Oh! my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it; but the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. And the king answered and said, Give her [the first speaker] the living child, and in no wise slay it, she is the mother thereof!" And if all Israel, when they heard of this judgment, feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, how deeply, how gratefully, must the real mother have rejoiced in the courage which brought her before the monarch, and, through his sentence, received back her son! Solomon's wisdom, in this instance, proceeded simply from a profound knowledge of human nature. He tested the truth or falsehood of the relation by an appeal to the heart, and decided according to its unguarded witness, demanding nothing more for his own satisfaction or that of his hearers. The incident is a trifling one; but it is valuable in demonstrating the social position of the women of Israel at the period. We have already seen that to obtain the monarch's ear was quite accessible to woman, in the narration of David and the widow of Tekoah; but the present instance is, if possible, still more convincing, from the fact of the women being of the lowest classes, and having no friendly influence to bring them forward; nothing in fact to plead in their favor, but their privileges as women of Israel, which of course gave them admission to their earthly sovereign, who was but the vice-regent of Him by whom all Israel, men, women, and children, were heard, judged, and answered and when the law of the land permitted, nay, commanded, impartial judgment on all who claimed it, women as well as men, it surely cannot be accused of either degrading or enslaving; many an afflicted and oppressed one of the Gentile lands might be found to wish it were in action still.

And how beautifully does this simple narrative display the power of nature! It was far easier to resign her babe than see him die, even at the risk of her previous recital being disbelieved. She could feel nothing but the fatal command of the king to slay the child; little could she think those agonized words of entreaty were expressly called for by the king, for the discovery of the truth; and that the burst of natural feeling would be the means of giving her back her child. How forcibly does this little anecdote confirm our reiterated assertion, that the Word of our God guides and portrays feeling as well as action, and that all our purest, best, and noblest affections will always

find their reflection there. And this is one of the widest distinctions between the Bible and Profane History. The latter narrates events, actions, the palpable and striking parts of man, if we may so express it, but touches not that immaterial and subtle essence of thought and feeling, whence alone all that is palpable and striking comes. The Bible in a few brief words will give the key to actions, will simply portray a feeling, an impulse which flashes on the heart, awakening, as by electricity, the links of nature, which unite the present with the past in the history of humanity; and we know such record is divine, else the darkly hidden, rarely penetrated, mysteries of the human heart could not have been so forcibly revealed.

Nor are they the only illustrations of feeling. How touchingly illustrative of that affection is Elisha's first address to Elijah! When the latter threw his mantle upon nim, as symbolical of his elevation to the prophetical calling, a rush of strange yet ecstatic feeling must have taken possession of him: perhaps the aspirings of many years, the heart's hopes and longings for such spiritual election, unknown to any but his own heart, were gratified. It must have been some extraordinary and incomprehensible impulse, actuating the resignation of all early employments and associations, simply to follow Elijah-feelings probably overwhelming in their suddenness; yet we find him in the midst of them thinking of his parents. "Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee."

It is in truth only a feeling, not any momentous incident or striking illustration, which these simple words betray but it is often from little things like these, that we may form an estimate of the social condition and feelings of a people. The Jewish law, as we have seen, peculiarly and affectingly touches on the conduct and even emotions of children for their parents, and parents for their children. Elisha, we may feel sure, both from his being the anointed prophet of the Lord, and from the whole course of his after-life, had been brought up strictly as an Israelite. He had, as is often the case, received an education which, in the very midst of idolatry and misery, preserved him undefiled and fitted to supply Elijah's place. His exclamation strongly proves how completely the affections were blended with spiritual gifts; while from his lingering yearning towards his parents, we feel what they must have been to him-his mother

as well as his father. There is no such thing as filial reverence and love in nations where woman is degraded. In the Jewish nation, on the contrary, we find repeated instances of both reverence and love-such could not fail to have been the case when "honor thy father and thy mother" was one of the first commands of God Himself.

We trace, too, much of a mother's nurture and influence in the peculiarly sweet and loving character of Elisha during his prophetical career. His mission was almost all of love; and the feeling and sympathy which he manifested to all who sought him, especially towards women, as we shall see in more than one instance, display a manly character formed by a woman's hand.

