgusting imitations of the vices
of older ruffians, which not seldom require the interference of a police officer; we may witness the
lounging and idleness, and even the boisterous
rudeness, of Sabbath desecration upon the corners
of our streets and around our suburbs; and we may
listen to the weak excusings of parents, who apologize for their sinful neglect in the past and shameful inefficiency in the present in the confession,
"We cannot control our children."  These are
matters of high concern.   The evil is acknowledged. The divine judgment upon the juvenile
profligates at Bethel may remind us that God overlooks not nor disregards the sins of youth.  And
knowing that evil things wax worse and worse, the
whole matter needs thought and prayer and activity.
We cannot too thoroughly consider the dangers
which beset the young, to lead them astray from
the paths of piety and to bring upon them and us
the fast judgments of God. We should never overlook the serious truths that they are partakers of a
sinful nature, that temptations attend every step
of their going forward in life, and that there are no
successful safeguards except those which prepare
the heart itself to resist evil and to choose good.
Wise restraints are valuable, but they are not
enough. We must do more than keep from evil;
we must train to holy thoughts and aims and deeds.




JUDGMENT BY THE BEARS AT BETHEL. 77
The basis of all is in the serious, prayerful, diligent contemplation of parental obligations.  Can
any responsibility be more serious than that which
rests upon a parent? To him, in the early years
of a child's immortal life, is committed a care so
complete, so full of authority, so momentous, so
controlling!  Children  are usually what their
parents have made them. We cannot mean that
the iniquity of youthful offenders is the designed
result of parental training. This would be a wide
misjudgment indeed.  If only the children of
profligate parents proved also profligate, the evils
we deplore would be confined within narrower
limits. The errors lie not so much in purpose as
affection.  Parents usually love their children,
usually desire to see them become useful, honourable, upright men. There are other sources of
difficulty.
The importance of forming only good habits of
thought and word and deed in very early life is
too little acknowledged; evil tendencies are undervalued; their dangerous nature is not perceived; it
is thought they will exert no long influence; sometimes they are even applauded as proofs of intellect
or spirit; and no careful energies are put forth to
nip sin in the bud. Parents allow children to be in
companies where they themselves would not go,
and to do things which they would not do, as if
there was less evil in exposure to temptation for a
child than for an adult! Possibly, so far as present




78          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
wrong is concerned, this judgment may be true; but
so far as an influence for future mischief is concerned, it is certainly more dangerous to expose a
child to temptation than an older person. The bad
impression of one single misspent hour may never
be effaced. Immature strength may be strained by
a i-urden which a stronger muscle easily lifts.
Many parents seem never to employ their common
sense in the moral training of their children. They
have an exquisite taste as to a daughter's dress, but
the better part is neglected. A man who would
not trust a bungling workman to make a coat or a
boot, much less to build a house, yet judges that
the reasonable and immortal beings whom God has
committed to his care may be trained for this world
and the next with no diligent and careful study
and labour bestowed upon their moral culture. Ignorance and neglect on the part of parents do the
young more mischief than even the busy tempters
about them. Yet in such a case ignorance and neglect are inexcusable crimes, and their consequences
are deplorably disastrous.
The rising generation are the hope of the Church
and of the world, and Scripture and reason mark
their youth as the golden season of improvement.
Not peculiarly in religion, but in every sphere of
life where lessons are to be learned, the young are
apt pupils. While children are beneath the parental roof the character for life is usually formed.
Youth may be the only time to teach our children,




JUDGMENT BY THE BEARS AT BETHEL. 79
for they may soon be gone. If not the only time,
it is still the best. Let us not judge that our children must first enjoy the world before they find
their portion in God. So far as the world is innocent, they need not give it up for religion's sake; so
far as the world is guilty, it is madness to make
light of their attachment to it at any age. Nor
should we judge that children are incapable of thq
knowledge and affections of true piety. In any
school-room we may justly commend a child's improvement and intelligence, even though he belongs
to the lowest class in the school, for we make allowances for what we should properly expect in
each particular case. In a boy, as Legh Richmond
properly says, we must look for "a boy's religion,
a boy's knowledge, a boy's faith, and a boy's salvation;" and the Scriptures greatly encourage the approach of the young to their forgiving God.
Let the young draw near to God. They are
specially invited.  Well does Dr. Watts write"'Twill save you from a thousand snares
To mind religion young;
Grace will preserve your following years,
And make your virtues strong."
And God marks iniquity against the young.  He
said of the good young Josiah, "Because thine
heart was tender,... I have heard thee," 2 Kings
xxii. 19. But he saw and punished the scoffing
youths of Bethel.




CHAPTER VI.
TrUB DISTRESSED ARMJIES DELIV:ERED.
THE history of the prophet now becomes connected with the train of civil affairs in the
kingdom of Israel. We read next of Elisha in
the camp of war; and to understand the whole we
must notice the ruling authorities in Israel, and
the enemies and the allies of the kingdom.
Ahab was now dead: his son Ahaziah, after a
reign of two years, was dead also; and the
crown devolved upon Jehoram, another son of
Ahab. This son was not so completely addicted
to idols as his parents: he partially suppressed
Baal-worship, yet continued the worship of the
two calves of Jeroboam, which had indeed become
an essential characteristic of the State policy of the
kingdom  of the ten tribes.  Jehoram  found it
necessary to begin a war against Moab, which had
rebelled against the Israelitish dominion. Every
reader of the Old Testament history must be somewhat familiar with the Moabitish character. These
people were the descendants of Lot. They were
therefore the kindred of the children of Abraham;
the country on the other side of Jordan and of the
80




THE DISTRESSED ARMIES DELIVERED.  81
Dead Sea belonged to them; and nMoses was forbidden to molest thelnm when lie attacked the Canaanitish tribes.  Btit the Moabites, not content with
the inhumanity of refusing Israel a peaceable an(l
even gainful passage through  their territories
(Detnt. xxiii. 3, seq.) first hired Balaam to curse the
people, and then, by the advice of that bad man,
led Israel into evil, and brought upon both nations
the wrath of Jehovah.  The Moabites from  this
tihme forward are numbered among the most hostile
of the nations around Israel, and frequent wars were
the result of their mutual antipathies.  In the weak
period of the Judges, Israel was subject to Moab
(Judg. iii. 14), but in the stronger days of David,
Moab was subdued and rendered tributary. When
the kingldom was divided the Moabites were made
subject to the kingdom of the ten tribes. Perhaps
the weakness of the throne in the days of Ahab
first emboldened them to throw off the yoke and refuse the customary tribute.  Ahab was a warlike
prince, but his power was crippled, partly by the
religious persecutions which  he  madly  waged
against his own subjects, partly by the divine judgments upon the land for idolatry, and partly by
the fierce wars he was obliged to carry on with
Syria. The tribute imposed upon Moab was large:
some judge it was not annual, but paid upon the
accession of a new king in Israel. The twenty-two
years of Ahab's reign had so weakened his kingdom that Moab correctly judged that his- son
6




82          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
Ahaziah would be unable to enforce this claim.
So they refused to pay. Two years afterward that
weak prince left the throne to his brother, and
Moab still proving rebellious, Jehoram made
preparations to compel their submission.
At this time Jehoshaphat was the king of
Judah. He was one of the best of their kings,
but is censured in the Scriptures because he entered
into close alliances with the idolatrous family of
Ahab. First we find him joining cordially with
Ahab in his war against the Syrians; then marryin, his son to a (laughter of Ahab; now becoming
an ally with Jehoram, and perhaps uniting at this
same period in a naval expedition, which, however,
resulted in a disaster, their vessels being all shipwrecked on the Red Sea, 2 Chron. xx. 37. It is
likely that this new alliance took pllace the next
year after Jehoshaphat had himself obtained a signal triumph over the Moabites and the Ammonites,
as recorded in 2 Chron. xx.  That victory had
weakened the Moabites, at the same time that it
mlade Jehoshaphat more ready to join the king of
Israel in this new expedition. He brought with
him the auxiliary forces of the king of Edom, which
was at that time subject to Judah.
There seems to have been another reason- of some
interest leading to the closer intercourse of the two
nations at this time and their alliance in this war
against Moab. In 2 Kings ii. 17, Jehoram, the
king of Israel, is said to have come to the throne




THE DISTRESSED ARMIIES DELIVERED.  83" in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehostaplat, because he (i. e., his predecessor and brother,
Ahaziah) had no son."  But in 2 Kings iii. 1, this
same Jehoram is declared to have begun his reign
in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat. It would
appear from  comparing various passages that because of his father's sore infirmities (2 Chron. xvi.
12), Jehoshaphat was for a time associated with his
father on the throne, and that he associated with
himself his son Jehoram in the rule of Judah. So
then there were two kings named Jehoram-one the
son and successor of Ahab in Israel; the other the
son and associate of Jehoshaphat in Judah.
Jehoram, king of Israel, came to the throne in the
second year of the associated reign of the kings of
Judah, but in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat's
reign. Now as Jehoshaphat's son had married the
daughter of Ahab (2 Chron. xxi. 6), it follows that
the two Jehorams were brothers-in-law.  Such
relationship would naturally bind the two kingdoms together more closely. But indeed all this
was to the great injury of Judah. More harm than
good came of intimacy with Ahab's house. Jehoshaphat had already suffered defeat at Ramoth-Gilead
for his alliance with the king of Israel; here he
puts his entire army in great peril in their march
against Moab; and his son Jehoram after his
father's death turned from his father's good ways
to do after the manner of his wife's family. We
may well wonder at Jehoshaphat, that he was will



84          THE PRIOPHET ELISHA.
ing to bring such danger to the throne of Judah as
to marry his son into such a family, and thus place
a daughter of Jezebel in the palaces of Jerusalem.
Various conjectures are made as to the route taken
by the allied armies in advancing against Moab.
It may have been adopted because the nearest advance would lead them past the strong fortifications
of Ramoth-Gilead, where the combined forces of
Jehoshaphat and Ahab had been defeated a few
years before, and which were still held by the
Syrians. Or it may have been for the purpose of
securing more completely the doubtful fidelity of
the Edomites, who did throw off the yoke of Judah under Jehoshaphat's successor (2 Chron. xxi. 8),
or to prevent these doubtful allies from passing
through the territories of Judah.*  But, whatever
may lave been the reason for their movement, the
three kings, instead of immediately crossing the
Jordan and advancing against Moab, passed into
a wilderness region south of Judah, and went a
seven days' march, where the entire army was in
danger of perishing with thirst.  In this extremity
the king of Israel knew not which way to turn.
He speaks of the calamity as a judgment from the
Lord, but is not used to asking relief at his hands.
But Jehoshaphat was a pious prince, and accustomed to ask counsel from the prophets of the Lord.
Indeed the victory he had gained but the year before over the Moabites and their allies had been
* Smith's Dict., art. Moab.




THE DISTRESSED ARMIES DELIVERED.  85given him in the hour of his weakness by the great
mercy of God; and this experience teaches him
how to seek succour from him who gave it before.
Knowing well the characteristics of the house
of Ahab, he asked not simply for a prophet, but
for a prophet of the Lord. He was told that
Elisha the son of Shaphat, " who poured water upon
the hands of Elijah, was there." Perhaps Jehoshaphat had not heard of Elisha, but Elijah was
well known to him, and he had doubtless heard
of his translation. Yet it is quite likely that he
had heard of Elisha, and was ready to recognize
at once his prophetic character. The Orientals are
greatly averse to using water that has already been
used. Hence they rarely dip their hands into any
but running water, and they usually wash by
having the water poured upon the hands; this is
therefore the duty of an attendant, and the phrase
here signifies this. Elisha had been the servant,
but is now the successor of Elijah. Before honour
is humility. It is related of one of the most excellent modern missionaries to China that when he
appeared before the committee of the London Missionary Society, some of the ministers, in their great
anxiety to send out only worthy men, did not think
him prepared to be a missionary, but offered to
send him out if he would go as an assistant to the
missionaries. The noble and devoted man replied
that he was ready to go in any capacity if he could
only be engaged in the work. Upon missionary




86          THE PROPHET ELISH1A.
ground lie was willing to be a hewer of wood or a
drawer of water to build up the temple of God.
With such a spirit we need not wonder to know
that he became a most efficient labourer, one of the
most valuable of their missionaries in that country.
We do not know how Elislha came to be within
reach of the kings, that they might consult with
him in this emergency. We do not know whether
or not we are to understand that he had accompanied the armies and -was then actually in its camp.
It is possible he was not there; but the armies had
some supplies, and by rapid journeys, such as an
army could not take, the kings might reach him.
But it is more likely that in the good providence of
God he was then in the camp, and it is not much
to the credit of the king of Israel that he did not
even know of his presence. It would have been
better if these kings had consulted the Lord's will
before they began this enterprise, rather than now
in their time of extremity. Yet, alas! thus it is too
often with our poor hiuman nature. Pious men
like Jehoshapllat, and wicked men like Jehoram,
are prone to forget God in prosperity and to seek
after him when they are fuill of troubles. So men
learn to associate God with sorrows, bereavements
and calamities, and separate their joys, successes
and pleasures from all thoughts of religion and his
service. But the fault of this belongs to themselves. From many a sorrow swould men be saved
if they set the Lord always before them; in many




THE DISTRESSED ARMIES DELIVERED.  87
a joy would men find larger and better pleasure if
they recognized God as the Giver of it. Our sorrows often come in the divine faithfulness, and to
keep us from an utter forgetfulness of God. If
we remembered God and our duty in the day of
prosperity, we would be spared many a severe stroke
now sent to recal our thoughts; if we never wandered from him, we would not feel the chastisements by whose means he brings wanderers back.
Human ignorance sometimes, guilty forgetfulness
of God sometimes, are the true sources of the deep
afflictions which make us desire to seek God, and
lead us to ask, with these anxious kings, " Is there
not here a prophet of the Lord?"
The king of Israel himself seems to know nothing of Elisha. The information comes from a servant. We know that in the evil court of Ahab
and in times of persecution there was a pious
Obadiah-faithful to his God while he served a
wicked master-saving the lives of the prophets
whom the king and Jezebel would destroy. We
are not told who this servant was: perhaps he held
quite a subordinate place, yet he could say, Here
is Elisha. And in their distress the two monarchs
respectfully waited upon the prophet. Elisha was
a nman of mild and quiet demeanour;  usually he
wears quite a different aspect from the boldness of
the elder prophet. Yet there is a dignity in the
bearing of Elisha which shows that he well understands the proprieties of his office. Upon this




88          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
occasion he addresses the king of Israel with a
severe faithfulness which at once reminds us of
Elijah.  He rebukes his idolatrous propensities,
and bids him in the time of his distress betake
himself to the prophets nourished by Ahab and
Jezebel, and still consulted by himself in hours of
prosperity.  Why should  Jehoram  honour the
prophets of Baal and the golden calves, affect ignorance of Elisha and his services, and then ask
Jcehovah's aid in a tinle of real necessity? Yet
this was no time for the king of Israel to resent tilhe
boldness of the prophet. His conscience told hinmtoo plainly that he deserved the reproof; he saw
too well that relief could come from no other quarter, and he stood appalled at the fearful calamity
that pressed so closely upon them.  His answer
may be variously understood: "Nay, for the Lord
hath called. these three kings together."  This may
mean a renunciatioll of his idolatrous faith: I will
not seek them, for they cannot help.  Men often
give up their falsehoods in the hour of peril;
skeptics are often changed to firm  believers when
stern death stares them  in the face; but such conversions are of doubtful validity, and when the
danger passes they laugh at their own fears and
relapse to the practice of their former falsehoods. Or
he may mean to plead that as there were three kings
there, one of whom the prophet regarded, lie might,
fobr the sake of all, plead with God for them.
Elisha has at least vindicated the hIonour of God




THE DISTRESSED ARMIES DELIVERED.  89
by calling especial attention to the helplessness of
the prophets whom Jehoram supported. And now
he declares solemnly that but for the presence of
King Jehoshaphat he would utterly refuse to do
anything in the case. It was little to the honour
of Jehoshaphat that he was so allied to Ahab's
throne. We may wonder that he did not meet with
larger evidences of the divine displeasure.  And
yet we often see as perplexing things in our own
time. All around us, in the world, we see persons
that profess piety forming alliances, in business or
by marriage or in other ways, with those whose religious views are as truly in contrast as in the case
of these two monarchs. Sometimes we see the very
life of piety eaten out apparently by the influence
of these things. Those who once loved the word,
the house and the people of God, and were zealous
in his service, become gradually estranged from duties and privileges in which they once delighted.
It is not marvellous that our associations should
lead us astray, but it is wonderful to notice how
the long forbearance of God is shown toward his
erring people. Hle deals not with us according to
our sin. Had Elisha left Jehoshaphat to reap the
fruit of his own folly, we might esteem  this the
evidence of Jehovah's displeasure upon his defection. But how much may God's'faitlJfil servants
hope for his protection when he interposes to save
even an inconsistent one!
Elisha called for a minstrel, that by the tones of




90         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
the sacred harp he may be prepared for his duties.
We do not understand the ordinary-much less do
we comprehend the extraordinary-influence of
music upon the soul. We know that in the mental disorder of King Saul the only relief afforded
him was when the young David played for him
upon the harp, and the king was refreshed and the
evil spirit departed from him, 1 Sam. xvi. 23. So
upon another occasion we read of a company of
prophets prophesying with a psaltery and other instruments of music before them, 1 Sam. x. 5. That
Elisha needed any such preparative shows that the
prophetic spirit was not inherent, habitual and continual; he shows himself dependent upon divine
influence, and the honour is given to God. And
when ministers of the gospel now expect the conversion of souls in dependence upon their own intellectual strength, they find disappointment and go
forth like Satnson shorn of his great powers.  But
the faith of the kings must also be put to the test.
At the. commland of the Lord they were to dig
ditches in the valley; and the prophet gave promise that though they should see neither clouds nor
rain, yet the ditches should be filled with an abundant supply of water. Not only so, but he gave
assurance also that they should be victorious over
the Moabites. This miracle of Elisha was the reverse of that of Elijah. The former prophet had
sent a drought upon the land to destroy; Elisha
brings water to save. It was a trial of their faith




THE DISTRESSED ARMIES DELIVERED. 91
that they were called upon to use means that seemed
inappropriate for the end. Had he bidden them
offer sacrifices to propitiate his offended God, had
he prayed himself as Elijah had prayed on Carmel, had the rising winds and the gathering clouds
betokened the coming storm, they would seem to
have some encouragement for their faith. But to
bid them dig ditches in a soil where a few deep and
scanty wells are scattered at wide distances utterly
insufficient for an army, seemed a mockery almost.
Yet there was this encouragement to their faith —
and we shall meet the same thing again in other
miracles of this prophet-that they could  do
nothing better than obey. They had positively no
resources but dependence upon the prophet's word;
they ought, then, to try tile expedient he suggests.
This is not the highest form of faith, but it is infinitely better than despair. And that may have
been a long and painful night and an anxious
morning to these parching troops as they lay by the
arid trenches they had scooped up in the desert,
waiting until a new proof was afforded that their
deliverance was from Jehovah alone. Just at the
hour when in the distant Jerusalem  the morning
sacrifice was laid upon the altar of the temple, the
water filled these trenches and the three armies were
saved. To the army of Judah this was proof that
their God, by whom they had been delivered a year
before at the prayer of Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xx.
5), was still mighty to save. To the army of Israel




92          TIlE PROPHET ELISHA.
it was a reproof, because they had forsaken the
Lord God of their fathers and had served gods that
could not help.
But that they were all saved fiom thirst was not
the full extent of their deliverance. The water
thus provided flowedl before the eyes of the Moabites, and in the reflection of the sun seemed to
them as red as blood.  They took the impression
that the allied kings had fallen out and shed each
other's blood.  This was the mlore natural, because
the victory of Jehoshaphat over Moab, to which we
have before referred as happening the previous year,
had been gained by just such means.  The forces
upon the same side, perhaps by some mistake of
standards or signals, or some discordance of materials in the vast host, had fallen upon each other.
And nowv the Moabites rapidly hurried forward to
take advantage of this.  But they met with a fearful defeat. The forces of the united kings pursued
them everywhere, destroying the land as the prophet expressly bade them —a command that needs
no other vindication than the bare mention of a
wicked deed just here recorded.
The king of Moab was finally driven into the
strongly fortified city of Kir-hareseth. This is perhaps the same place which Isaiah (xxi.) calls KirMoab.  " It is a few miles south-east of Ar, on a
rocky hill, strongly fortified by nature" (Alexander).
It was a place almost impregnable by the ancient
modes of siege. In the time of the Crusades it stood




THE DISTRESSED ARMITES DiELIVERED.  93
four years against the forces of Saladin, and was at
last reduced by starvation. Perhaps want of provisions distressed the Moabites, and the king at the
head of seven hundred choice men attempted to
break through upon that side where the Edomites
held guard. Either he feared their valour less than
that of the others, or he expected sympathy from
Edom, itself a subject and impatient nation.  Failing to effect this, the king, grown desperate, publicly
offered his own son as a sacrifice upon the wall of
the city and in full view of all the armies.
Human sacrifices have prevailed, and do still prevail, in different parts of the world. This is man's
most fearful testimony of his great guilt and need
before his Maker.  But this deed excited strong
emotions in the witnesses.  Horrorstruck at such
an act of wickedness, they even took no measures
to punish the desperate deed, which seemed itself
to betoken the ruin of the Moabitish state, but the
entire forces abandoned the siege and returned
home.




CHAPTER VII.
THE WIDOW'S OIL MULTIPLIED.
T seems proper for us to judge that the reputation and influence of the prophet Elisha were
increased by the great deliverance wrought for the
armies of the three kings. A single expression in
the succeeding chapter (2 Kings, iv. 13) implies that a
word from him would now be favourably considered
by the highest civil and military authorities in the
land. This indicates the gradual advance of the
work to which Elisha had devoted his life. There
is no record of honours bestowed: never man cared
less than Elisha for pecuniary rewards; indeed for
no personal advantages does this man toil. When
he left his falther's fields and put his hand to this
plough, he may not have anticipated fully a prophet's experience; yet pressed he on inll labours
whose sole object was to honour God and to bless
the souls of men, without a thought of decline or of
looking back. Whatever influence or honour he
may gain, he uses nothing to advance himself:
content with frugal fare, he has no means at his
disposal to relieve the wants of even the worthy
poor. But happily the sweet charities of life are
94




THE WIDOW'S OIL MULTIPLIED.          95
not dependent upon a man's pecuniary ability. They
depend rather upon the spirit he possesses: they who
pity the poor are fertile in resources for helping them.
The widow of a certain man' one of the sons of
the prophets-had fallen into circumstances of
great distress, and applied to Elisha for counsel, if
not for relief.  The ministers of the Church of God
in the time of Zion's greatest zeal and purity have
been usually men of lowly circumstances. Let us
not think strange of this, especially since we know
in the history of piety one illustrious example above
all value. The greatest of all preachers was the
poorest of men-indeed had not where to lay his
head; and chose this place in life of all he might
assume. Surely this should sanctify.an estate of
poverty to all his followers for ever after him.
There are exceptions honourable, to the poverty of
the ministry, where a cheerfill and liberal people,
grateful for spiritual benefits bestowed, have esteemed the labourer worthy of his hire, and have
imparted of their temporal things. And there are
exceptions dishonourable, where men have worn the
name of Christ's ministers and been greedy of
filthy lucre and lording over God's heritage. But let
us not think strange of the usual poverty of the
ministry, but rather find reason to esteem it better
so. There are characteristics eminently fitting for
those who are consecrated to spiritual duties that
are best secured when the heart is not fastened
down to earth by earthly possessions. And in their




96          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
poverty the ministers of God, like their adorable
Master, learn to sympathize with those that are
necessitous, and those who need sympathy and aid
may make hopeful application at their doors for
counsel and relief. Elisha lived upon a prophet's
fare, but his heart is awoke by the wants of this
distressed family in their hour of trial. Think you
that God has deprived his servant of any good
thing when he calls forth from him sympathy for
the sorrowing and liberality from the depths of
poverty-that he exacts brick without straw when
hle gives so little, yet expects so much?  Let us
rather judge righteous judgment. They are best
prepared for true liberality who are unable to give
without thought and self-denial, who must plan
judicious kindness for the more effectual relief of
the applicants, and who are made to share the joy
of the benefaction because they have made the offering at some cost to themselves. We may study
Elisha's bounty rather because he himself must
depend upon the divine beneficence, and because
he thus reminds us that all our efforts to relieve
the necessities of our fellow-men are but the rendering back upon our part to God himself of blessings
we have received from his hand. For this indeed
is the view of our beneficence constantly presented
in the sacred Scriptures.  "Of thine own do we
give thee;" "Freely ye have received, freely give;"
" He that oppresseth the poor" or " mocketh the
poor reproacheth his Maker" (Prov. xiv. 31; xvii.




THE WIDOW S OIL MULTIPLIED.         97
51); "He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth
unto the Lord;" and that which he hath given will
he pay him again." Prov. xix. 17.
The peculiar distress of his family may lead us
to recal some thoughts of the ancient usages respecting debts. According to the common practice
of ancient nations, a father had full propriety in
his children; he could dispose of them as a part of
his property; in many instances he had the power
of life and death. As the man could himself be
sold to pay his debts, so he could sell himself voluntarily or sell his children, or they could be
seized by his creditors and sold. This is still done
in some Eastern lands. Under the laws of Greece,
until the time of Solon, under the laws of Rome,
until gradually milder customs grew up under
the emperors, creditors had the right to sell a debtor
who was unable to pay. We find similar laws frequently recognized in the Scriptures as existing
among the Hebrews. If a man was found stealing,
he must make restitution, perhaps to double the
the amount stolen, or in default of means to
do this he was himself to be sold. Ex. xxii.
So in Isa. i. 1, God asks Israel, "To which of
your creditors have I sold you?" And he himself
replies that by their iniquities they had sold themselves. We find the same law recognized in the
parable where our Lord speaks of the unforgiving
creditor, Matt. xviii. 25. The early laws of all
nations exhibit a greater severity against debtors
7




98          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
than can be found in our later forms of civilization.
We often hear men complain of the tendency to
fraud in business transactions; there is much of
forgery, counterfeiting, bankruptcy and overreaching; and we are sometimes tempted to judge harshly
of various corruptions in our large cities as the
great centres of commerce. And the love of money
is the root of all evil; they that have many opportunities of getting rich fall into divers snares and
temptations, and corrupt practices will always
belong to the dealings of sinful men. As the
writer of the book of Ecclesiasticus says, "As a
nail sticketh fast between the joinings of the stones,
so doth sin stick close between buying and selling,"
xxvii. 2. Yet though, so long as men are depraved,
iniquity may be expected in human dealings,
every intelligent man must decide that there is a
far higher standard of honest dealing in ordinary
business, and a far greater promptness between
debtors and creditors among us, than in any previous age of the world. Let any one read the accounts of traffic in pagan lands, civilized or barbarous, and he may see this. For example, in
the bazaars of India three merchants may be partners in a single room, but they have not sufficient
confidence to trust each other. The door will be
fastened with three locks, each man will have his
own separate key, and the three partners must be
present before either of them can enter. We have
cheating in our circles of trade indeed, but there




THE WIDOW'S OIL MULTIPLIED.       99
are as honourable and truthful men among our
trades of every rank as the earth can afford.
In regard to the Hebrew laws in general, we may
say that they are often like the laws of the nations
around them, even in cases where we look for quite
a difference, but they may have been in every case
well adapted to the social standing of the people.
The differences between them and those of neigllbouring nations are all improvements. The laws
regulating debts were milder for their own people in
two respects: 1st. A Hebrew could only be sold
fobr seven years, though at the end of that time he
could voluntarily become a servant for life, Ex.
xxi. 2-6.  2d. Even when sold, no Hebrew could
be a slave or a bondman; he must be treated as a
hired servant or a sojourner, Lev..xxv. 40. In
this regard we may find the laws of God's people
more severe than would be approved by the milder
spirit of our civilization, but it is remarkable that
they were much more humane than similar laws of
other ancient nations.
The circumstances of this poor family may enlist
our sympathies. Let us understand that this is a
case that is no lighter to those who suffer because
the custom is familiar in the land. The people
around this, poor womarn may have taken less interest in her lamentable estate because they had
often seen families sold for debt, and they may have
seen nothing specially cruel in the proceedings of
the creditor. Slavery and family separations doubt



100         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
less seem less flagrant wrongs when they are matters of our familiar observation, yet to the sufferers in every case the evils they must endure
are aggravated by this very thing, since sympathy
would mitigate the grief it might not be able to
relieve. But for familiar evils there is comparatively little sympathy.
The Jews say that this was the widow of Obadiah, who was steward to Ahab, who saved a hunn
dred prophets from Jezebel's persecutions, and who,
by reason of this, had become a debtor to the king
himself. This is, for several reasons, unlikely. We
have no reason to think that Obadiah was a prophet
at all; rather we judge that Ahab would not have
retained as his steward one who was himself amenable to Jezebel's rage. This is to us an unknown
prophet. He was known, however, to Elisha, and
doubtless as a man of piety and worth. Perhaps
he knew also the circumstances of the family, and
how it came to pass that his death left them destitute. It is our duty to relieve suffering, even when
folly and guilt have brought men into distress, yet
it is no breach of charity to say that we may be
far more willing to help the worthy poor. By far
the heaviest drafts upon human benevolence are
made by the vicious-the danger of wasting our
gifts may properly make us careful in bestowing
them; but our sympathies should go freely forth
when the object of our benefactions is both distressed and deserving. The portion of the prophets




THE WIDOW'S OIL MULTIPLIED.    101
in Israel was perhaps very precarious. Theirs was
usually a frugal life, and they had seldom much to
leave for their children, except that enduring legacy
which the wise man praises, Prov. xiii. 22. A
good name and the covenant mercy of his God is the
inheritance which a good man often leaves to his
children's children.  And we shall see in this
case that God has not forgotten his servant, though
his bereaved family are in distress so sore.
We can easily believe that this household has
been brought to want neither by imprudence nor
prodigality, much less by more discreditable means.
This prophet-let his name be what it may-lived
in times of severe trial for those who served in the
name of Jehovah. The land groaned by reason
of its iniquities; the rulers of Israel had cast down
the altars, and had exalted Baal, Ashtaroth and the
calves of Jeroboam; persecutions had cut off the
multitude of true prophets; and famine in the
judgments of God had impoverished the people.
This prophet may have been too young for a full
share in these troubles, running back for a quarter
of a century in the history of the land, yet if his
two sons were now old enough to aid their mother's
faith or to be of much value to their creditor, the
father's period of service in the ministry did not
fall much behind these troublous times of the State.
Considering the circumstances of the family, we
must believe that the deceased father entered the
ministry in the severe threatenings of the troublous




102         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
times, undeterred by the frowns of Jezebel, or that
he endured the full severity of those terrible days.
In either case, all credit to his courage and faith!
Lately the times had been more favourable, since
the labours of Elijah and Elisha have met with
some good success; yet the precarious incomes of the
prophets are doubtless much affected by the unsettled condition of affairs, from which recovery was
slow. All these things may keep us from judging
uncharitably of this family's pecuniary embarrassments. Those who fear God should be careful not
to involve themselves in debt; even with prospective ability to pay, great caution should be exercised in this respect; they should do this, not only
because honesty demands it, and because their own
comfort and well-being are promoted by it, but
also because the honour of religion is involved in
the reputation of its professors. Yet it is no crime
to be poor. Many a worthy man has been involved
in such a way as not to implicate his character;
and even where we think there has been imprudence, we should be sparing of our censures upon
those who may simply be unfortunate.
When God's people are in distress they apply to
God's ministers for sympathy and relief. Doubtless this prophet's widow knew that Elisha was too
poor to pay her debt, but she wishes his counsel,
perhaps also his influence with her creditor.  Nor
did she apply in vain. Yet we do not suppose that
she could anticipate the mode of relief. But we




THE WIDOW'S OIL MULTIPLIED.    103
may admire the prophet's method, as teaching us
that grand secret of a true benevolence, that it is
better for both the giver and the receiver to exercise
faith.  We must give even when our hands are not
full of ready means that can be spared without
self-denial; yet we must so give that as much as
possible the relief shall call forth the energies of
those who receive.  By faith, Elisha helps; by
faith, the widow is helped; and though we usually
overlook the blessing which the prophet received,
because our thoughts are chiefly fixed upon the suffering family, it is still true that he who confers a
kindness often receives a larger reward than his
beneficiary.  "Remember the words of the Lord
Jesus, how that he said, It is more blessed to give
than to receive," Acts xx. 35. Yet see how the
prophet wisely calls forth the Nwidow's own resources, efforts and faith. He asks her what she
has in the house. In times of destitution we have
unthought-of resources; wisdom would draw these
out, and they will yield far more than a dejected
and stricken heart can think is possible. Grief
sometimes unnerves us from planning and doing,
though indeed this is neither wise nor right. Many
a heart loses its best energies in corroding sorrow,
yet never more do we need that they should be
well employed in serious, active duties.  It is related that the wife of a general wounded in the
battle of Pittsburg Landing, hastening to his relief, found him already dead; at first she was over



104         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
whelmed with her great grief, but soon, seeing so
much distress around her, she began, with all a
woman's tenderness, to care for the suffering and
dying, and she assuaged her own sorrows while she
ministered to theirs.  This is our true duty. We
may sorrow in our afflictions, but the grief that
overlooks pressing and important duties is insubmissive and improper. Changes in our circuinstances often develop hidden energies and resources
that are greatly profitable.  How worthy of our
interested study are the orderings of Providence!
That is a dark state of affairs indeed upon which
Providence can throw no light.
The prophet found that this poor woman had in
her house a single vessel of oil. The olives of Palestine are among the most valuable productions of
the land. Moses promised the Israelites that they
should have " oil out the flinty rock," Deut. xxxii.
13. The olive trees insinuate their roots into the
clefts of the hard, rocky soil; they require but little
cultivation, and twventy generations of owners may
gather the fruits. A single large tree will yield
from ten to fifteen gallons of oil in a good season,
and an acre will yield a crop worth a hundred dollars.* So important was the gathering of the olives
to the interests of the community that it was regulated by law. No man could take the fruit from
his own trees until the government issued a proclamation declaring the time of gathering; and then
* The Land and the Book, i. 74.




