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ALL THE GREAT THINGS THAT ELISHA HATH DONE."

VII. 4.

BIBI

LONDON:

JAMES NISBET AND CO., BERNERS STREET.

MDCCCXLVIII.

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INTRODUCTION.

THE ministries of Elijah and Elisha occupied the days of the family of Ahab, of the house of Omri; the time of deepest corruption in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. The testimony of the Lord about those times is this; "And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord, above all that were before him."

It was in those days that Hiel the Bethelite dared the arm of the Lord by rebuilding Jericho; an act which affronting the truth and power of the Lord, looked with infidel boldness, and said, “Where is the God of judgment?" (Mal. ii. 17). For Ahab's days were days of man's proud provocation and temptation again.

At such a time, just on the act of Hiel, Elijah is called out. (1 Kings xvi. 34; xvii. 1). And in him we see an entirely independent call of God and energy of the Spirit. He is quite in the Lord's own hand. He does not belong to the Priesthood. He never seeks the Temple. He never consults established oracles, or walks orderly according to the statutes or ordinances of Israel. But the Lord takes him up, and fills him with light and power altogether His own, not reaching him by any prescribed channel at all.

And so Elisha. He was independent of all that was already instituted in the land. The hand of the Lord uses him, the Spirit of God fills him, without respect to the Temple or the Priesthood.

And we get the common, and yet most blessed instruction of Scripture, out of this-that when man

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