One of the first miracles performed by Elisha was for a woman, evincing the tender kindness of his disposition, and proving that woman was not considered unworthy to receive relief, through him, from the hand of her gracious God. She was a poor widow, whose only claim to the compassion of the prophet appeared to be, that he knew that her husband, "thy servant, did fear the Lord." But he died poor, and in debt, and, in exact illustration of the law, the creditor came to demand the service of his two sons, in lieu of the sum that was owing,—a hard trial for the poor woman, left in her bereave ment with but two sons, from whom the justice of the law compelled her to part, unless she could raise money sufficient to discharge her debt; and so without fear she approached the prophet, and stated her case. "What shall I do for thee?" was the commiserating reply; "tell me what hast thou in thy house." And what a picture of uncomplaining poverty does her answer bring! "Thine handmaid hath nothing in the house but a pot of oil." The prophet felt for and relieved her; but how much of childlike and trusting faith must she have needed, in the obedience to his strange command,—" Borrow thee vessels of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee, and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full." Borrow vessels to fill with oil, when she had but one pot of oil in the house! How could this be? Was not the prophet playing with her distress? How could such a strange command avail her? Such questions would only have been natural; but

we do not find that they entered her mind, or prompted doubt and speculation. She might, perhaps, have heard of the widow of Zarephath, whose cruse of oil had miraculously lasted during the famine; but more probably her instant obedience originated in that simple guileless trust which should characterize every feeling of our heart towards God. "So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who had brought the vessels to her, and poured out. And it came to pass when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet another; and he said, There is not a vessel more; and the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children, on the rest." It was not enough to give her present relief-the merciful kindness of the man of God provided also for the future, and gave her the blessed relief of retaining her children beside her. Now if woman were of no account in Israel, it would have been a greater kindness to take her sons from her, than leave them to her training. As a widow in Israel, she herself would have been provided for; there was no need for this great mercy to have been shown her: nor in her retired, simple mode of living, could the performance of the miracle for her have increased Elisha's prophetical reputation. She was a poor afflicted individual—of no more consequence amongst her countrymen, either in life or death, joy or sorrow, than were we to remove one grain of sand from the seashore. Yet she was as much an object of pitying mercy in the sight of her God and of His prophet, as the highest and most important in the land. And what was her sole plea for hearing and acceptance? "Thou knowest my husband, thy servant, did fear the Lord;"-meaning not only the departed, but herself and her whole household. There was no long list of highsounding deeds, of sublime projects, and seemingly important services. The sons of the prophets, as they were called, appeared to have passed their quiet lives in holy meditation ou the law and the works of God, and in serving Him by such deeds of unostentatious kindness and social benevolence as very often to die poor. They asked nothing but a bare sufficiency of board and lodging blessed with family love. They were never heard of out of their own retired sphere; but they feared the Lord, and taught their wives and children to do so likewise. And this was the poor widow's plea; ard it was accepted

And shall we then say the women of Israel have no access to God? Do we need more than our own blessed faith and its vivid illustrations in the Eternal's own word, to give us not only consolation but encouragement? Can we not all feel as that poor widow did—a guileless faith, which asked no question, but obeyed-which came at once to the man cf God, and, though his words were strange, yet trusted and was relieved?

True, we have no man of God to whom to seek we may not look to miracles for our relief; but we may all com e to God's word, and, through it, to God Himself. There is no barrier between us and Him. Our holy faith gives us the blessed consolation of coming to Him direct, and of feeling that, if we do but seek to fear, and love, and serve Him, we shall be accepted and beloved. Lowliness of station, of intellect, of service, is of no account with Him. The poor widow is an evidence that the poorest and the humblest, the merest atom of His stupendous creation, is not unworthy of His regard, aye, even to the performance of a miracle in her behalf; and her sole plea was, she "feared the Lord." Oh, let not the false idea of too great unworthiness to approach Him, of incapacity to address Him in words fit for His acceptance, obtain a moment's resting in the female Jewish heart. We are His-His own-and every expression in His Holy Word proves that we are so, and that now, aye, even now, every woman who bears the glorious name of Israel, be she rich or poor-full of good deeds and pious thoughts, or bereft of all but a childlike faith and guileless love of God-still she has spiritual privileges; a closer, dearer, more blessed connexion with her Father in heaven, than is the lot of any woman. She cannot read her Bible without feeling this. Oh, let her prove it in the sight of the whole world!

CHAPTER IV.

THE SHUNAM MITE.

THE poor widow so mercifully relieved and blessed, marks the social and spiritual condition of the humbler classes of Israel