THE WIDOW'S OIL MULTIPLIED.    105
the entire population turned out to secure the fruit.
It is not likely that this poor widow had the right
to gather olives as the owner of an acre or even of
a tree. But this vessel of oil which she had in her
house was perhaps the fruit of her industry; she
and her sons may have earned somewhat as labourers in the time of gathering; and it was an
express command of Moses that in gathering olives
they should not be too careful to collect the berries,
but should leave a portion for the stranger, for the
fatherless and for the widow, Deut. xxiv. 20. The
oil that is to relieve the widow was the product of
her own industry. Had she collected it for her
own use, either for cooking or for light, she would
perhaps have made no mention of it at Elisha's
inquiry. The sale of this oil was the meagre provision for the support of her household.
The command of the prophet puts her faith to
the test in a double sense. He told her to borrow
all the vessels she could of the neighbours, and then
to pour out from her vessel of oil into those she
had thus borrowed until she had  filled  thein
all. Here her faith was tested as to its reality and
as to its strength. Unbelief would judge that the
prophet did but mock; the oil would empty itself
out of her vessel, and then cease to flow. Little
faith would say that she need borrow but a few
vessels for a purpose like this. We are not led
to think that this poor widow consulted any of the
friends around her except Elisha, or that she even




106        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
illformed her neighbours of her purpose in borrowing
so many vessels. That she kept the entire matter
to herself seems rather implied in the direction to
shut the door upon herself and her sons while she
obeyed the prophet's command. WTe have here a
very imlportant suggestion  respecting our plain
duties. Let us not seek for counsellors when we
are in no perplexity; let us do, not consult, when
our duty is plain. Paul tells us that when he received the command of God immediately he " conferred not with flesh and blood." When Abraham
received the command of God, he rose early in the
morning to do the painful bidding. "Conferring
with flesh and blood" —i. e., taking counsel with
man, may be proper and valuable in cases where
we are to ascertain what our duty is, but when
our duty is known, it is wisdom to go promptly
forward; we lose far.more than we gain by our consuiting with others. The matter is not one for
advice, but for ready faith and prompt obedience.
Had this woman asked the advice of others after
the counsel she had received from Elisha, she would
doubtless have found many timid to credit his
words, many utterly incredulous, and but a few to
encourage her faith. The world of men are averse
from God. If we follow  either the opinions or
the practice of the mass of the people around us,
we will surely never secure the divine approbation.  Most men are careless of religion, unbelieving toward God, indifferent toward their own




THE WIDOW S OIL MULTIPLIED.    107
souls. Even serious minds often falter in their
faith.
In the plain pathway of duty men should depend
less upon others. We truly meet our responsibilities when we remember our personal accountability
to God. Taking everything into the account, every
man who seriously studies his responsibilities will
feel their force and know their obligations upon
him as no other person can for him. We easily
see how this is when we think of anything else
than our religious duties. What kind of management would any man make of his private business
as a merchant, a mechanic or a farmer if he depended rather upon the judgment of other people
than upon his own? Do they know his affairs as
he knows them? Do they take as deep an interest
in them?  In case of any failure, do they feel the
loss as he would feel it, or are they as careful in
advising his important actions as they would be if
the case was their own? Certainly these inquiries
answer themselves. We have a prosperous community in proportion as every man sees to his own
affairs; let every man learn of others, but let no
man lay aside his own responsibility. Ask advice
in the hour of perplexity, but in cases where you
know well enough the path of right go forward
directly in it.
The prophet's words were plain, and this poor
woman believed and obeyed. She sent her sons to
borrow vessels of their acquaintances and neighbours.




108         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
We hope the children of the prophet's household
were like-minded with their believing mother, and
entered heartily into the work. And when they
had gathered either all they could procure or all
their faith thought would be needful, she shut the
door of her house and the wonder of deliverance
began. One son gave her the empty vessels; from
her full pot she poured the golden stream until they
were full of oil; and the other son set the full vessels aside. All the vessels in the house were filled,
and then the oil stayed. The narrative is so brief,
and there is so little declaration of the result, that
we do not know what judgment to form of the
strength of her faith. Whether her sons stopped
borrowing because they thought they had enough,
or because their faith feared that even all they had
might not be filled, or because they really could
borrow no more, we are not told; but of this much
we are informed-and it seems to intimate that her
faith was strong indeed-that the supply was not
only enough to pay the indebtedness, but also to
provide something for the support of the family
afterward. The prophet directed her to pay the
debt and live upon the balance. Yet is it not significant that the oil stayed only because there were
no more vessels to fill?
Are there not here lessons of the divine Hand,
as the same may be traced in grace within us and
in providence all around us? Wonderful it seems to
be, that vessel of ever-flowing oil! Yet do we dis



THE WIDOW S OIL MULTIPLIED.    109
believe the greater wonders all about us whose mysteries we cannot explain? We are familiar with
other and greater wonders; we never think of questioning them: do we really understand them any
better? It is quite appropriate for us to liken the
oil of the widow to the grace of God as given to
believers-at once their release from a more fearful
indebtedness, and their livelihood for a spiritual, even
an unending, existence. We may make this comparison the rather because in the instructive vision
of one of the prophets the oil giving light upon the
golden candlestick is typical of the Spirit's influence
to promote the piety of the Church of God, Zech. iv.
The golden-coloured oil empties into the lamp that
its light may burn brightly, for piety in the Church
and in the believer's heart is not by might nor by
power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. And let our
faith but find room for the continual outpouring of
this holy oil, and the supply will never cease. We
are not straitened in God, but in ourselves.
And this miracle is designed to remind us of the
inexhaustible resources of divine providence for the
relief of the suffering poor.  Yet why indeed
should we speak of the poor, since in his sight "the
rich and the poor meet together," and every man
living is at all times dependent?  But it impresses
us'more when we see the circumstances of distress
in which many are involved. We are often led to
wonder that God allows his people to fall into such
difficulties, that their troubles often arise out of




110         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
their very efforts to do right, and that they are long
in trouble and are reduced to deep extremities.  It
almost seems to us either inconsistent with the
divine faithfulhess, on the one hand, or, upon the
other, an evidence of some secret iniquity in the
afflicted persons which we had not suspected. But
divine iwisdom judges otherwise.  Even if the
Jewish story told by Josephus concerning this
prophet's widow was correct, we are but reading a
narrative that may find a thousand like it in the
history of God's suffering people: nor may we even
truly say that God has forgotten if no prophet
comes to grant a wonderful release. The principles
of the divine administration remain the same: there
never exists a case of grief among his people that
God does not pity, though the methods he devises
for relief are infinitely various. Josephus says not
only that this was the widow of Obadiah, but that
the debt had bedn contracted in his efforts to feed
the persecuted prophets.  For reasons of infinite
wisdom, God may allow his people to fall into deep
straits when they are innocent-when their zeal for
him is the occasion of their trouble. He here shows
himself a helper of the poor and dependent, that
we may learn to trust him in every extremity.
Two things seem chiefly aimed at in the plans of
divine providence when we are reduced to dependence and helplessness. The first is the trial of our
faith; the second is the showing forth of the divine
glory. Unquestionably, this trial of faith is far




THE WIDOW'S OIL MULTIPLIED.    111
more severe in some cases than ill others, but we
are assured that all our temptations and trials are
adapted to us; they are such as we are able to bear;
and with them there is afforded also a way of escape,
1 Cor. x. 13. This is in the divine faithfulness.
It is implied in our times of trial that as a matter
of fact we do not know what is before us, but all
the while the path of our duty may be very plain,
and we may very well know the principles by
which we should be governed. Negatively we know
that our severest straits do not justify our transgressing the divine law. When this poor widow
was so deeply indebted that her family was about
to be dissolved, this afforded no reason for resorting
to fraud or falsehood, or any breach of the divine
law, for their relief.  Many persons-some without
any necessity, and some by an apparent necessitylive by the earnings of unlawful industry. They
ellgage in an injurious business; they labour on the
Sabbath in express violation of the divine law; they
misrepresent the goods they sell to increase their
profits; they are unfaithful to their employers
through their own ease or indolence. These things
are as really, if not as grossly, distrusting Providence as if a man should support his family by robbery, and should excuse his wrong by declaring,
"We must live."  Faith in the providence of God
forbids the wilful pursuit of wrong. Presumption,
not faith, is idle or wicked. There is a nobler life
than that of the body, and our highest aim should




112        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
be to promote it. This is the very point of our
Lord's reply to the tempter, when he would have
him distrust the dealings of Providence: "Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." No
principle is plainer for man's guidance while he
depends upon his God than that stooping to evil is
distrust of Providence, and that to know anything
as evil is a sufficient proof that we are to avoid it.
But a true dependence on Providence is positive,
and it uses all due means to reach a lawful ehd.
Trust in God is sometimes a patient waiting on his
will when the believing soul does nothing but wait;
yet to justify such a position we must be unable to
do anything. Prayer itself must never stand alone
save where we can do nothing but pray. Any
indisposition to do the plain orderings of duty is so
far a disqualification for acceptable prayer. This
poor widow cried to God's servant for relief, yet
not because she is indisposed for exertion.  She
had gathered what oil she could before she applied
for help. She is ready to do his bidding, even
though a new and strange faith is involved in the
command. Usually the path of duty is quite as
plain as our readiness to go forward. We are perplexed, not because we know not what to do, but
we fear we should not gain the end we desire even
by doing our duty. Just here let us have faith in
God. Should his will call us to patience and suffering, let us in well-doing commit our souls to him




THE WIDOlW'S OIL MUITIPI,T ED.    113
as to a faithflil Creator.  We need not fear, in even
a painfill path, where duty leads. God knows how
to deliver. He who miraculously helped the prophet's widow can. still help those who put their
trust in him, by means as honouring to himself as
any miracle.  M.any who never saw such a wonder
have yet an experience as truly honouring to the
divine Hand.
Happy for ourselves and honouring to God is
our calm  and constant trust in his care. Why
should we take anxious thought for to-morrow?
We cannot hasten or delay to-morrow's coming;
we cannot help or hinder the responsibilities that
to-morrow must bring: we are all dependence in
our most zealous and active engagements. Let us
trust God, and prove our trust by keeping back our
hearts and hands from things evil and presumptuous
-by asking divine counsel in every perplexity; and,
while we ask strength for every duty, by humbly
and earnestly doing his holy will. But remember,
itbis not trusting God-it is distrusting him-when
we neglect our plain duties, and any apparent
dependence while we are needlessly idle is not true
faith.  This wridow could do little to save her
household from bondage, but the little she could
she did. The pouring forth of that oil was nothing
effective, yet as the appointed means of deliverance
it was indispensable. How feeble are a sinner's
prayers! Yet he who will not pray must perish.
8




CHAPTER V I i.
LH'E SHIUNAMITE.
IT is enough to commend the duty of hospitality
to every Christian household to read the apostolic injunction, "Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels
unawares," Heb. xiii. 2. Doubtless he refers especially to Abraham  and Lot-perhaps also to
Manoah, who received kindly those who afterward
proved indeed to be angels. See Gen. xviii. 2; xix.
1; Judges xiii. 19. But when the woman of Shunemr treated courteously the prophet Elisha, she
prepared the way for a blessing upon her household,
and many a humble family in the Church has been
largely blessed in imitating the hospitality of other
times. A wise and godly guest more than compensates his entertainers for the cost and inconvenience of his sojourn with them; and the sweet
savour of his memory may abide in the house long
after he has taken his departure.
Eastern lands are famed for the attention paid to
the wants of strangers.  No obligations are regarded as more sacred or are more carefully observed than those of hospitality.  Plato, in his
114




THE SHUNAMITE.              115
Dialogues upon the Laws, declares that the avenging
deities are specially severe against inhospitality, because a stranger, being destitute of friends, is an object of greater pity to men and to the gods. Plato,
Op. vi. 144, 145, (Bk. v., De Legibus). The Arabs
of the present day are profuse in their kindness to
strangers; even the Hindds extend the duty of hospitality to enemies by their proverb, that "a tree does
not withdraw its shade even from the wood-cutter;" and we are sufficiently familiar with the
African women, whose song for the poor white man
is so touchingly given by Mungo Park. Doubtless
these habits of hospitality were more needful in
Eastern lands, where hotels in our sense of the
word were wholly unknown; but the Scriptures
recognize the duty as one that should not be laid
aside by Christians, though its extent and necessity
is in a great degree changed by a different aspect
of society. If Job, vindicating his uprightness,
numbered this among his virtues, "The stranger
did not lodge in the street, but I opened my doors
to the traveller" (xxxi. 32), we also, for its own
sake and in obedience to inspired directions, should
cultivate this virtue. But the Apostle's words direct us to maintain the proper spirit of entertainers
while we do the external duty: "Use hospitality
one to another without grudging," 1 Pet. iv. 9.
We have suggested that several schools of the
prophets seem to have been established by Elijah
and Elisha in different parts of the land. We can




116         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
hardly decide that Elisha at this period of his ministry had any one place of residence, but he visited
these schools in succession, perhaps with some degree of regularity. In journeying from Samaria*
to Mount Carmel he had occasion to pass through
the village of Shunem.  Here dwelt an aged man,
possessed. of considerable property, in whose house
the prophet was kindly received.  And here is the
test of the true spirit of hospitality, that as his
journeys that way were. frequent, his entertainers,
instead of becoming weary of their guest, made
preparations to put him more at his ease, to show
him that he was ever welcome, and to affbrd him
a quiet retreat suited to his own tastes, where he
could come and go at his own pleasure. The suggestion came from the woman of the house, who, it
seems, was much younger than her husband; but
doubtless all was with his cordial approbation. A
room was built expressly for Elisha; it was comfortably furnished according to the simple habits of the
times; and the prophet was given to understand
that it was entirely at his disposal as often as he
might see fit to tarry with the family as their honoured guest.  This indeed was using "hospitality
without grudging."
If this household in Shunem teaches us the duties of a host and the virtue of hospitality, let the
prophet also teach us the answering duties of a
* Here seems to have been his residence at a later date,
2 Kings v. 3.




THE SHUNAMITE.               117
guest and the virtue of gratitude. This is the excellent arrangement of our social life, that there is
action and reaction in all we are and in all we do.
Unhappily, sin often begets sin-" grievous words
stir up anger." Happily, every kindness reflects
back its own image; "Give and it shall be given
to you." Indeed it is in our power to do much to
check evil by returning good for it; " a soft answer
turneth away wrath."  But we are quite inexcusable when kindness awakens no answering feeling.
In a right-minded man gratitude is easily called
forth.  The prophet is grateful for the kindness of
this woman, and is desirous of making her some
suitable return.  He therefore consulted with his
servant Gehazi, whose name now first appears in
the narrative, and of whoin we will have some
further things to say. He first offered her that he
would make any request she might desire of the
civil or military authorities.  This incidentally
proves that Elisha's services find some appreciation
in Israel, though he is ever indisposed to use his
influence for any personal advantage.  When this
proposal seemed not to suit the case, the gratitude
of the prophet still pursues his object to give some
return for the Shunamite's kindness.  A  truly
grateful spirit is not satisfied with the mnere offer of
thanks, but is really desirous of bestowing benefit.
Still another lesson-as hard to learn as any that
belongs to our earthly life-is found in the Shunamite's reply-a lesson of contentment.  For va



118         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
rious reasons, few persons are entirely contented
with their lot in life. Though it is not hard to find
many all around us who have a harder lot than our
own —though we know that all our way in life is
ordered in the infinite wisdom of God's holy providence-though experience teaches us that nothing
is to be gained by fretfillness and repining-few men
are really contented.
Possibly, this Shulnamite expresses a delicate sensibility because the prophet thinks of making any
return for her kindness, as though her hospitality
was not wholly disinterested, and needed some expression from him as its reward.  But when she
says, " I dwell among my own people," we rather
understand her to declare that she desired no preferment, no change, no reputation beyond wnat she
already had; around her already were all the enjoyments, all the friends, all the substance she
wished for upon earth; and that she did not send
out her thoughts in longings for things not given
her in the divine allotments.  Happy woman! who
has learned the lesson of true happiness, and who
knows when she is well off! Happy they who
learn from her or with her that true happiness is
not to be found by departing from  our sphere of
life, by desiring new circles of friends or by longing for new engagements, but by the curbing of
undue desires and by contentment with such things
as we have!
Contentment with our lot in life is a duty, both




THE SHUNAMITE.                119
as we look at the providence of God, which orders
all our affairs, and as we regard our happiness,
which depends less upon our circumstances than
upon the disposition we ourselves maintain. Two
things doubtless make the exercise of a proper
spirit more difficult on the part of man: The first
is that wve are sinners, and therefore naturally disposed to find pleasure in earthly things; we must
therefore be disappointed and restless. The next is
that our powers are in constant development; it is
therefore natural and lawful for us to desire to advance in our acquirements. The enjoyments of
life, the possessions of life, we may lawfully desire;
and if we overstep not the bounds assigned by
Providence, we may desire advancement, yet not be
discontented. To possess desires and yet to restrain
our desires* within due bounds seems to be the
very thing meant by a pious content. When troubles befal, let us not murmur; when burdens oppress, let us serenely sustain them; when comforts
fail, let us meekly resign them; let us not be vexed
and inpatient, even if our situation is not in every
respect agreeable; let us make the best of those
things we have, and keep back our imaginations
from the possible changes which, in the distance,
may seem so desirable.
A light and cheerfull disposition, disposed to look
upon the bright side of things, is not contentment;
nor is that uniform indifference which seems to care
* I)Dwiglt's Theol., iii. 528.




120        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
little for either the sorrows or the joys of life. Two
virtues must abide together to secure the full exercise of either in the sight of God. So writes the
Apostle: " Godliness with contentment is great gain."
Many reasons, indeed, and such as the Apostle himself urges, may induce even those who are not
godly to be still content with such things as they
have. For why should we catch after the things
we can hold with so feeble a grasp?  "For we
brought nothing into this world, and it is certain
we can carry nothing out; and having food and
raiment, we should be therewith content."  But
reasons drawn from the government of God should
be more prevailing. On the one hand, we should
be kept from envious or covetous thoughts because
others are more prosperous than ourselves; we
should notice that true happiness depends but little
upon external circumstances; and we should recognize that any possible changes will fail to bring
contentment to those who are disposed to be murmuring. On the other hand, we should acknowledge that in the wise and supreme government of
God nothing comes to pass but for good reasons;
we should find it our interest and happiness, while
we press earnestly on in the pathway of duty, to
acquiesce in all the orderings of Providence; a just
conviction of our unworthiness to receive the mercies already bestowed, and the disposition to mark
how numerous are the bounties of the divine Hand,
should be added to the moderation of our desires;




THE SHU'AMIITE.             121
while a wise observation of men and things all
around us should teach us that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he
possesseth," and that indeed some of the happiest
of our race are those who have learned the lessons
of sorrow and disappointment.
If we may often say that virtue is its own reward,
we may so speak especially of this grace. A happy
disposition is a great possession; but Christian contentment, that bids us enjoy with peaceful acquiescence the orderings of Providence, is better far. It
preserves us from temptations that are inseparable
from  the inordinate longings of pride, ambition
and covetousness; it bids us enjoy whlat we have,
and forbids restless envy and graspings after things
we may not have; it enables us better to discharge
the various duties we owe to society; and it is itself
acceptable to God. We do not know in what
school the Shunamite learned her lesson of contentment. We shall see her in changed circumstances,
in both bereavement and exile, and she may teach
us then to conform to our changing. times, but she
does not exhibit any inconsistency from her present
mind. If the regular, lawfill prosecution of our
duties in life, or the unsought orderings of divine
providence, bring any changes, if we should
change our home or our engagements, or our sphere
of service, we should be conformed, as far as possible, to our new condition. But true contentment
checks our restless longings for change; forbids us




122         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
to indulge in fretful repinings, which irritate our
own hearts while they are rebellious against Providence; enables us cheerfully to support the trials
which usually attend every change in life; finds
reasons for gratitude in the most unexpected
events; and even when things are undesirable,
points us forward, both to earthly reverses which
could easily make things worse than they now are,
and to future prospects when God's people shall be
fillly satisfied for ever.
Godliness with contentment is great gain, for
they who have a God on whom they may rely
cannot really want any good thing.
Yet though the Shunamite has no wants to express to her illustrious guest and desires no such
changes as man could give, it does not follow that
her happiness could not be improved by the gifts
which a greater than man can bestow. The prophet's servant has noticed not only the absence of
children in the household, but that the blessing of
a child would be highly valued by the family.
We need not remark upon the peculiar anxiety
manifested among the Hebrew people for offspring,
or trace this simply to the national expectation of
the coming Christ, since indeed in all ages and all
lands " a babe in a house is a well-spring of pleasure."  It is in the orderings of a kind Providence
that a child born in a family is a bond of new affection for the parents, calling out new elements of
character not only toward the child, but also toward




THE SHUNAMITE.              123
each other and all that are about them. It was
not inconsistent with a contented mind that this
woman was gratefill for the prophet's assurance.
We have already said that there are lawful longings
for our comfort and welfare which are within the
proper definition of a contented disposition.
But how true it is that our heaviest trials in life
often spring from  our dearest comforts! Indeed
lessons of submission are only possible when our
hearts are deeply interested in the object of our
bereavement. A few years afterward, when the
child had grown large enough to go forth with his
father to the field, he had perhaps a new stroke. " I
know by experience," says a missionary writing
from the same section of the country, "that this
valley glows like a furnace in harvest-time."*
They carried him to his mother. But here we
have the sad scene that has darkened the doors of
so many households-well in the morning, dead in
his mother's arms by noon!  How little can the
best things of earth stay or alleviate the advances
of sorrow! It is no help now that she was a great
woman and that she dwelt among her own people.
And it is no hindrance to the lessons she would now
teach all Bible-readers; for we do not look now
upon her as the rich lady of Shunem, but as the
mother bereaved of her only child.
And now her thoughts turn toward the prophet
who had promised her this son. Doubtless, she had
* The Land and Book, ii. 177.




124         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
heard that Elijah had restored to life the son of the
widow of Zarephath, and Elisha possesses the same
double-portioned spirit.  Whether her faith at
once grasped the possibility that thus he would do
for her, or whether she turned to him for relief
without anticipating what the man of God would
do, we cannot tell. But no sooner had the great
grief fallen upon her than she is desirous of laying
it before Elisha. With her husband's consent-not
at once granted, because he knew no reason why
she should go-she rode to Mount Carmel, where
she knew the prophet was. The distance was ten
or twelve miles, and lest the servant, fearing she
might be over-fatigued, might not drive fast enough,
she bid him not spare the beast through any consideration for her. Elisha saw her coming in haste,
recognized her, and instantly feared some calamity.
He sent Gehazi to meet her. But she gave a brief
answer to the servant, and in her great grief pressed
on to the feet of the prophet.
Dr. Thomson says that the whole scene is natural
-not only the embrace of the prophet's feet, but the
answer she gives —anl that similar scenes and replies may often be observed among the people still
residing there.  While indleed habit may use gestures and language which mean very little, yet the
language she uses is so appropriate and pious that
we are unwilling to believe that the Shunamite did
not feel just as she speaks, and so we enter truly into
the spirit of her own words. She cannot repress




THE SHUUNAMITE.              125
the anguish of her soul that she has so suddenly
lost her only child, yet she recognizes a higher
Hand than that of man, and submissively declares,
" It is well." The very fact that she came to see
the prophet shows that this is so. This is the
very spirit of Job-Just because affliction springs not
from the dust, just because troubles arise'not by
chance, I will seek unto God.  There would be no
propriety in seeking consolation or considering the
nature and design of our sorrows if in fact they had
no design.  Our afflictions are not calamities or
casualties-they are chastenings and providences.
It is well; they have come forth from the divine
hand.  She comes to the servant of the Lord, because, while she recognizes the divine sovereignty
in'the sudden stroke that has befallen her, she
hopes also for some relief from Him who sent the
stroke.
The prophet deeply sympathized with his afflicted
friend. He saw that she acted under some heavy
sorrow, but the Lord had not revealed to him its
cause. I-e soon learned that her son was the source
of her grief. He immediately sent Gehazi forward
to lay his staff upon the face of the child. Doubtless this staff was a mark of his prophetic' office.
So Moses had a staff which he bore from the deserts of Sinai, and which he often used in working
wonders. Why the staff did not secure the end we
can but guess. Perhaps it would have sufficed to
raise the child, and to send it forward shows the




126        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
strong faith of the prophet. But before G-ehazi
had reached the house and laid the staff upon the
child's faice, Elisha had already changed his purpose and was himself coming in person. The faith
of the prophet was strong enough to work this
miracle without his own presence, but the poor
mother wishes now that he should accompany her;
she will not leave him, and in sympathy with her,
and in condescension to the weakness of her faith,
lhe does otherwise than his first intention.  It may
hlave been some trial for her faith, scarcely for his,
that Gehazi, having laid the staff upon the child's
face, met them to say that there was neither voice
nor hearing, and that he was not awaked.
The prophet raised the child to life again and
delivered him to his mother. But great a thing as
this was, we cannot read the narrative without recalling that a greater than Elisha in later days
wrought still more wondrously. It was fitting
that the Lord of all the prophets should have the
pre-eminence over all his servanits. In all these
resurrections there was doubtless an instructive intimation that the faith which Elisha preached had
the power of raising the dead soul to spiritual life.
And in view of the fact that the wonders of grace
are still wrought where the same blessed gospel is
proclaimed, that believing parents may still come
to the God of Israel and ask for the life of their
children, and that this is a greater and more permanent work than that wrought by Elisha, why




THE SHUNAMITE.              127
should we not exercise a like faith for these better
things? We may rank this Shunamite with those
believers whose triumphs of faith the Apostle names.
"Women received their dead raised to life again."
And if the question be asked, "Why does not
God now hear the prayer of bereaved parents, and
warrant the exercise of our faith for a restoration
to life? the answer would not be proper which did
not remind us that God may change his dealings
with his people, but he never changes the principles upon which his dealings have ever been
founded. The God that ever pitied, always pities:
"like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord
pitieth them that fear him."  Not because he does
not pity does he no longer send relief in this form.
We may trust him that the change is wisely made;
we may believe that relief will come in every time
of trouble; we should bring the spiritual wants of
our families before him and plead for their relief.
Perhaps in after years this son of the Shilnamite
heard this story of his mother's faith, learned that
through her he had been restored to life, and loved
her memory the more because he was thus indebted
to her. Howv many children live now upon the
earth, how many have passed to heaven, who owe
to a mother's faith and a mother's prayers a blessing far greater than a child's restoration to the
cares and duties of this earthly life!-even a preparation for the service of God and an everlasting
life.




128        THE PROPI-ET ELISHA.
At a later time in the history (2 Kings viii. 1-6)
we read that this woman again experienced the
gratitude of Elisha. Knowing by inspiration that
the land was about to be visited by a famine, he
forewarned her to seek refuge-abroad. Perhaps by
this time her husband was dead, as no mention is
made of him. We know not why the prophet bade
her go to the land of the Philistines, but she was
there seven years. Just before her return, Elisha
had conferred new benefits upon Israel, and stood
in high favour with the king of the land. The
Shunamite could no longer say, "I dwell among
my own people;" and now she might have been
quite willing to be spoken for to the chief captain
or the king. Yet we may judge from her previous
character that she was ready to commit her way to
the Lord.  She is now under the necessity of
appealing to the king for the restoration of her
property, which under the common law of that
land was confiscated upon her removal. But little
likelihood generally exists of having such property
restored, unless upon the mediation of some influential person.*  She makes no application to the
prophet, who, it may be, was not within her reach.
But providentially she. applied at a very favourable
moment. Just then the king had been inquiring
of Gehazi, the prophet's servant, what miracles his
master had wrought.  Gehazi was then suffering
under the heavy punishment of his sin. Perhaps
* The Land and the Book, ii. 178.




