work, they were disturbed by the sight of a band of their enemies, and in their haste to get away, they cast the man, whom they were burying, into the grave of the prophet. But no sooner had the dead body touched the coffin of Elisha, than he was immediately restored to life, and arose and stood upon his feet.

In

And thus does the close of Elisha's story, as well as Elijah's, strikingly remind us of that life which is to come hereafter, when the dead shall be raised from their graves and come forth, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. The doctrine of the life to come is clearly revealed to us Christians in the gospel, and from the Old Testament we learn, and especially from such stories as those of Enoch, Elijah, and Elisha, that it was also made known, though not so clearly, to the people of God in ancient times. Elisha we may be indeed allowed to trace a lively type or figure of our blessed Lord, who is, as you know, the life of men, the author of eternal life to those who truly believe in him. On his death it is that we depend for life hereafter and rise as it were, from his grave to a new existence. Had Christ not lain in the grave, we should never have been able to burst its bands; bu. now that he has been there, when we are cast into it after him, thrown in as it were into his grave by a saving faith, it becomes to us, through a miraculous power, the place from which we shall rise to a far better life than we can ever enjoy in this world of sin and trouble. And here, Edward, I must finish my

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account of this great prophet of Israel, whose history fills up so many pages of the Bible, and whose memory will ever be considered as most blessed in the Church of God, to which he was so great an ornament.

FIFTY-FIFTH SUNDAY EVENING.

JONAH IN THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA.

E. WHAT did the people of Israel do, mother, when Elisha was dead? They had no other prophet to go to in their troubles,—had they, mother?

M. Yes, my son; God was gracious enough still to continue his prophets among them, although they had given so little heed to Elijah and Elisha, and although they increased in wickedness every day. About this time there were several messengers of God both in Judah and in Israel, some of whom you will hear of by-and-by; I must now tell you a little of the history of one of them, who was called Jonah.

E. Did he live in the land of Israel?

M. He is supposed to have lived in the upper part of the country, in what was called the tribe of Zebulon; and we read of his having been sent by God on one occasion to the king of Israel, to encourage him against his enemies.

E. To what king of Israel? to Jehu do you mean?

M. No, my son; but to Jeroboam, one of his successors, who was the third king on the throne of Israel after his death.

But it was not in the land of Israel that he chiefly exercised the office of a prophet, but in Assyria, where he was sent by the Almighty, to the great city of Nineveh, to declare God's judgments against it.

E. Were the people, then, who lived in Nineveh, very wicked, mother?

M. Yes; Their wickedness seems to have come to so great a height that God would no longer bear with it, and he said to Jonah, "Arise! go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me.”

After having just gone through the histories of Elijah and Elisha, who not only possessed large portions of God's holy spirit of prophecy, and the power of working miracles, but were also two of the most faithful servants of God that have ever lived, you will be a little surprised, Edward, when I tell you that, instead of setting out immediately with the message of the Almighty, Jonah rose up, and tried to fly from the presence of the Lord, not liking to go on the business with which God had intrusted him. So he went down to Joppa, a seaport town of Palestine, on the Mediterranean Sea, at a great distance from the land of Zebulon, where he was living; but he went there because it was the chief port of Judea, and he could easily get from thence

on board some ship sailing to a distant land. There he found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish, thinking, Edward, that he should thus get away from the presence of the Lord.

E. Why, mother, that was very foolish. How could he think that he could get away from God? I think he could not have known that verse in one of King David's Psalms which you taught me a long time ago; I mean that verse where it says, "Whither shall I flee from thy presence; if I climb up into heaven, thou art there; if I go down to hell, behold thou art there! If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall guide me." You see, mother, I have not forgotten that beautiful verse. But tell me why Jonah did not like to obey God, and to go as he told him to Nineveh. Was he afraid to go among such a wicked people?

M. Certainly, the Ninevites were a strange and a violent people, and he might well expect not to be kindly received by them. Nineveh was also at a great distance from his own country, standing very high up, as you may see upon the map, upon the banks of the river Tigris, in the country of Assyria, of which it was the capital: having been built in very ancient times, by that Nimrod, of whom you have read in the book of Genesis.

But I do not think it was either fear of danger, or dread of the length of the way, which led Jonah to disobey God. His character appears to have

been one which will seem perhaps strange to you, although I fear it is by no means uncommon, even among good and religious men. He was, in short, rather, or we may say, much inclined to bigotry. E. What do you mean by bigotry?

M. I mean that he was so zealous for his own religion, and his own people, as not to like that God should show any kindness to gentile nations, and therefore he was unwilling to go and preach to the Ninevites, lest they should repent, and God should forgive them. Not that Jonah was a bad man; far from it: he seems to have been a very pious person; but even piety is sometimes disfigured by narrow views, and uncharitable tempers, and this perhaps is the great lesson that we ought to learn from the history of Jonah, not to let our religion run into bigotry, that is, not to let it make us wanting in charity for those who are of a different country, or even of a different faith from ourselves, nor to think that God has no mercy for the heathen, because he has not yet given them the light of his gospel. True it is we must love the truth, and be zealous for it, but our zeal must be always mixed with charity, even for those who are most different from ourselves: how much more for them whose differences are not so great. But we must go on with the story, from which we shall see more clearly in what spirit it was that Jonah acted. He fled as you have heard, from the presence of the Lord. But Jonah soon found how vain it was to fly from God. "The Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a great tempest in the sea, so