expense.

worldly sense the more welcome. But genuine hospitality, as in the case before us, looks out for the poor and deserving, and constrains them to enter and be fed. "When thou makest a feast call not thy kinsmen, nor thy brethren, nor thy rich neighbours, lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind." Observe, Thirdly: The hospitality involved considerable trouble and This "great woman" said to her husband, "Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall: and let us set for him there a bed and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick." She did not say to her husband, "entertaining him will put us to no inconvenience or expense, therefore let us invite him." No, she calculated upon some inconvenience and cost, a little chamber would have to be built, quiet and suitable for a man of spiritual thoughtfulness and devotion. And then some furniture, too, would have to be procured," a bed, a table, and a stool and a candlestick." The hospitality that involves no outlay is common, but is a counterfeit, nay a misnomer. The accommodation this woman offered to Elisha, it must be

borne in mind, included that of his servant Gehazi, he shared the provisions and the apartments of his master. The other subject here is :

RE

II. Hospitality NOBLY WARDED. Elisha,instead of being insensible to the great generosity of his hostess, glowed with gratitude that prompted a strong desire to make some return and "said unto Gehazi his servant, call this Shunamite. And he said unto him, say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care, what is to be done for thee?" His offer, First: Implies his consciousness of great power with man. "Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the host?" Though poor himself, he had influence with the rich; and though too independent in soul to ask of them a favour for himself, he could do it for others. Her answer to his generous offer is expressive of the calm self-respect, unmercenariness and dignityofa "great woman." She answered, "Idwell among mine own people." As if she had said, We are provided for, we neither aim at, or need preferment. Elisha's offer, Secondly: Implies his consciousness of his power with God. He finds out through his servant Gehazi that the one great thing on

earth that they desired most, and would most appreciate, was a family; a child would brighten their hearth and gladden their hearts. This, through his wonderful power with heaven, Elisha obtains for them. Thus the Almighty Himself acknowledged the hospitality this woman had shown to His faithful prophet. "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

CONCLUSION.-Dinings

out

and social banquets are common enough amongst us, but hospitality of the true sort is, I trow, somewhat rare: the hospitality described by Washington Irving which "breaks through the chill of ceremonies, and throws every heart into a glow." There is an emanation from the heart in genuine hospitality that cannot be described.

paragraph

This paragraph suggests three general observations :

I. That great trials OFTEN

SPRING FROM GREAT MERCIES.

With what rapture we may suppose did this woman welcome her only child into the world, and with what care and affection she would minister to his health and enjoyments. It was her greatest earthly prize. She would sooner have parted with all her property, and even perhaps with her husband, for he was an old man, than lose this dear boy of hers. she does, death snatches him from her embrace. "And when the child was grown, it fell on a day that he went out to his

Yet

father to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him and brought him to his mother he sat on her knees till noon and then died." Though the boy was dead, the woman did not seem to lose hope; her maternal love would not allow her to realise the terrible fact at once. She first lays him on the bed in the chamber which she had built for the prophet, then she calls to her husband and entreats him to send a servant for one of the asses, that she might flee with swiftness to Elisha. When her husband suggested some

U

difficulty about her going just at that time, she replied, "It shall be well." "Then she saddled an ass and said to her servant, Drive and go forward, slack not thy riding for me except I bid thee. So she went and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel." This was a journey of about five or six hours. Distance is nothing when the traveller's heart overflows with emotion. How frequently it happens that from our greatest blessings our greatest trials spring. (1) Friendship is a great blessing. One true friend whose soul lives in ours and ours in him or her, is of priceless worth. Yet the disruption of that friendship may strike a wound on the heart that no time can heal. (2) A sanguinary temperament is a great blessing. It drinks in most of the beauties of nature, it paints the future with the brightest hopes, and stimulates the energies to the greatest enterprises. All the best productions of the human species have sprung from such temperaments. But what trials it brings, in frustrated plans, blighted purposes, and extinguished hopes. But life abounds with illustrations of the fact, the greater the blessings we enjoy the greater agony felt in their loss. The paragraph suggests

II. That great trials should be ACQUIESCINGLY ENDURED. In this great trial this woman seemed wonderfully resigned. In reply to a difficulty, which her husband suggested in setting out for the journey-she said, "It shall be well." And when Gehazi the servant of Elisha on her approach to the prophet asked her," Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child?" She answered" It is well." Though I left my dear boy a corpse at home, and my heart bleeds, I feel it is all "well," it is the dispensation of a Father all-wise and all-loving, I bow to His will. A state of mind so magnanimous as this under great trial is the duty of all, and the sublime privilege of the holy and the good. Thus Job felt, "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." Thus our great Example felt when overwhelmed with immeasurable distress He said, " Not but Thine be done."

my

"Thy way not mine, O Lord,

However dark it be, Lead me by Thine own hand

will

Choose out the path for me. Smooth let it be or rough, It will be still the best, Winding or straight it matters not It leads me to Thy rest." The paragraph suggests:

III.--That great trials MIGHT

HAVE A BLESSED END. The end of this woman's great trial was the restoration of her dead child to life. This was brought about, First: In connection with her own earnest efforts. If she had remained at home, and not sped her way to the prophet at Carmel, her boy in all probability would, it would seem, have remained a corpse, and would have had to be buried for ever out of her sight. When she reached him see how earnestly she pleads: "And when she came to the man of God to the hill she caught him by the

feet," &c. (ver. 27-28). This was brought about, Secondly: By the power of God through Elisha. In the following verses we have a representation of the way in which this was brought about. God helps man by man. All our trials might have a blessed end. "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Yes, whilst "we look not at the things that are seen," the result under God depends on ourselves.

IF there were a church in Israel at all, the school of the prophets undoubtedly constituted a part of that church. They were a communion of godly men. The brief narrative, therefore, may fairly be regarded as a record of a churchextension enterprise, and as such four things are observable -things that all who contemplate such enterprises, should ponder and imitate:

I. This Church-extension enterprise was STIMULATED BY

THE PRINCIPLE OF GROWTH.

The old sphere had become too narrow for them, they had outgrown it. "And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us." The numbers who came to listen to Elisha and the increase of students required greater ac

principle on which all church

we

think

should extension proceed, but in these modern times it is not only ignored, but outraged, although statistics show that the churches and chapels in England fall miserably short of the accommodation necessary for the whole population, it is three times greater than is required for the number of attendants. With but few exceptions, empty churches and chapels abound, millions of property contributed for religious purposes lie as the "one talent," wrapped in a napkin unused. And yet, forsooth, every religious denomination seems to feel that the building of new churches is the grand mission. The fact is church building has become a business speculation. One church should grow out of another; the grain of mustard seed will create its own organism, multiply its own branches, and propagate its vitality.

they were young, perhaps with all the stirring impulses of youthood, they were conscious of their need of counsel, and they seek it. In these modern times in England, we speak from extensive experience, chapels are often built from ignorant zeal and a spirit of rivalry, and often religious spite. How unmanly this! (2) Each man set to honest "Let us work in the matter.

go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make a place where we dwell." Matthew Henry quaintly says, "When they wanted room they did not speak of sending for cedars, and marble stones, and curious artificers, but only of getting every man a beam, to run up a plain hut or cottage with." felled Each man, it would seem, his beam, carried and adjusted it. How right manly and honest all this. They never thought of putting up a grand place at other people's expense. Ah, me, how far we are fallen in spirit from them. To erect modern churches and chapels, what have you? Fawning entreaties, and snivelling pietisms, addressed to moneyed ignorance and stupidity, bazaars with their commercial swindlings, their gambling raffles, and their chasteless flirtations.