TE4e SHUNAMITE.             129
it had wrought in him a salutary change; and he is
more disposed than ever to work a good work. At
the very moment when he told the king that Elisha
had restored the Shunainite's son to life, she made
her appearance to ask the restoration of her lands.
Gehazi recognized her at once, and added greatly
to the interest of his narrative before the king by
declaring that this was the woman and her son of
whiom lie had just been speaking. Thus the king
had the opportunity of hearing the full account
from her own lips; and so much was he interested
in the whole matter that he readily gave the order
for the restitution of her lands and all the fruits
from the time she had left. Doubtless she thought
that this again was no chance matter, but said
with Solomon, "The king's heart is in the hand of
the Lord as the rivers of water; he turueth it
whithersoever he will," Prov. xxi. 1. The providence of God is to be recognized in our mercies,
not only when we cannot, but also when we think
we can, see the steps by which our deliverances are
wrought.  The Shunamite would look upon the
prophet Elisha and upon the leper Gehazi and
upon the wicked king of Israel as but instruments
in the hand of God to do his holy purposes.
And still he doeth all things well. The course
of life may not always run smoothly: joy and sorrow, plenty and famine may alternate with each
other in our experience; but no man commits his
way truly to God, submits meekly to his orderings,
9




130        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
obeys his injunctions and trusts his care, who shall
be disappointed.  How can things be otherwise
than well, how can we indulge our griefs insubmissively, how can we doubt that even unexpected
and heavy afflictions shall work eventually for our
good, when we consider the government of God,
when we rely upon his promises, and when we so
submit ourselves to him as to make him our Guide,
our Hope, our Trust?
Let the Shunan-nite teach us that bread cast upon
the waters may be found after many days. Truly
she may be reckoned among those who have exercised hospitality and entertained an angel unawares.
She had no thought that the kindness she so cheerfully showed to Elisha would bring in so large returns. And indeed is it not often so with us?
Our actions are seeds, and we know not whether
shall prosper either this or that. Some evil thing
done, some evil word spoken, may start into fearful
prominence to disturb our happiness for many days,
or some trifling good may be the beginning of many
comforts through more than earthly life.




CHAPTER IX.
TSlE SY1IAIN LEPER.
WTE should never allow ourselves to lose sight
of the significancy of the scriptural miracles.
This truly is an important and permanent value belonging to them-mthat they remain as instructive
in the record of them now as they were advantageous in the day they were wrought. Indeed there
is a sense in which we may claim that we get larger
profit from the wonders of ancient times than did
the men who witnessed them. They were doubtless more impressed with marvels that were wrought
before their eyes than we are with the familiar record; yet there is proof of divine power here to us
as well as to them; and because we may see the
entire train of scriptural miracles as they are connected with one great system, the principles that
pervade the whole, the ends aimed at in the divine
orderings, and the lessons taught us by their especial significance, it seems proper to class these
great things of the Scripture among the instructions
which later ages can better understand than the
earlier.
WTe may sometimes be at a loss to see the exact
131




132        TIIE PROPHET ELISHA.
purpose of every wonder here recorded.  This
should not be thought strange. Doubtless everything that God has made in the world around us
has its purpose, its wise and beneficent purpose.
But is the most intelligent man prepared to say
what is the divine design in so many various forms
of living and inanimate things, in so many varied
dealings of the providence of God?  Thousands
of things help make up this world; thousands of
events are connected with the onward progress of
the world's history; we cannot decide what would
be the loss if this or that had no existence, yet
we may believe that all things have their wise purpose. And, whatever perplexity may attend the
effort to understand everything, the general beneficence of' the divine dealings is manifest.  And so
judge we of these miraculous records. In the time
of a famine, Elisha, upon two occasions, relieved
the necessities of the sons of the prophets. The
fare of his disciples, always frugal, was especially
scanty at such a time as this. They gathered for
themselves from the fields what they could for
their humble meals; and, "better skilled in divinity
than in natural philosophy," as Matthew Henry
quaintly remarks, they gathered an apparently
edible gourd that proved bitter and poisonous.*
The prophet healed the dangerous food. So he
multiplied miraculously a few loaves of bread to supply the entire company of scholars at one of these
* The Land and the Book, ii. 179.




THE SYRIAN LEPER.             133
seminaries, where, we are incidentally told, were a
hundred men. We are at no loss to see the significance of these miracles. God cares not only for
his prophets, but for his poor, in times of deep necessity; he delivers them from dangers into which
they have ignorantly gone; and when scanty gifts
are offered in a time of distress, he multiplies the
things that are freely bestowed from the poverty of
their brethren, so that a small gift may accomplish
far more than the giver expected. God's providence
has often done what God's servant here foreshadows.
Through many a season of deep distress has the
Church of God passed, when the sons of the prophets have been threatened with famine. And the
records of God's dealings with them, to supply
their wants and to shield them from threatening
harm, are as truly wonderful and as truly evidences
of divine guardianship as the miracles here recorded of Elisha. The significance of these wonders should be noticed; and we should acknowledge
that like marvels belong to the constant dealings of
God, who is the Author both of Scripture and of
providence.
The significancy of the next wonder recorded of
this prophet is of sufficient interest to bid us delay
for its deliberate consideration.  The narrative
might suggest some profitable thoughts incidentally,
from which we select only this one to stop for a
moment the onward flow of our direct mediations.
See upon what feeble instrumentalities the import



1'34       THE PROPHET ELISHA.
ant events of a man's history may be made to turn!
A little maid, waiting upon Naaman's wife, says,
"Would God my Lord were with the prophet!"
But for these words from a mouth of a child, Naaman had still remained a leper and an idolater!
Yet indeed a long train of providences had prepared the way for these words. Little things of
great power do not stand alone. War with Israel
had preceded; prisoners had been carried captive;
a pious household had been invaded; a child had
been carried off to the dismay of weeping parents;
that child had been carefully taught in her early
years, and while yet a little maid in a land of paganism forgot not Samaria's prophet. In a household of distress she forgot her own captivity to
sympathize with the family in which her unhappy
lot was cast. Her cheering words were repeated in
the ears of the miserable, and they opened the only
door of hope. How many blessings would come
t6'ous all if we were more careful to note and impro've the minor providences of life! Who is too
feeble to do a great good, since a little Hebrew
maid may lead a Syrian nobleman to the faith of
her people?  Who should not watch for opportunities to tell leprous souls of the great Prophet who
can cure worse maladies than those of the body?
Who of those that are more deeply diseased than
the general of Syria's armies-with a malady that
earth cannot cure-should not gladly hear of those
healing waters in which none have ever bathed in




THE SYRIAN LEPER.             135
vain? Let who will speak of these things in their
ears-though a little maid, though in familiar
teachings-let the leper gladly hear the message,
"Go, wash and he clean."
For Naaman's necessities are significant, and the
world is filled with just such as he.
We speak not of his station in society. He was
a great man with his master, and his master was
king of the land. HIe was the general of Syria's
armies. He was honorable and highly esteemed.
Wealth was his; servants did his bidding; honours
were heaped upon him. But these are small matters, even in the world's esteem. Men court them,
yet they know well that the vilest often possess
them, and the worthy of the land are held in low
regard; they know that the highest often fall very
low upon any turn of fortune; they know that the
noblest must soon be crowded out of sight by their
successors. Naaman was a great man. If he deserved his honours, well. But whether he deserved
them or not, they soon left him; and while he had
them they were marred by a serious want. And
if a man's honours are all of earth, they are seriously
lacking; and thus we may write of every one, He
is a great man, BUTr — Perhaps if we knewjust what
thing troubles those who occupy the high places
around us, we would not exchange with those we
are now disposed to envy. Some people keep their
troubles more concealed than Naaman could his.
Poor man! with all his honours he was a leper!




136         THE PROPHET ETLISTA.
We do not speak of his race. He was not a
Hebrew, but a Syrian.  1Naturally he would have
little to do with Israel's prophet, and the prophet
little to do with him. They were thrown into separate associations; so that it seemed a chance —if
the world, which is made and filled with the presence of one Infinite God, has any room  where a
chance can be crowded in-that the leper heard at
all of the healer. Elisha, like his Master of later
times, was not sent but to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel; yet as Elijah blessed the Sidonian
widow, and as Christ gave some goodly crumbs
from his table to feed the Gentile poor, so there are
foreshadowings of gospel grace in Elisha's dealings
with the Syrian.  And if here are lessons of the
divine sovereignty-as our Lord declares-that so
many in Israel remain defiled while Naaman is
cleansed, yet the Great Teacher will not allow us
to forget that this is to the great reproach of those
who withhold due honour from the prophets by
whom they too might find cleansing.
The chief thing to claim our notice respecting
Naaman is his disease. He was a leper. In all
the Scriptures, in the teachings of Moses, and not
less in the teachings of Christ, the leprosy seems
to be set forth not simply as a disease natural,
but specially as a disease typical. It is representative of the great disease hereditary in the race
of man since the great apostasy of the garden of
Eden:




THE SYRIAN LEPER.               137
"Sin like a venomous disease,
Infects our vital blood."
Everywhere in the Bible is the leprosy spoken
of as an unclean disease; we do not certainly know
that it was contagious; and the rule for separating
lepers from the society of others was not always
strictly observed.  Here we find Naaman still associating with others, though a leper; a little later in
the same book we find other lepers having some
intercourse with society.  Yet the law of Moses is
very explicit in forbidding clean persons to associate with lepers: "The leper in whom the plague
is, his clothes shall be rent and his head bare, and
he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and
shall cry Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein
the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he
is unclean; he shall dwell alone; without the camp
shall his habitation be." Lev. xiii. 45, 46. How
unhappy was the estate of a leprous man when
these lasws were strictly enforced!
"Depart, depart, O child
Of Israel, from the temple of thy God!
For he hath smote thee with his chastening rod,
And to the desert wild,
From all thou lovest, away thy feet must flee,
That from thy plague his people may be free."
Even the parents, the wife or children of a leper
dare not approach him after the priest had pronounced him  diseased.  In fact he became as a
dead man to all around him, and every regulation




138        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
was significant of this.  He was unclean, and hlis
touch, like that of a dead body, polluted everything. He must rend his garments, as if lhe was a
mourner at his own funeral. The bare head and
the covered lip and the loud cry were tokens of
mourning. So when the prophet Ezekiel was forbidden to mourn, he was told not to do the very
things required of the lepers: "Forbear to cry,
make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of
thine head upon thee,.... and cover not thy
lips." Ezek. xxiv. 17. In restoring a leper the
very same ceremonies of cleansing by cedar wood,
hyssop and scarlet that belonged elsewhere only in
matters pertaining to death were always employed.
The Jewish law made the leper worse than an outcast. He was as a dead man. He must live without the camp; when he tasted water it must be
from the stagnant pool, and not from a running
stream, lest some clean person farther down. the
banks might taste the same water. When any one
approached, he must raise his doleful cry and let
them know that lie was unclean.  When the leprosy passed over into Europe with the returning
tides of men from the Crusades-though, indeed,
it made its appearance as early as.the sixth century,
after the decline of the Roman empire-it prevailed
to a fearful extent, and the sanitary regulations respecting it were excessively severe. Legally and
politically, the leper was reckoned a dead man.
The marriage vow was cancelled, and his wife was




THE SYRIAN LEPER.             139
as a widow, allowed to -marry again if she chose;
his estate passed to his heirs; the very ceremonies
of burial were performed for him, and masses were
said for the repose of his soul. Better for any man
to be dead than to be leprous. Death is a less terrible form of bereavement than for a beloved one
to be thus an outcast; and the victim had not the
quiet of the grave, though earth had no hopes for
him.
Leprosy is the great scriptural type of sin. The
Jews regarded its infliction as a direct judgment of
God; and the cases of Miriam, Num. xii. 12, and Gehazi, 2 Kings v. 27, and Uzziah, 2 Chron. xxvi. 19,
20, as recorded in the Scriptures, support this view.
INo art of man could cure it.  So the king of Israel exclaims here (2 Kings v. 7): " Am I God, to
kill and make alive, that this man doth send unto
me to recover a man of his leprosy?" Therefore
every regulation implied that as recovery could be expected only from divine power, the leper was sent not
to the physicians, but to the priests, and the ceremonies of the recovered leper were acts of thanksgiving to God.
It does not appear that regulations so strict belonged to the tribes around, or were always maintained in Israel. Naaman may not have been
placed in the distressing circumstance of a leprous
Jew. But he was a leper, and he gladly heard
tidings of healing. That he put any credit in the
thought of healing may strike us as strange. Look




140        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
at the conduct of the several persons named in the
narrative. We have no account that ever a leper was
healed in Israel from the days of Miriam to the
days of Elisha. We may admire the trusting and
childlike faith of the little Hebrew girl, who lifted
up her voice in the darkness of Syria to speak of
her country's prophet and, -:wish that her lord
was with him in Samaria.!WVe may contrast her
with her own idolatrous king, who never thought of
Elisha when Naaman asked the healing of his disease. We may judge that Naaman acted wisely when
he made his immediate preparations to seek the prophet, though doubtless despair of relief from any
other quarter was his chief impelling motive.
Could a man afflicted with the leprosy be given
up by all ordinary physicians, and be unwilling at
any effort or cost to try any means that held forth
the slightest hope that relief might come, and that
the current of health would flow vigorously through
his veins?
But from considering Naaman's sad and significant condition, we may pass to speak of the means
he used to seek relief, and the steps he was willing
to take to secure it. Not those whose condition is
worst, not those who have the readiest access to
relief, either long most wistfully or seek most earnestly for a cure. "Many lepers were in Israel in
the days of Elisha;" the fame of his miracles had
filled the land, yet though he had raised the dead,
no outcast drew near the wondrous prophet. But




THE SYRIAN LEPER.             141
a Syrian idolater presses past them all to find the
cleansings of Jordan. Yet Naaman began his
journey all unready for a cure. IIe came with a
letter from a king to a king, and all the parties
were ignorant of the important matter they had then
in hand. He came with the swelling pride of a
Syrian and a prince, for indeed he had two diseases, and the grace of Israel's God was larger than
Naarnan's thoughts, and designed to heal him of
)both. First he brought his letter to Jehoram, and
the Israelitish king thought it but the pretext for
wvar between the two nations. At this juncture
Elisha proffered his services. It requires no little
wisdom for the prophet to discern when he should
seek opportunities for doing good, and when those
who desire good must seek him. No general rule
can decide in such matters. Elisha was truly concerned for the honour of religion, and such a spirit
best prepares us to use our occasions of doing good
judiciously. Perhaps Naaman's pride was flattered
and his expectations raised by the prophet's voluntary message calling him to receive his cure.
But his expectations were disappointed.  No
sooner did the splendid equipage stand at the
prophet's door than, without giving him time to
bring forward the presents which according to
Oriental etiquette belong to the opening of such an
interview, he was met by a messenger from the prophet, who bade him go and wash in Jordan seven
times, and his flesh should come again to him and




142         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
he should be clean.- Such a message and so delivered filled the haughty Syrian with iage. He
knew something, and this seemed opposed to all he
knew. He had his prejudices, and this cut across
them all. He had formed his anticipations of how
the prophet would do this great thing, and this
dealing was all unlike them. As to washing in
water to heal the leprosy, had he not often bathed
himself and remained a leper as before?  As to any
special efficacy in the Jordan, why was it superior
to the golden stream Abana and the cool, pure waters
of the Pharpar in his own city?  Why did not
the prophet come out himself?  Why did he not
do something that would seem to possess the power
to effect this needed cure? Rage possessed the
leper's heart. He ordered his chariot-driver to turn
away from the prophet's door; his anger perhaps
kept him just then from realizing the disappointment, and he thought himself a fool to come so far
upon a fruitless errand.
And so Naaman nearly missed a cure. Let him
indulge this rage and refuse the Jordan, and he
may remain a leper-he may remain a heathen still.
And indeed it was a very simple thing which the prophet bade him do. Naaman had long been familiar
with the disease; a modern missionary says that
the leprosy still cleaves to Damascus and is still
incurable.* How could he consent to so simple a
cure as this? But truly its very simplicity was a
* The Land and the Book, ii. 199, 519.




THE SYRIAN LEPER.            143
sufficient reason why Naaman should not leave this
method of cure untried. So, with true and respectful
faithfulness, his servants urged him to this. They
knew that so great was his anxiety for a cure that
lie would willingly endure severe trials, pay large
sums of money and return the largest gratitude to
his benefactor. How ready, then, should he be to
do this easy thing! "My father!" they asked
with affectionate tenderness and unanswerable logic,
"if the prophet had bidden thee do some great
thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much
rather then, when he saith to thee, wash and be
clean!"  How indebted was Naaman to his servants! His wife's little maid-servant sent him to
Samaria-his attendants there prevented him from
going home unhealed. He went down to the Jotdan-a distance of perhaps twenty-five milesbathed seven times in its waters, and was cleansed.
So Naaman was no more a leper. What a
changed sight in the eyes of his servants, when he
came forth from the healing stream with the ruddy
glow of health instead of the ghastly paleness-with
the upright forin and the cheerful eye and the firm
step which they had never expected to see again!
What a changed feeling in the man himself from
these invigorating waters!  How hard to realize
the effect of this sudden restoration! Not only that
the sluggish blood now moves rapidly though the
veins, nor that the skin and flesh are sound, but
the dull despair of incurable calamity no longer




144         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
binds the heartstrings.  Health and life are his
again: he may go forth freely among his fellows,
and it seems not only a new lease of time, but a
new world in which to live, a new zeal for every
duty, a new enjoyment for every pleasure.
There are more lepers in the world than Naaman,
and worse cases by far of leprosy. There are others
besides him offended at the simplicity of the divine
means of care, and many indeed who turn utterly
away and are never healed. There are two long
chapters in the books of Moses (see Lev. xiii., xiv.)
that describe such a leprosy as belonged to this
Syrian general, only the particulars are so many
and so beyond a parallel to any disease existing in
the world, affecting clothes and houses and even
fretting and consuming the very stones, that it
seems expressly adapted to serve as a typical disease.
And though, as we have noticed, no instance of
cure is recorded after Miriam until Naaman, yet
the very provisions of the law seem to imply that
healing was possible-to teach that sometimes it was
cured, and to hold forth some hope to the suffering.
Yet many lepers were in Israel-we soon after read
of.four in this very city-and none of them applied
to the prophet for a cure until Naaman, or indeed
after Naaman. But we can see in Christian lands
more remarkable apathy than this.
Not two chapters of the Bible only, but the
whole book from Genesis to Revelation, is chiefly
occupied in describing a more fearful leprosy, and




THE SYRIAN LEPER.             145
in declaring the only, the free, the efficacious,
remedy for it.  How sin pollutes the soul, how it
separates man from man and the race from God,'how it makes its subject outlaws from his government, incapacitates fiom the services and enjoyments of his holy creatures, and puts them among
the spiritually dead that are banished from  his
sight, —all this it tells.  Yet many lepers have
been healed.  The law of grace not only makes
provision for cleansing, but, better far than the law
of Moses, it invites the leprous to be cleansed.
And as Elisha sent Naaman to the Jordan, so this
fearful leprosy is cleansed by purifying waters.
There is a Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, and it is not here, as in Israel, that we cannot
point to cases of its purifying power.  Many have
been healed, and their happy experience may encourage others to come as they came, that they too
may find a cure. And as the prophet offered to
heal Naaman, so a cure is offered to sinful souls.
rThere is no excuse for the unbelief by which so
many are for ever ruined.  These sacred pages describe in the plainest terms the fearful malady,
tell that the sinner is dead to holiness and dead to
God, and declare that there is no remedy elsewhere
than in Christ Jesus. So also they call the leper
to find healing. As when our Lord was upon the
earth no leper asked his cleansing power and departed from his presence still a leper, so now stands
he ready to heal all who seek his grace; and to
10




146        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
every unhealed soul he declares as truly as to the
men around him then, "Ye will not come unto
me that ye might have life."
In Naaman we see an example similar to the
thoughts of many. How many there are who in
their secret minds often wish they were Christians
-often say they would be willing to do anything
if they might but find the salvation of the gospel;
and often bewail their own sad condition that
they know not how to come to Christ for life!
They think they are willing to return to God, if
they only had the opportunity.  And they are
doubtless willing, in the same sense that Naaman
was willing to come to Samaria, willing to submit
to mysterious things, willing to pay any money;
but they are not willing to do the simple matter
which the gospel requires.  They are therefore
ready to find fault with the things that are required, and to do the things that are of no use.
The simplicity of the gospel offends them. The
false religions of the world prove that men are ready
to do some great things to make amends for sill.
They will be pilgrims and self-torturers; they will
endure fastings and penances; they will give lands
and moneys; they w;ill go through with services
that seem to mean something; they want to feel the
oppressive burden of sin, and to find self-righteous
satisfaction in keen pangs of anguish. How many
are the great things men are ready to do, as the false
prophets of the earth humour the fantasies of the sin



THE SYRIAN LEPER.            147
sick soul, and vainly tell them that thus they may
secure the pardon of their sins and the healing of
their deep-seated malady!
Naaman was a great man with his master, but
how unhappy had he been if then he had been disobedient! There was nothing f'or him to do but
to receive the prophet's word and to bathe in the
Jordan. And there is nothing effectual the sinful
soul can do but to come to Christ. This is not so
much coming up to the requirements of the gospel
as it is coming down to them. The very simplicity
of the divine requirement is the sinner's stumblingblock. He has his thought of how the thing is to
be done, and he is ready to take offence, even
though he risks the loss of his soul, at anything
that falls not in with his preconceived opinions.
He has heard of the experience by which others
have come to Christ, and unless he passes their way
he judges he cannot come at all. Men limit the
teachings of the Spirit, and consent not to be guided
by him in the ways of his choosing. Let the case
of Naaman suggest to us what doubtless is truethat no man ever comes to Christ without being
disappointed as to his own anticipations-perhaps
bitterly disappointed-and this by divine wisdom
and mercy, for the very purpose of staining the
pride of human glory and of leading us to give the
honour of our salvation where it belongs-to God.
Let us read that declaration of Isaiah, applicable to
his people in all ages: "I will bring the blind by a




148        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
way that they know not; I will lead them in paths
that they have not known," Isa. xlii. 16.
But what matter to Naaman if his thoughts
were disappointed, his prejudices overthrown and
his pride mortified, when yet his leprosy was
cleansed? That was the great thing after all, and
he was ready to leap for joy and to vow all his sacrifices hereafter only to the Lord God of Israel.
So let every leper give up his thoughts and submit
to the divine method of mercy. You that are so
ready to promise such great things to secure salvation, how much more should you be prepared to
take the offered grace of Christ in all its freeness!
You have long been trying to see your way before
you, and are not willing to take step by step the
path of his leadings. You have been long wondering how you can cleanse yourselves-how you
can fit yourselves for the requirements of the gospel-how you can prepare yourselves to come to
Christ. You have looked for an experience full of
mystery-some more powerful preaching than you
have ever heard before —some great working of a
strange arid indisputable power.  If you could
have some extraordinary feelings-something that
is beyond question the working of the Spirit's graceyoul would be well satisfied. The gospel is too simple for you. Yet thus God works. He converts
men by means as unlikely as Naaman's washing in
the Jordan.  Thousands of men have been converted under very ordinary sermons; the simpler




THE SYRIAN LEPER.            149
the preaching is, so that it be God's truth, the more
is he honoured. WVhat you want is to come to
Christ, and it matters not how simple are the means
that lead you there. The voice of a child sent
Naaman from Syria; the words of the prophet offended him; the expostulations of his servants led
himn to the Jordan, and obedient faith secured his
cleansing. Foolish men sometimes go indignantly
away from the sanctuary, where they have been
taught disappointing things.  Yet this is their
folly. How much more should they do what God
demands that they may be saved!
A bana and Pharpar were not better than the
Jordan. Naaman might have washed all his life
in Syria's waters, and been a leper still.. And
the leprosy of sin can only be washed away in the
blood of Jesus. Vain are all resources till the soul
comes to him. And how must the sinner come?
Without delay, without preparation and without
doubt.  Wthat preparation needs the sick man for
his physician except his sickness; the beggar for
his benefactor but his poverty; the leper for cleansing but his leprosy! Naaman could not prepare
for healing; Naaman's rank and gifts were of no esteem in the prophet's eves; Naaman was a leper
and needed Jordan's cleansing stream. There are
various degrees of sinfilness among guilty men;
but for this one great reason need they all a Saviour-that they are sinners, and for help must they
come to him. But, alas! the story of Naaman, over




150        THE PROPHIET ELISHA.
and over again-the same pride, the same expectation
of something great-meets us in every age. But
pride disguises itself under humble expressions.
" I am so great a sinner; I have so hard a heart; I
am too unworthy; there is nothing good in me."
Yet this is all false humility.  It is Naaman over
again. Do you mean that you could trust Christ
to save a better heart, but you cannot expect him
to bless so hard a heart?  If you were better you
would come, but you cannot as you are?  So, foolish sinner, you want to bring a price in your hands.
One of your dignity cannot be received like other
sinners. Does it become a leper to make such
terms? Come to be forgiven; come to be cleansed;
come to take Christ at his word when he declares,
"Him that cometh unto me I will in nowise cast
out."  As Naaman's sole warrant was the bidding
of the prophet, so let any and every guilty sinner
obey the word of Christ and COME.




CHAPTER X.
TH-E HE.ALIxNG WATERS OrF ISRAEL.
fT startles us to think how nearly Naaman's pride
prevailed toward keeping him  still a leper.
Though he knew well the wretchedness of his disease, and would have bought its cure at any price,
his pride refuses to stoop, and his blind and foolish
rage had nearly sent him back to a life of incurable
misery.  The question is easily answered if we
ask, " Whose would have been the loss if the Syrian
general had gone home unhealed?" Attribute any
possible motive to Elisha; suppose that he had not
treated Naaman's case judiciously, and that the
failure of a cure had grieved the prophet for his
own unfaithfulness in duty; or suppose that his
judicious and well-meant kindness had not reached
its aim through Naaman's ignorant and proud folly,
and that thus Elisha was grieved without any reason
to blame himself; still, it must be seen that Naaman
himself must bear the chief consequences of the
serious truth that he is still a leper. Yet all this
is chiefly valuable now for the warnings it holds
forth to sinful men. Still those who draw near the
prophets of God, as Naaman came to Elisha, are
151




152         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
prone to take offence at the manner or the messages
of those who preach the gospel. This offence may
be more or less like Naaman's. There may be a
rage expressed in words, or there may simply be an
undefined disappointment, distaste and indifference
to the biddings of the preacher; there may be a decided preference for some other method of pleasing
God, aside from the simple requirements of the gospel, as Naaman preferred the waters of Damascus to
the Jordan; or there may be simply the neglect of
the prescribed washing in the opened and purifying Fountain! Or indeed the offence may have a
better foundation upon which to rest than the rage
of Naaman. Not every servant of God is as wise
in his measures or as truthful in his words as
Elisha.  The minister may have given to his
hearer some just ground of offence. He may have
spoken unkindly, or at least not with the full sympathy of his great Master; he may have so misunderstood the case as to give injudicious directions;
he may have been unfaithful to the true teachings
of the gospel: make the most possible case you can
of it, and yet, in the light of Naaman's leprosy, see
how dangerous it is for any man to take offence at
the gospel or to turn away from Christ. A man is
justified for turning away from a false or unfaithful
prophet, just as he would from an ignorant or unskilful physician, but if he wishes to be healed he
must turn to the true and the f:aithful: all quarreling with truth, for any possible reason, is unwise,




THE HEALING WATERS OF ISRAEL.  153
andl cannot result to any man's advantage.  What
it becomes us especially to notice is, that no man
can safely take offence at religion because of any
religious doctrines, or because of the manners or
doings of any religious teachers, so as to continue
himself in indifference or irreligion. Reject human.additions, but beware of neglecting God's word;
care little for man, but venture not to reject Christ.
Let the reasons be what they mlay, pride, ignorance
and folly are at the bottom of all such rejections,
and the loss of the soul is the inevitable result.
If Naaman had rejected the counsel of Elisha,
he might have been able to satisfy the people of
Syria that he was right, that he showed only a
praiseworthy spirit, and that the Israelitish prophet
was but an impostor; but it would be true still
that he had turned away from the only means of
healing, that his pride had ruined all his subsequent life, and that he was yet a leper; And if
any sinner under the sound of the gospel takes
such offence at anything he sees or hears or imagines in the Church, or touching its officers or members, that he remains impenitent in his sins or unbelieving toward Christ, this result, no matter what
its source, is reacled to his own undoing.  We are
ready to acknowledge and bewail there are evils in
the Church, which we do not attempt to justify.
False doctrines are taught, injudicious directions
are given to inquiring sinners, an improper spirit is
often exhibited where we expect something better.




154         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
We make no apology for these things. They are
not peculiar to religion; they are not confined to
our times: the great Head of the Church, when he
set up his kingdom among sinful men, did not design to admit only pure and infallible men; on the
contrary, he declared that the wheat and the tares
would both grow together in the same field. There
are things to take just offence at in a Church that
has evils in it; yet if the Church spoke only the
truth, and in a proper spirit, proud men would often1
turn away in a rage, as Naaman was offended at
the words of Elisha. And it pertains to every
thoughtful man to notice that the burden of mischief done falls upon the man who, for any reason,
turns away from Christ and salvation. What Naaman needed was a cure; whatever hindered that
left him still diseased. Had he gone to a prophet
who could not cure, or turned away in his foolish
rage from one that could, had his servants fostered
his pride or kept silent, the end would have been
the same. The man who does not find the sinner's
only Saviour, no matter what kept him away, must
remain a sinner and meet a sinner's doom. How
great therefore is their folly who take any offence
at the doctrines or the leadings of piety, and refuse
to bathe in the great Fountain! We cannot afford
to take offence at Jesus and his cross. We who are
so defiled with the leprosy of sin must draw near
to Jesus and say, Lord, if thou wilt thou canst
make me clean!




