DEATH ON A SUMMER DAY. REV. W. FORSYTH. He sat on her knees till noon and then died.-2 KINGS iv: 26. THERE are times when many days of sunshine and joy succeed each other, and others when in a single day there seems concentrated the joy or sorrow of a year. This occurred to the family at Shunem. A child had been given when they were hopeless of offspring. He was the mother's joy and pride, had taken away her reproach. His fellowship was her delight and his future the dearest hope of her life. He grew in beauty by her side and filled her house with glee, and on a summer day when all was life and gladness in the harvest field he visited his father among the reapers. How happy that father as he walked hand in hand with his boy amid the yellow corn, the innermost thought of his heart being, "May the God of Jacob bless the lad. There and then death met him, when the sun is high and hot, the lad suddenly cried, My head, my head." Learn: I. Sorrow may come at the most unlikely time. There may be darkness at noon. Thunder out of a clear sky. The happiest home darkened suddenly by sorrow and the shadow of death. II. Sorrow may spring from the most unlikely source. From a fountain of joy and a well of delight. The sudden cry of agony is from a child, buoyant, playful, full of life. How strange the association at such a time-childhood and pain. Here are the ravages of sin. Rom. v:14. How in the presence of such sufferings are we humbled and awed before God. III. Sorrow may come in the midst of innocent labor. Work is going on according to God's ordinance in the harvest field. Old and young cheerfully engage in the reaping work. No work more wholesome or pure. The simplicity and purity of the olden time characterize the reapers. Yet death invades this busy, joyous scene. What place is safe? What people or work have an immunity. from trouble? The trail of the serpent is over them all. IV. The effect of this sudden sorrow. The father's heart is pierced as with a sword by that cry of pain. He feels stunned, is helpless, but he knows where love and help and comfort abide for a child when weary of learning, or faulty, or pained, or stricken by sickness. " Carry him to his mother." Everything with her must give place to the little invalid. "His mother"-true refuge for the weary-safe resting-place for the sick and dying child. Mark: What a change from the morning. Left home full of life and frolic, returns helpless, unconscious, dying. How startling to the mother was that pale countenance of her boy as she received him on her knees! How often had she dandled him and kissed him while there before. How she now hoped against hope! What suspense was hers during the closing minutes of that forenoon. "He sat on her knees till noon and then died." None but a mother's heart knows the terrible distress of such a moment in such a scene. Her sun had gone down at noon. How tumultuous the thoughts that crowded her soul! How great the trial to her faith! God seemed to have forsaken her that moment. V. Mark the resuscitation of her faith and hope. God lives and all is not lost, is her recovering thought. She strengthens her heart in God. Hurries to her prophet— makes her passionate appeal to him. Hope springs up again on her heart. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. How strange and solemn the scenes in that chamber of death when the prophet of the Lord stretches himself on that child. How wonderful the revival. What joyous scenes in that Hebrew home that evening. What lessons for us. The uncertainty of earthly things-the power of faith. The willingness and God to help the certainty of a resurrection, the joy and glad ness at the reunion on the morning of the last day. THE SHUNAMITE AND HER SON. JOHN BRUCE, D.d. Is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.-2 KINGS iv: 26. THIS HIS story has soothed the spirit of many a parent, and is still fraught with consolation. The story suggests: I. The Shunamite though a godly person was no exempt from family bereavement. She had one on whom her affections centred, and who was dear to her, even as her own soul. To him she clung as one of the chief sources of her enjoyment, and as one whose life seemed indispensable to her own. Yet in accordance with the sovereign purpose of God, she was called to part with this child. In the morning he is with her and she delights to look upon his opening charms and to indulge in fond anticipations of the future. At noon he is struck down by the hand of death, and is no longer hers. "When the child was grown, etc." A visitation like that of the Shunamite, is not uncommon with the people of God. The grim messenger enters their dwelling and commits his ravages on those whom they love. Darkness forthwith covers their tabernacle and the cheerful household hum is hushed. This is the law of nature acting according to the appointment of God—“ By one man, etc." When parents see their tender flowers blighted and cut down, it well becomes them to think of sin, as that which brought death into the world and all our woe. But when they think of death through the first man, they may think of life through the second man Christ Jesus. II. The Shunamite, though a pious woman, was deeply grieved by the loss of her child. When Elisha saw her, he saw grief depicted on her countenance; and when he saw Gehazi annoyed her with her importunity, his language was, "Let her alone, for her soul is vexed within her." And why should not Christians grieve for the loss of their dear children? It is only when grief becomes immoderate, or when mourning is accompanied by murmuring, that it is offensive to God. It is chiefly because bereavements awaken sorrow, that they lead us to see our need of God and to seek for satisfaction from higher sources than the world with all its transient joys. III. The Shunamite amidst her affliction, betook herself to God. Elisha was not only a man of God but a prophet signally attested by Jehovah. In a certain sense he was the the medium of intercourse between God and man. To him the Shunamite came in this her hour of need-unbosomed all her sorrow and looked for the consolation she required. The restoration of the child seemed needful to the realization of the promise that had been made to her. The Christian parent should go to God in the season of bereavement. "He knows our frame," sympathizes, pours the balm of consolation into the wounded spirit. He does not afflict willingly, has gracious designs, assures that afflictions "yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." He leads forth by the right way. IV. The Shunamite acquiesced in the bereaving dispensation, painful though it was. When Gehazi met her and accosted her in those courteous terms. 66 "Is it well with the child? She answered, It is well." True, her beloved child had been removed from her; after a short, but severe conflict with trouble he had closed his eyes in death. And as a consequence of this her tender heart was wrung with anguish and her soul was vexed within her. But still she could say "it is well." She saw the hand of her God and Father in the trying dispensation, and, like Job, she bowed with holy submission knowing that all was truth and mercy sure. It should not require many words to persuade bereaved parents, that with them also it is well. Fond parent, look to thy child in its glorified state, for "of such is the kingdom of heaven." Think of him as raised above all sorrow, and suffering, and imperfection, and mingling with the innumerable company of the redeemed. "Forgive, blest shade, the tributary tear, That mourns thine exit from a world like this: THE CHILD AND THE FATHER'S CUP. THEO. L. CUYLER, D.D. Jesus took a little child and set him in the midst of them.-MATT. THIS xviii: 2. HIS was done to rebuke the selfish ambition of His disciples. Children are still placed in houses to be teachers as well as to be taught themselves. No house is "furnished" until God in his loving kindness sets a little child in the midst of it. They teach lessons. I. Patience. A virtue that some are slow in acquir |