12. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, 1 My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof! And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and 2 rent them in two pieces.

13. He took up also the 3 mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan;

14. And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, 4 Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: 5 and Elisha went over.

15. And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and 6 bowed themselves to the ground before him.

12 Kings 13:14. 2 Job 1:20. 31 Kings 19: 16. 4 Job 35: 10. 2:8. Josh. 3: 16. 6 Gen. 43:26.

12. And Elisha saw it (see ver. 11). He saw that Elijah was miraculously carried away. Keil. My father, my father. An exclamation which does no less honor to Elijah than Elisha. Would that such an exclamation from an equally full heart might follow every teacher from every one of his pupils, and every shepherd from every soul entrusted to him. Lange. The chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof! Either an exclamation of wonder or an instinctive tribute to the heroic saint, who had been Israel's strong defence against the ravages of idolatry. - Keil. By the words "My father, my father," Elisha expresses what the departing one was for himself; and by the words, "The chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof," what he was for the whole nation. One such man as Elijah is more than equivalent to an entire army. Such was Luther for the German people. Lange. Who was this transfigured conqueror? Was it not the same coward-prophet who once sat moping under the wilderness juniper tree, peevish, fretful, abandoning himself to unworthy despair? Yet out of weakness he had been made strong; he had risen "like a giant refreshed.". Macduff. Elijah in his petulance had wished to die prematurely; God dealt with him better than this; the prophet was not to die at all. - Lowrie. And he saw him no more. Elijah vanished from human sight till that night when he appeared once more with Moses on the Hill of Transfiguration, speaking with our Lord of the death presently to be accomplished at Jerusalem. - Geikie. When Elias comes," say the Jews (see also vers. 16, 17; Mal. 4: 5, 6), " methinks we need him once again." - Keble. Rent them. A common mode of expressing grief (see Gen. 37:34; Matt. 26:65). In two pieces. From top to bottom. Bähr. A bitter sense of loneliness came over him. would fain have gone with Elijah into heaven. Whedon.

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He

13. He took up also the mantle of Elijah. The same mantle which the ascended prophet had cast upon him at Abel-meholah as a symbolic call to the prophetic office, and now leaves to him as a bequest and sign that his prayer is fulfilled, and that he must undertake the leadership of the prophets. Bähr. Except in one instance (ver. 14), he seems never to have made any use of it, and we find no further mention of it. Todd. We may well preserve relics of holy people, but we must not worship them. Starke. He went back, and stood by the banks of Jordan. The same man, and not the same, like many another who has gone to the gate of heaven with a departing saint. He could no more lean on Elijah, but he found that he had (1) Elijah's mantle, (2) Elijah's God, (3) Elijah's spirit, (4) Elijah's office.

14. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Elisha's smiting of the waters seems to have been tentative. He was not sure of its result. Hence the form of his invocation. Cook. In Jer. 2:8 complaint is made of the priests that they did not ask, Where is the Lord?" To ask that question was to seek the Lord. The question of Elisha then was a prayer, full of faith and confidence, that the God of Elijah would manifest himself to the God of Elisha also. Todd. And Elisha went over. His first miracle is identical in nature with Elijah's last, showing that the father's power rests upon his spiritual son. The passage through the Jordan bears witness that the Lord opens paths for those whom he has chosen and called to be his messengers and servants. - Bähr.

15. This was the first of three miracles which served to accredit Elisha before the prophets and people as the divinely appointed successor of Elijah. - Keil. The sons of the prophets saw him. That is, saw Elijah's miracle repeated by him. The spirit of Elijah. The spirit of God which had rested on Elijah." Bowed themselves to the ground. The gesture of profound reverence. In this gesture, in its extreme form, the

oriental throws himself on his knees, and bends forward till his face touches the ground between his hands. - Todd. "The gift of the mantle had answered the prayer of his servant; henceforth Elisha had the fulness of his spirit for which he had asked." His translation has been compared in many ways with the ascension of Christ. Yet the Scriptures speak with very different, and in fact very definite, expressions of the departure of Christ; not as a removal or translation, but as an ascent into heaven and a reception there. Lange.

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PRACTICAL.

I. My times are in thy hand, my God, I wish them there."

2. Happy the journey on which I can say, “The Lord hath sent me."

The ruling passion-good or evil - strengthens with advancing years.

3.

5. Success is due less to circumstances than to a fitness which circumstances call out.

6. Protection is not promised where direction is not accepted.

7.