THE HEALING WATERS OF ISRAEL. 155
INiaaman returned  from  the Jordan cleansed,
thankful and filled with new purposes of service
to be rendered to the God of Israel. He stood
again with his company before the prophet's door,
and would gladly have left with him substantial
gifts in token of his gratitude. The prophet absolutely declined to receive any. In Eastern lands
the exchange of presents is much more common
than with us; to refuse them is indeed an incivility,
if not worse; but Naaman is quite changed since
his bathing in the Jordan: he is little disposed now
to judge unkindly of anything done by the prophet;
he cannot question that his course is quite disinterested; and perhaps, indeed, Oriental etiquette demanded that the gifts upon his part should have
been the first step of their intercourse. Elisha had
skilfully avoided this by his message before the
Syrian could enter his door; and( Naaman's hasty
rage may have lasted long enough to bear him
some distance from the city on his way toward Damascus before his servants could prevail upon him
to do as the prophet bade. So now, indeed, even
etiquette gives the Syrian no room to complain.
Why the prophet refused to receive anything we
are not told. It is usually said that Elisha was
zealous for the honour of Israel's God, and desired
to show this newly-converted idolater that the servants of Jehovah were not mei'cenary, as the priests
of all false religions notoriously are.  Yet what
afterward occurred shows plainly that Elisha did




156         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
not suffer himself to be much concerned even for
injurious impressions that were falsely made upon
the mind of' Naaman.  When Gehazi told falsehoods in the pr.ophet's name, and received from the
Syrian, as if El.isha had sent him, the very gifts
now refused, we have no record that any attempt
was made to disabuse the mind of Naaman touching this matter.  It would seem far more indelicate
for Elisha to send after the gifts, upon any plea,
than to receive them as offered at the first; yet the
Syrian was allowed to go home under the impression that this was done by the prophet's order.
It is difficult for a servant of God to know just
what steps to take to vindicate his reputation when
slanderous reports are made of him. Sometimes
silence is a confession of guilt, and duty requires a
man to speak. At other times it is far best to take no
notice whatever of current falsehoods. They will
die of themselves if let alone, or Providence will
sufficiently refute them without our concerning ourselves with them, or the general tenour of a holy
life will forbid people to believe them, or even
those who have set them  in circulation become
ashamed of them and give the lie to them by the
esteem in which they are compelled to hold the
subject of their slanders. Those who are much
concerned about what other people say or do touching them, have profitless work to attend to, which
will likely grow upon their hands while pleasanter
and better duties are neglected. Elisha knew that




THE HEALING WATERS OF ISRAEL.  157
Gehazi had used his name in falsehood and robbery with Naarnan, but this was not his fault, and
he made it little his concern.
When Elisha will not receive the gifts of the
grateful Syrian, iNaaman becomes his petitioner.
He boldly avows his faith in the God of Israel.
There were many of Elisha's own nation at that
hour who observed a mixed worship, paying some
reverence to Jehovah while also they served Jeroboam's golden calves. But Naaman perceives at
once that the God who could heal his leprosy by
means so simple was the one living God. This God
alone was worthy of his love and service, nor would
he offer sacrifices hereafter to any but to him. But
we naturally judge that the new-born zeal of Naaman, however sincere, was uninstructed. The converting grace of God works moral rather than
natural changes upon the soul. Naaman was an
Israelite in mind and temper by turning to the
God of Israel, but the change into the intelligent
and full knowledge of the teachings'of Israel
could not so suddenly come. He seems here to fall
into two errors, both of which the prophet deals
kindly by: First, he asks that he may be allowed
to take with him some of the earth of Judea, for
henceforth he would offer sacrifices only to Jehovah. Evidently some religious purpose wis intended by this, upon which he sought the prophet's
approval, for without this he could easily have
taken the earth away unasked. Whether he designed




158         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
to build an altar of the earth, or to kneel upon this
sacred soil as he offered his devotions, or for some
other of the various purposes suggested by different
conmmentators, is a matter we need not discuss.
Next, he asks a harder thing-that lie may be forgiven for conforming to the usual ceremonies which
belonged to his position in the court of the king of
Syria, and which he himself felt to be an undue
compliance with the i(lolatries in which now he
collld bear no part.  We cannot think that Naaman
asks, as Lightfoot suggests, to be forgiven for his
past idolatry, for he need not speak of this as connected with service to the king, since he had been
an idolater all his life, both in and out of office.
But he speaks as if his civil duties demanded an
external compliance with idolatrous services, and he
asked to be pardoned for this upon the plea that
his heart was not in them.
The important question is, in reference to these
matters, when Elisha said to Naaman, Go in peace,
did le give his approbation, as a prophet of God,
to the request of the Syrian?-especially did he imply that he would be justified in compliances with
idolatrous practices because his king demanded it?
In consi(lering this, we are not so much surprised at the request of Naaman.  He had been all
his li'fe an idolater, and was but a child in his
knowledge of the teachings of true religion.
Yet we must give him  credit in the main matter
here spoken of for a correct discernment of the con



THE HEALING WATERS OF ISRAEL. 159:
sistent duty of a worshipper of Israel's God.
Naarnan's own conscience decides that bowing in
the temple of Syrian idolatry was not in harmony
with a professed subljection to the only true God.
And innumerable teachings in the Scripture support this decision. If Naainan could bow in the
house of Rimmon because his king bade, why did
the three young friends of Daniel refuse so steadfastly to bow before the golden image on the plain
of Dura at the command of Nebuchadnezzar?
We are quite unwilling, then, to understand that
there is any approval on the part of the prophet of this proposal, and indeed no definite reply
of Elisha is recorded to either of Naaman's requests. That the prophet dismissed him with the
ordinary courtesy, Go in peace-which is but equivalent to our " fhrewell"-cannot be. interpreted to
favour a sentiment otherwise unscriptural. The design of the record is not to solve a question in casuistry which is elsewhere abundantly and plainly solved
in the sacred writings, but rather to show us how
quickly such questions rise in a mind that is truly
awakened to see the just and holy claims of the
living God. Some indeed suppose that Elisha saw
such evident proofs of true piety in Naaman,
but struggling with the misconceptions natural to a
mind so long accustomed to paganism, that he was
willing to dismiss him  without any direct answer,
and to allow him to solve the question for himself
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And there




160         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
is doubtless a great deal of forbearance due to young
converts to true piety, whose previous life unfits
them for an immediate recognition of all the clainms
of the gospel: there is a harmony and coherency in
all the great teachings of true religion, so that a
humble, devout and sincere mind will soon work
loose from early errors and misconceptions; there is
wisdom in allowing a thoughtful mind to discover
for itself the path of duty, rather than to make it
dependent on others to have every step pointed
out; and there is an earnest tenderness of conscience
in Naaman, which the prophet judges may be
allowed to make its own decisions.
Now, when we add that there is no proof that
Naaman ever did bow himself down after this in
this house of Rimmon, but when rather the likelihood seems all the other way, it appears unjust to
Elisha to gather from this narrative that he approved of his proposal to do this thing. Naaman
disappears from the history from this time on. We
read soon again of Syria and of Syrian wars with
Israel, but this officer of the king, this great man
with his master, this general of their armies, is
heard of no more. So far as his health was concerned, he was better fit for his place than ever.
Naaman was no more a leper.  But when he
bathed in the Jordan he got a better cure than the
king of Syria intended. Naaman was no more an
idolater, and doubtless his new ideas did not find
favour in tlie palaces of Damascus. In a very little




THE HEALING WATERS OF ISRAEL.  161
time afterward we read that Hazael is the captain
of the king's host.  We may reflect that Benhadad
gained but little when he (lisplaced a man who was
conscientious to disobey his God, and put in his
room alnother who did not scruple to murder his
king.  The tendency of the entire history may
warrant us in judging that Naaman easily decided
this question of duty, and that he soon lost his
honours for the sake of his religion; for in all
ages the substantial claims of God upon his people
remain the same.  When we take up our cross and
follow Jesus, we are but copying the examples set
before us in all the history of the Church. Abrallam left his father's house; Moses gave up the
honours of Egypt; Naaman probably lost his place
in the court of Syria; none of these perhaps with-'out a struggle, but all really decided in the hour of
trial. And whosoever now is not ready to forsake
all at the bidding of Christ cannot be his disciple.
WMe may follow him with tearful eyes, but we must
follow him or ve are not worthy of him.
11




CHAPTER XI.
GEH'AZI'S GUIL T AND PUNISHMENT.
BUT let us now turn to consider another character hitherto brought rather to our favourable notice. Herodotus records for us an elaborate
address of Solon to Croesus, the moral of which is,
Call no man happy until the day of his death, for
we know not what miserable changes may yet lie
before a living man. Up to this time Gehazi may
have maintained a fair reputation as the servant of
the prophet. He was, it may be, under the prophet's instructions, as Elisha had himself been the
servant of Elijah. But now le falls sadly under
the power of a temptation which presented a fair
opportunity of securing wealth and at but little
risk of discovery.  Elisha has sent Naaman away,
refusing his gifts. It is not likely he will ever see
his face again. Now Gehazi thinks this is the time
for him.  If he can but secure these presents despised by his master, how happy it would make him!
Elisha will never know the matter.:Naaman is
rich enough to give what Gehazi asks without
missing it, and generous enough to feel gratified
rather than robbed by this disposal of his wealth.
162




GEHAZI'S GUILT AND PUNISHMENT. 163
So Gehazi allowed the Syrian to depart only far
enough to enable him still to reach him before he
was quite gone, while he escaped the prophet's
notice and planned the plausible story which would
sufficiently account to Naaman for the change in
Elisha's mind. So Gehazi ran after the chariot of
the Syrian. The attendants saw a man running
behind and wishing to attract their attention: he
was soon recognized as the prophet's servant, and
iNaaman himself, with every mark of respect, alighted
from his chariot to salute him. Doubtless the sons
of the prophets were a care upon Elisha, not only
for instruction but for support; and this forms the
foundation for Gehazi's plea. It is well that he
had a generous and unsuspicious man to deal with,
or his claim would have betrayed itself. A talent
of silver is variously estimated at from fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars.  Such a sum of
money would scarcely be found in the possession of
a student of divinity in the poverty-stricken schools
of Elisha. They who enlarge their buildings by
their own labours and by borrowed tools, as we
read in the next chapter, are content with humbler
aspirations.  But Gehazi has not miscalculated
upon the penetration of Naaman in these matters,
nor upon his generosity in giving freely at his request. - Rather he urges double as much upon him.
Gehazi is more successful than he had expected.
The grateful Syrian, not content with giving double,
sends his servants to carry the gifts for him. Per



164        THE PROPHIET ELISHA.
haps Gehazi would willingly have dispensed with
their attendance, which might be noticed and might
bring the whole transaction to the knowledge of
Elisha. But he did not dare to decline the dangerous kindness, lest he should betray himself. All
succeeded, however, as well as Gehazi could expect.
The treasure was safely deposited in a secret place,
the servants of Naaman were dismissed, the stately
train passed on to Damascus; no man in Samaria
knew Gehazi's deception, and the servant, all innocent to appearence, stood before the prophet.
Thus it often is in the ways of sin. Men lay
their plans to escape detection; their early efforts
seem quite successful, and they flatter themselves
with thoughts of their own wisdom. Gehazi's sins
were(1.) Covetousness. He heard the offer of the
grateful Syrian and Elisha's refusal, and he longed
to make himself master of that which was not his.
Perhaps indeed he deceived himself with the reflection that he asked only a small portion of what the
Syrian had freely offered. Naaman had brought
with him ten talents of silver and six thousand
pieces of gold-perhaps equal to seventy thousand
dollars. In the eyes of Gehazi a very small part
of this was a fortune. The Scriptures warn us that
we have to do with scarcely any more deceitfiul
thing than the love of money. The amount of
money a man desires differs with his previous experience, just as wealth is a comparative term.




GEHAZI S GUILT AND PUNISHMENT.  165
Let every man guard the avenues of his heart
against admitting that most dangerous foe to peace
and innocence-the love of money.  Andrew
Fuller remarks that three classes of persons are
specially in danger of covetousness: prosperous men,
because the habit of acquiring is apt to strengthen
the desire for it; aged persons, because the decay of
the natural powers may change a man's taste in
other directions, while he is able as ever to make
and enjoy money; and professors of religion, because
such men are restrained from gross external sins by
a regard to their own consistency, while they may
feel free to indulge secret tendencies which bring
little reproach upon them in the eyes of men. A
man may be covetous while he does nothing to defraud others.
(2.) Theft belonged to Gehazi's sin. A man may
be covetous when he is no dishonest, but Gehazi
is both. It does not relieve the matter any that
Naaman freely gave the money into his hands, that
he did not miss it from his wealth, or that he
pressed more upon him than he asked; for Gehazi well knew that the money was given for no
such purpose as he received it. He tookl what in
no proper sense belonged to him; all the pretences
that would make this any less than robbery were
frivolous and false; Gehazi had all the guilt of a
robber without the boldness that theft sometimes
requires. There are different modes of robbery.
By forgery and gaming and fraudulent pretences,




166         T}IE PROPHET ELISHA.
and in our prices and payments of money worth less
than the amount at which it is honourably reckoned when the giver and the receiver both knew
its value, men take from others what they ought
not to get; and all these frauds are breaches of that
precept of Sinai which declares, " Thou shalt not
steal."
(3.) Gehazi spoke falsehoods.  Not only once
but repeatedly he uttered lying words. His story
to Naaman was totally false; his answer to Elisha
as much so. Nothing has truly a higher importance among men than truth. Yet men speak falsehood abundantly.  Many who are indignant when
they are imposed upon b)y others, themselves use
the lying tongue. Many are not careful to speak
the truth in small matters. Rather than defbr a
slight inconvenience, they indulge in lying. It is
a degrading an(l wickedl habit. The prophet's servant speaks falsehoods so easily and with so little
concern that we are tempted to think it is no new
thing with him. God abhors falsehood, and declares that the mouth of them that speak lies shall
be stopped.
(4.) Gehazi was hypocritical. We see this in his
appearance before Elislla. He came into the house
in an unconcerned and indifferent manner, designing to conceal the fact of his absence at all; and
when questioned upon the subject did not hesitate
to declare that he had gone nowhere. And if he
was one of the sons of the prophets, if the money




GEHAZI S GUILT AND PUNISHMENT.  167
of Naaman turned him away from the frugal fare
and the hard service to which Elisha had devoted
his life, then here is a sad shipwreck of his professed faith.
The sin of Gehazi was great, and his enjoyment
of his ill-gotten stores was soon marred. Elisha
calmly asked him whence he came; and upon his
false reply, he showed him not only that he knew
his sin, but also that he was well aware of his secret plans for the future. Visions of wealth filled
Gehazi's mind. Money and garments were already
his; oliveyards, vineyards, cattle and servants
were in the landscape his imagination had already
drawn for the years to come. How terrible the
prophet's words! Let sinners hear and tremble.
These are some of the lessons: 1st. Every man's
sin is known. Man may not know of it. You
may speak hypocritical falsehoods before a servant
of God, and he neither know nor rebuke it. But
God knows always. There is no such thing as a
secret sin.  There are witnesses who will tell.
Conscience will tell; angels and devils will tell;
God will bring everything out to the light.  Many
a sin may be more skilfully planned and longer hid
than Gehazi's. But every sin is known. 2d. Every
sin will receive due punishment. God often brings
upon men just such punishments as seem fitting for
their offence; and in what they suffer they cannot
but see what brought their wretchedness upon
them. Gehazi in his leprosy could inever forget




168         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
Naaman. And this was worse than his; for the
Syrian's disease was a calatmity, and this was a
judgment. 3d. His punishment was public. He
did this thing secretly, and thought it would never
be known. But God brought it out before Israel
and before the sun. Wherever Gehazi went, men
discerned the proof of his sin and of divine justice.
He was widely known as the prophet's servant;
and still wherever he went in all Israel he must be
a preacher of the divine law. No man could see
Gehazi without recalling Naaman's story and thus
learning of God's cleansing grace; yet this manll
himself was a solemn warning that God is just.
And examples enough, both to warn and to encourage, occur all around us. It is true many seem to
sin with  impunity.  Some sins God punislhes
plainly here, lest men should deny his justice; yet
he does not punish every sin here, lest men should
think there is no hereafter. Enough to warn the
wicked, enough to encourage the penitent we may
see on every hand. 4th. Gehazi's punishment affected more than himself. It came upon his seed
after him. The leprosy is hereditary. Children
seem to be free from it, bIut it is in the system, and
will make its fearful appearance sooner or later.
And so we know it is with men's sin. We are social beings, and we cannot sin alone. God indeed
shows mercy to the children of wicked men when
they love him and keep his commandments; but
we know that men cannot sin and bear the fearful




GEHAZI'S GUILT AND PUNISHMENT.  169
crime alone. The character, prospects, prosperity,
health and reputation of a family are deeply involved in what the parent is, and in what he says
and does. No man can possibly know what is before him when he consents to any sin. He knows
not what strange circumstance which he has overlooked may awaken inquiry and lead to his detection. He cannot tell who may yet be involved
with him in the punishment which he must bear.
Let us remember that sin is against God; that he
has made nothing in the universe capable of resisting his will; and that he can make everything
about us, and our own consciences within us, testify
to the divine supremacy and the divine justice in
punishing sin.
In this whole record pertaining to Gehazi the
most serious lesson is that which reminds us that
men possessed of the best religious opportunities
may still be rebels against God and may fall beneath the divine wrath.  When we read of this
Syrian leper healed by Israel's waters and avowing
his faithful service to the God of Jacob, our hearts
rejoice over him as a trophy of redeeming grace.
]But when in the same chapter we read that Elisha's
trusted servant, who had enjoyed the teachings and
example of such a prophet, falls so low as this, we
have a sad lesson of human iniquity. Education is
not religion, however valuable its services are to instruct men in the fear of the Ilord. Our families
may be taught the great things of the kingdom of




170        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
God, but it is by no means a matter of course that
the children of pious parentage shall be heirs of
everlasting life. Our Lord Jesus gives us the express and serious warning that many from distant
lands shall enter heaven, while many children of
the kingdom shall be cast out. Many a washed
Naaman shall be accepted, many a leprous Gehazi
rejected. One of our Lord's own disciples was a
Judas, while he commended the faith of Gentiles.
What, then, is the profit of hearing so plainly the
teachings of God's word?  Much every way. But
this word is no talisman to be placed unread upon the
parlour table or hung as a charm around a careless
neck. Gehazi's guilt was the greater because he
knew so much better what he should do, and sinned
against light so clear. Had he listened to the instructions he received, his end had not been this.
It was not the fault of Elisha nor of the opportunities Gehazi enjoyed. It was his own sin and
folly. He chose his way; it was earthly and sinful,
and it disappointed him.  But the advantages he
possessed were not in advance of those that are now
given to many in our own land. Indeed a greater
than Elisha teaches us, and we read the records of
miracles of grace more wonderful and attractive
than even Naaman's cure. But the same principle
rules now as then. It is not the mere possession,
it is the due and humble improvement of our privileges, that secures the soul's salvation.  And let us
not forget that the soul may be lost when yet we do




GEHAZI S GUILT AND PUNISHMENT.  171
not imitate the particular form of Gehazi's sin. We
may not defraud another of his goods, nor fill our
mouths with such falsehoods as his. But, great as
our advantages are, we must not rest upon them.
They must lead us to Christ; we must flee from
every iniquity and take him as our Saviour; we
must be washed from our sins in his precious blood,
or no weight will be heavier upon our heads to sink
us to destruction than the oppressive consciousness
that our privileges have been neglected and abused.
Our Lord's language is, that those who have been
exalted to heaven shall be cast down to hell if they
repent not when so plainly taught.




CHAPTER XII.
ANGELIC  X.IINISTRIES.
IT is pleasing to find so many intimations that the
great work of Elisha's life increases upon his
hands. In the great decline of religion through
the wickedness of the Israelitish kings, no more
effectual method could be adopted to counteract the
prevailing evils than to raise up a new set of
teachers; and the schools of the prophets appear
to have secured an increasing number of pupils.
So we read now, respecting the school established
at Gilgal, that their accommodations were found too
narrow; and they represented their case to the prophet, and desired his approbation of measures that
looked to the enlargement of the institution. The
matter is too briefly recorded to give us a full understanding of it. Whether there was an entire
removal of the college from Gilgal to the Jordan,
the distance being perhaps six miles, or whether
they sought timber on the river banks to be carried
to their present site, we cannot decide. We see the
poverty of his disciples in that they must make
these changes with their own manual labour, and
that even the tools with which they wrought were
172




ANGELIC MINISTRIES.           173
borrowed. Quite likely they were unskilful workmen, and want of skill or accident gave occasion
for recording another of the prophet's wonders. An
axe-head fell into the Jordan, doubtless in too deep
a place to admit of its recovery. The lamentation
of the young man who lost it over an article that
did not belong to him led the prophet to recover
it by causing the iron to swim. The manner of
doing this agrees with the usual practice of Elishaby some external sign. The chief object may have
been to confirm the faith of a new company of disciples in the extraordinary qualifications of their
chief teacher.
We now read of new wars between Israel and
Syria, and of Elisha's aid afforded to the king of
Israel. The name of the new general of the Syrian
army is afterward given; INaaman seems to have lost
his place after his return from Samaria. The various
plans formed by the king of Syria were supernaturally known to Elisha, and he made them
known to the Israelitish leaders. In war, great
advantages must ever belong to a bold assailant,
who learns as nearly as possible the position, and
numbers of his enemies, and by concentrating his
forces strikes a sudden and unexpected blow. The
assailant generally knows his own aim-the attacked
are confused by the necessity of guarding against
dangers that are magnified because they are not
comprehended. If the plans and time of attack
are known, it is usually an easy thing to act upon




174        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
the defence. Elisha made known the plans of the
enemy and saved the forces of Israel. This was
done so often that the king of Syria believed there
must be some traitor in his camp. But when a
council of officers was called to deliberate upon
this matter, one of them solved the perplexity by
declaring that Elisha had revealed everything, and
could tell their most secret thoughts. The name of
Elisha was a familiar one in their ears since Naaman's cure, and no man was disposed to question
this solution of the matter.
It seems strange, however, that in such a case
the king should make any effort to lay hold upon
the prophet. If Elisha knew every plan that was
formed against his people, would he not also know
every plan formed against himself? How could
the king expect to succeed in this enterprise? Yet
how constantly do men fight against a greater than
Elisha-even Elisha's God-as if he could ever be
ignorant of the plans they form, could ever lack
skill to thwart their wisest devices, or could ever
fail to effect all his holy purposes, no matter what
is the array of human wickedness against him!
But the prophet teaches the Church a lesson of
divine protection from the king's folly.  Benhadad sent messengers to learn where the prophet
was, and found him in Dathan, about twelve
miles from Samaria. He then sent a considerable
force of men, who passed by night to the place, and
by the morning surrounded it with their chariots




ANGELIC MINISTRIES.           175
and horsemen. It would have been a very easy
thing for Elisha to have avoided the danger entirely, b)ut he would give us a better lesson. The
servant of the prophet was doubtless Gehazi's successor, and though he reverenced his master, he
had not acquired the full confidence which results
from  longer experience. When he arose in the
morning and saw the city encompassed by a hostile
army, he was greatly distressed.
The propliet took two methods of relieving the
young man's distress: First, he comforted him by
the assurance that more powerful protection was
afforded to them; and next, he prayed that the
young man's eyes might be opened to see for himself the host of their protectors. So the Lord
opened the eyes of the young man, and " behold,
the mountain was full of chariots and horses round
about Elishla."
Here we have two distinct things for our instruction: First, we may notice the actual safety
of these servants of God; and next, the recognition
of this safety by the younger at the prayer of Elisha. The young man and Elisha were just as safe
before the chariots and horses of fire were revealed,
as they were afterward; yet the young man no
longer feared when he saw. Here we have something that remains permanently true for the servants of God, and something granted specially for
the occasion.
It remains true for all ages that they that are




176         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
for God are not feeble and few compared with the
number and power of their enemies. It seems so
many times. The world seems often given over to
iniquity.  In great matters revolutions often occur,
troublous times arise, things seem all to go wrong,
and men's hearts fail them for fear of the changes
that threaten against all their ideas of true advancement. In individual affairs we are thrown
into great perplexity, we encounter unexpected distresses, we see no path of deliverance. So we cry
with the servant of Elisha, Alas! how shall we
do?  But why may not the long experience of
God's people teach us that these are lessons of faith?
NNone of these perplexities call occur to us but
under the divine ordering. He has often led his
most faithful servants into straits, and delayed their
deliverance until they are forced like Abraham to
" hope against hope;" he has still shown his grace
and wisdom and power in an opportune time. The
enemies of Elisha seem to have gained an advantage when they succeeded in surrounding the city
while he was still there; but the advantages gained
by the enemies of religion are never any more real
than theirs. It is quite impossible that any can
ever fight against God, oppose his cause, or attack
his servants, and prosper.
The great fact for our consolation in his service
is to know that God governs the world. This he
does completely without peradventure, without the
slightest exception that can be possible or that can




ANGELIC MSINISTRIES.           177
be imluagined.  There can therefore be no success
against him or against anything he designs to protect.  The believer may stand alone against a crowd
of olpposers, yet they that are for him  outnumber
thenm fikr.  This, therefore, may ever be the believer's song"Fear not, though many should oppose,
For God is stronger than thy foes,
And makes thy cause his care."
mWhatever we are called upon to believe as to the
means adopted by infinite wisdom  for carrying on
hlis government, however much we may sometimes
be perplexed to understand why any enemies to it
are permitted to exist, are allowed to form plans
so audacious, and are able to secure some seeming
success which fills them with increasing boldness
and causes the hearts of good men to fear, still the
great consolation is in knowing that God reigns.
Yet it is to the divine glory that his rule includes and subordinates all infbrior agencies; not
destroying them, but using them.  Let us not busy
ourselves in wondering why God has not made the
world otherwise than it is, nor in conjecturing that
lie might govern it differently; let us distinctly
recognize that as it is, with its manifold agencies
both of animate things and things inanimate, it is
governed by its Creator; and that he is fully able, in
his own good time, to vindicate all that he has allowed to occur and all that lie has done in the orderings of his providence. Enough is constantly
12




178         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
brought before us of the beneficence and kindness
of his workings to show his mercy to man, while
the wonderful leadings of his providence to bless
men in unexpected measures give us profound
ideas of God's wisdom. No matter what may be
the instrument which he uses to further his designs,
awe are authorized to ascribe all to his working.
Nor have we any reason to judge that any failures
occur, any procrastination takes place, any mistakes
are made in the completion of every design which
divine wisdom has ever formed. When we look at
the things we can best understand, we see the most
unswerving exactness and punctuality observed.
The sun never delays his time of rising or setting,
and every variation in changing seasons occurs with
the utmost regularity. The laws that govern inferior things around us are of such unchanging
operation  that any well-established instance of
miracle is therefore also a well-established proof of
divine working for a higher end than nature can
reach. All things are the servants of their Creator.
Fire and hail, rain and snow, and vapour, stormy
wind fulfilling his word, all are his ministers. Even
when men lose sight of the divine rule while they
gaze upon the instrumentalities which God uses, it
remains true that natural things, and all the laws
by which they exist and operate, are subject to his
government.  His wisdom  and power are everywhere. Without divine energy no existence could
be or operate. In the language of the poet, this




ANGELIC MINISTRIES.              179
"Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stanrs and blossoms in the trees;
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent."
There is one chapter concerning the government
of the world which we read  only in  the sacred
Scriptures. This chapter refers to the agency of
angels in the world's providential rule. It is 3
deeply interesting thing to believe that
"Millions of spiritual beings walk this earth,
Unseen, both when we sleep and when we wake."
That the agency is invisible is not strange, since
the most powerful agents in nature-gravitation,
attraction, electricity-are known to man only by
their unquestioned effects; and no man hath seen
God at any time. It is not wonderful to believe
that our Infinite-God is the Creator of other intelligent beings besides the race of man.  When we
know that the stars are innumerable worlds like
the earth on which we live, we think it reasonable
to judge that he created them not in vain, but
formed them to be inhabited, Isa. xlv. 18. And in
the habitation of his own holiness we are assured
that there are hosts of holy, intelligent beings, of
powerful intellects and swift to do his will.
Especially are the angels of God employed in
matters which pertain to the administration of the
covenant of grace. They are therefore called ministering spirits, " sent forth to minister to them that




180         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
shall be heirs of salvation." In all the great matters pertaining to the advancement of the Church
of God, especially in the earlier dispensations, the
angels bore a distinguished part. Perhaps, in the
world before the flood, communication between
heaven and earth was chiefly maintained by their
ministry. And in a certain sense the Mosaic economy was a dispensation given by angels. That is,
thousands of angels were present upon Sinai at the
giving of the law, and angels rendered various
important ministries during that age. It is also
true in some sense that the Christian dispensation
is not subject to the rule of angels, because the
great Mediator has come in human nature. Heb. ii.
Yet the angels are the obedient servants of Christ
Jesus; they delight to do him. homage, and the
Church under his control is a Church where angels
minister. If we read of them in the ancient times
ascending and descending over Jacob's slumbers,
delivering Lot from Sodom, and Jacob from Esau,
and Daniel from the lions, slaying the first-born of
Egypt in their houses and the hosts of the Assyrians in their camps, so we read of them in the:New Testament times, rejoicing at the birth of the
infant Saviour, ministering to him in his necessities
and in his sorrows, and watching at his sepulchre.
They attended at the ascension of the glorified
Redeemer; they surround his throne now with
ceaseless praises, save as they are sent to earth on
errands of mercy; and when he comes a second




ANGGELIC MINISTRIES.             181
time, in the glory of the judgment-throne, he will
be accompanied by all the holy angels. What
their duties are upon earth we may learn either
from scriptural precepts or scriptural examples.
They minister to the heirs of salvation; they encamp about them that fear God and deliver them;
they rejoice over the return of the wandering prodigal.  They enter the prison and give aid to the
prisoner; they wait around the couch of those
that are in distress and offer their unseen ministries; they are by the departing couch of the
dying believer, though he may be like the beggar
Lazarus in wretchedness, and they bear away the
happy spirit to the bosom of Abraham.  Christ is
the Lord of angels. At his bidding they come
and go.  They are great in might and swift to do
his will.  When he sends they fly quickly; what
he commands they do; the meanest saint they are
ready to succour, the meanest service for him they
are ready to perform. These hosts are for God's
people, and they far outnumber all who can be
against them.
"Here a bright squadron leaves the skies,
And thick around Elisha stands;
Anon a heavenly soldier flies,
And breaks the chain from Peter's hands.
Are they not all thy servants, Lord?
At thy command they go and come;
With cheerfiul haste obey thy word,
And guard thy children to their home."
WATTS.




