A TRUE PATRIOT’S DEATH-BED
‘Now Elisha was fallen sick of the sickness of which he died.’
Elisha, one of the greatest and gentlest of Israel’s prophets, a man of wider and more enduring influence than even his great predecessor, Elijah, had lain him down to die. His career had been unstained, and as a prophet of Jehovah, mighty in word and deed, through the power of faith and love, he had been a power behind the throne, ever working for the safety and welfare of the people whom he loved.
I. No prophet, unless it be Hosea, more resembled Jesus Christ in close communion with God and tenderness of spirit.—He had won the affection and confidence of Joash, who recognised, with admiration and reverence, the services he had been instrumental in rendering to Israel. Even the Syrians, Israel’s implacable foes, well understood the shield he was to Israel. The dying patriot, obeying an inward prompting of the Spirit, gathered up his failing strength to bequeath a last service to his falling country. Joash wept for him as for a father in God, and recalling Elisha’s parting words to Elijah, gave them a new and well-deserved application. Elisha had been, though no fighter, ‘the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof,’ achieving great, though bloodless, victories.
II. A nation’s goodly men, true to the cardinal points of heaven and home, are its best defenders and friends.—Be good, walk with God, keep a conscience void of offence towards God and man, and you serve your country in a fashion that leaves no regrets, and wins at last affection and honour. Ten godly men would have saved Sodom.
Illustration
‘Note how the last scene accords with the tenour of Elisha’s life, and brings the many labours of the prophet to a fitting, because a peaceful, close. Elijah had been the prophet of fire and storm; the lonely herald of desolating judgment. He had moved apart from the homes and haunts of men, flashing among them suddenly like tempest. For such a career it was a fitting end that there should be horses and chariots of fire. But Elisha was very different from Elijah. He was more genial, more gentle, and more homely. He gave his blessing to the family circle, and entered the homes of Israel as a brother. And though like a true prophet he could take his stand, and be stern and rigorous when the occasion called for it, yet the great impression which he leaves with us is that of a tender and sympathetic man. Not, then, for him is there a fiery escort, and the rushing of the whirlwind, at the close. He dies surrounded by the stir of life, and within the comforting sound of human voices. His work is over and he falls asleep, sustained at the end by Him Whom he had served, and passing to his rest and his reward by a path that had been smoothed by love.’