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 hour 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."1

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 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 their too fervid sun, and lingers an hour or two, in 12 Kings iv. 19, 20.

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 developments 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 affliction before the most striking features of her faith can be brought out, or the highest and most beautiful points in her unusually lofty character, can be revealed to us.

"And she went up," to adopt the simple language of Scripture," and laid

her child on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out." 1 But why so carefully close that door, or why is so minute a circumstance recorded? Doubtless to mark the strength of her faith, and the reality of her dependence upon God. She fastens the door, lest during her projected absence of some hours, in a climate where the bodies are usually interred before sunset, her husband should commit the child to the silent grave, while she was preparing only for his resurrection. "And she called 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."" And he said," probably having yet no idea of the fatal termination of his child's illness, "Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath." She dares not disclose her intention, fearful, 1 2 Kings iv. 21.