182          THE PROPHET ELISHA.
If we do not often engage our thoughts respecting angels and their service toward the earthly
Church, it is not because the Scriptures are too silent respecting them. "A multitude of writers in
the Scriptures-fifteen at least-have described these
glorious beings with the most perfect harmony and
without a single discordant idea."*   Christians
should think with pleasure of angelic ministries.
"How oft do they their silver bowers leave,
To come to succour us that succour want!...
They for us fight, they watch and duly ward,
And their bright squadrons round about us plant,
And all for love, and nothing for reward." t
They are now our guardians; they shall be our
eternal associates. They have watched us thus far
through all our pathway on earth; they know our
history better than we know it ourselves; they are
constantly about us; and they have doubtless given
us protection and the victory many a time when we
knew not of their care. Shall we believe that evil
is suggested to the human mind by satanic temptations, and reject the thought that we may receive
strength from the angels whom Christ sends to minister to his people? Angelic services are constantly
rendered; their hosts encamp around us; they can
tell us, when we meet on the heavenly plains, most
interesting events of our own lives that were wholly
secret to us while we were here below.
* Dwight's Theol., i. 313.
t See first two stanzas Spenser's Faery Queen, Bk. ii., Canto
V.i.
Vlll.




ANGELIC MINISTRIES.           183
Some have been of the opinion that each person
has a particular guardian angel assigned to him,
who attends him through all the course of his life,
to watch over, protect, guide and warn him; the
Mohammedans extend the doctrine so that each has
a good and a bad angel-the one protecting, the
other devising evil.  Two passages in the New
Testament seem to refer to the doctrine of a good
guardian angel, yet are they not sufficiently explicit
to establish it. Our Lord says, " Take heed that ye
offend not one of these little ones, for I say unto
you that in heaven their angels do always behold
the face of my Father which is in heaven," Matt.
xviii. 10. This passage teaches that the youngest
and meanest of the disciples of Christ is under the
guardianship of angels, but does not confine their
protection to a single guardian for each.  When
Peter was delivered from prison, and the disciples
could.not credit his appearance, they said, It is his
angel! Their wvords contain an evident reference
to the prevalent Jewish opinion, not only of a special guardian to each individual, but of one whose
form resembles him whom they are set to guard.
But the passage may but show that these disciples
still retained the ideas they formerly held, without
proving, in the absence of direct teachings, that
this opinion is. scriptural.  In the case of Elisha
we see that many angels were round about the prophet for his protection.
The angels of God are constantly about us. Paul




184         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
seems to teach especially that they are ever present
in the worshipping assemblies of God's people; and
we have reason to judge that men are perpetually
in the sight of angels. The invisible, eternal world
is not far off from us. In our perplexities and distresses we may be often ready to say, Alas! how
shall we do?  Yet our deliverers are not far off.
True, we cannot discern them  with our natural
senses, for this is not their capacity. And we cannot even conjecture what intuitive knowledge of the
most satisfactory nature might be gained if we possessed the proper faculties.  A  man born blind
cannot possibly know, even though we should attempt to explain it, what light is, and what wondrous revelations light gives to the seeing eye. One
glance of perfect vision would avail more to awaken
and inform the soul than centuries of instruction
upon the wonderful properties of light.  So Elisha
prays for his servant, Lord, I pray thee, open his
eyes, that he may see. This is the view the Scriptures give us of the spiritual world, that it is as
much about us as above us; that angels ascend
and descend between earth and heaven oxi errands
from their Lord; and that more and btronger are
for the believer than can be arrayed against him.
What though our eyes are not opened to see, as
were the eyes of the prophet's servant? The divine rule is unchanged still, and will remain so for
ever. The God who then protected his servant in
peril l)y unseen hosts still allows his people to fall




ANGELIC MINISTRIES.           185
into seen dangers and protects them  by unseen
guardians.
This entire doctrine of unseen spiritual influences
has also its fearful aspects. For there are unseen
tempters to evil. Our warfare -is with spiritual
wickedness. Satan and his angels are ever about
us. The invisible things around us, both good and
evil, are of great influence upon us. Yet the evil
can never force us to evil; they can but suggest
and tempt, and they are restrained in various ways.
They who put their trust in Christ Jesus, the Lord
of angels, need never fear. For thus runs the promise to the believing: " He shall give his angels
charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways;
they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou
dash thy foot against a stone," Ps. xci. 11, 12.
Was Elisha safe in Dothan when the chariots of
God were around him?  The Syrians saw them
not. His servant did not see them till the prophet
prayed that he might. But his safety depended
upon their being present, not upon their being visible. And a thousand providences in the history
of God's people show unexpected deliverances that
have been effected by ministering angels. No matter that we cannot see. The God of angels pledges
his people a full protection; and these are cheerful
servants, swift to do his will.
But we return now to the narrative. Elisha
further prayed that the Lord would smite the
Syrians with blindness. We do not suppose that




186         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
they were really made blind, so that they could not
see at all. In that case, they would hardly have
ventured to march to Samaria. For we can scarcely
conceive of an army of blind men and blind horses
being able to make a march at all. But as the
opening of the eyes of Elisha's servant was not
enabling him to see the invisible hosts with his
bodily eyes-which perhaps is as impossible as to
hear a colour or to see a sound-but rather giving
him a knowledlge of their presence, which for want
of a fitting term we call seeing or perceiving, so the
blindness of the Syrian hosts was rather giving
false perceptions.  They saw, but not as things
really were: they neither recognized Dothan nor
the. prophet. The words of the prophet are evidently the answer to a question put by the Syrians.
Taken by themselves, they seem to be falsehood upon
the prophet's lips. We know indeed that many of
the ancient believers were rather governed by the
low standard of morals prevalent in their times
than by the strict rule of unswerving truth to
which alone the precepts of the Scriptures give
their sanction.  To use falsehood in the stratagems
of war has been regarded as allowable in the teachings of all other moralists, even including many
Christian writers. But no explicit sanction of any
falsehood can lbe found in the word of God: on the
contrary, the Scriptures approve of truth, and this
so entirely beyond excep)tion or apology that if we
judge any man at any time guilty of falsehood, we




ANGELIC MINISTRIES.          187
must condemn it. Elisha was not without his infirmities, though indeed we would not expect him
to speak untruly at such a time.  And there
seems no need of it.  Falsehood is generally a confession of weakness. When men can reach the end
they seek as easily, they speak the truth, having no
object to deceive. Elisha had these men in his
power without speaking any untruth. The whole
matter depends upon what the question was to
wllich Elisha's words were a reply. If they asked,
Where shall we find Elisha? the prophet, though
he stood before them, could truly answer, Not this
way, and not this city; for he intended to let them
see him only at Samaria. They were deceived indeed by these words, but the law of truth does not
require a man to correct the false conceptions of his
enemies.
Elisha led these hosts to Samaria. They were
under the influence of these false perceptions until
they were in the very city, and were surrounded
by the hosts of the king of Israel in such numbers
as to make resistance hopeless. Then their eyes
were opened and they saw their position.  The
king of Israel, out of deference to the power of the
prophet who had delivered these men into his
hands, asked Elisha's advice respecting the disposal
of the prisoners.  At his direction no cruelty was
exercised upon them: they were kindly treated as
prisoners of war, and soon released to return to
their own hland.  Peace was soon made between




188         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
Israel and Syria. It seemed in vain for the king
of Syria to expect success against a people thus protected.  And indeed the guilt of Israel alone exposed them to further wars.  WVe soon read of new
strifes and of new success on the part of Syria,
for Jehloram and his people would not learn repentance, either from the Lord's judgments or mercies.




CHAPTER X111.
THE SIEGE AND DErLIVERANCEI OF SAMARIA.
WE are not able to judge with any accuracy
respecting the lapse of time between the various events recorded here.  We would suppose
that after a defeat so remarkable, succeeded by such
an act of clemency, the king of Syria would allow
at least some years to pass away before he renewed
his warfare against Israel. But when two neighbouring nations have been at war with each other, and
come to look upon each other almost as natural
enemies, it takes but small offence to renew their
conflicts. Of this most unhappy tendency of our
sinful nature we have but too many examples. At
this period Israel and Syria were rival kingdoms,
easily embroiled with each other; and the barbarous style of their warfare exasperated both parties,
so as to separate them  more widely.  Yet the
records of cruelty all belong to the Syrians, who repay badly the generous conduct already mentioned
on the part of Jehoram. (Compare 2 Kings vi. 22,
23 and viii. 12; x. 32.)
This time the war was carried to the gates of
Samaria, and the attempt was made, as was common
189




190         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
in ancient warfare, to reduce the city by starvation.
The ancient engines of war were often utterly
pIowerless against well-fboltified places, and a siege
was a tedious affair. Of course the length of time
necessary to reduce a garrison by famine would depend upon the supplies that had been laid in in
preparation for such a time. The king of Israel
bravely maintained the defence of his capital city
until reduced to great extremity. The instances
given in the narrative to prove the scarcity of provisions have given great perplexity to commentators.  "An ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces
of silver, and a fourth part of a cab of doves' dung
for five pieces of silver." So far as the general
meaning of the passage is concerned, there is no
difficulty in deciding that it is intended to denote
the great scarcity of food in the city. Some suppose
that "an ass's head " signifies the whole animal, as
we say "so many head of cattle;" but the famine
was greatly.more distressing if we understand it
literally. No scruples could be made at such a time
as that because the flesh of the ass was not reckoned
clean by the Israelites, since people who were
driven to other extremities here mentioned would
forget all the requirements of a ceremonial law. It is
a very common opinion that the doves' dung here
mentioned was a kind of grain or pulse which has
some resemblance to the dung of the dove. This is
dried as we dry beans and peas, and stored for use on
long journeys. Yet it is said that if the language




SIEGE AND DELIVERANCE OF SAMARIA. 191
b)e taken literally, other similar records can be foundc
in other histories.
We do not need to dwell upon the dreadful description afterward given in this narrative.  It sets
the horrors of the siege before us in a light far surpassing that shown by any prices paid for ordinary
or unusual food. Yet the horrible atrocity of eating human flesh and of parents eating their own
children has been too often repeated in the history
of the race to make it surprising here. This is
among the sufferings predicted by Moses which
should come upon the sons of Jacob because of
their sins against God, Deut. xxxiii. 53-57. Josephus records an example fillfilling this prediction
during the memorable siege of Jerusalem by Titus
and the Romans. He speaks of it as quite unparalleled in human history, and indeed it so remains
until nov, though he himself had elsewhere recorded the similar instance in this siege of Samaria, and other historians give similar accounts of
other sieges. Doubtless the people of Samaria had
never heard of such a case before; and if, when the
tidings spread through their city that in their distress a mother had slain aund eaten her own child, they
recalled the solemn warning of their lawgiver, they
must have entertained a deep impression of their
guilt as drawing upon them  the woes he had denounced.
We cannot -but respect some characteristics
of the king of Israel at this time. He was an




192         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
idolater, and kept too close to the ways of Ahab his
father, being perhaps greatly under the influence
of Jezebel, who was still living. But he was a
brave warrior, and his endurance of this siege for
so long a time marks his firmness and his power
over a people nearly grown desperate. At this
time it may be he had some relentings for his evil
courses, and knew that these judgments upon him
were from the true God of his people. He heard
the complaint of one of his people as he passed
around the walls, doubtless making personal observations of the strictness with which a watch was
maintained, and declared that unless Jehovah
helped all help was in vain. At the horrible tale
told in his ears the king rent his clothes, and the
bystanders, to their great surprise, noticed that he
had sackcloth under his royal robes and next his
flesh.  Here is some evidence of sincerity in
the king's penitence. Doubtless it was not that
profound and genuine grief that forsakes sin, as
well as bows under the rod for it; true repentance is always permanent, and we have too
good proof that Jehoram loved not the service of
Jehovah. Yet he was truly grieved, and this not
for a show before his people. He rent his clothes
from a sudden impulse of tidings so fearful suddenly given, but the sackcloth under his robes was
accidentally revealed.
It is not an easy thing for us to decide how sincere and how deep may be that species of penitence




SIEGE AND DELIVERANCE OF SAMARIA. 193
which yet is not godly sorrow.  Men may weep for
their sins, they may make profuse promises of
reformation, they may sincerely purpose that they
will do iniquity no more, yet may their goodness
be "as the morning cloud and as the early dew,"
Hos. vi. 4. True repentance differs from false in
something else besides the mere sincerity of our
regrets. It refers to the nature of our regretsthat they spring not from the mere trouble our sins
have brought upon us, but from the shamefulness
of our guilt. The dishonest man may not steal for
fear of discovery and punishment; the honest man
will not, because of the wrong involved. Sorrow for
our sins is not genuine unless we have a true sense
of sin as in itself shameful and evil, and unless
our turning from it is a true turning to its opposite
in the service of the Lord. The king of Israel
may have been sincere in this sense, that while he
humbled himself by wearing sackcloth, he made
no hypocritical show of this to attract the public
attention; what he did was before God and was
accidentally discovered to man; yet his was a sincerity of grief, rather than of penitence. We do
not wonder to find inconsistencies mingling with
his feelings and conduct.  His anger is kindled
against the prophet Elisha, and he swore that he
would take the prophet's head. This was very unreasonable. The prophet was not responsible for
any of these things. We may learn here and elsewhere in the Scriptures that the most remarkable
13




194         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
prophets were servants, not able to work miraculous deliverances at their own will, but subject to
divine direction and the impulses of the Holy Spirit.
The same Elisha who multiplied the widow's oil,
fed a hundred men with a few loaves and delivered
the Assyrian host into the hands of Jehoram, now
sits in his house and quietly suffers his share of the
dread famine in Samaria. Elisha is no more than
another man, except when the Spirit of God is
upon him.
It was not Elisha's fault that famine ruled in
Samaria. The true fault was in the evils of the
house of Ahab, and the true remedy was a genuine
penitence on their part. And it is very likely that
Elisha had encouraged the king to maintain the
siege, and had promised that God would send deliverance. It may have been through the prophet's
exhortations that the king wore this sackcloth; and
we know from the case of Ahab that God withholds his judgments when civil rulers honour him
before their people, even though theirs is not a
thorough penitence. (See 1 Kings xxi. 29.) It is
not, however, strange that the king so severely
threatens Elisha, and then as suddenly withdraws
his threat. We know  that in times of severe
calamity the minds of men are often filled with a
blind and sudden rage, and change fitfillly from
one thing to another.  What feelings of anguish,
revenge, fearfulness, rush through the minds of
men in hurried succession upon tidings of a great




SIEGE AND DELIVERANCE OF SAMARIA.. 195
calamity upon  the battle-field.  We are in a
turmoil of passion. We may perhaps forecast these
evils, yet we nerve ourselves in agitated, bitter,
blind rage against we know not whom. So may it
now have been with the king of Israel. Around
him he saw the miserable proof that his capital
was already at the last extremity, the wretched
sentinels tottered on the walls they were set to
watch, he himself, it may be, passed around on foot,
for his chariot horses were unfit for service (viii.
13), and these last dreadful tidings of the severity
of the distress filled the cup of his misery. If
Elisha: had promised deliverance, we can scarcely
think strange that the wretched king should now
feel that he could wait no longer. The delays of
divine providence often try the patience of the
best of men, and ungodly men like Jehoram often
cut the knot by saying, We will wait no longer.
Yet God dealt with him and his people in great
forbearance, an(d gave them his mercy in the extremity of their distress.  Elisha sat in his house,
surrounded by the elders; perhaps not the civil
rulers of the city, but his disciples or the religious
teachers of the people. - He knew the message of
the king, and gave orders that the messenger
should be detained, for he would soon be followed
by the king himself.  He calls him the son of a
murderer, fbr Ahab had slain the Lord's prophets
and had caused Naboth to be put to death (1 Kings
xviii., xxi.); and Jehoram in character followed too:




196        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
closely in his father's ways. Josephus, says that the
king relented of his first order, and came after his
messenger to countermand it. The king's mind
was evidently greatly agitated. He knew that these
evils were a judgment of God upon him  and his
people; he is almost disposed to take all the revenge
he can by depriving Elisha of life; but this, he
knows, will be of no avail to deliver the city. Just
in this extremity the prophet takes new occasion to
predict deliverance, and even to set a definite and
early time for it. He declared that within twentyfour hours the greatest plenty should reign there.
The declaration seemed so utterly unlikely that it
was received with incredulity, which, on the part
of a chief officer of the king, found expression in
words, and these words proved fatal to himself.
He said, scoffingly, that unless the Lord would
make windows in heaven this thing could not be;
and the prophet answered him that he should see
this thing, but have no share in it.
That same night deliverance came by unexpected
means. The Syrian army was seized with a panic
and fled. They heard, or imagined they heard, a
great noise, as if a vast army was coming against
them. We need not conjecture what really caused
their alarm. For many ages the name panic has
been given to that mysterious dread which sometimes fills large bodies of men frol, slight, indefinable causes, and which leads the boldest to seek
instant and dastardly flight. Mythology says that




SIEGE AND DELIVERANCE OF SAMARIA. 197
the frightful god Pan, accompanying the army of
Bacchus, relieved it from great danger by a wild
scream, which, being repeated by the echoes of the
woods and rocks, scared the enemy away. It was
the belief of the ancients that to punish the presumption of men the gods often struck their armies
during the night with a sudden terror. And instances of panics, that seem hard to account for, in
the conduct of disciplined and brave troops, can
easily be gathered by one well read in the history
of either ancient and modern warfare.
It may be interesting to mention a few examples
of these in modern times. In 1640, when the
Scottish army attacked the forces of Charles I. at
Newbern ford, the English were surprised by a
sudden discharge of artillery; the whole army was
seized with a panic; Sir Thomas Fairfax owned
that his legs trembled under him until he passed
the Tee; the forces at New Castle fled to Durham,
and, not thinking themselves safe there, retreated
precipitately to Yorkshire.  So in the battle of
Preston Pans in 1745, the English dragoons were
so frightened by the fierce shouts of the Scottish
Highlanders that they fled precipitately, headed by
their commander, who was afterward congratulated
as being the first general that ever carried the tidings of his own defeat. This was in the war made
by the Pretender for the recovery of the English
crown; and Dr. Witherspoon, in a speech made in
the Continental Congress, declares that the English




198         TIHE PROPHET ELISHA.
militia then behaved fifty times worse than any
American militia in the Revolutionary war, for
they generally disbanded and ran off wholly as soon
as the enemy came within ten or twenty miles of
them. In 1810, during the Peninsular war, when
Massena, flushed with victory, was advancing upon
Lisbon, a singular incident of this kind occurred
among a choice body of British troops. They were
under the command of General Crawford, had been
the dread of the French and the pride of the British, and only a year before had signalized their discipline and courage in a masterly retreat of sixty
miles from the field of Talavera.  But on the 23d
of September, 1810, they were sleeping on their
arms in a wood, when from  some unknown cause
the entire division fled from  their bivouac like a
flock of sheep; and neither threats nor remonstrances from their officers could induce them  to
form into ranks, until a young officer sounded a
cavalry charge in their front.  Then the men mechanically formed into squares, to be ready to receive
the imaginary foe.
In still later days, during the Italian war, a
panic occurred in a whole reserve corps d'armee of
the French forces, and the account is given us by
the Hon. Mr. R —-, the editor of a prominent
American journal, who was there, partook of the
fright and ran himself with the filgitives. Five
Austrians, whose retreat was cut off, rode rapidly
into the village where the reserve forces were sta



SIEGE AND DELIVERANCE OF SAMARIA. 199
tioned, with the design of giving themselves up.
Tlhe frightened inhabitants cried out, "The Austrians are coming!" and ran for their lives. The
soldiers followed sulit; horse, foot and dragoons,
pell mell, without waiting to take care of the
wounded, ran fifteen miles without stopping. One
wounded French general offered a large reward to be
carried to a place of safety. Mr. R-   confesses
to have run ten miles on foot before he stopped.
A panic among the loyal troops in the first battle
of Bnll's Run in the recent American civil conflict,
if not the cause of their defeat, greatly aggravated
the disasters of the battle.
The whole army of the Syrians fled for their
lives. So terror-stricken were they that they did
not even attempt to use the very agencies of a more
speedy flight, but they even left their horses and
asses tied in their places, while the men rushed
away as if frantic. And, just as soldiers usually do
at such a time, as they ran they gradually disencumbered themselves, flinging away clothes, arms,
vessels, everything that burdened them and hindered their hasty flight.
The discovery of this to the Israelites was made
in the night, and through no watchfulness of Jehoram's sentinels. Four leprous men sat in the gate
of Samaria considering their own helpless condition. Perhaps at such a time as that the rigid exclusion of these unfortunate persons from the city
could not be insisted upon, for that would result




200        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
in driving them forth into the hands of the enemy
-a cruelty which the law of Moses cannot be
thought to have contemplated. But if they had
access to the city-as their words may perhaps imnply-they would be permitted to come there only
through pity-a pity that in the present state of
Samaria would extend only to protection and not
to supply of their wants. These unhappy men
pondered their miserable condition, and saw that
they might pursue one of three plans, all of which
seemed desperate, yet not equally so: First, they
might sit still where they were, but they had
nothing to eat, and they must certainly die. Secondly, they might try to enter the city. If perimitted to do this, they must still starve, for they
had no money, and provisions would be given only
to those who were available for fighting, and certainly not to lepers. Thirdly, they might go forth
to the enemy and throw themselves upon their protection. But it was most unlikely that the Syrians
would spare the lives of lepers, or, after sparing,
also feed them. Yet this was the only direction in
which they could see a ray of light; the most that
could be said was, that all other resources were desperate, and this was not quite so. At the worst
they could but die, and they would venture this.
So these poor men, who seem to have been outside of the line of sentinels, or who were at least
allowed to pass unchallenged, took their way to
the hostile camp. There, too, they found none to




SIEGE AND DELIVERANCE OF SAM ARIA. 201
stay them. The camp was deserted. It was in
the dusk of the evening that they reached there,
and the Syrians had perhaps just gone. Confusion
and disorder were everywhere, and doubtless the
first act of the lepers was to satisfy their hunger.
Then they seized upon spoil enough to make them
rich, and hid it lest it should be wrested from them.
The Jews say that these lepers were Gehazi and
his three sons; and surely here is enough to satisfy
the most covetous capacity. But there were also
better sentiments in the minds of these men. Actuated by good impulses perhaps, and perhaps by
some superstitious feeling that if they kept all this
to themselves they might incur some special frown
of Providence-rather a salutary species of superstition-the lepers bethought themselves and resolved to tell the people of Samaria of the flight
of the enemy. This was a day of good tidings,
and others should share their joy. They had perhaps spent several hours of the night in eagerly
securing the advantages so unexpectedly set before
them; but this better feeling sent them back to
Samaria.
There they called to the keepers of the gates and
gave them tidings none the less welcome because
told by leprous lips. The news was good enough
to be told in the' ears of the king, and he was
roused from his slumbers for that purpose. It is
little to the credit of King Jehoramn that he was not
prepared to believe this, even though Elisha had




202         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
so recently proclaimed a spee(ly and complete dleliverance.  We could not expect the king to imagine that the help would come thus, but he ought
to have been prepared for good tidings in some
form. But Jehoramv will not credit the report of
the lepers. Yet one of his advisers suggested that
in their desperate circumstances it would at least be
well to send out explorers who could go far enough
to learn the truth. If, as the king feared, the Syrians were but playing with their necessities, this
could soon be ascertained. A few horses were still
left to them that were able to go upon such an expedition. They took the advice of this counsellor,
and they found the rout as complete as they could
desire. The whole distance to the Jordan bore
marks of the hasty flight of the enemy; nothing
was destroyed before their departure; the entire
spoil of their enemies fell into the hands of the
garrison of Samaria.
The glad news soon spread through the famished
city, and the delivered people went out to refresh
themselves with the food they so much needed.
The king took possession of the whole, and appointed the same officer who had disbelieved the
prophet's words upon the previous day to have
charge of the distribution.  And this appointment
was the means of fulfilling the reply of the prophet
to him, that he should not partake of the plenty.
Either that he was imperious beyond what the people could brook in a time of so great a necessity,




SIEGE AND DELIVERANCE OF SAMARIA. 203
or that the acci(lental pressure of the hungry multitude crushed him as he sat in the gate to execute
his commission, so it was that they trod upon him
and he died. The prophet's words were fulfilled.
Less than twenty-four hours had -passed from the
period of greatest scarcity, and now bread was
sold plentiful and cheap in the gate of the city.
The interesting narrative recorded in the seventh
chapter may suggest many profitable thoughts.
Among them we may briefly dwell upon a few.
The judgment of these leprous men that they
did wickedly in keeping to themselves the good
tidings that were so needed in the distressed city,
expresses the just feeling which should dwell in
every ingenuous mind. If the providence of God
has freely given us his bounties, and there are others
within our reach- who stand in pressing need, our
very abundance in contrast with their poverty is a
call upon us to' impart to them if we would have
the divine blessing upon what we enjoy. It is not
in the selfish use of anything that we can find its
best advantages. Freely ye have received, freely
give. If God has given us the gospel and its precious teachings,'it is not for our exclusive use.
We, poor lepers, have been mercifully led to find
food and healing, and can we keep to ourselves
the good things of God's grace when the necessities
of a race lying in the darkness and misery of
paganism are known to us-when these precious
teachings can disperse their gloom and fill them




204        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
with everlasting joy, and when indeed we have
received these great blessings accompanied by the
command to send them forth to others in all the
earth? With us it is a day of good tidings-with
them are ignorance and despair. If we withhold
good from them to whom it is due when it is in
the power of our hand to do it, will not He that
keeps our soul know it? If we sit still until the
morning, will not mischief follow our selfish breach
of duty? We may take our lessons from the past
experience of God's people. The Church at large,
or any individual believer or body of believers, will
prosper in their own precious experience just in
proportion as they make earnest, careful efforts to
impart also to others the great blessings they enjoy.
ANo intelligent Christian can doubt that the modern
missionary efforts of the Church have proved a
great blessing to the Church; and no professors of
religion give better proof of piety, enjoy more the
comforts and evidences of religion, or do more to
win the respect of even opposers, than those who
are most zealously engaged in spreading abroad the
teachings of the gospel. Like the traveller likely
to perish from cold who saved his own life by his
exertions to save a freezing companion, a double
good is done by every Christian effort: we get good
by doing good, and the price of indolent and selfish
inactivity is the shrivelling of our own power and
the failure of our comforts.
See how it is in times of awakened interest in




SIEGE AND DELIVERANCE OF SAMARIA.  205
the Church! How sinful for men not to tell others
of the Lord's grace! and how does the Church
flourish when with thankful hearts we desire to
tell to the perishing the great things of his mercy!
The blessing of God upon us is the divine direction
to seek to bless others, and they may anticipate mischief who refuse obedience.
But we may illustrate from the reasoning of
these leprous men the estate and the duty of sinful
souls who ponder the question. Why sit we here
until we die?  Not, as with these men, the life of
the body is in jeopardy, but the life of the soul.
Why sit ye here all the day idle? may the Lord
of the vineyard say to many who hear the teachings of the gospel. Suppose we consider the condition of a sinful soul as it often seems to the
awakened and anxious mind. It is much like the
case of these lepers at Samaria's gate. Let the
three things they pondered be noticed also here.
The gate of the city may be the sinner's present
estate. If he sits still he must die. If it is possible
for him even to remain as he is, he is unreconciled
to God and must perish. The city may represent
the guilty world into whose follies and sins he may
plunge yet more deeply than ever before. But
this is also the road to death. No hope is in either
of these things. If he could sit still, he should
not. Go farther away from God he should not; in
these things are despair and death. Yet it seems
to him that God will not hear. He is angry with




206         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
him; his just wrath forbids such a sinner to app)roach and seek salvation. But even in this worst
view of the case, here is the only ray of hope.
As these leprous men saw no ray of light save in
the bare possibility that the Syrians would pity
and spare, so the sinner may be certain of perishing if he does not fly to Christ.  Why should he
not then act upon this serious reflection?  " It
may be that the Lord will pity."  When Jonah
preached the destruction of Nineveh, the king
called the people to repentance, saying, " Who can
tell if God will repent and turn away from  his
fierce anger, that we perish not?" Jon. iii. 9. In
the very worst aspect of his case why should not
the sinful soul say,
"I can but perish if I go,
I am resolved to try;
For if I stay away, I know
I must for ever die?"
What is to be gained by giving up to despair while
life is still given, and the faintest hope remains that
we can secure so great a thing as the soul's eternal
life?
But though sinful men often feel that their condition is nearly desperate, we are not willing to admit that the gospel so represents the case. If these
leprous men had received a message from the
Syrians, bidding them come to the camp and they
should find plenty, or if two of their number had
gone and been kindly received, and then had re



SIEGE AND DELIVERANCE OF SAMARIA.  207
turned to tell the other two, we can easily judge
that new hopes would urge these others to go hastily
forth. Now sinful men. are invited to come to
Christ for life. True, they often perversely argue
that the calls of the gospel do not mean them, and
that the promises of the gospel they dare not appropria{e. But they ought to know that many a fellow-sinner, who has felt and argued just as they do
now, has timidly ventured to draw near the mercyseat, and that this trembling faith has not been sent
empty away. Encouragements may be found to
lead the most guilty and the most dejected to look
to Christ. And surely they are wretched and foolish who consider the various possible things they
may attempt and choose the very worst they can.
Sinful souls must repent or perish. They cannot
increase their sins without aggravating their doom;
they cannot neglect the gospel and not stand in
greater danger.  What though they do have their
fears that such as they may be rejected?  Yet they
must find Christ or perish.  And he says he will
in no wise cast out. Having never rejected any,
will he begin with you? Found of so many that
have not sought him, will he not be found also of
them " that diligently seek him?"




