"Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them."

E. What did he mean by that? had he any of the king of Israel's soldiers in the city?

M. No, my son; he was not thinking of the armies of this world, but, by faith, he saw the hosts of the God of Israel, even armies of living angels, gathered round him, to deliver him.

E. Ah! if his servant had seen them he would not have been afraid. I wish he could have seen those blessed angels.

M. Elisha prayed to God for him, that he might see this comfortable sight. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, so that he could behold those glorious beings who were surrounding his master and himself, for behold the mountain on which their dwelling stood, "was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."

E. I think Elisha must have thought of the horses and chariot of fire which carried Elijah into heaven. It makes me think, too, of the angels that surrounded Jacob when he slept on a pillow of stone at Bethel.

M. Yes, my son; it is another proof that the angels of God are employed to watch over the righteous. We cannot see them with our bodily eyes, as the saints of old were often permitted to do, but we can and may believe that these heavenly hosts delight still in attending upon the children of God; that they take a kind and tender interest in all that concerns us, and love us well enough to look down upon us frequently, and for our sakes

even to turn away their thoughts for a time from the blissful world where they dwell, that they may attend upon us, and do us good.

To be able to believe this, my child, is a great happiness; and it ought to make us very careful that we grieve not these holy beings, and drive them from us by our sins. Let us not imagine that the eye of man is all we have to fear, but let us have faith enough to behold the glorious company in which we live; faith enough to believe that they see all our actions, that they hear all our words; that when we sin we make them mourn, and that when we do well they rejoice over us.

E. Then the king of Syria could do no harm to Elisha, mother?

M. No, my son; he had no power at all to hurt the man of God, who, on the contrary, could have destroyed his hosts if he had chosen. This the

heathen king was soon made to feel; for Elisha struck all the Syrian soldiers who surrounded Dothan with blindness, so that they could not see which way they went; and then he led them into the midst of Samaria, promising to guide them to the man whom they were seeking.

E. That was himself, mother?

M. It was, Edward; and he did as he had said, for when he had led them into the very midst of Samaria, he prayed to the Lord to open their eyes again; and the Lord opened their eyes, and behold Elisha stood before them. But it was

too late to attempt to take him; for he had brought them into the very midst of their enemies, and they would soon have been utterly destroyed, had not

the prophet desired the king of Israel not to smite them.

E. Why would he not allow them to be hurt?

M. He had no desire to revenge himself; he had brought them there, just to show them how completely they were in his power, and how vain it was to fight against God: having done this, so far from attempting to injure them, he prepared abundance of food for them, and did not send them back to their master till they had eaten and drunk, and were thoroughly refreshed. Thus did the servant of God treat those who had sought his life to take it away. Though he lived so long before, he acted quite in the spirit of the Gospel, which commands us, "When thine enemy hungers, feed him; when he thirsts, give him drink." May the grace of God enable us to imitate his heavenly conduct.

E. I suppose, mother, when the king of Syria heard of all this, he did not wish to fight against Israel any more?

M. We should have thought so, Edward; but this was not the case. About a year after his troops had surrounded Dothan, we read that he gathered together all his host, and went up and besieged Samaria: that is, he placed his armies round the city on every side, so that no one could come out of or go into Samaria. The consequences of this were very sad to Israel; for as no supplies of food could be brought into the city from the country, a grievous famine was soon felt within its walls; grievous and distressing beyond any thing we could imagine, as you will understand when I tell you that there were

two mothers found in the city, who suffered so dreadfully from hunger as to agree together to eat their own children! Yes, my son, it is too shocking to think of, but yet it is true. One little child was divided between them, and eaten, and the other would have been so also, had not its mother hidden it! I would hardly, my child, have told you a tale which must fill your mind with so much horror, were it not right to point out to you in how very striking a manner were brought to pass the judgments which Moses had declared against Israel in case of disobedience. You remember his address to his people just before his death: how he entreated them to remember the Lord their God; promising them all manner of blessings if they did so, and threatening them, if they were disobedient, with the most terrible evils. You know some of the very words he used were, that "the Lord should make their plagues wonderful." Nor was this all. Moses, so many years before, spoke clearly of the shocking story I have just been telling you. He told the Israelites, that, among all the other dreadful evils which the Lord should bring upon them, they should be besieged by their enemies, and that their sufferings from hunger should be so extreme, that even mothers should have no pity for their own children; but those among them who had been brought up most tenderly and delicately, even they should look with an evil eye upon their husbands and their children, upon their sons and their daughters, even upon their little infants, whom they had been used to nurse with such great tenderness and love and that they

:

should eat them secretly in the siege for want of all But it is a melancholy story, my son,

things else.

and we will not dwell upon it any longer.

E. Did the king of Israel know, mother, what these women had done?

M. The dreadful tale reached even the king's ears; and when he heard it, he rent his clothes to show his horror and his grief. But all his sorrow was for the misery of Israel, not for the sins which had brought such sufferings upon them. Instead of humbling himself before God, and confessing that he and his people were justly punished for their iniquities, he threw all the blame upon Elisha, and declared that that very day he would take away his life.

When this threat was uttered, Elisha was sitting in his house, and many of the chief people of the city around him. But he knew all that had passed; and when he heard the king's messenger coming to take away his life, he desired that the door might be shut against him, knowing well that it was not the will of God that he should die then.

E. Was the king disappointed, when he found › that his messenger had not been able to kill the prophet?

M. No; he had scarcely given orders for his death before he was sorry for what he had done, remembering, perhaps, how often Elisha had saved his life; and he had followed the steps of his messenger to stop his hand.

But though he had repented of this crime, he was by no means yet in a proper state of mind, but