angry and impatient under the evils which he and his people were suffering: knowing that they were from the hand of the Lord, yet not humbling himself before him, and entreating his mercy. "Behold, said the king, this evil is from the Lord: why should I wait for the Lord any longer?" As much as to say, All these evils are brought upon us by the Lord; why should we expect any mercy or help from him? he could have prevented all this if he had chosen, yet see into what misery we are fallen why then should we look to him any longer? Such was the unhappy spirit of the king of Israel. Thus did he add to his own afflictions, which were already too heavy for him to bear. How different would have been his feelings, had he been a sincere servant of God! What peace might he then have found in the midst of trouble! "Thou wilt keep him, O Lord, in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee."

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E. Yes, mother; and if the king had been sorry for his past sins, would he not have been much happier then?

M. Certainly he would, my child; for then he would have humbled himself before the Lord, and entreated his pardon. He would have thrown himself upon the mercy of God, owning that he did not deserve his help, but entreating him to have pity upon him. We should have heard nothing then of the murmurs which now broke out from his rebellious lips. But, poor miserable man! he was quite without God, and did not at all know how to bear the dreadful calamities which had fallen upon him.

VOL. III.-F

E. Did Elisha pity him at all, mother?

M. Yes, my son; he felt sorry for the unhappy king, and was glad to be able to comfort him: he rejoiced that God had permitted him to be the bearer of good tidings to him.

E. What good news had he to tell him now, mother?

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M. You know it was from famine that the inhabitants of Samaria were suffering such dreadful things and Elisha told them that their miseries would now soon be over; for that at that very time the next day, fine flour and barley should be selling in great abundance, and at a moderate price, in the gate of Samaria. These were joyful words, indeed, for the perishing people! but scarcely had the prophet spoken them, when a lord in Israel, on whose arm the king was leaning, was wicked enough to mock at them, saying, “Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven might this thing be?" by which he meant that the thing was utterly impossible. But he was punished for his hardness of heart, and want of faith: for the prophet told him, that as he did not choose to believe the word of the Lord, he should see the plenty which he had foretold, with his eyes, but should not eat thereof.

E. Mother, I wish very much to know how the poor people were to be fed. I know that God was quite able to help them: but I want to hear how he did it.

M. In an extraordinary manner, my child. As the Syrians lay in their tents all round the city of

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Samaria, he caused them to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host and they said one to another, "Lo! the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us; wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.” So easy is it for the Almighty to bring about his own will! Now I will tell you how the Israelites found out what had happened in the camp of their enemies. Wretched as were all the people of Israel while Samaria was surrounded by her enemies, there were four men among them more unhappy than all the rest. These were some poor lepers, who were not allowed to dwell within the gates of the city on account of the dreadful disease with which they were afflicted: for the law of Moses commanded leprous persons to keep away from all other people and dwell by themselves. They sat, therefore, outside the gates of the city; and there what could they do but perish? Before them lay their enemies, who, though they might not think it worth while to hurt such miserable men, would not be at all inclined to help them; behind them was the city; but if they should venture in, how could they expect relief when all around were starving? At last they said to one another, "Why sit we here until we die? Come, let us go into the hosts of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall die. We can but die at the worst, and perhaps they may have pity upon us."

So they arose up in the evening, to go to the camp of the Syrians; and when they had walked all through the camp, there was no man there; for God, you know, had caused their enemies to flee away. And when the poor starving lepers found that the camp was really empty, they went into one of the tents, and did eat and drink. We can scarcely form any idea, Edward, of the joy of those poor people at the sight once more of plenty of food; for we have never known the misery of suffering from hunger, as they had done even till they were at the point to die. In the tents, too, they found, not only food, but raiment, and silver and gold, as much as they could desire. They did not, however, think so much of themselves as to forget all their miserable fellow-sufferers in the city of Samaria. They soon thought of them, and made haste to tell them the joyful news, calling to the porter of the city, and saying, "We came unto the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were." Then the porter carried these strange tidings to the king's house; and the king arose in the night to consider what was to be done. At first he was afraid that the Syrians might have done this merely to deceive them, and that if they were to venture to the camp, they should find themselves surrounded by their enemies, who were probably hidden at no great distance from it. Some of his people, however, who thought that they could not in any way be worse off than they were, persuaded him to allow a few of his men, and of the

horses which still remained in the city to go to the camp. And they went through all the camp, and then they followed the footsteps of the Syrians as far as the river Jordan, and they could plainly see as they went on, that the Syrians must have fled from the country; for all the way was full of garments and vessels which they had cast away in their haste. Then the messengers returned, and told the king all that they had seen. Then the king gladly permitted the people to go to the enemies' camp, and to bring away all their provisions and treasures of different kinds.

And now were the words of the prophet fulfilled: now were fine flour and barley sold at a cheap rate, and in abundance at the gate of the city of Samaria: for those who had visited the camp came and brought it to sell to the inhabitants of the city.

E. I wonder what that wicked man thought of all this; that lord, I mean, who had mocked at the prophet's words.

M. He found the just punishment of his sinful unbelief. It so happened, that the king appointed him to take the charge of the gate to keep order among the people at the time that they were passing to and fro, selling and buying corn. He there had an opportunity of seeing with his own eyes the plenty of which the prophet had spoken. But he only saw it. He was not allowed to partake of the happiness around him. The people trod upon him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said. And what an awful lesson has he left behind! Shall not each of us, as we read, fear for