CHAPTER  XIV..ELISHIL'S INTER FVIEWV WITH: HAZAEL.
THE hasty glances we are able to give in this
brief history at the changing thoughts of the
king of Syria may remind us of the impressions
that religion makes upon ungodly men in every
age. At one time the king wars against Israel; at
another, applies there for help to relieve a valuable
servant; at one time sends to take Elisha a prisoner,
at another, makes- humble supplication to the
honoured prophet. If sinful men in the world
around us would but follow out their own best impulses, keep the promises they make in serious and
thoughtful hours, and maintain consistently the
character they sometimes assume, it would be to
their own infinite advantage and to the welfare of
all around them. But the serious thoughts and
the anxious applications of the king of Syria had
really little influence upon his general character:
in trouble he asked for help where he thought he
could secure it, but he had no more true drawings
to Elisha's principles at one time than another.
And men may live all their lives in a Christian land,
respectful to religious principles and religious teach208




ELISHA'S INTERVIEW WITH HAZAEL. 2091
ers, convinced that they need the blessings which
religion alone can b)estow, and sometimes half persuadled to seek for the offered mercies of the gospel,and yet they may pass through the world and die
at last as truly separated from the people of God as
the king of Syria was separated from the kingdom
of Israel with which he was so often at war. The
inconsistencies of men often serve the purpose of
deluding them with flattering hopes, yet they ought
to teach them most profitable lessons. Men who
make occasional promises to religion have certainly:
no good excuse for its neglect, since thus they
prove their persuasion of religious excellency, and
declare their own folly in pursuing paths not approved by their own consciences.
Benhadad's lessons hitherto have been lost upon
him. Naaman, it may be, is banished from  the
court, for gratitude to Israel stands in no high repute at Damascus. Yet we shall soon see that the
king made a poor exchange when Hazael became
the leader of Syria's armies. After the panic at the
siege of Samaria it is likely that peace was made
between the kingdoms: seven years have passed
since that-years of famine upon the land, double as
long as in the days of Elijah; and of these we have
no record, except the incident already noticed
(chap. viii.) of the restoration of the lands of the
Shunamite. At this time Elisha came to Damascus,
perhaps to fulfil the command long since given to
Elijah and to declare, if not to anoint, Hazael:
14




210        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
king of Syria.  (See 1 Kings xix. 15.) Just then
Benhadad fell sick. Kings and nobles of the earth
are as other men. As vainly as Canute ordered
back the advancing tide of the ocean, as vainly as
the Persian monarchs would forbid the entrance of
sorrow to their palaces, would the kings of the
earth attempt to ward off grief from their sacred
persons; and when sorrow comes they are as weak
as other men. Afflictions often teach men lessons
they are otherwise unwilling.to learn, bring thoughts
and convictions they are usually wont to suppress,
and lead them to honour principles they have affected to despise. Benhadad heard that Israel's
illustrious prophet had come to Damascus. He remembered now the great cure wrought for Naaman,
and he determined to send and ask what should be
the issue of his own sickness. We may see here
that he did not ask a cure: he had not the faith for
that. But believing that Elisha could penetrate
the secrets of futurity, he inquires the prospects of
his recovery.
He sent Hazael, doubtless his chief minister, in
great state to ask the prophet. As was customary
in coming before the prophets —as indeed is the
usual Oriental courtesy-he brought with him large
presents, but we are not informed this time whether
Elisha did or did not accept them. The prophet
gave a singular but most truthful reply.  The
oracular responses of pagan priests were famous for
ambiguity. "I tell you, 0 son of Eacus, that you




ELISHA'S INTERVIEW WITH HAZAEL. 211
the Romans can conquer," was the answer given to
Pyrrhus, so cunningly constructed that the grammar will justify either interpretation of the things
that must occur-the Romans can conquer you, or
you can conquer the Romans. Elisha's reply was
ambiguous only as a riddle is-the solution suits it
as nothing else can. "Thou mayest certainly recover;" that is, the disease itself was not mortal.
"Howbeit the Lord hath showed me that he shall
surely die;" that is, by other means his death should
certainly occur. There is no more obscurity in the
reply than necessarily belongs to any event predicted as certain in itself, but left unexplained as to
the means by which it shall be accomplished. And
even as to this, Elisha immediately adds the proof
that the manner of Benhadad's death was no secret
to him.
He looked steadfastly into the face of the king's
messenger until Hazael blushed and Elisha wept.
The most reasonable solution of this scene lies in
the conscious guilt of the Syrian and the upright
boldness of the prophet. Yet Elisha's reproving
look is dictated by a heart that compassionates guilt
as well as rebukes it. What a contrast there is between these two men! See the mockery of Hazael,
both toward his master and toward Elisha-toward
man and toward God! He came with all the state
and ceremony of Syrian grandeur to ask whether
Benhadad would recover, while his own plot was
already formed to sit upon a throne which he had




212.       THE PROPHET ELISHA.
resolved should so soon be vacant. He came before
Israel's prophet, perhaps secretly deriding the answer he awaited with such a show of gravity, for
he believed not that Elisha knew  his secret
thoughts or could see as far into the future as, upon
this one point, Hazael's ambitious plans enabled
him to see. Possibly he was startled when the
prophet's words proved him a deceiver, and then
his bold wickedness was no match for the eye of the
holy man who knew his coming guilt.  The prophet looked him out of countenance. There was a
meaning in the look which guilt could not face.
But the weeping of Elisha astonished him. He
might have gone away, abashed and humbled at the
voice of reproof, but the tears of his venerable reprover are beyond his understanding. He asked
in surprise the meaning of this. He may have
thought the death of the Syrian king no great subject for sorrow in an Israelitish prophet, and in
Elisha's reply this is not put first forward.. He
spoke of the troubles Hazael should bring upon his
people, of the atrocity of his wars, of his cruelty
to the defenceless. These were things which as yet
Hazael has not contemplated, nor can he believe
they will ever be done by his orders. Then Elisha
told him that he should be king over Syria. This
soon took place. When Hazael returned, Benhadad
asked him what message had been sent by Elisha.
He answered in a direct falsehood, declaring that
the prophet had foretold his certain recovery.




ELISHA'S INTERVIEW  WITH HIAZAEL.  213
Perhaps Hazael would have given such a reply,
even if he had formed no design against the
king's life.  Truth is seldom  spoken in palaces,
and it is the folly and the fault of monarchs that
this is so. Indeed it is the fault of our common
humanity, that we, none of us, like to hear unpleasant truths; so there is a temptation in the
minds of those who would please us to hide unwelcome or painfill truth from  us. Kings often
punish the bearers of unwelcome tidings, as if they
brought the calamities they simply announce; and
men who are not kings are unwilling to hear things
they wish not to be true. So it happens that on a
sick bed men are deceived until they die by the
flatteries which their friends may or may not believe, but they dare not intimate to the sufferer any
unpleasant anticipations. In the time of the king's
sickness, unwelcome words touching his recovery
would be carefully withheld from his ears. But
it is likely that Hazael's plans were already formed
for the monarch's death, and the false assurance of
recovery, as if Elisha had said so, is designed to
throw him off his guard. On the next day the
king died. Taking advantage of his free access to
his bed-chamber, either when they were alone, or
when those were by whose interference he did not
fear, he suffocated the sick man as he lay in his
helplessness. Perhaps he was so prostrate that the
process was easy; the people, aware of the king's
feebleness, were not surprised to hear of his death;




214         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
no suspicion may have been awakened and no investigation made; and the reign of Hazael may
have been undisturbed by any knowledge, on the
part of his subjects, of his secret crime to reach the
throne, as it is here recorded by the sacred writers.
Thus on earth many a crime is unknown and passes
without punishment; many a crime even elevates
the offender; yet is a record made in a volume divinely written, to be openly published in due time.
But there are two interesting matters which
should engage our attention as we read this narrative of the prophet's interview with Hazael. The
first respects the possible influence of Elisha's words
upon Hazael's crime; and the second, the evident
unpreparedness now of Hazael for deeds of wickedness with which he afterward became familiar.
We are not expressly told that Hazael, when he
came upon this errand of Elisha, had already
formed his plot against the king's life. We infer
this rather from the conduct of the prophet and the
blush of conscious guilt that shrunk from Elisha's
steadfast gaze. There are some who judge differently. These suppose that Elisha's prediction was
the cause of its own fulfilment; that Hazael would
perhaps not have thought of so great a crime as
this but for this suggestion of it, accompanied by
the assurance that it would prove successful; and
that thus the prophet's words were even provocative
of this man's subsequent career. We do not agree
with this representation.  But suppose it was so,




3ELISHA'S INTERVIEW  WITH HAZAEL.- 215
suppose that Hazael never had thought of this crime
until now-Elisha does not suggest it. He told
him that he should be king over Syria.  But if
even he had told him that twenty years ago, in the
desert of Sinai, God had bidden Elijah "anoint
Hazael to be king over Syria" 1 Kings xix. 15,
there would be in this no sanction for Hazael's iniquity as a means of reaching this predicted end.
It is not the usual plan of God's dealings with the
sons of men to inform them in advance of the
events that are to occur in their lifetime.  All these
events are indeed spread open to his eye. "Known
unto God are all his works from the beginning of
the world" Acts xv. 18.  It is in the infinite perfection of Jehovah that nothing can remain unknown to him in the illimitable future-that -for
everything there is an exact and appointed place in
the unchangeable counsels of his wisdom. The
settled plans of divine wisdom often give perplexity
to shortsighted man. Men think that the very existence of divine counsels is wholly inconsistent
with the freedom and responsibility of the creature,
thus governed by the unchanging purposes of the
Almighty. Yet this is to limit God, so that he can
do only what man may understand. It is far more
reasonable to judge that the freest liberty is secured
to the intelligent creature because he is under the
government of One who need stoop to no weakness
that he may maintain his rightful authority.
The truth is, that God knows how to govern his




216        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
intelligent subjects so as to allow them the fullest
exercise of their rational powers; that he is himself bound by the infinite and holy consistency of
his own perfections to form only such plans as are
wise, holy and just; and that there can be no wrong
in carrying out such purposes as he would form into
perfect and constant execution. There should be
no more difficulty in conceding infinite excellency
to all the divine plans than in granting that God's
words are always true and God's workings are always right. His words and works are but the carrying out of his plans; all are agreeable to his holy
nature; as to our Jehovah, "His work is perfect;
for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and
without iniquity, just and right, is he." Deut.
xxxii. 4. The counsels of God are no guide to the
duty of man, since they are usually unknown to
man. What we ought to do is made known in a
different way.
If even God should make known to any man
the future certainty of any particular event of his
life, such knowledge should have no effect whatever in leading him to any departure from the
plain path of holy obedience to God's righteous
law. Rather such a man ought to argue that if
such an event is sure to occur, it shall not be
through any such means as shall lay upon him the
responsibility of putting forth his hands to wickedness. When Elisha told Hazael that he should be
king over Syria, and even intimated to him that




ELISHA'S INTERVIEW WITH HAZAEL. 217
the monarch, now so sick, would shortly die, why
did not Hazael rather argue, "It is not worth my
while to stoop to guilt, since I am sure, from the
prophet's word, that I shall be king?" If this man
put no trust in Elisha's word, then had it no influence upon his crime; if he did trust it, its legitimate influence was to lead him to rest secure of the
issue, not perhaps with no care for the result, nor
without any action at any time, but surely without
any such words or conduct as would fill his newgained honours with torturing remorse. In truth,
such a declaration to Hazael was like the apparent
openings of Providence around us all our lives;
which are often but trials of our spirit, which are
so clear intimations of the pathway of our duty,
but which are themselves to be judged by the
clearer teachings of God's word and God's law,
that reveal to men his obligations. Neither does
God's word nor his providence ever justify him
who takes occasion from them to put forth his
hand to sin.
We may find a very interesting, perhaps profitable, illustration of this whole matter if we compare the hasty crime of Hazael with the long forbearance of David under circumstances somewhat
similar. David was living as a humble shepherd
in his father's family when the prophet Samuel
came at the Lord's bidding to the household of
Jesse. The venerable man of God knew not himself upon which of the sons he should pour the




218'       THE PROPHET ELISHA.
anointing oil, but at the divine command he chose
this one, the youngest of the whole; and from that
time forward David knew that the crown and the
throne of Israel must be his. But who can designate a single iniquitous or even impatient step
taken by this anointed one to anticipate the counsels of God upon which he so fully relied? We
would not know from the words or deeds of David
that he had the most secret expectation of being
the successor of Saul; he continued to be a loyal
subject long after he felt oppressions that might
make even "a wise man mad;" and when the
world would have justified David in the destruction of his persecutor, he would not put forth his
hand against the Lord's anointed. Every step
from the sheepfold to the throne is taken by divine
leadings, and not at the promptings of his own ambition. The reign of Saul was so violent, and especially so unjust for a long time to David himself,
that there were many strong inducements to seek
his death; if he had slain him upon several occasions, it would but be dealing with him upon the
terms he himself had chosen; and it is very likely
that David's reign might have been by several
years longer, and no great reproach might have
been cast upon him, if he had taken the life of a
king of whose rule the people were tired and
whom God himself had rejected. But David found
no cause of sorrow, when the throne was reached
at last, that he had no evil agency in Saul's casting




ELISHIA'S INTERVIEW WITH HAZAEL. 219
down. His heart was as guiltless of treason against
the kingdom as his hand was of the blood of the
king; and it was David's joy as well as his honour
that he waited the movements of divine providence. And had Hazael been truly faithful to his
sick king, the words of Elisha could have been no
suggestion of violence against, his life. There is a
sense in which men make themselves the course
which then they attribute to the providence of
God; the truth embracing all these things, that no
man can plead any opportunities or even apparent
beckonings of Providence as proofs that God approves a certain course, if yet undeniably he is
passing on to violate the plain precepts of the
divine law; that man's freedom is not only compatible with God's designs, but indeed secured by
them; and that a just understanding of the government of God should lead us to expect the divine
smile only upon blessings lawfully secured. And
the subsequent career of Hazael, passing on to
deeds of increasing cruelty, is proof that though
Providence assigned him the crown of Syria, it was
in no approval of either the man or his doings.
The only proper method of interpreting the providences of God is to lay this truth at the foundation
of all-that God's ways are consistent and harmonious. If the plainest possible opportunity arises
for any man to speak falsely, to do wickedly or to
secure any unjust advantage, he acts presumptuously who judges that Providence favours by af



220        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
fording the occasion. Providence tries the sons of
men whether they will or will not keep the divine
word, but if an angel from heaven should bid us
do iniquity, we should refuse his bidding. There
is no apology for Hazael, there is no complicity in
Elisha, if even the announcement of his reign over
Syria resulted in the death of Benhadad. And
every man who attempts, in any measure, to lay
his sin at the door of divine designs or divine
providences is presumptuous as well as wicked.
When men have tempting opportunities for gainful trade which yet are of evil tendency or imply
evil doing, they may be sure that they are beckoned forward by PROFIT, not by PROVIDENCE.
But we designed to notice a second matter in the
scene before us. Hazael evidently seems unprepared now for the career of wickedness to which
he afterward went on.  When the venerable prophet named the atrocities he should commit upon
the people of Israel, Hazael was shocked; he could
not think himself such a dog as to do things like
these. And yet he did them. And we might
allow the incident to pass with but a few words of
wonder at the self-ignorance the Syrian betrays, if
Hazael stood alone in such a case as this. But indeed he affords but one example, followed by thousands in every age since-not less in our own land
than elsewhere-who have gone gradually on to
form characters and to do deeds which in the earlier
periods of life they themselves abhorred. It is




ELISHA S INTERVIEW  WITH HAZAEL. 221
wisdom for us to know that the ways of sin are
ever deceitfulness, and that it is not as a matter
of course, but as the result of careful and intelligent watchfuilness and pains, that men keep themselves from the seductions of evil.
We do not know enough of the history of Hazael to enable us to trace the steps by which he
passed onward. Yet these paths are so often trodden that we are at no loss to imagine why he should
now be startled at the prophet's revelations, though
he was hereafter to see their fulfilment. It is never
by any deliberate purposes in advance that men
become high-handed sinners. Indeed by no more
remarkable thing is piety distinguished from impiety than by this-that seriously considering and
patiently doing all a man should be and do will
foster the principles and life of religion, while the
most renowned among the wicked may reach their
bad eminence through no deliberate designs. It may
be that Hazael had but little idea of the task he
undertook when he was ambitious of the throne,
as indeed it may justly be affirmed that no man is
able to "count the cost" when he embarks upon
any career of evil. He who speaks one falsehood
is often placed beyond his calculation in circumstances so embarrassing that another seems needful
to hide the first, and these may grow to evils far
greater than he designed. If Hazael had ascended
the throne of Syria by right, he might have held
his subjects by such bonds of allegiance and au



222         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
tfority as would allow him to choose his own
policy.  But the wrong of the commencement
placed him in a false position, and forced him perhaps to new crimes to maintain his power. If he
had accomplices, they must be kept quiet; possibly
his safety lay in giving the people something to do
in a new war with Israel; it may be that the license
given to his armies in the atrocities the prophet
had predicted were the result of relaxed discipline
in forces the usurper dare not too strictly control;
or the gradual increase of evil may have made Hazael himself willing to do the most of these things.
He who thought with horror of deeds that made
Elisha weep in the very anticipation, became the
terror of Israel, and remains to us an example to
warn us against the increasing power of sin.
It is not an easy thing for us to explainthough it is a very easy thing for us to notice —that
men by sin seem so to blunt their moral perceptions that they grow worse and worse, while yet
they themselves become less concerned in growing
evil. We know that men pass on from one degree of evil to another until they are utterly hardened in vice. Many a man. whose first oath was
uttered with a faltering tongue and a blushing
cheek, speaks forth now the dreadful language of
profanity with a bold brow. Many a man who
first tasted the intoxicating glass with many misgivings of danger and degradation, has realized far
more than he ever dreamed of, and yet now glories




ELISHA'S INTERVIEW WITH HAZAEL. 223
miserably in his own shame. The truth is, we are
totally unable to comprehend the great things and
the mean things, the good and the bad, to which
the mind of man can be trained. How wonderful
the skill that can be acquired in the various arts!
how the hand and the eye and the mind can be
schooled to things so beyond explanation that, if
they were more uncommon, we would call them
magical! How the printer can arrange the type,
how the musician with inconceivable rapidity can
touch accurately the -most delicate note, how the
jeweller discerns the precious stone, how every man
in his own favourite sphere sees things that other
eyes overlook, and does things that no one else
knows how to do, and howv (lo all these things become more easy as the habit is formed of doing
them! Men cannot themselves explain whence
arises their own judgment and skill and tact; things
are done intuitively and are capable of no intelligent explanation. But how important to know
that moral habits are as instinctive as any others!
When men carefully cultivate the heart they more
easily see and do those things that are right. The
longer a man has lived a truthful, upright, usefil
life, the stronger reasons has the world to believe
that he will never depart from this; the longer a
man goes on in evil, the more easily he justifies his
course, finds his pleasures in it, and sees no sufficient
reason for desiring any change. Habits of evil
tend strongly to perpetuate themselves.




224         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
Every man sets himself in array against his own
best interests when he enters upon any degrading
course. It is very far from being true that every
man is willing to do good to himself. When men
get entangled in any course, they become habituated
to it, they see very imperfectly the benefit of any
change, they are loth to make any effort to effect
it. Go to any ignorant man who is unable to read
a word, and who has been living in this way for
many years, yet he does not realize the degradation
of his ignorance, nor prize the boon of knowledge
nor care to strive for its possession. It is just so
with righteousness. Men in love with sin have no
eyes to see its beauty. Men who love lying see not
the excellency of truth, men who make a gain of
fraud set no proper value upon integrity, and men
of impure thoughts are incapable of respecting
purity.  In all such the moral perceptions are
blunted; you might just as well expect delicate sensitiveness in a hand hardened by toil; or keen vision
in a half-blinded eye, as just moral discernment in
such a heart. Indeed men often go far on in a
career of evil entirely unconscious of the serious
nature of the change wrought in them, until they
compare what they are with what they were long
since, and see the sad decline.
It is unhappily too true that the course of this
world tends to keep a man still in the way of
evil he has unhappily chosen. Men form habits
very often without much reflection; and habits




ELISHA'S INTERVIEW  WITH HAZAEL.  225
of sin grow as fast and are as hard to break, to say
the least of them, as any others.  Much of human
evil is due to our social nature, and men easily fall
in with the habits of their companions. How many
who have been trained from their childhood to love
the sanctuary are thrown into circumstances that
lead them to abandon their earlier practice!  They
fall in with associates whose habits correspond to
this, and they thus gradually separate themselves
from the elevating tendencies of the house of God.
Under the influence of this social feeling the hands
of men are often strengthened for evil from which
otherwvise they might shrink; and sometimes indeed,
wvith conscience enough to feel an occasional sense
of degradation, they maintain a character for themselves, and they raise up their children in a style
of life widely different from their own early training and their own early thoughts.  And these
things are not only true of men and families that
fall low in the social scale through profligacy,
drunkenness or sensuality.  It is easy to see how
hardened, how  wretched, how  hopeless are some
persons in all our communities whose youthfiul
prospects were bright, whose progress has been
gradually downward, yet who laugh now at all
attempts to compassionate or reform. Alas! in these
days of fast living the career of sin is often rapid.
Many a young man among us of respectable and
even godly parentage is, far beyond his years, an
adept in sinful arts; loves the social glass, the bil15




226         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
liard-table, the place of more disreputable vice;
knows well the language of profanity, scoffs at serious
things and derides the thought of his subjection to
the gospel of Christ. And yet the years are very
few since lie was a child in the Sabbath-school,
singing the songs of Zion and reading the lessons
of the great Master; and had any Elisha then
lifted the veil of futurity and shown him a picture of
what he has now become, he would have said with
iHazael, "Is thy servant a dog."
But there are downward changes sad and dangerous, and only more deceitful because less disreputable. The heart may grow hard in irreligion,
while yet a respectable standing is maintained in
society; a man may even grow in the esteem of his
fellow-men while yet he is going farther and farther froln his God.  Advances in life of every
kind are so gradually made, our opinions so gradually change, our habits are so gradually formed,
that there is no shock given to the mind, as there
would be if we fell down so low at one single moment. But how many live as they never thought
they would! Families trained to attend the sanctuary learn to neglect it; children accustomed to
family piety become parents themselves and train
their offspring with no voice of prayer at the table
or the household altar; men and women who once
thought that the great end of life for them would
be to secure the soul's salvation, now think little of
this, do nothing seriously to secure it, and have be



ELISHA'S INTERVIEW  WITH HAZAEL.  227
fore them every prospect of dying unreconciled to
God. Even a prophet's voice could scarcely have persuaded them a few years ago that they would ever
so feel, so live, so die. They flatter themselves indeed that they are no worse than others; they plead
that circumstances beyond their control have led
them gradually to their present standing; they perhaps still promise that they will one day change.
But they cannot deny that others have served God
in circumstances as trying as theirs; that the evil
way of others is no justification of their ungodliness, and that the very disposition they now have
to apologize for their guilt is sad proof of a heart
hardened inll iniquity and likely still to continue in
this way of evil. Let this not be forgotten, that
respectability in the eyes of man is no excuse for
the guilt and folly of neglecting God, and that the
loss of the soul must result from inattention to personal religion.
Wre all know that the progress of the human
mind in sin may go on till all sense of shame is lost,
till God in his long-suffering is wearied out and has
given the sinner up, till there is no hope of reformation, till reason and Scripture agree to forewarn us
that the guilty man will remain a sinner for ever.
What a fearful sentence is that on the last page of
God's word, ahd declaring the final experience of
men's sin!-" He which is filthy, let him be filthy
still." Let us not attempt to sketch either the
characters or the doom of such. Suffice it to say




228         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
that among these enemies of God and of their own
souls are thousands who never dreamed of living
so, who had prospects and made promises as fair as
any of us, who flattered themselves that the current
of sin should not carry them to the dark gulf of
perdition. And a few years hence strange things
will be true of many who now think quite otherwise: they are neglecting interests that cannot
safely be neglected; they are indulging delays that
are ensnaring; they are playing with engagements
that delude the soul; and if even they escape the
gross and disreputable vices which bring ruin and
disgrace upon so many, they may go far enough to
meet that irreparable loss-the perdition of the
soul.
Is there no remedy for these dangers to which
we go forward in life? Is there no way for the
guilty man to stop, even after he has been entangled,
and find a better, safer, holier path? There is, but
it is not the way of man. Above man must we
look for teachings, for strength, for guidance in
the new paths of duty and of life eternal. The
only safeguard against evil for this world and the
next is a humble faith in the gospel of Jesus
Christ: his blood purges from our iniquities past;
his Spirit renews our minds to the love of holiness,
guides our feet in ways of right, restrains our
hearts in times of temptation; his providence protects those who put their confidence in him. The
grace of Christ does not indeed relieve us from the




ELISHA'S INTERVIEW  WITH HAZAEL,  229
con'stantly-occurring responsibilities of life, but it
teaches us how to meet them; it does not ward off
life's afflictions and calamities, but it sustains us in
the endurance of them; it does not change our duties, but it quickens the conscience to know them,
renews the heart to love them and -strengthens the
hand to do them. This grace of Christ forgives
our sins, removes our fears, lightens our sorrows,
sweetens our jo ys, purifies our affections, sanctifies
our engagements, brightens our prospects: it is that
blessing of God that makes rich, and no real sorrow
is added, Prov. x. 22.
For the sake of others, every man needs this
purifying grace. We cannot live and not influence
those around us. Parents influence their children
and husbands their wives; brothers and sisters affect each other, and friend influences friend; and
all this has its inevitable bearing upon the immortal
life. For every man influences others according to
his own character, and not differently from what he
himself is.
For the sake of his own soul, let every sinful
man seek the renewing grace of Christ. It is impossible to calculate how far away indulged evil
may carry any man.  It is Niagara's current that
cannot be controlled by oars and sails. Every onward movement increases the peril.  Like Hazael,
you may think that you can never become so vile.
Yet you do not know even now how far from God
you have already gone, how  near to a'more




230         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
dreadful fall your feet already stand, or how much
like your present thoughts were the. thoughts of
many who have long since perished. To stop now
is wisdom.  Promises are deceitful; halfway measures are vain; every moment of lost time is a loss;
alld though possibly to delay a little longer may
not be fatal, it is foolish and dangerous. It is the
duty, the privilege, the safety of every sinner to fear
now the dangerous paths of evil, and to fly now to
the pardon Christ gives and the duties Christ
commands.




CHAPTER XV.
JTrDGME-NETS UPON THE HOUSE Of AHAB.
T is lamentable to see at this period of Jewish
history how great was the influence of the
wicked house of Ahab upon both the kingdoms
into which the nation was divided.  The two
thrones were united by marriage: a daughter of the
Sidonian Jezebel was the wife of the son of good
King Jehoshaphat; so now Ahab's son Jehoram
wore the crown of Israel, and his grandson, Ahaziah, wore the crown of Judah. We may expect
therefore to see the bitter fruits in both lands of
those iniquities which God's prophets for twentyfive years have so boldly rebuked. It is likely that
the solemn words of Elijah and Elisha have done
much to prepare the way for the destruction of the
house of Ahab; but the unsettled state of the
kingdom, which owed its origin to rebellion, and
which had already seen so many sudden and bloody
revolutions, the want of any permanent sentiment
of loyalty among a people that had been ninety
years governed by a series of upstart usurpers, and
the desolating cruelties of the reigning family,-all
tended to prepare the people to throw off easily the
231




232         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
yoke of Ahab's house. How could tlhere be happiness in Israel, since the people could not forget the
public and private injuries inflicted by this haughty
royal family, when so many cherished sentiments
of religion had been grossly outraged, when the
best men of the land had been wantonly slaughtered, when the judgments of God had been so
severely felt for the sins of the people? The stern
vigilance of a military king and the cruel intolerance of a heathen queen might suppress the murmurs of' the people; the power may have seemed
strong in energetic hands; and Jezebel may have
dwelt in Jezreel as secure as she was proud. But
the calm was deceitfull. A storm was ready now to
burst, and the strong towers which the foolish man
Ahab had built upon the sand were soon to be in
ruins. If Jezebel could dwell hard ~by the vineyard
of Naboth and forget him, the people neither forgot her crime nor Elijah's words for its avenging.'If she and her son dwelt secure in a palace of ivory
(1 Kings xxii. 39; Amos iii. 15), the miseries of an
oppressed'people in contrast with this splendour
are preparing to cast down their pride. The providence of God had so prepared for the fulfilment
of his word that an easy accomplishment attends
the prophet's bidding; and, like a gleam of lightning fiom a cloudless sky, the bolt falls for the destruction of Ahab's house for ever.
Another war had sprung up between Israel and
Syria, and a great battle had just been fought at




JUDGMENTS UPON THE HOUSE OF AHAB. 233
Ramoth-Gilead. In the days of Ahab this important fortress was in the hands of the Syrians, and
that king lost his life in the vain attempt to recover
it. As the combined forces of Israel and Judah
had been defeated there, it may have been mortifying to both the kingdoms that now, after fourteen
years, the Syrians still held the town; and so we
read that both the kings joined their armies to
make another attack upon it. We are not informed
whether victory or defeat resulted; we only know
that, as in the first battle Ahab was killed, so in
this second his son was wounded, and that the
forces of Israel were not completely routed. There
is one verse that seems to say that the town was
taken, 2 Kings ix. 14. The king was so wounded
that lie was carried to Jezreel, where Ahab had
built a palace " hard by" the fatal ground of Naboth, that he might recover, and Jehu, his chief
general, either still continued the siege about the
city, or held the city itself. We incline to think
that the attack in which the king was wounded was
successful, and that Jehu was left to keep the city
when Jehoram retired. The king of Judah, allied
by relationship and in arms, came also to Jezreel to
see the convalescent king of Israel; and thus Judah
was made to share the bitter fruits which God gave
to all who were joined in Ahab's iniquities.
Elisha called a young man of the sons of the
prophets and sent him upon an important errand
to the camp at Ramoth-Gilead. Perhaps he sent




234         THE PROPHET ELITSHA.
because lie himself could not go. It was important that no man should know the errand of the
messenger; that no conjecture of the coming
changes should be made in the land; that the
reigning famnlily should be taken wholly by surprise, and thus the taking of innocent blood be
spared. Elisha was too Nvell known in Israel to
allow that he should journey toward the camp
from which the king was absent. Immediate conjectures would spread abroad of the prophet's
design, and the words of Elijah were too well
remembered to make the interpretation of Elisha's
visit favourable to the present king. Al unsuspected messenger, therefore, is sent -to fillfil at.
length the long-delayed duty which God had laid
u-pon Elijah in the deserts of Sinai twenty years
before: " Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint
to be king over Israel," 1 Kings xix. 16. The words
of God may seem to delay, yet find they always
their sure fiilfilment.  The young man, though
perhaps clothed as a prophet, passed unsuspected
through the land, and reached the camp of Israel.
It may be that his office gave him easy access to
the commanders; these he found gathered together,
but he called Jehu aside privately, that he might
make known the commission of Elisha. Jehu
went with him into a private apartment; and there
the young man solemnly broke the significant flask
of oil, poured it upon his head, and in the great
name of Jehovah, the true God of Israel, anointed




JUDGMENTS UPON THE HOUSE OF AHAB. 235
him to be king of the land! He then gave him a
solemn charge to destroy the wicked house of
Ahab, and reminded him of the words of Elijah,
which Jehu himself had heard from the prophet's
lips so many years before. Having fulfilled his
errand, the young prophet opened the door and
hastily fled. His part was accomplished; the other
steps to overthrow the reigning family must be
taken by Jehu himself, and by the army which was
doubtless ready to throw off an oppressive yoke.
When Jehu returned to his associates their curiosity was awakened to know the meaning of this
visit. They called the prophet a mad fellow, either
because the prophets of Baal, with whom they may
have confounded him, were accustomed to rave
after the manner of heathenism. everywhere, or because men in all ages give the name of madness to
the warmth of true religious feeling. Even when
Paul spoke but the words of truth and soberness,
he was accused as one beside himself, whom much
learning had made mad. Perhaps Jehu wished to
gain time, that he might sound the disposition of
his fellow-leaders before he took a step so bold as
revolution. He therefore answered lightly, with
the contempt of religious men that is so natural to
the irreligious: Oh you know what kind of communications these prophets are wont to make! But
the curiosity of the officers is not so easily allayed.
They know at once that Jehu is concealing the
matter; this was no visit to speak simply of relig



