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threw himself among them to enforce respect and obedience by his presence. Vain attempt! The multitude still passed to and fro, regardless of lord or king. Was it in anger and purposely, or was it by accident that they bore him down? His voice was stifled in the noise of those who offered their flour and barley for sale. Hundreds of feet passing and repassing "trode upon him in the gate." When at last he was rescued, all that remained of the proud lord was a mangled corpse.

And so, both in blessing and in judgment, "it fell out," "according to the word of Jehovah."

CHAPTER XXV.

FAITH AND ITS RECOMPENSE.

"Then spake Elisha unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn for the Lord hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years. And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God: and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. And it came to pass at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land. And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done. And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now."— 2 KINGS viii. 1-6.

me,

WAR and famine had passed from the land. But the wounds inflicted upon the unhappy people were not healed when they had ceased to bleed. Altogether the reign of King Jehoram lasted only twelve years. Of these, not less than seven were a period of famine; how many more passed in war between Israel and Syria, we can only guess from the Scripture narrative. What households must have been desolated during that time, what wretchedness and misery inflicted! The track of the invading army lay along the most fertile districts, and right into the heart of the country. The scanty remnant which the long drought might have left would be trampled down and swept away by the chariots and horsemen of Syria. That track must have been marked by

the ruins of once peaceful villages laid in ashes by the flame of war, their once happy inhabitants driven forth to swell the great crowd of woe-and all this on account of the unrepented national sins, embodied, so to speak, in the person of Jehoram! Surely, the cries of widows and orphans had been coming up into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth, and swift judgment would soon overtake the house of Ahab.

Great changes had taken place in the land. The traveller would scarcely have recognised districts once so familiar to him. Blackened ruins where hamlets and farmsteads had been; a broken roof or terrace where once a happy family had gathered at even; charred doors, and swinging remnants of lattices, to mark what had been homes of comfort and of modest wealth. Shunem also was sadly altered since the prophet had last visited it. The "great house" was still there; but it stood empty, or else was tenanted by strangers, who had no claim to its possession. And the family to whom it belonged, where were they-the husband, who in his quiet ways so reminds us of Isaac, that noble-hearted, great woman, and the God-given, God-restored child? They were all gone these many years. Affliction, long and terrible, had visited that household. For God's people are not exempt from the trials which befall others. Though originally caused by sin, and continuing so long as sin continues, they are in the present dispensation as certainly part of God's law in Providence, as storms are part of His law in Nature. The difference between the pious and the ungodly lies in the tenderness and mercy with which affliction is tempered, and in the blessed results which afterwards flow from it. Snow and rain and tempest must come, for we live in a cold clime. But the good gardener has sheltered the tender plant; he tends and nurtures it, and when gladsome spring again woos all into life, the tender

plant will burst into fresher and brighter beauty than it had ever worn before.

And the first token of mercy in this chapter of the Shunammite's history, was the message which Elisha brought her. A famine was to desolate the land, the same which had taken Elisha to Gilgal among the sons of the prophets (iv. 38). So far as we know, it came unannounced, except to the woman in Shunem. In the midst of all his work and trials, Elisha had found time to go and warn his friend of the impending calamity. No doubt, God had sent him. Even the manner in which we are told that "Elisha spake unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life," teaches us a most precious lesson. "Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn for the Lord hath called for a famine." She is not the "great woman" now, but she who had received great mercy. And the experience of mercy received in the past is pledge of mercies to be received in the future. For God is faithful, and will not forsake His own. A prayer heard in the past is pledge of prayers to be heard in the future. Each blessing we receive is but one link; a link fastened on to other links, the whole forming that chain of sovereign love by which Christ binds a soul unto Himself. His love has two poles-from eternity to eternity, and all that lies between them is ours in the covenant of grace.

Never could the Shunammite have stood in greater need of direction. For, as we infer from the silence of the narrative about her husband, she no longer enjoyed his support and protection. The greatest calamity that can befall a woman had befallen her-she was a widow. And now another trial, next in poignancy only to her great sorrow, had come upon her. She had been directed to leave Shunem, and with her household to "go and sojourn wheresoever"

she could sojourn. To one of her spirit, and with her remembrances, the pang of such a parting must have been sharp indeed. We recall her figure, as in the guest-chamber she had declined Elisha's offer of court patronage, with the proud, or rather dignified, assertion, "I dwell among my own people." If there was one thing dear to her, it was home and family; if there was one thing of which she felt proud, it was her nationality and independence. All this was now swept away; a thing of the past, not to be looked back upon, if her heart was not utterly to fail.

Truly trials come to us in what is dearest, in what we feel most deeply and keenly. Else they would not be trials-would not try our faith, and hope, and patience; nor would they be to our sanctification, to make us holier, more entirely God's, to bring and to keep us nearer to Him than. we had been. So the wise physician in very pity and kindness applies the remedy to the wound. And the Shunammite must begin life anew; she must take her orphan boy by the hand, and leave her great house, and Shunem, and the land of Israel itself. She must go among strangers, she does not know whither-"sojourn wheresoever" she can sojourn, wheresoever God will provide for her a sheltering roof and "daily bread." But the God Who has sent her the message of warning will not forsake her; just as the God Who forewarns us, that if we were without affliction, "whereof all are partakers," we would be bastards, will not forsake us after He has, in His afflictive Providence, owned us as "children."

The very depth and greatness of her trial, however, would help the Shunammite in bearing it. That under God she was now so entirely cast upon her own resources, upon her womanly tact and prudence, upon her strong heart and her great love for her child, would engage her mind, and divert

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