Faith finds or makes a way.

8. God not only listens to prayer, but invites it.

9. Of spiritual blessing, too much cannot be asked. - Kitto.

10.

Pray, dear soul, pray freely for something great; it is equally easy for God to give thee something great as something small. He does not charge it upon thee as ambition if thou prayest so soon for a large faith, or a great measure of the Spirit, or a high grade of holiness (ver. 9). — Hyburg.

11. The highest good on earth is not gold, but the Holy Spirit. Starke. We are greatly favored in that the Holy Spirit is no longer "hard" to get. Todd. 12. Had we been in Elisha's place, what would have been our request? impulsive answer to this question gives an insight into one's character and spiritual value.” 13. Faithful unto death is an indispensable condition of eternal reward.

14. Power lies not in the cloak of progression, but in the indwelling spirit.

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS.

"An honest,

PICTURE the weather-worn old man, his long hair flowing to the wind, his shoulders protected by a sheepskin, which is bound at the waist by a leather girdle. Follow him and his stalwart younger attendant down the steep mountain roads to the schools which he loved; hear his solemn counsels to the prophet students; see him strike the Jordan with his mantle as with a staff, and pass dry-shod on his steadfast way to the spot where God's messenger is appointed to meet him, and bring him to the presence of his Master.

I. FAITHFULNESS TO GOD AND MAN (vers. 1-7).

(1) Elisha faithful in friendship. As proved (a) by his thrice-repeated refusal to leave, at this solemn crisis, the master who had gained his youthful allegiance. (b) By his refusal to discuss with inquisitive acquaintances Elijah's personal experiences and prospects.

(2) Elijah faithful to his work. As the Lord's sentinel, he would not leave his round of duty unless relieved by his commander.

Illustration. Abraham Davenport, in that dark day of the last century, assured his trembling colleagues in the General Court that, if the Lord was coming, he desired to be found at his post (see Whittier's Tent on the Beach).

(3) Elijah faithful to God in trusting obedience. It required marvellous courage to meet death then, before Jesus Christ had overcome its sharpness and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Elijah, neither alarmed nor disobedient, went forth to meet this unknown experience.

Illustration. By contrasting his composure with the angry terror of King Ahab, whose death he had foretold.

II. FAITHFUL TO THE END. The spirit of him who, having loved his own that were in the world, loved them to the end, was manifested by his forerunner, who longed to leave a blessing with his devoted attendant.

Notice in passing that the text gives no ground for trusting in the intercession of saints in heaven.

Elisha, when the great opportunity of his life came, did not commit moral suicide by a shallow request, but, single-hearted, he sought earnestly the best gift. Ask each scholar silently to consider what he would ask if he had such an opportunity; then remind the class that a greater than Elijah waits to hear their desires.

III. FAITHFULNESS RewardED. Fire from heaven, heretofore a sign of Elijah's mission to execute judgment, was now a seal of the acceptance by God of his life-work. Here all word-pictures would fail.

Draw attention to the mention of Elijah in Malachi and James, and in the accounts of John the Baptist, and the wonderful scene on the Mount of Transfiguration. There is a somewhat remarkable parallel between his career and Moses'. Both fasted forty days; both had visions of God in Horeb; both were sent to rebuke kings; both prepared miraculous tables; both opened heaven; both revenged idolatry; both quenched the thirst of Israel; both divided the waters; both of them are forewarned of their departure; the body of Moses is hid; the body of Elijah is translated. — Bishop Hall.

LESSON XI. SEPT. 13.

THE SHUNAMMITE'S SON. 2 KINGS 4: 18-37.

GOLDEN TEXT.-I am the resurrection, and the life. — JOHN 11: 25. TIME.-B.C. 892 or 893. The visits at the home in Shunem probably began soon after the translation of Elijah, three or four years before.

PERSONS. — (1) The Shunammite woman, wealthy, dignified, and hospitable, "a great woman, dwelling among her own people, and not accustomed to asking favor of any man." (2) Her aged husband, who relies greatly upon her judgment. (3) Her young son. (4) Elisha, Elijah's successor in the prophetic office, from B.C. 896-838, nearly 60 years. (5) Gehazi, the attendant of Elisha, as he had been of Elijah. He was avaricious, not to say cunning, and was punished therefor by leprosy (2 Kings 5). We hear of him first as the prophet's messenger to this woman (ver. 14), and later as a witness before King Jehoram to his master's great works (2 Kings 8).