236         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
ious duties; perhaps they saw the traces of the
anointing oil upon Jehu's head, or noticed in his
manner that something extraordinary had occurred.
Then Jehu told them that by Jehovah's authority
he had been anointed king over Israel. Not a
word of opposition was spoken, but with joyful
alacrity the captains hastened to transfer their allegiance to Jehu, and before all the army to proclaim him king. They spread their garments on
the earth, that in token of his new dignity he might
walk upon them; they set him up upon a high
place, that all in the camp might see; and with the
sound of the trumpet they declared him king in
the land. Let us not say that in this revolution
the crown was easily transferred from one head to
another. Everything that can justify a revolution
in any government belongs to this sudden change
of dynasty in Israel. This thing was done by the
express command of God, whose. it is to put down
one king and to exalt another. Apart from this,
all the ordinary indications which determine the
approval of Providence to the changes of earthly
governments may here easily be marked. This
kingdom of Israel, be it remembered, began in unjustifiable rebellion, and reaped the fruits of its
own wrong in ceaseless changes and revolutions up
to this time. It is remarkable that, so far as we
read, no king of Israel was ever anointed before
Jehu. But if ever a kingdom could plead the
chief argument of modern times to justify a revo



JUDGMENTS UPON THE HOUSE OF AHAB. 237
lution, this plea belonged to Israel under the family
of Ahab. No formal declaration of independence,
indeed, was issued; no recounting was made of a
long train of abuses and usurpations betraying the
hand of despotism; no appeal was made to the nations that a tyrannical throne had been deaf to all
milder remonstrances for relief. Yet the history
of Israel fobr nearly a century, the history of this
reigning family from the days of Omri, was one
long record of justice perverted, of religion corrupted and persecuted, of innocence wronged and
murdered, and of the wliole land made desolate by
the judgments of an angry God; while the luxurious princes reposed in their palaces decorated with
ivory, and while at the last a foreign queen handed
down the vices of pride, imperiousness and cruelty
to be for ever associated with the name of Jezebel.
We need not wonder if this long preparation under
princes whom no people could love has made Israel
ready for the easy change of rulers.
Jehu takes his measures with promptness and
prudence.  Finding the army ready to support
him, lie gave immediate orders that no one should
be allowed to leave the camp. He would have no
alarm spread; he would give the family of Ahab
no opportunity for'either resistance or flight.
Leaving, perhaps, a guard in or around Ramoth,
he marched immediately upon Jezreel with a sufficient division of the army to effect his purposes,
and to bring himself to Jehoram the first tidings




238         THE PROPHET ELISH
of the revolution. The two kings of Judah and
Israel-the son and the grandson of Ahab —are
there together, unsuspecting their sudden doom. It
was usual for kings to station a sentinel upon a
tower of the royal residence to look out especially
for expected tidings. Doubtless at this time they
expected hourly news from the army which lay at
Ramoth-Gilead.  When, therefore, the watchman
gave notice that he saw a body of men approaching,
orders were. at once made, in the king's anxiety,
that a special messenger should go out and meet
them and hasten back with the intelligence. Jezreel occupied the brow of a rocky eminence overlooking the valley-a magnificent site for a cityand commanding a noble view eastward to Bethlehem on the direct road to Ramoth. The sentinel
on the tower could see the messenger approach the
coming army, but without knowing what had occurred; could see also that he made no effort to return. Jehoram, still unsuspicious of evil, sent forth
another messenger, and he also did not return.
By this time the approaching bands were sufficiently near the city to enable the sentinel to decide
that they were under the command of Jehu. In
our rendering of the passage it says, " He driveth
furiously;" and from this we are wont to call every
driver a Jehu, especially one who drives rapidly or
recklessly. But in this case it is worthy of notice
that the Arabic version, one of the Targums and
Josephus, have a reading quite the reverse. He




JUDGMENTS IJPON THE HOUSE OF AHAB. 239
driveth slowly and orderly; and what seems more
strange, either of these opposite senses would, for
different reasons, very well suit this connection.
On the one hand to say he drove furiously would
suit Jehu's promptness of natural character, and
the necessity for rapid movements at this especial
time. On the other hand, if he came up the valley
in a slow and orderly manner, time would be given
for the coming of the tawo messengers; his very
order might convince the king that it was not a
routed army that was falling back upon Jezreel,
and the very deliberation might call forth the monarch to meet him. But, however the king was
moved, it was divinely ordered that the son of
Ahab should receive his death-wound where the
dogs licked his father's blood-on the grounds of
Naboth.
When Jehoram knew that the approaching army
was led by his old commander, he ordered his
chariot to be prepared, and in company with the
king of Judah rode forth to meet him. Doubtless
Jehu read the full success of his enterprise in the
significant fact that the meeting-spot was in the
vineyard of Naboth. His first words in answer to
the king's demand reveal his whole purpose, and
Jehoram made a hasty effort to escape. It is
worthy of our notice that the idolatries and witchcraft of Jezebel are put forth as the great cause of
the public discontents and the justification of all
that Jehu had lnow done. There were other rea



240         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
sons truly, but partly because Jehu himself was
not prepared to correct all the evils under which
the land had so long groaned, and partly because
nothing was more prominent or more insufferable
than the imperious rule of Jezebel-who remained
in full influence and powver through the reigns of
two kings after the death of her husband-Jehu
needs only now say that her wicked rule could no
longer be borne. Nor could Jehoram escape. Jehu
himself drew a bow with his full strength and sent
the fatal arrow through his heart with instant effect.
The Bidkar here mentioned was perhaps the captain of Jehoram's chariots.  When the chariot
stopped on the death of the king, Jehu addressed
himt as a familiar acquaintance, and reminded him
that sixteen years before they twvo had rode together
on this very spot by the side of King Ahab, when
they met the stern form of Elijah the Tishbite;
that they both had heard the weighty words then
spoken of the royal house, and that they were both
now witnesses to the. fulfilment of divine justice
upon its iniquity.  Ahab indeed had humbled
himself and put on sackcloth at the prophet's
word, and God had declared that the evil should
come in his son's days, 1 Kings xxi. 27-29. And
now that the time had arrived, let the carcass of
Jehoram be cast upon the vineyard for which Naboth's blood was unjustly shed, and without burial,
let the fowls of the air eat his flesh.
In the mean time, Ahaziali, the king of Judah,




JUDGMENTS UPON THE HOUSE OF AHAB. 241
nearly made his escape. He turned his chariot at
the cry of Jehoram, and fled hastily over the great
plain of Esdraelon: in another part of the Scriptures we are tol(l that he hid himself in Samaria
(2 Chron. xxii. 9), which doubtless means in the
kingdom, not in the city of the name; but he was
overtaken at Gar and wounded there, and finally
put to death by Jehllu at Jezreel. It is likely that
these things occurred a few days later, but they
are briefly recorded here as a part of Jehu's energetic measures. If the king of Judah had remained at home, it is likely that Jehu would not
have molested him. But his coming was providentially ordered that, as he was of the kindred of
Ahab and shared his crimes, he might partake of
the judgment denounced upon that house, 2 Chron.
xxii. 7. So afterward certain brethren of Ahaziah
fell also under the sword of Jehu, 2 Kings x. 13,
14; though he made no attempt to destroy Athaliah, who kept herself within the bounds of Judah.
For the sake of his paternal grandfather, Jehoshaphat, who was one of the good kings of Judah, the
body of King Ahaziah was allowed burial, and
his people brought him to Jerusalem and laid him
in the sepulchre of his fathers. Compare 2 Kings
ix. 28; 2 Chron. xxii. 9.
But the work of Jehu is not accomplished,
though the king has fallen beneath his fatal arrow.
The chief enemy of Israel's prosperity yet survives.
The name of Jezebel had been a terror for more
16




242         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
than thirty years to all who had dared to resist her
bidding, and it remains to be seen whether her
energy cannot still organize a fierce resistance. And
we have every evidence that she failed to withstand Jehu not for want of will. A king's daughter, a king's wife, the mother of two kings and the
grandmother of Judah's monarch, Jezebel disdains
to turn her back upon a foe who now at length she
has no power to conquer. Whether she could have
made her escape by flight we do not know, but she
used the precious time for other purposes, and gives
evidence that her thoughts were not at all in that
direction. We could admire the boldness and resolution of Jezebel if it was but shown in any good
cause, but there is a curse pronounced in God's unchanging word for those who call evil good, who
put bitter for sweet, who put darkness for light..
Let us learn from her that the natural tendency of
pride is to grow more proud, of rebellion against
God to grow more rebellious, of a hardened heart
to be still more obdurate; and let us not wonder
that the enemy of God and God's people, through
so many cruel years, shows no tokens of penitence
at the last. Jezebel is ready to die as she has lived,
but there is wickedness'as fearful in the final obduracy of her impenitence as in any earlier scene
of her imperious life. The last days of the wicked
may be variously spent; they may be tormented
before their time, or they may have no bands in
their death; but let every wise man join in the




JUDGMENTS UPON THE HOUSE OF AHAB. 243
solemn prayer of David, for death and for eternity,
"Gather not my soul with sinners!"
When Jezebel heard the tidings of the defection
of the army and the death of her son, she neither
mourned his death nor sought to escape her own.
Aware that she had no forces to avenge her son,
she resolved to court and brave the end that now
drew nigh. She immediately made her toilet in
the most magnificent manner of the Oriental ladies.
The fashions of a foreign land, and even of different
times in the same land, seem ridiculous to those
who do not use them.* Let us not think that
at Jezebel's age she attempted to brighten her
beauty and thus make a favourable impression upon
the new conqueror. She thought of nothing of this
kind. Her entire design was to express her contempt and defiance.toward a man who had been
raised to the highest office in the kingdom, and had
returned ingratitude to those who had exalted him.
Instead of hiding in the recesses of the palace, she
*The fashion of painting the eyes-i. e., the eyelids-is described. ridiculously enough by Dr. Kitto in his Biblical Illustrations, as reminding one of "a chimney-sweeper who'had
cleansed his face as well as he could, but had not succeeded in
cleaning the soot from his eyelids." Yet this is just the description given by Juvenal of the fashion among the fops he
berates in Rome: "This fellow with an oblique needle makes
his eyebrows long with the moistened stibium (soot), and raising
the lashes paints the quivering eyes." Sat. ii. 93-95. See the
whole matter explained, with cuts of the painted eye and the
instruments used, in Dr. Thomson's The Land and the Book,
ii. 184.




244        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
came as a queen to the open window, and as the
victorious Jehu came in triumph through the open
gates, she boldly reminded him that an Israelite of
former days had conspired against the throne, had
slain the king, and after an inglorious reign of a
week had been burned with fire in the palace of
his usurpation. Perhaps she thought that this
might be the rallying-cry for a reaction among the
hosts of Jehu: "Had Zimri peace, who slew his
master?"  But Jehu's boldness is a match for her
own. He could have told her that Zimri was not,
as he was, the captain of the army, and that the
title of Omri-her own predecessor-lay, like Jehu's,
in his sword. Yet if Jezebel hoped for help
among his followers, Jehu defeated her with her
own weapons. He called badk to the window
where she stood that those who were disposed to
secure his favour should cast her down. This is
the necessary penalty of tyranny, that the attendants of a tyrant have no warm attachments to the
tyrant's person. W1hen tile authority of Jezebel is
evidently ended, her own chamberlains are ready to
lay violent hands upon her. They cast her down
at the very gateway of the palace, and the horsehoofs and the chariot-wheels of the triumphant
cavalcade trod her under foot with that horrible
indifference so easily learned upon the fields of
war.
Jehu celebrated his ascension to the throne with
a royal feast in the palace of Ahab. Though he




JUDGMENTS UPON THE HOUSE OF AHAB. 245
was a weapon in the hands of the Almighty to execute his just wrath upon that ungodly family,
there is little in the new king to call forth our approbation. Only a grade less evil than the family lhe
supplanted, he may remind us that revolutions
among a godless people often leave still existing the
chief evils, that can be removed by no national
changes less than a national repentance.  In the
midst of his unfinished work, Jehu shows himself
the unfeeling executioner; calling us, it may be,
to notice that a more tender-hearted man than he
might in that very thing have been unfit to punish
the iniquities of such a land and family. If these
records seem painful, more dreadful still are the
crimes that called such judgments down; and
deeply seated was the gangrene in Israel when the
sword of so rude a surgeon could not cut it out.
The unfeeling Jehu eats quietly in the banquettingchambers of Jezreel, while she who built these halls
and reigned there so long in splendour lies.a neglected corpse upon the pavement of the court. If
anything canll be more shocking than the narrative
of Jezebel's end, which the lips of Elijah had so
long before announced, it is the testimony of travellers that we have here a record of no uncommon
scene in Oriental lands.  Troops of wild dogs,
whom no man owns or feeds, prowl around the
cities of the East, and speedily devour every portion
of flesh left where they can find it. And many
travellers agree to say that the bottoms of the feet




246        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
and the inside of the hands are the only portions of
the human body which these animals always leave
untouched. The words of Elijah were fulfilled concerning Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.
These dreadful. scenes in Israel give serious
warning to all succeeding ages to watch the growth
of evil principles among any people; to recognize
the certainty of divine judgments for national sins
and the.growth of judgments from sins; to call
peoples and individuals to repentance before that
high authority that cannot be resisted and will not
be mocked; and indeed to prevent the common
flatteries of man's deceitful heart that prosperous
providences give any token of the sinner's final
impunity. Less than a century before this time,
when the kingdom of the ten tribes had separated
from the throne of David, their new king Jeroboam, through political expediency, had led his
subjects into idolatry.  No direct attempt was
made to repeal the Mosaic statutes, even when a
principle directly subversive of their essential excellence was introdluced; the people were allowed
nominally tb worship the God of their fathers, yet
they bowed down before the golden calves. Against
these new doctrines a protest was raised by many
faithful men among the ten tribes; and these, and
especially the Levites, separated themselves from
the kingdom and took refuge with their brethren
in the land of Judah, 2 Chron. xi. 13-17.  It was
a great injury to Israel when thus the best men of




JUDGMENTS UPON THE HOUSE OF AHAB. 247
the land were proscribed for their religion's sake
and driven to find a home elsewhere. This mad
policy has found its imitators in modern Europe;
nor is it too much to say that when France slaughtered and drove forth the Huguenots, she helped
to lay the foundation of Elgland's greatness and
prepared the way for her own desolations.  The
industry of that people would have given their
native land the pre-eminence in European manufactures and commerce; their patriotism would have
saved her from many a disastrous reverse; their
piety might have prevented the fearful outbreak
of infidelity and the horrors of the Reign of Terror.
Jeroboam's folly early planted in the kingdom of
Israel the seeds of mischief and dissolution. It was
a land of revolutions. Three kings out of five had perished by violence before Omri, the father of Ahab;
and now this new dynasty was overthrown by another as soon to perish. The growth of evil is
manifest. The great sin of Jeroboam, the son of
Nebat, is ever mentioned with abhorrence in the
sacred narrative; but even this was a light matter
for the house of Ahab, and they excelled in wickedness all that had gone before them. Yet could not
Ahab have suddenly brought in the abominations
of the Sidonians?  Jeroboam prepared his way, a
corrupted people were prepared to become more
corrupt, and every new evil tended to bring in
greater iniquities.
And well should Israel have known that the




248         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
judgments upon the land were the tokens of the
Lord's anger against them. The prophets of God,
many times at the peril of their own lives, and
sometimes to the endurance of fatal persecutions,*
gave express warnings in the very face of their
kings; and from the death of Jeroboam's lovely son
to the final catstrophe of Jezebel, the words of God's
prophets found their alarming fulfilment.  And
indeed the judgments sprang so forth from their
sins, and were so closely connected with them, that
blinded eyes alone could fail to see whence these
troubles all came.  If they worshipped the sun
under the name of Baal, their own chosen divinity
was allowed to shine for three years with all his
strength upon their fields, unbroken by the shadow
of a cloud, unmoistened by dew or rain; yet would
not Israel learn the folly of putting one creature in
the place of Him who made them all. If Ahab
coveted the fields of Naboth, who could not see the
just reward of his crime when the avenging soil
was moistened with his blood?
How vain was kingly authority to stay the
march of Providence that so strangely rules by all
and over all! In all these scenes of folly and madness in Israel, we see the full play of men's way* Dr. John Owen says that Babylon was the first state in the
world that ever persecuted for religion. He must have thought
too leniently of the severities of Egypt, overlooked the proscription of Jeroboam, and forgotten that "Jezebel slew the
prophets of the Lord." Owen's Works, ix. 4.
16




JUDGMENTS UPON THE HOUSE OF AHAB. 249
ward passions; we see one wicked power dash in
anger against another; we see apparent prosperity
attend for years those who fight against God and
his people; yet we see changes sudden and wholly
unlooked for; we see that God never once loses his
control over either good or evil; that he finds means
to save or to destroy at his opportune time, and that
no word from his lips fails of its due fulfilment.
We wonder indeed that then and now innocence is
often oppressed and vice often triumphant. Yet
the innocent blood of Naboth can afford to wait
the few brief years while his oppressor still reigns
in Samaria, for the day hastens when the dogs
shall lick the blood of Ahab. The martyred prophets could better afford to die than Jezebel to live,
for they rested from their labours, and she went on
to fill the cup of her iniquities, whose bitter dregs
she must yet wring out and drink. The divine
forbearance is indeed marked in all these records of
Israel, especially that such prophets as Elijah and
Elisha bore testimony so plain and through so many
years; but this all marks more clearly the sin of the
land, and justifies the increasing calamities, which,
after another century of troubled annals, ended in
the dissolution of the kingdom, and in such a captivity of the ten tribes that their very place remains unknown even down to our own times.
As no nation, so no individual, can mock this
mighty God. Few names are recorded of all the
children of men with greater abhorrence than that




250         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
of Jezebel; few have her opportunities, few indeed
her abilities, for doing good or evil. What good
might this Sidonian princess have wrought in Israel had her energy, resolution, zeal and tenacity
of purpose been used for the good of the people!
The liberality that fed so many prophets of Baal
might have re- established the worship of Jehovah;
the zeal that slew the Lord's prophets might have
extirpated idolatry; the energy that appalled and
oppressed Israel might have raised it to the first
rank of the kingdoms around it.  The misdirected efforts of the human mind, how have they
cursed the earth they should have blessed, scattered what they should have gathered, cast down
what they should have built up! And just here
lies the unavoidable responsibilities of every living
soul, to use well the abilities and opportunities
providentially belonging to each. And men do use
in some directions the powers God has given them.
They learn, yet are often ignorant of the most important knowledge, lying too within their reach.
They love, yet their affections are grovelling, and
the heart fixes not on God, its only proper object.
They do, but it is the service of self and not of
God. If men would but give religion the same
time, the same interest, the same zeal which they
give to other things, they would no longer rob
thenmselves of life and hasten on to find the fearfiul
end of all their delusions. They live in flattery,
to die in delusion or despair. Many who are not




JUDGMENTS UPON THE HOUSE OF AHAB. 251
the imitators of Jezebel's wickedness are still strangers to God and holiness.  Few have her talents;
few her influence; few her miserable end. But
many abuse all the talents they have, live without
salutary influence, and die as she did-at least in this
respect, that upon their sinful heads come the just
judgments of God.




CHAPTER XVI
THiF INITO UITY AND RUIN OF AHA B'S IHOUSE.
WE may well notice how vgreat a change can be
briefly made when God's time has come to
destroy the wicked. A century before the days of
Jehu, David had sung, " I have seen the wicked in
great power, and spreading himself like a green
bay tree; yet he passed away and lo he was not; I
sought him, but he could not be found," Ps. xxvii.
35, 36.  And now a new fulfilment of his words
takes place in another generation, and for the instruction of all ages. The family of Ahab suddenly
disappears from among men. Just now they seemed
in great power; spreading themselves like a bay tree
i e., a tree in its native soil-one that had never been
stayed in its growth by transplanting. Jezebel was
indeed a foreigner, but she grew strong like a bay
tree.  If any one had judged from appearances of
Ahab's house, they would have said that the fulfilment of Elijah's words were wholly improbable,
if not impossible. The family was now stronger
than ever, and had every prospect of continuance.
Jezebel lived in Samlaria and had entire rule over
her son; Athaliah, a daughter like-minded with
252




INIQUITY AND RUIN OF AHAB'S HOUSE. 253
her mothef, as we shall soon see, ruled over Judah,
of which her son was king; and the posterity of
Ahab, doubtless including grandchildren and even
the'fourth generation, and many of them very
young, now numbered not less than seventy souls.
There seemed little likelihood that a tree which,
like the Indian fig tree, sent down its branches to
take root and fill up wider territory, could be torn
up by any storm.
The posterity of Ahab to the number of seventy
were in the care of various persons who were bringing them up. It may be that this was another of
the foreign customs introduced into Israel by Jezebel, which in the end brought its own righteous retribution. It has been customary in some Oriental
countries for the king to put the cost and trouble
of educating the royal family upon nobles and
rich men. A child is sent into a certain household
as a royal favour, to be trained there. It is a dangerous, troublesome and expensive charge, but the
person so highly privileged dare not refuse. The
prince must be educated according to his rank, he
must be indulged in everything, and the teacher lives
in constant fear that he may give offence through this
troublesome privilege. It is easy to see that those
charged with these burdens might for policy's sake
seem attached to the house of Ahab, and yet they
would have no real affection for the children thus imposed upon them-no real respect for the arbitrary
authority that demanded such services. Jehu knew




254         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
the state of thinlgs, and cunningly took advantage of
it for his own ends. That he might not seem alone
in rebelling against the constituted authorities, that
others Dmigtht appear to join of their own accord
and not under fear of his power, lie sent a message
to them the very opposite of what he wished and
expected. He knew they had no idea of fighting
for these troublesome wards, but it suited him better
to have their support to his cause apparently from
their own choice. He wrote them a letter bidding
them choose out a successor to Joram, and to muster
their forces for battle. The result was as he expected. They readily found an excuse for throwing
off the yoke of Ahab's family, and sent assurances
of their submission.  Nor need we wonder that
they so easily obeyed when he demanded the heads
of these persons.  In Eastern lands human life is
little valued; it is thought a small matter to take
off the head of a man; and these nobles of Samaria
knew as wvell as Jehu that the word of the Lord
had declared the extinction of this wicked family.
They executed his stern bidding, and, according to
the custom which has many examples in Eastern
lands, piled the gory heads in two pyramids on
either side of the gate of Jezreel.
Jehu saw this ghastly sight as he passed forth
from the city, and took occasion to exonerate himself in the eyes of the people. Perhaps he means
to say that if there was any wrong in what had
been done, his fault was slight, who had but slain




INIQUITY AND RUIN OF AHAB'S HOUSE: 255
one man-his master, a wicked man, and in open
fight-as compared with these elders in the land,
whose usual occupations were peaceful, and who
had taken the lives of so many of innocent years
and committed to their care. Rather it may be he
calls the attention of the people to the divine justice in the destruction of this family: This is not
my work, not the work of any one man: many of
the principal men of the kingdom have taken part
in it. " Ye be righteous" —i. e., you, the people, are
capable of forming a right judgment in reference
to this entire revolution, and you may see here the
fiulfilment of the Lord's word by Elijah the prophet, and you may know that all he has spoken
shall find its fillfilment. So he proceeded to comnplete his commission in the city of Jezreel, and he
put to death all Ahab's officers and kindred and
priests.
Proceeding from Jezreel to Samaria, Jehu met a
company of men who proved to be the kindred of
Ahaziah, king of Judah. They were wholly ignorant of the bloody scenes that had been so suddenly
enacted, and so were unprepared for any resistance.
These too were all put to death to the number of
forty-two. We have already given some intimation of the unhappy union of' Judah with Israel at
this time; we shall hereafter show how deeply that
kingdom  was involved  in the  wickedness of
Ahab's family, and how just were these judgments
as extended to them.




256        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
As Jehu went forward, he met with Jonadab the
son of Rechabl. Because an interesting account is
given of this man in Jer. xxxv., we may here say
a few things of.him. He seems to have been a
descendant of Hobab, the Kenite, into whose
family Moses was married. When Hobab visited
Moses in the wilderness, he invited him to take up
his abode in Israel, Num. x. 29: " Come thou with
us and we will do thee good." This invitation
was declined at that time, yet afterward accepted,
and so we read of the Kenites dwelling among the
children of Israel, Judg. iv. 11. Yet they kept
themselves as a separate people. Perhaps there
was great temptation for them to mingle with the
Israelites. Especially in times when false religion
abounds, the tendency is to destroy all distinctions;
men become unscrupulous and hostile to ancient
rules, whether they are salutary or not. Jonadab
the son of Rechab seems to have been a man of
integrity and influence among his own people in
the days of Ahab. Seeing the danger that the
utter dissoluteness of morals in Israel would affect
the feeble tribe to which he belonged, he induced
his people, or at least his own family, to make a
solemn covenant that they would abide by the
simple habits that had so long belonged to them.
They bound themselves to live in tents and altogether by pasturage. This implied that they were
not to sow any seed, not to build houses, not to
plant vineyards, not to drink wine. This is a




INIQUITY AND RUIN OF AHAB'S iHOUSE. 257
remarkable  example of a voluntary agreement
handed down to many generations to do things that
were not naturally obligatory. Jonadab was doubtless influenced by motives that sought the good of
his people; the times were specially dangerous, and
we may believe that his efforts were successful in
guarding his own children from the fearful evils
that came upon Judea in the troublous times that
succeeded. Perhaps lie sets us an example of what
a parent may accomplish who sets himself about, ill
times of spreading evils, to save his own household
from  contamination.  If Jonadab, leading  his
family to maintain habits that might seem so much
to interfere with their comfort and prosperity, was
still so successfiul, how much might be done by
those vwho carefillly train their households in precepts of righteousness that are directly sustained by
divine authority!
Nearly three hundred years after this time, long
after Ahab's house and kingdom were destroyed,
we find the family of Jonadab keeping this covenant still in the days of Jeremiah. So that prophet
was directed to teach a lesson to Israel from their
constancy. He was directed to offer the children
of Jonadab wine to drink; not, indeed, that they
might drink it, but that they might refuse it. This
they at once did, and gave as a reason that Jonadab
had commanded them not to do so, and they had
al ways obeyed. The prophet, therefore, was directed to rebuke the people of Israel; for though
17




'258'THE PROPHET ELISHA.
the sons of Rechab had strictly kept their father's
command, yet Israel had been disobedient to God's
plain and holy biddings, though repeatedly urged
upon them by his prophets.  And in token of the
divine approval upon their filial obedience, the
Lord declared'that "Jonadab the son of Rechab
shall not want a man to stand before me for ever."
We do not know that this promise should be interpreted as if the family should never become extinct, but it explicitly declares the divine approval
upon their filial piety. But it is asserted by various modern travellers that there is a band of Bedouin Arabs in the vicinity of Mecca who claim
now to be the descendants of Jonadab the son of
Rechab.  " To this moment they drink no wine,
and have neither vineyard nor field nor seed, but
dwell like Arabs in tents, and are wandering nomads.  They believe and observe the law of Moses
by tradition, but are not in possession of the written law."* The missionary, Joseph Wolff, gives an
account of them  in his journal; and Dr. Kitto in
his Bible Illustrations gives an historical exhibit of
the various mention made of this singular people
by the travellers of different periods.*
Jehu met Jonadab as he passed on to Samaria.
It may be that the Kenite had kept himself and
his people separated from the vices of the times;
*See also mention made by Krummacher in his Last Days
of Elisha; and Horne's Introduction, part iii., ch. 2, ~ vi., with
the references there made..




INIQUITY AND RUIN OF AHAB'S HOUSE. 259
and now that the Lord has raised up a reformer,
lie gladly comes forth to salute and congratulate
him. On the other hand, Jehu rejoices to have
the support of an honourable man, possessing the
influence of Jonadab, and welcomes him to ride
with him in hlis chariot. When he found that he
sympathized with his enterprise, he promised that
he should see hlis zeal to restore the worship of Jehovah. All zeal is not pure, even when it accomplishes the divine purposes. Jehu destroyed the
house of Ahab and the worship of Baal, yet he
did not restore the true worship of God in the land.
No sooner was the new king firmly seated on the
throne with all authority in his hands than he devised a plan to extirpate the worship which Jezebel
had introduced. If his heart had been right before God, he would have put down all the idolatry
of Israel. But his was a zeal to build up his own
power, and so it was bitter against the forms of
religion that Jezebel had especially promoted. To
accomplish his purpose the more effectually he resorted to stratagem and deceit. He gave out that
he intended to be more zealous for Baal than even
Ahab had been. We wonder that he could lead
the people to, trust in him after the severe measures
already adopted; but it may be that while the
chief captain of Ahab's armies he had shown a
great zeal for Baal, so the priests of that god may
have thought that new triumphs were reserved for
them, He made therefore a proclamation that he




260         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
intended a great feast for Baal, and enjoined all
the worshippers of Baal to be present. We cannot
understand that all the people who conformed to
this worship either could be gathered into one
temple or would be slaughtered by the severest
edict. The king rather desired, as we suppose, to
strike such a blow at the principal' men-especially
the priests of this god-as would extirpate'this
idolatry from the land. It is quite likely that this
was a movement adapted to make the new government popular among th$e people. The worship of
Baal was a burdensome yoke upon the people of
Israel. Two classes of priests served at his altars:
First, foreign priests brought in by Jezebel from
her native dominions, and exhibiting all that pride
and insolence and severity which belong to such a
class upheld by the power of the government, having no true synpathy with the people about them.
Secondly, priests raised up in Israel, who served
Baal because thus they secured the favour and maintenance shown by Jezebel; and it is in the very
nature of things, that such a class bear contemptible characters and are the objects of the popular
hatred. And her many calamities for a generation
back had come upon the land through this Sidonian worship! ]Now that the authority was transferred to other hands, it was easy to turn the tide
of popular feeling, and if the chief supporters of
this faith could but be stricken down, it would be
an easy matter to cast it out of Israel for ever.




