His father said to a lad, 'Carry him to his mother;' and the lad did so: but his mother could not comfort the boy. He still moaned, 'My head! my head!' and sat on her knees till noon, and then he died. The weeping mother went up and laid her dead child on the bed of the man of God; for perhaps Elisha had told her how Elijah had laid the son of the widow of Zarephath on his bed when he raised him to life.

Then the Shunammite went out to the field, and called to her husband, and asked him to send one of the young men. and one of the asses, that she might go to the man of God. Her husband wondered why she should wish to go just then, but she only answered, 'It shall be well.' And she went with all haste to Elisha, at Mount Carmel; and when the prophet saw her afar off, he told his servant Gehazi to run to meet her, and say to her, 'Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child?' And she, knowing that what God had done must be best, answered, 'It is well-even though her darling lay dead.

Then she came near to Elisha, and fell at his feet, and cried in her grief, 'Did I desire a son of my lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?' From these words Elisha knew that the child was sick or dead, and he gave his own staff to Gehazi, and told him to run to Shunem, and lay it on the face of the child-thinking that, perhaps, God would be pleased to restore the child.

But the Shunammite mother, not content with this, would not leave the prophet; so he arose and went with her, and when they got near they met Gehazi, who said to them, 'The child is not awaked.'

When Elisha was come into the house, he went into his

own chamber and found the dead child laid on his bed, and he shut the door and prayed unto the Lord. Then he went and lay upon the child, and stretched himself upon the little clay-cold body till the flesh became warm; then he rose and walked in the house, to and fro, no doubt praying earnestly all the time; then he went and stretched himself again upon the child, and the boy sneezed seven times, and then opened his eyes.

Then the prophet told Gehazi to call the Shunammite, and when she came Elisha said to her, 'Take up thy son;' and she 'bowed herself to the ground,' to show her deep thankfulness, and took up her beloved child in her arms, and went out.

Two lessons let us learn from this story. The first, that whatever sorrow, pain, or trial, comes to us, if we are wise we shall trust our Father in heaven, and say, with the heartbroken mother, 'It is well.' The second, that even in our happy days of childhood we may have to lie down and die, and those who weep for us can look for no Elisha to raise us to life again so that if we are wise, we will seek the Lord in our youth, trusting to His promise, 'Those that seek Me early shall find Me.'

T the same time that Elisha lived near Carmel, or lodged at the house of the great woman in Shunem, whose son he raised to life, Naaman lived in Damascus. He was a captain in the army of the king of Syria, a brave man, and a favourite with his master; but yet he was miserable, for he was a leper. Leprosy is a dreadful disease, making those who have it wretched in themselves and hideous to look upon so that men shun them; and in Eastern towns to this day the lepers are compelled to live outside the gates; moreover, this leprosy baffles the skill of the physician, and cannot be cured.

Once, when Naaman's soldiers had gone out to fight in the land of Israel, they had brought away among their prisoners a little maid, and she waited on Naaman's wife. As Naaman's soldiers had perhaps taken this little maid from some happy home in Israel,-torn her away from father and mother, and brothers and sisters, and made her a slave in a strange city, it would have been no wonder if she had not been sorry for Naaman's sickness; but she had learned to return good for evil; and so one day, she said to her mistress, 'Oh, how I wish that my master were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy!' Strange to tell, these words of the little maid were repeated