PLACES. (1) Shunem, now Solam, a town in Issachar, about three and a half miles north of Jezreel, and 53 miles north of Jerusalem, on the south-west flank of Little Hermon. (2) Mt. Carmel, a favorite resort of Elijah and Elisha. Here public worship was held on stated occasions.

PRONUNCIATIONS. — Gěhā'zi; Shū'nămmite.

INTERVENING HISTORY.-After the ascension of Elijah, Elisha went to Samaria, the capital of Israel, and made it his home. His first recorded act as prophet was to advise the kings of Israel and Judah in a war against Moab. Next, he aids a poor widow and her son by a miraculous increase of oil: then follows to-day's lesson.

INTRODUCTION.

Elisha was a man of the city: fond of its streets and crowds. After the translation of his master and his own round of visits to the school of the prophets, which he formally took under his care after signs which indicated his precedence, he retired for a season to the Carmel hills. Then he returned permanently to Samaria, where he had a house of his own. From this centre, for wellnigh sixty years, he seems to have "made circuits" over the whole country, rousing and instructing the people at large. So continually did he pass by Shunem on his missionary journeys, that a rich lady prepared a special chamber for his accommodation. It was almost his second home; for his hostess, living in country profusion, had given up to his use the roof-chamber or aliyeh, so much esteemed in the East, - cool, airy, retired; furnished in keeping with his simple habits; a bed, a table, a seat, and a lamp with its stand, all it contained. - Geikie. In reward for her kindness to his servant, God gave her a son; for it had been the sorrow of her life that she was childless.

18. And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the 1 reapers.

1 Ruth 2:4. Gal. 6: 7. EXPLANATORY.

I. The Trial of Faith.-Vers. 18-20. 18. When the child was grown. Large enough to go out by himself; perhaps three or four years old. To the reapers. In his father's fields.

19.

1

And he said unto his father, 1 My head, my head. And he said to a lad, 2 Carry him to his mother.

20. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then 3 died.

21. And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out.

22. And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.

23. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well.

24. Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee.

1 Ps. 121:6. Isa. 49: 10.

2 Isa. 66: 13. 3 Rom. 5: 12. 1 Cor. 15: 26. 4 Isa. 1:13. Ezek. 45:17. Hosea 2:11. 19. He said unto his father, My head, my head. Considering the symptoms and the season of the year, there is little doubt that a sunstroke was followed by inflammation of the brain. "I know by experience," says Thomson," that this valley glows like a furnace in harvest time." And he said to a lad. "To the lad," i.e., the lad who, as a matter of course, was in attendance on him. Todd. How natural that the father, busy with getting in his crop, and thinking it was only a passing headache, sent the boy to be nursed by his mother, who would be sure to omit nothing that might comfort and cure him. We see her nursing him on her lap, putting cooling appliances to his forehead, soothing, caressing, weeping over him, till at noon he died.-S. S. Times.

20. We do not now look upon her as the rich lady of Shunem, but as the mother bereaved of her only child.

II. The Works of Faith. -Vers. 21-34. 21. And she went up. The little chamber was built upon the flat roof of the house, and being more retired than the other apartments, was the most desirable part of the establishment (see Introduction). — Thomson. Laid him on the bed of the man of God. She had not forgotten that Elijah had once raised a boy from death (1 Kings 17: 22), and carrying her child to that chamber and laying him upon that bed, she already was entrusting him, in some degree, to the prophet who had promised him to her in Jehovah's name. Lange. This was the first work of faith.

22.

She called unto her husband. She did not waste time in sending to him to come from the fields where he was working among his servants. Evidently, the child's illness had not seemed to him serious. She requested that he would send an ass with a lad to lead and drive it, on which she should ride (as is still customary in the East). This was the second work of faith. Send one of the young men, and one of the asses. They were in the field; the young men cutting and binding the sheaves and loading the carts which the asses drew to the threshing-floor. Run . . . and come again. Mt. Carmel was some 17 miles away, a journey of five or six hours, and back. She did not intimate her object, lest she should lose time, or be dissuaded from going, or be tempted to waver in the prophet's wonder-working power. - Keil.