INIQUITY AND RUIN OF AHAB'S HOUSE. 261'
When the multitude of Baal's worshippers had
gathered in the temple so that they completely
filled the house, Jehu ordered that clothing-or it
may be badges-should be provided for them all.
Even this was taken as a mark of honour by the
deluded crowd, who knew not that they were" thus
marked for the slaughter. After all his arrangements were completed, Jehu commanded the utter
destruction of the worshippers of Baal. We will
not enlarge upon this scene. As they had, so long
ago, destroyed the Lord's prophets, so now were
they themselves destroyed. The worship of Baal
never revived after this in Israel. The great work
of Elijah was now complete. Yet indeed Jehu did
not return to the Lord. He revived the worship
instituted by the first king of Israel, and served
the golden calves. So the land still suffered the
displeasure of Jehovah. The Syrians still had
war with them. And God declared that the family
of Jehu should sit on the throne but four generations, because he did the Lord's will so imperfectly.
In order that we may more fully understand the
iniquity of Ahab's family, we must take some
notice of the state of things in the neighbouring
kingdom of Judah. "We have before noticed that
a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel had been married
to Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.
It would be hard to find in all history a better
illustration of the old proverb, "As is the mother,
so is the dauglhter."  There was the strongest like



262         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
ness between this woman and her mother: had she
but been, called after her, as she had her character,
she might well be named Jezebel the Second.  So
the Scriptures call her, "Athaliah, that wicked
wonaln," 2 Chron. xxiv. 7. Her husband must
have been a mere boy at the time of his marriage;
for though he had several wives, his youngest son
was but eighteen years younger than himself, 2
Kings viii. 17-26; 2 Chron. xxi. 17.* It is evident that Jehoram was coinpletely under the influence of this daughter of Jezebel.  Perhaps through
her ambitious longings his father was induced to
associate Jehoram with him upon the throne; but
when he came to reign alone his reign was crowded
full of iniquities, plainly showing her power over
him.  His other brothers had received from Jehoshaphat presents, in money and the command of
various fortified towns, but no sooner was Jehioram
sole king than he put all his own brothers to death,
together with various other princes of Judah.  He
seems in every way to have been a depraved and
unprincipled man.  He (lid not perhaps venture to
interfere with the services of the temple at Jerusalem, but lie led the people to worship on high
places, and introduced idolatrous services, and even
forced them upon the land.
And now we have the singular record that this
* The Hebrew is, "A little one of his sons." Though it
seems to refer to age, it is not thought to mean decidedly the
youngest. Ham is not supposed to be Noah's youngest, Gen.
ix. 24.




INIQUITY AND RUIN OF AHAB'S HOUSE. 263
king received a writing sent to him by Elijah the
prophet, who before this time had been translated
to heaven. This writing is remarkable for two
things: First,  because  Elijah's  ministry  was
usually confined to the land of Israel, but here he
sends a message to the king of Judah. Yet this
seems to accord well with his special ministry, since
Jehoram is son-in-law to Ahab, and partakes of the
sins of his house. Secondly, the writing is thought
to be further remarkable as coining to the king
after the prophet was no more upon earth.
Supposing this to be so, it is possible that it had
been prepared by Elijah before his translation, by
the spirit of prophecy, and sent to him now in his
wickedness.   Elijah knew  Jehoram's character,
knew the influence of Athaliah upon him, and
either prophetically prepared this writing in advance, or gave such a charge respecting him to
Elisha that he felt authorized, even while mentioning things that occurred afterward, to send the
entire message in  Elijah's name.  This epistle
warned him of the divine judgments for his wicked
departure from his father's ways. But Jehoram
persisted in evil. So Edom, that had been subject
to the kings of Judah, rebelled successfully against
him; the Philistines and Arabians came against
Judah; they seem even to have taken Jerusalem;
they carried off the spoils of the king's palace, and
the king's wives and children, Athaliah and her
son alone escaping. About twvo years afterward the




264         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
king died in a most miseral)le manner, and was indeed so detested by the people that no public
moturning  nor burial was made for him.
The queen, like her mother Jezebel, maintained
her influence over her son, who succeeded to the
throne, and was his coulnsellor to do wickedly.
Keeping the same advisers who had gathered around
his' father, Ahaziah, as we have seen, kept up a
close alliance with Israel, and had only reigned a
single. year when Jehul put him to death. And
when the tidings reached Athaliah at Jerusalem.
that Jehu had slain all her family, had killed her
brother Joram and her son Ahaziah and her mother
Jezebel, had slain all the kindred of both families
that were within his reach, Athaliahl showed herself
indeed a true daughter of Jezebel. Not a tear of
sorrow glistened in her eye; not a thought of revenge seems to have stirred her soul. The single
selfish sentiment of cruel ambition filled her heart.
Now was the time to seize the reins of the governmient herself. Taking advantage of the consternation produced in Jerusalem by the sudden death
of the king and of the forty-two princes of Judah
whom Jehu had slain, she took immediate measures to put to death every other person that could
le a claimant for the vacant throne. This daughter
of Jezebel goes in this beyond anything recorded
of her mother; she was willing to destroy her own
helpless grandchildren to further her owvn ambitinol




INIQUITY AND RUIN OF AHAB'S HOUSE. 265
Athaliah seized the throne and held it six years-.the only woman that ever reigned in Judah, and she
Ahab's daughter. But God had promised that he
would not utterly destroy the family of David, even
though it was thus miserably allied to the house
of Ahab. There was a sister of the king. living inll
Jerusalem, by whose means the wicked purposes
of Athaliah were thwarted. As Jehoramn had other
wives besides Athaliah, this woman was doubtless
not her daughter. She bore the name of Jehosheba,
and was married to the high priest Jehoiada.
Somehow she managed to save the life of the infant
son of King Ahaziah. Josephus says that Athaliah thought she had destroyed the whole family,
and that this child was left among the slain. If
he had been left for dead, it would be more easy to
keep from the usurper all knowledge of his existence. So his preserver and her husband kept him
in the apartments of the temple for six years, while
Athaliah reigned.
At the end of that time the good priest made
preparations for the coronation of the young king
and the overthrow of her usurped authority. He
toll his secret to some of the officers in the queen's
guard, doubtless well knowing whom he might
trust; they entered into a solemn covenant and
took an oath to support the legitimate heir to the
throne; and he showed then the young king.
Arrangements were made to bring him publicly
before the people at a proper time. As this thing




266         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
was to be done in the temple, the careful Jehoiada,
to avoid all suspicion of what was going on, directed the guards to come unarmed, and found
means there to supply this necessity from the spoils
of David's victories that had been deposited in the
house of the Lord, as trophies.  When therefore
the guards had been thus equipped, they took such
possession of the house as to forbid all resistance.
The young prince was brought forward, the crown
was placed upon his head; the "testimony" was
given to him —i. e., he was presented with a copy of
the law of the Lord, the statute-book of his kingdom-and lie was exhorted to govern his people by
it; he was anointed in the presence of the multitude
that filled the spacious house, and joyfillly hailed
as king by their united voices. Perhaps few of
Athaliah's fiiends were there, and if there were
any, they dared make no opposition. The noise of
their cry, "God save the king!" was heard in the
palace; and Athaliab, without sending a messenger,
came herself to learn the cause of the uproar. The
first sight that met her eyes was that of the young
king standing by a pillar of the temple with the
crown royal upon his head: she needed no explanation of the entire scene, and she heard the rejoicings of manly voices and of the sound of trumpets
that filled the house. She rent her royal garments
and cried treason, for she knew that her hour was
come. The priest would not have her slain in the
temple, but ordered the guards to follow her as she




INIQUITY AND RUIN OF AHAB'S HOUSE. 267
hastily fled. The nearest way to the palace was
perhaps the wide gateway by which chariots were
wont to enter, and as she fled by this she was overtaken and slain. With her the family of Ahab
disappears from history. The word of the Lord,
spoken so long ago to Elijah, had now found its
fulfilment.
It has been supposed by some that a trace of the
divine displeasure against the house of Ahab to the
third and fourth generation may be noticed in the
exclusion of certain names from the genealogical
record of the Messiah.*  In Matt. i. 8, we read
that Josaphat begat Joram and Joram begat Uzziah. But indeed three names are left out here.
The true record as given in the Old Testament is,
Jehoshaphat begat Joram and Joram begat Ahaziah,
and Ahaziah, Joash, and Joash, Amaziah, and Amaziah, Uzziah. After the union of the house of
Ahab with that of David, three generations are
omitted-Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah. Yet how
great was the condescension of our Lord that such
names as Thatnar, Rahab and Ahab occur among
his ancestors!
* Spanheimn's Dubia Evangelica, i. 26.




CHAPTER XVI I.
DYIN'G SCENES AND POSTH7BUJO -US INFLUENCE.
THE reign of Jehu over Israel was twenty-eight
years: his son Jehoahaz reigned seventeen
years. During this long period of nearly half a
century not a word is recorded concerning Elisha.
Changing events occurred both in Israel and Judah. In Judah, things were for the better after
the death of Athaliah, under the youthful Jehoash
or Joash, so long as the venerable Jehoiada was
still alive. The temple at Jerusalem was repaired,
the consecrated things which the wicked Athaliah
had perverted to the house of Baal were renewed,
and the burnt-offerings, in the house of the Lord
were offered continually all the days of Jehoiada.
This was perhaps for a period of twenty-five years.
We might judge that King Joash, so early brought
under the influence of Jehoiada, so indebted to
him for preserving his life and for putting him
upon the throne of his fathers, and so long ready
to maintain the course he pursued, would still pursue the same righteous policy when Jehoiada was no
more with him. This we would the more fully expect because the laws of the kingdom  required
268




DEATH AND POSTHUMOUS INFLUEN'CE.  269
these things; the true honor and prosperity of
Judah were essentially involved in them; and
certainly his people and his family had lost enough
already by adopting the foreign policy and principles of the wicked house of Ahab. There may
have been serious defects in the influence of Jehoiada. He was a good man, and did a good work for
his people and for his king. But he was already
nearly or quite a hundred years old when he saved
the life of his youthful sovereign; he had of course
lost the energy and promptness that belong to vigorous life: we scarcely wonder to find that the
youthful king needed to urge him on in repairing
the temple; yet we must acknowledge that it was
by no ordinary influence that he could retain his
hold upon the king until he had reached the mature
age of a hundred and thirty years. When Jehoiada
was dead, new counsellors gathered about the king.
He was now indeed old enough to choose wise plans
for himself. But he did not. He hearkened to
the princes of Judah, who counselled him to worship false gods. For this, wrath came upon the
land, and finally a violent death upon the king
himself.  The Syrians, under Hazael, fought
against him, and were only prevented from taking
Jerusalem by a large ransom paid them out of the
golden treasures of the sacred temple. The king
persisted in his iniquity, though faithful prophets
of God warned him of his evil way. Especially
are we told that Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the




270         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
priest, to whom Joash was so deeply indebted in
the exercise of his office over the people, and under
the direct influence of the Spirit of God, reproved
the people; and they, at the command of the king,
stoned hi m with stones in the court of the temple
and within sight of the altar where he had been
their officiating priest. There seems no good reason
to doubt that this is the same Zachariah whose
death our Lord Jesus so solemnly charges upon
the Jews. He indeed is called the son of Barachias,
Matt. xxiii. 35. But as the omission of an intervening generation is very common, and as Jehoiada
lived so long beyond the ordinary period of man,
Zechariah, though called his son, may have been
his grandson, or indeed the elder priest may have
had two names-Jehoiada and Barachias. The two
names are of nearly the same significance-Jehoiada,
the favoured of the Lord-Barachiah, the blessed of
the Lord. If the arrangement of books in the
Hebrew Old Testament in the time of our Lord
was the same as it is now, to name Abel and Zachariah would be to name the first and the last-mentioned martyrs (not chronologically) of sacred history.*  So rapidly did Judah decline after this great
crime that the king himself, helpless with disease and
hatedl by the people, and defiled with other innocent blood, was assassinated upon his own bed, and
the common detestation would not allow him to be
buried in the sepulchre of the kings.
* See Ladner's Cred., i. 417.




DEATH AND POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE.  271
In Israel also things went badly. Jehu took no
heed to walk in the law of the Lord, and Hazael
was the scourge of the land, winning victories in
every quarter. After Jehu's death, his son Jehoahaz
pursued the same wicked policy, and with even more
mischievous results.  When Hazael died, his son
Benhadad succeeded to the throne of Syria, and the
armies of Israel were so reduced by constant defeats
that fifty cavalry and ten chariots and a body of
ten thousand infantry were all that remained. The
king of Syria " had destroyed them, and had.made
them  like the dust by threshing."  Yet, indeed,
God was long-suffering toward this wicked people.
Jehoahaz, at least in some measure, humbled himself and besought God; and he gave them such
deliverance that they were not wholly subjugated.
Yet still they cleaved to the sins of Jeroboam, and
the worship of Astarte was still tolerated in the
capital of the kingdom.
During all these eventful years we cannot think
that the voice of Elisha was silent or that his influence was unfelt. But the special design of the
sacred historians in their records concerning Elijah and Elisha seems to be to exhibit their faithful
antagonism to the evil house of Ahab; and so no
sooner did that house disappear in these troubled
floods than we read' little of the prophet who so
long survived. Doubtless he maintained still the
schools of the prophets; for, though such institutions could be kept up in such evil times only




272         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
through many strugglings, a land never more needs
the wholesome and important influence of a welltrained ministry than in periods of national declension and disaster. We cannot estimate the influence of a prophet of God by noticing how often
his name is brought into public notice, nor even
by knowing what positive good he has (lone. The
laIrd might have been much worse but for Elisha;
fifty years of holy living and humble praying, inll
such a man as he, were not spent in vain, even
thougch no earthly record was made of them; indeed, Elisha's quiet labours may have been as valuable, for the good of precious souls, as any he had
previously rendered in the Church of God. When
Elijah mourned over the declensions of his people,
even the divine eve saw but seven thousand secret
servants in Israel; now, the idolatry of Baal has
disappeared with its chief promoters. Much remains
undone in a land that should have been wholly devoted to God's worship; yet there is good reason
to believe that many thousands of those who openly
worshipped the God of their fathers might easily
be found.
But the close of Elisha's labours drew nigh.
There is an allotted time for earthly duties, and
this past, God's faithfuill servants are transferred to
another sphere. The Church should not wish to
detain them; though we mourn their loss, we
should recognize how much better it is for them to
depart; and precious lessons and needed consola



DEATHI AND POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE.   273
tions may come to us from the closing scenes of the
departing believer. There is, indeed, a wonderful
variety in the later scenes of man's life, and this
not only when we contrast the closing scenes of a
believer and an unbeliever.  God's eminent servants die at various ages, with their work more or
less completed, and with testimony to the divine
faithfulness in almost every possible form. Scarcely
a greater contrast can be imagined than that which
is seen in the departure from earth of these two
men, who were associated together in the same
work, but who were called from it so differently.
Elijah, perhaps still in the vigour of his years,
with his hands full of abundant toils, is met suddenly by the celestial chariots, and borne away
from earth without weakness or disease or dying.
Elisha lived to old age; his feeble body was emaciated by sickness; anxious friends watched by his
bedside as the powers of nature gave way; death
released him from his sufferings, and he was laid in
the grave to see corruption. Let us look in upon
his darkened chamber, for, dying or dead, Elisha
the prophet yet speaks to us.
We are reminded of Elijah as we read this account of Elisha's deathbed. As the aged, feeble
prophet lies in his final sickness, a splendid chariot
drives up to his door, but it is not such as bore the
elder prophet upward to the skies. It is but the
visit of the king of Israel to see the last of a counsellor whom he and his fathers had too much ne18




274         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
glected while he was in life. We here have also
the same words which Elisha himself had used as
Elijah was parted from him; but the man who
utters them now is little prepared to take up the
prophet's mantle. But let us not think that Elisha
is every way less favoured than Elijah because the
one ascends to heaven.in the celestial chariots and
the other dies in the weakness of a worn-out frame.
An eminent preacher of the English Church* has
published a discourse of great interest and power,
contrasting the translation of Elijah with the deathbed of Elisha; and in this he describes Elisha as a
prophet of quite superior influence, usefulness and
glory. We need not decide that the younger is
superior to the elder, but it is quite becoming to
notice that God put different and glorious honour
upon them both. It was an eminent mark of the
divine favour when Elijah was translated. Not
only the strangeness of this method of leaving the
earth, but its excellency also, attest the divine approval of the labours and character of the servant
thus distinguished. In all ages men readily confess
that an especial honour was conferred upon that
prophet. Yet let us not make too much of this.
God did not design to put any mark of displeasure
upon Elisha when he gave him not the exalted
privilege he extended to Elijah, nor do his people
now lack any evidence of acceptance when they
also die, nor need we be surprised that very dif* H. Melvill. Before referred to. See chapter ii.




DEATH AND POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE.   275
ferent scenes occur when believers depart. Elijah
and Elisha by their different routes passed both to
the same heaven; indeed, since our Lord tells us
that the beggar Lazarus was carried by the angels
into Abraham's bosom, why may we. not judge that
Elisha was borne, that every dying saint is borne,
by celestial powers, not in the body and visibly,
but as really, to the mansions of glory. And the
time will come when everybody will be raised from
the grave and will be reunited with the glorified
spirit. The difference between the prophets does
not pertain to matters vital; the ascension was glorious, but the deathbed was happy. And since the
Lord of all the prophets-One unquestionably
greater than Elijah-condescended to die, since
we are able to sing,
"The graves of all his saints he blest,
And softened every bed,"
since his resurrection is the pledge that all his people shall rise, and since a voice from heaven says,
"Write, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord,"
we may devoutly recognize that God gave Elijah
great honour in his translation, and yet see also that
rare privileges linger around Elisha's hours of
feebleness, and yet know that about many such a
couch occur scenes of interest, profit and glory.
We may not only agree that the dying Elisha
passed into the same heavens as safely as the translated Elijah, but that God had purposes to serve




276        THE PROPHET ELISHA.
for our instruction in the very differences between
their departures. There was in. Elisha a trial of
graces far more difficult to' exercise than we can
discern in Elijah. In these things men are apt to
make false judgments. Sometimes a young and
earnest prophet is so suddenly cut off from usefulness that men feel as if he was too ripe to stay
below; so Spencer went forth in the morning in
the full tide of his strength, and a wail arose at
noon through the crowded city in universal grief;
so many a time has the Church wondered at the
early removal of those who had been well prepared for her needed service. But the infinite
wisdom of God, who thus teaches his people not to
rely upon an arm of flesh, gives us also the same
lessons by the sorrows he lays upon servants whom
yet he does not remove.  So Paul languishes
in a Roman prison, though so many harvest-fields
lay inviting him; so John Bunyan remains a standing proof of English intolerance and of God's
overruling grace; so many a noble confessor has
been silenced when he would gladly speak the
praise of God with unceasing tongue; so we often
wonder why God so often lays a man so long aside
by wasting sickness-sometimes raising men up
after long months of sorrow, sometimes bidding us
lay softly in the earth the emaciated frame that
has through a weary sickness been racked and
wasted by disease. He would bid us reflect that
there are lessons of silence and suffering not less




DEATH AND POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE.   277
important for the great glory of God than any
active zeal to promote his work. It is harder to
suffer than to labour, harder to be patient than
zealous, harder to  exercise  faith  when  things
seem to stand still than when we see the evident
progress of the Lord's work. The wisdom of God
tries us when we most seem to need it, and many a
prison and many a sick chamber has glorified the
grace of God as truly, perhaps as acceptably, as
Paul's pulpit or Elisha's chariot of fire.
We see when Elijah lies upon his deathbed somewhat of the esteem in which he is held in Israel. Matters have -greatly changed in the land since Elijah
passed upward. The only impression made upon Israel by the prophet's departure, though so wonderfully made, was to give joy to their idolatrous cities,
and to call forth the wish that Elisha might also go.
But now this prophet is better appreciated.  The
king himself, when he heard that Elisha was sick,
hastened in his royal chariot to visit his chamber,
and, recalling the heartfelt grief of Elisha at Elijah's departure, he laments over him as though the
chariots and horsemen of Israel's defence were now
about to be taken away. And indeed, far beyond
the king of Israel's thoughts, are righteous men
the strength and protection of a land. But for
Elijah and Elisha far more speedy judgment had
been taken on that guilty kingdom. And King
Joash may remind us that evil men may hold God's
servants in high esteem, may lament their removal




278         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
from the community as calamities and may mourn
sincerely around their graves, while yet they were
very partially influenced by their best counsels.
This same Joash, who wept by the prophet's dying
bed, was one who maintained the sins of Jeroboam
against which Elisha had all his life protested.
If the servants of God could win the obedience of
men to God's commands, even as much as they
often secure their respect for their own personal
character, we would see far larger progress made in
reforming our communities. It was the unhappiness of King Joash that neither the influence of
the living Elisha, nor the affecting scenes of that
dying chamber, nor the gratitude due for the favours
received after he was gone, had any permanent
power for his good.
But the dying prophet reminds us also that God
may give special usefilness to his servants in the
closing hours of life. Israel was then surrounded
by powerful foes, and the king's visit is made the
occasion of Elisha's last public benefit. The Syrians seem to have been then in camp at Aphek, their
forces arrayed against Israel.  Elisha bade the
king take a bow and arrow in his hands. He
ought to have known-he doubtless did know, from
the usages of Israel's prophets-that here was something significant of more than met the eye; yet his
was a weak faith, that was half ashamed to do
at all what it behooved  him  to do so well.
Elisha put his feeble hands upon the hands of the




DEATH AND POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE.   279
king, bade them open the window eastward, in the
direction of Syria's camp, and they shot forth the
arrow  of divine deliverance from  Israel's foes.
Why must the prophet put his hands upon the hands
of the young and vigorous Joash, as if he could
add strength to the king's strong right arm, or as
if he was unacquainted with the use of the bow
who had rule over a people that had been in continual warfare all his life? Elisha teaches a lesson
which Joash never did fully learn, and which
earthly warriors are still slow to believe, though
taught in every age by the severest lessons of an
overrulling Providence.  "Providence favours the
strongest battalions," said the proud emperor of
the French, yet lie never led a nobler army than
that which fell back in such disastrous retreat from
the flames of the Russian capital and the frosts and
snows of a Russian winter. In any age and for
any contest there is no more important element of
success than the blessing of God. Happy are they
who seek it and depend upon it, and they who forsake this dependence forsake their own mercies.
" Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but
we will remember the name of the Lord our God,"
Ps. xx. 7. It is well enough to have a strong
young monarch, but how  little could Joash do
without Elisha! "The trembling hands of a dying
prophet, as they signified the concurrence and communication of the power of God, gave this arrow
more force than the hands of the king in his




280         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
full strength."* The prophet gives counsel to
attack the Syrians, and gives at the same time assurance that, notwithstanding their late success, the
earnest efforts of Joash should be crowned with
success in a great victory at Aphek.
But the significant service is not yet ended. He
bade the king take the arrows and smite upon the
ground.  IIe struck the earth three times and
stopped, waiting the prophet's explanation.  Alas!
there was a great error here: Elisha was displeased.
Had he struck the earth harder or more frequent
blows, each blow would have represented a new
triumph over Israel's enemies, but now only three
victories were foreshadowed.  Evidentlv Joash did
not enter heartily into the prophet's measures. Perhaps he was ashamed to be guided by this feeble,
dying man, as if he knew not how to shoot without
Elisha; or he could see no importance in these
strokes upon the earth. And indeed these were
but symbols; yet a man of true faith should have
recognized that man's feebleness and God's power
are often brought together, that the glory may be
given where it belongs.  We see here that the
prophet's deep interest in the welfare of his people
has grown no weaker because of the body's decay:
Elisha is a true patriot to the very last of life; and
indeed his dying words utter his indignant remonstrance that the war is to be conducted with so
little energy. We see that special usefillness be-* M. Henry.




DEATH AND POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE.   281
longs to his last hours.  We have read nothing of
him now for nearly half a century, but he reappears in iuseful influence, like an expiring lamp
that flickers up into a brilliant light just as it goes
out. And we should not doubt that in various
ways and degrees, God's servants are often useful
in the last hours of life. They may not be visited
by a king nor send forth their last efforts to deliver
a kingdom. But from the patient, cheerful submission of a sufferinlg believer from the sustaining,
elevating power of religious principles in times of
severest trial, from the glad and bold testimony
given to the divine faithfulness by dying lips, and
from the earnest longings to depart and the happy
anticipations of glory to be revealed, are useful influences sent forth from a sick bed, such as an
active life cannot render; and feeble dying hands
often shoot the arrow of the Lord's deliverance.
Enemies confounded, friends strengthened, souls
won to God, are not seldom tokens of the divine
blessing upon the believer's latest hours. Indeed,
God's people should cheerfully leave the entire
ordering of their lot in his hands, since his favour
may make their hours of greatest feebleness the
season of most abundant usefulness; since the suffering of a sick room may teach and accomplish
more than the energy of busy life; and since our
dying, as the last, may also be the greatest, service
done for him upon the earth.
But Elisha reminds us that death is not the last




282         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
service the dying believer renders to the world.
The expiring lamp gives new light after we thought
it was out. "Elisha died and they buried him."
The Hebrews usually interred the dead in caverns.
So the body remained still accessible after the
burial was complete.  When Lazarus was called
forth from the grave, they needed but to take away
the stone, and at Christ's commanding voice he
came out. The succeeding year after the prophet's
burial, a funeral procession was arrested by seeing
a body of armed men approach. They had not
time enough to proceed with the body to the appointed place, but the cave where Elisha slept was
near at hand.  So they put the man into the
sepulchre of the prophet, and lo! a great wonder.
The dead body no sooner touched the bones of
Elisha than life returned and the man stood up.
And herein is one of the marvellous excellences of
the word of God-that little is said of the wonder
itself: it is recorded here in the very simplest
terms; we are told not one word of this man's subsequent history; we learn not a word of the influence exerted by this wonder upon the people of that
day. For indeed the significance of this wonder
is far beyond the efficacy it had for that man and
for that time.
See in this the proof that Elisha is not beyond
Elijah in proofs of' divine approbation. It was a
great thing to be carried upward, without dying,
upon the chariots of heaven: it was a great thing,




DEATH AND POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE.   283
after death had left nothing of the prophet but his
fleshless bones, to work still a marvel as great as
any that marked his life. The two prophets teach
us separate lessons. The one reveals the life to
come-the glorious life when soul and body united
shall be with God for ever; the other reminds us
that the body, once dead, shall rise again to life.
And it is interesting to notice that both these prophets together only foreshadowed, and this indeed in
an inferior degree, the greatest of all the prophets
-their Lord and ours. Their separate glories unite
harmoniously in him.  Elijah ascended-Elisha
gives us an example of a resurrection. Both of
these belong, in his own person, to Christ. He
himself arose from the dead-arose to immortal lifeand his ascension was more glorious than that of
Elijah.
And this last record of Elisha's history should
remind us of the influence that good men may still
put forth in the earth after they are gone. In the
apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus (xlviii.) it is said
of this prophet that at his death he did wonderful
things-i. e., wrought a great deliverance for Israel;
and after his death his body prophesied. We are
doubtless to understand that the divine approval
given to the departed prophet would have great
influence in reviving the memory of his former
teachings. We have no reason to judge from this
passage, or from any other in all the Bible, that. the
scriptural writers teach us to look for any miracu



284         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
lous efficacy in the relics of dead saints. We are
not told here that the Israelites sought the tomb of
Elisha, expecting that any such miracle would be
wrought; on the contrary, their putting the dead
body by his was undesigned and accidental.  We
are not told that they attempted to secure other
benefits, having once learned what Elisha's bones
might do. The people (lid not argue that because
these bones had wrought wondrously, therefore
they must receive new religious honours: no such
services as kissing, touching, exhibiting, enshrining
Elisha's remains were instituted; they were not
adorned with silks and gold, honoured by the burning of candles nor held in adoration, nor were repeated  wonders expected  of them.*   Modern
Romanism  is but little like the religion of the
Bible, under either the Old or the New Testament.
But this wonder wrought, not by Elisha, but by
the God of Elisha, reminded the people that though
the prophet died, the Lord of the prophets still
lived, and that he would let fall to the ground
none of the words spoken by his servants by his
authority.
Death is not the last of man, even as it pertains
to the earth and the men upon it.  We live in the
memory of others after we are gone. Every parent
renews his life in his children; his neglects are fully
equal to many an example directly mischievous;
and his patient lainstaking to bring up his family
" Chemnitz, Examen Cone. Trid., Part iv., pp. 5, 6.




DEATH AND POSTH!UMOUS INFLUENCE.   285
in the fear of God shall bear larger and better fruit
after he has gone than it did while he was yet
alive.  Every man exerts some influence upon
those with whom he meets. How deep are the impressions we may make, how far they shall spread,
it is quite impossible for any of us to say. Our
responsibility lies not so much in the extent of our
influence as it does in the character of it. Let us
form our own characters right, do righteous deeds,
speak truthful words and cherish kindly feelings,
and while it is our privilege to aim at as much
good as we can reach, we can better afford to be
less careful touching the amount of' our influence.
A single cluster of sweet grapes in the Lord's vineyard is better than a loaded vine of wild and
poisonous fruit.
Elisha's dead bones raised a mall to life. This
is the last record of his doings upon the sacred
pages. Is it the last of all that he has done?
Doubtless not. Elisha as a prophet of God has
spoken to all succeeding generations. He is one
of the long cloud of witnesses whom God has appointed to testify to the sons of men touching divine claims and human duty. The prophets do
not live for ever, but the word of the Lord which
which he gave to the prophets ever finds its fulfilment, and its principles remain as excellent for
our teaching in these ages as when Elisha lived.
Elisha has indeed lived and moved among us, for
we have gone over the events of his life, we have




286         THE PROPHET ELISHA.
considered the various lessons he sets before us, we
have sought the only true and reasonable use of
the prophet's relies, and we should now ask ourselves whether it has been any advantage to us
thus to visit the grave of Elisha? The finger of
God can still give power to the dead Elisha to do a
thing far better than to resuscitate a lifeless corpse.
The dead souls of men have often been raised to
spiritual and immortal life as they have come
in contact with the teachings of these ancient
prophets.
We have followed this prophet from the fields
where Elijah called him, through his long and usefiul life; we have seen that curses and blessings
both flow firon him, and so it has been ever since.
Naaman is cured and Gehazi is smitten at the word
of the same prophet. Has any one of us who have
gone over these scenes in his life-who have been
reminded by them of our own necessities and of
the only means of cure, who have been called to
fear and obey the Lord God of all the prophetsfound health and life from the dead Elisha?  Has
any one been brought to these pages by the leadings
of others, and undesignedly touched him who has
lain so long in his sepulchre, like the unknown
man so suddenly interrupted on his way to his
grave, and  received  in this the gift of life?
Blessed be the Lord God of Elisha, that the prophets, in a most important sense, do live for ever,
and that we in these latter days may still come to




DEATH AND POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE.   287
their teachings, that we may find the life of our
souls!
It would be a rich rewvard to know  that our
thoughts upon Elisha's life were instrumental, so
long after his death, in the saving of one single
soul, but for one reflection of the deepest moment.
They who get not good, get damage from drawing
near the prophets. Our gospel is a savour of life
unto life or of death unto death, to every hearer.
Elisha speaks not in the air. If we have here the
teachings of divine truth, it is the guilt of man
when he receives not profit from them.  No minister, no evangelical writer, should be satisfied with
small success. Should a physician boast of his
success in saving one life, forgetful of a dozen fatal
cases under the same services? Alas, the physician has the advantage of the preacher, for his
patients, not ours, long as much as he for a successful issue, and use careful co-operation to that
end.
THE END.