of the comfort of family affection, and of the ties of filial love. And separated as he now was, by the peculiar obligations of the life to which he had been so remarkably called, from the endearments of domestic enjoyment, he was not ignorant, that if there be one temporal gift more blessed than another, affectionate and holy children constitute that boon. For surely it is not too much to say, that while they enable us to live over again our own lives by witnessing the happiness of theirs, they bring before our eyes, even amidst all the sins and infirmities of their fallen nature, much of the innocence and joy, the unhesitating trust and unsuspecting love, which will constitute the happiness of heaven.

Brethren, while such precious gifts are granted you, remember that they are yours, for higher and for holier purposes than to delight your eyes, and gladden and rejoice your hearts; that they are yours, to educate for the presence and society of your God. Sad indeed will be that parent's heart, at the great day of account, who shall stand before the tribunal of the Lord, bereft

of some once tenderly dear to him, and shall feel, I never laboured, I never prayed, I never strove earnestly and perseveringly to bring my children to the knowledge of the Lord Almighty. The world was once the model for my own conduct, and for my children's imitation, I knew no higher, and sought no wiser guide for them; and although God in His mercy taught me better things, and snatched me as a brand from the burning, it was all too late for those who had lived a life of utter worldliness beneath my roof, and died in unrepented sin before my eyes.

Often, doubtless, as Elisha from time to time, partook of the hospitality of these Shunammites, did he, from his prophet's chamber on the wall, look down with satisfaction upon that growing child, and thank God, that he had been permitted to make the happy parents the possessors of so dear a gift; and probably, not seldom did he call him aside from the incumbrances of wealth, by which he was so early, and so thickly surrounded, and impart to his young mind, the first germs of that immortal knowledge of Israel's ever-present

God, and of its coming Saviour, and of the more enduring riches treasured up for those who love Him, in a far fairer land, than even the happy Canaan in which they dwelt.

But, alas! the best of God's earthly gifts, are ours only for the shortest periods. The dearest and the sweetest children, are but as flowers from our heavenly Father's garden, which often come but as a summer's loan, and then away again. Happy they, who can hold them with so loose a hand, and with so wise a heart, as to restore them thankfully and cheerfully, when called for, by Him, from whom they came.

"And when the child was grown," continues the narrative," it fell on a day that he went out to his father to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head."

Observe the instinct of this helpless little one, the first feeling of pain sends him to his father. Brethren we would inquire, whither does the first trace of anxiety, or sorrow, or disappointment, send yourselves? To the world, to society, to pleasure, or to God? Observe carefully your

spiritual instinct, and learn from it your spiritual relationship. If God be indeed your Father, you will as naturally run to him in the first hours of nature's suffering, as he, of whom we are speaking, to his earthly parent. Not a pain, not a sorrow, not an anxiety, which can befall you, but will be poured forth, in all the confidence, and all the humility, and all the love, of helpless infancy, into the ears of him, whom the Spirit hath taught you to call "Abba, Father," and from whom, as reconciled to you in Christ Jesus, you will expect to find, and assuredly will find, all, and more than all a parent's sympathy, and a parent's love.

And the father "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.”*

Great, and unexpected, had been that mother's joy, and fearfully sudden and unlooked for, was her present visitation. An hour before, she had parted from her treasured boy in all the fulness * 2 Kings iv. 19, 20.

of health and vigour, had delighted to see his little footsteps following her husband to the field, to gain the useful lessons of practical knowledge from the father, in addition to the still higher instructions, which are imparted best upon a mother's knee. And now he is brought back to her, a drooping and a dying child, he has been struck by the rays of the too fervid sun, and lingers an hour or two, in helpless and hopeless agony upon her lap, and his freed spirit returns to God who gave it.

This is the moment, brethren, to learn rightly to estimate her of whom we are speaking; great successes and great reverses bring with them powerful developements of human character. We had no doubt from the first that the Shunammite was a holy woman, or she would scarcely have coveted so earnestly the society of the man of God. We had no reason to question that she was a sensible and reflecting woman, or she never would have discovered so clearly the perils of court favour and worldly aggrandisement. But she must be placed in the furnace of af