23. Her husband could not see any reason for her going at that particular time. New moon. By the law, the first day of each month was to be kept holy. Offerings were appointed (Num. 28: 11-15), the silver trumpets were to be blown (Num. 10:10; Ps. 81: 3).- Cook. It is neither new moon, nor sabbath. Even had the calf-worship not disorganized the priesthood, regular worship could not be observed in Israel, away from the ark and temple. This lack was in a measure supplied by the prophets who observed these days as seasons of religious instruction, at which times the people might resort to them "to be taught their duty out of the law of God, and to be resolved in their doubts" (Bishop Patrick). The fact that the new moons and the Sabbaths were still religiously observed, shows that though there were many wide departures from the law of Moses, that law was not unknown in Israel. — Whedon. It shall be well. "Shalom," i.e., either "it is all well," or never mind." The expression is used to satisfy any one without giving a definite answer. Her silence was the third work of faith.

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24. She saddled an ass. By proxy. going, he wisely interposed no hinderance

When her husband saw that she was intent on (see Prov. 31: 11). Drive, and go forward.

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

26. Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is 2 well.

4 And the man of God

27. And when she came to the man of God to the hill, 3 she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her:

5

6 it from me, and hath not told me.

28. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? deceive me?

and the LORD hath hid

did I not say, Do not

29. Then he said to Gehazi, 7 Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine 3 Esther 8:3. Matt. 18: 29. John 11:32. 4 Matt. 15: 23. Mark 10: 13. John 4:27. Matt. 15:23, 24; 19:14. Mark 10:14. 62 Sam, 7:3. Luke 12:35. Acts 12:8. Jer. 1: 17.

1 Luke 15: 20. 2 Deut. 4:40.

The servant would run behind and drive the beast, goading him with his stick to the required speed. 7., F. and B. Slack not thy riding. "Do not hinder me from riding." Making haste was her fourth work of faith.

25. The man of God saw her afar off. Mt. Carmel on that side is exceedingly steep, and almost 1600 feet high; from the summit, near where the altar of Jehovah stood (1 Kings 18: 30), Elisha could see a great distance. He exclaimed, “Look, that is the Shunammite! then noticing the speed at which she rode, suspected some calamity.

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26. Run now . . . to meet her. This was a mark of great courtesy, showing his great esteem. — Lange. He also personally desired to know of her welfare. I pray thee. Elisha was courteous in addressing his inferiors. It is well. Shalom," - a word of such ambiguous meaning that the woman's reply cannot be taxed with falsehood. She would not be detained by unnecessary explanations. She answered, "It is well"; but at the same time she rushes up the hill and seizes the prophet by his feet. This scene is natural and very graphic. If you ask after a person whom you know to be sick in the East, the reply at first will invariably be, “ Well, thank God!" even when the very next sentence is to inform you that he is dying. - Thomson. Do not make known at once to every one you meet that which distresses you, but keep it to yourself until you find one who understands you, and whose heart you have tested.—Sirach.

-

27. To the hill. The prophet may have come partly down to meet his friend. She caught him by the feet. Overcome by the grief which she had repressed until now. In the East, this is a common mode of expressing supplication. To thrust her away. In his officious zeal, angry at the slight towards him, or deeming her touch defilement, or her importunity excessive, or such liberties beneath his master's dignity. Beware lest thou treat harshly sad souls who are overcome by grief, and who seek help and consolation, and lest thou thrust them away or judge them hastily. Do not cause still more grief to a bruised heart. Berlebergher Bible. Magdalens are thrust away from the feet of Jesus Christ, and the Pharisees are scandalized at them (Luke 7: 38). — Lange. Let her alone. A noble mind does not pass sentence before hearing the case. Her soul is vexed. That is, "distressed." Hath hid it from me. Prophets do not seem to have been always in "the Spirit."- Cook.

28. Did I desire a son of my lord? Thou didst promise him to me of thine own accord. Did I wish lightly to put faith in thy word that such a thing is now befallen me? What has befallen her she never mentions, which is psychologically explained at once by her great grief. - Keil. Did I not say, Do not deceive me? Great grief shrinks from putting itself into words. The Shunammite cannot bring herself to say, My son is dead, but by reproaching the prophet with having "deceived" her she sufficiently indicates her loss. Cook. She speaks the emotional language of one that is bewildered with a sudden sorrow, meaning thereby, I did not complain of my childlessness and did not demand a son; now, however, I am more unhappy than before, for it is better never to have a child than to have one and lose it. - Lange. It was nothing to her now that she was a great woman; she was just the broken-hearted mother of a dead child. This half-uttered appeal was her fifth work of faith.

29. Gehazi (see under Persons), Gird up thy loins. In preparation for a journey.