"Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunamite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son."

"Then she went in and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son and went out."

ELISHA HEALS THE DEADLY POTTAGE.

During the time of a great dearth, Elisha commanded his servant to prepare a quantity of pottage for the sons of the prophets, who were with him. This was done, and one of the servants went out into the field to gather herbs to put into it, and finding a wild vine, (most probably the Colocynth, which is so called from its climbing stem, and from its leaves, resembling a vine,) he gathered a lap full of its wild gourds, and shred them into the pottage. When the men began to eat, the bitter acrid taste discovered the fatal mistake. Hereupon Elisha called for some meal, and casting it in, ordered the pottage to be poured out and given to the people; which was done, and there was no harm found in it.

ELISHA MULTIPLIES THE LOAVES OF BREAD.

On another occasion, when Elisha received a present of the first-fruits, twenty loaves of bread,

and full ears of corn in the husk, he commanded his servant to set it before the people: but the servant, surprized at the order, replied, "what, should I set this before an hundred men?" Elisha, however, repeated his command, saying, "Give the people, that they may eat; for thus saith the LORD: They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. So he set it before the people, and they did eat, and did leave thereof, according to the word of the LORD."

CHAPTER XI.

ELISHA'S MIRACLES CONTINUED.

NAAMAN'S LEPROSY. ELISHA CAUSES IRON TO SWIM.

SMITES THE SYRIANS WITH BLINDNESS.

SIEGE OF

SAMARIA.

II. Kings v.-vii.

NAAMAN'S LEPROSY CURED.

NAAMAN was a captain in the army of the king of Syria, who had greatly distinguished himself in war, and stood high in his master's favor: but he was a leper.* In one of the fre

* A Leper. There are many kinds of Leprosy, and all are not so fatally infectious as to prevent the person afflicted from holding intercourse with his fellow men. The disease still prevails in the East, but chiefly in situations where the air is moist, and in cases where the food is poor and lowering.

quent inroads of the Syrians into the land of Israel, a little maid had been carried captive, and now waited upon the wife of Naaman. She was treated with kindness, and appears to have been strongly attached to her mistress and her family; she sympathized deeply in the misfortune of her master, and expressed an earnest wish that Naaman were but in her own land, within reach of the healing power of Elisha: "Would that my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria," she said, "for he would recover him of his leprosy." Her words were repeated to the king, and he eagerly seized upon any means which offered a chance of recovery to his favorite captain. He commanded Naaman to go into Israel, and he furnished him with a letter to the king, whose power he arrogantly or ignorantly believed to be unlimited, in which he haughtily desired him to heal his servant of his leprosy. Accordingly Naaman departed, furnished with rich presents, such as befitted a person of his rank to give, in return for the blessing of restored health. But when he arrived at Samaria, and Jehoram read the letter of the Syrian monarch, the terrified king of Israel rent his clothes, and said, am I a God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? I pray you, see how he seeketh a quarrel against me."

When Elisha heard of the terror and distress of the feeble and idolatrous Jehoram, he sent

unto him saying, "Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel."

"So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean."

So simple a command, delivered without even seeing the object of it, astonished and displeased the Syrian noble; he thought himself despised, and trifled with, and that no cure could be wrought by merely washing in an insignificant stream. He angrily exclaimed, "Behold, I thought he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.* Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage."

And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have

*This is probably the most ancient recorded instance of the superstitious idea of the healing power communicated by the touch, by striking or laying the hand over the patient-in the East the notion still prevails, and a physician is sometimes expected to show his art by stroking his hand over the ailing part, and thus effecting a cure. (See Pictorial Bible, Note.)

done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash and be clean?"

This affectionate remonstrance subdued Naaman: he was persuaded to obey the prophet's command, and he went and dipped himself seven times in the river Jordan, and he was cured; "his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." His joy and gratitude was great. "And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him; and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel: now therefore take a blessing of thy servant." But Elisha refused to receive any present. "As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none," was his reply, and it was in vain that the grateful Syrian urged his request with the eager warmth of one who had just received the greatest blessing this life affords, that of health.

On finding his entreaties unavailing, Naaman asked for two mules' burden of earth; probably for the purpose of raising with it an altar to the God of Israel when in his own country, for he said, "I will henceforth offer neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice unto other Gods, but unto the LORD.

But as his post near the king of Syria's

*There are other conjectures as to the use which Naaman designed to make of this earth, but the connexion seems evidently to imply it was to serve as an altar of sacrifice. Mahommedans use earth for their ablutions, when water cannot be