25-37, There is fine illustration in this chapter of a noble reverence for goodness, of a good man’s gratitude, and of the large reward that never fails those who deal kindly with God’s children.

It is not enough to put the staff, even though it be the prophet’s, on the cold, sweet face of a child. Our doctrine and precept may be quite good and straight, but something more is needed. There must be not a staff, not a servant, not an intermediary, but ourselves, our ° heart against the heart that is still, our lips against ‘the dear, cold lips. It is as we give ourselves to the children, imparting our tenderest, strongest sympathy, that new life will come to them.

Walk to and fro in your house! Shut the door .on yourself and the child! Pray to the Lord! Give yourself to the great work of saving the soul from death! Let the mother be praying in the room downstairs! Call to the little soul to awake and live. Your faith and prayer cannot fail of an answer.

2 Kings 4:388-44, This miracle, it has been justly remarked, is a faint foreshadowing of our Lord’s mar-

velous feeding of thousands with even scantier materials. As Elijah was a type of John the Baptist, so Elisha was, in m&ny respects, a type of our Lord. In his peaceful, human life, his mild and gentle character, his constant circuits, his many miracles of mercy, he resembles, more than any other prophet, the Messiah.

We have also, in this ‘miracle, the great province of the Gospel to counteract the ancient curse of a forfeited Paradise and meet the hunger of the soul. The grace of God will turn an evil into a blessing and multiply a little to feed a multitude. See Mark 20,155 Pea. 132; 15. Can there be any doubt that to faith and prayer resources are open which are closed to all else? If nature contained all we need, ready to our hand, of what use would prayer be? The very injunctions to prayer and the success of those who have. prayed, prove that God has forces available, which can operate in behalf of those who love him and are the called according to his purpose.