Vere. 7-16.-Striking characters. "And Elisha came to Damascus," et.c. We have here- I. A DYING KING. " Benha,fad the King of Syria was sick." Benhadarl, for his age and country, was a great king, rich and mighty, but now he is on his dying-bed. Kings die as well as others. Observe: l. This dying king was very anxious. What was he anxious about? Not about any great spiritual interest concerning himself or others, but concerning his own physical condition. "Shall I recover of this disease?" This was the question he wanted Elisha to answer. Not, you may be sure, in the negative. Knowing some of the wonders that Elisha had performed, he in all like- lihood imagined he would exert bis miraculous power on his behalf, and restore him to life. All men more or less fear death, kings perhaps more than others. If ungodly, they have more to lose and nothing to gain. 2. His anxiety prompted him to do ,emnge things. (1) It was strange for him to ask a favour from the man whom he had so long regarded as hie enemy. We read (eh. vi.14, 15) that this Benhadad had sent to Dothau "horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about," in order to capture this lonely prophet. What a change is this! Dying hours reverse our judgments, revolutionize our feelings, bring the lofty down. (2) It was strange for him to ask a favour of a man whose religion he hated. Ben- hadad was an idolater; Elisha was a monotheist, a worshipper of the one true God. Now, in dying, all the king's idolatrous thoughts have taken wing, and the one God appears as the great reality, and to the set'vant of that one God he sends, urging a favour. (3) It was strange for him to make costly presents to a poor lonely man. "The king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden, and came and stood before him," etc. What is the wealLh, the grandeur, the crown, the sceptre, of the mightiest monarch to him when he feels himself dying? He will barter all away for a few short hours of life. II. A PATRI0TIO PROPHET, "The ma.n of God wept." Elisha, forecasting the king's death, and knowing the wickedness of this Hazael who was to succeed to the throne, smitten with patriotic tenderness, looked so " steadfastly" into the eye of Hazael that h& blushed with shame, and the prophet broke into tears: "The man of God wept." Bui why did he weep? "Why weepeth my lord?" said Hazael. "And he answered Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel : their strong. holds wilt thou set on fire," etc. This was the overwhelming misery that the prophe~ foresaw would befall Israel, when this wretched courtier, his interrogator, would tllke the throne. As Chriijt foresaw the coming doom of Jerusalem, and wept over it, so Elisha saw the horrors approaching Israel, and broke into tears. The loving sympathies of a godly man are not confined to men or places, but spread over the ages, and flow dllwu to bless posterity.-D. T.
VerR. 17-24.-Lessons from the life of Jehoram. "Thirty and two years old WBll be lJehoram] when he began to reign," etc. This is a short fragment of a king's history -the history of Jehoram. Brief as it is, it contains many practical truths. I. THAT PIETY IS NOT NECESSARILY HEREDITARY, Parents, as a rule, transmit their physical and intellectual qualities to their children, but not their moral cha• racters. Jehoram was a bad man and a wicked king, but he was the son of Jehoshaphat who was a man of distinguished piety, and reigned wisely and beneficently over Israei for twenty-five years. Of him it was ~aid that " the mol'e his riches and honour increased the more his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord" (2 Chrou. xvii. 182 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [cu. vm. 1-29,