Although, therefore, this was the last command given to Elijah, it was the first obeyed. For we are told by the inspired historian, "So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth; and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him."

How remarkable an interview! Not a word appears to have been spoken; the prophet had hastened onward to fulfil his important commission; he had travelled from Mount Horeb, which was about one hundred and fifty miles from Abelmeholah, and when he arrives at the end of this long and wearisome journey, he finds the object of his search, not wearing soft* clothing and dwelling in king's houses, but employed in arduous and heavy labour, following the plough.

How little do those men know of religion who wonder at such an incident. Never are we more likely to hear the voice of God's good Spirit

* Matt. xi. 8.

speaking effectually to the heart, than when fulfilling conscientiously and industriously the duties of an honourable and innocent employ. Yet is it astonishing how much ignorance exists upon this subject; one man thinks his worldly duties quite incompatible with spiritual ordinances; another imagines that if he were freed from these impediments, then and not till then, he should be enabled to run the way of God's commandments; how few practically feel, what is unquestionably the truth, that a man is never more religiously employed-never, perhaps, more acceptably to God -than when he is "not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord," and carrying out the dictates of inspiration, and fulfilling the high behests of eternity, amidst the anxious cares and duties of time.

It is recorded in the life of the excellent Philip Henry, father of the commentator, that one day calling upon a tanner in his parish, he found him so busily employed in tanning a hide, that he was. not aware of his approach until he gave him a

slight tap on the back; he started, and looking behind him, blushed. "Sir," said he, "I am ashamed you should find me thus." Philip Henry replied, "Let Christ when he comes find me so doing." What," said the man, "doing thus?"

66

"Yes," rejoined his minister, "faithful in the duties of my calling."

No sooner had Elijah cast his prophet's mantle upon the herdsman of Abel-meholah, than influenced, no doubt, by the silent but all-prevailing voice of the Spirit of God, "made willing in the day of God's power," Elisha understands the significant action, receives it at once as a call to the prophetic office, and hesitates not a moment at the sacrifices it requires, or the duties it enjoins. Instantly, as we are told, "he left the oxen and ran after Elijah." Twelve yoke of oxen were ploughing before him, eleven servants labouring with him in the field, which was in all probability his property, as the oxen and that which pertained to them evidently were, yet is he not for one moment impeded by the abundance of this world's

goods; he remains not even to conclude the work upon which he is engaged, but follows at once his master and his guide.

Such, at least, as regarded every worldly impediment, was the conduct of Elisha; but there were ties more powerfully binding upon his heart than the possessions of earth; ties which Elijah indeed appears never to have known, and which perhaps he could scarcely estimate; yet were they neither unknown nor unfelt by Him whose earthly parent pondered in her heart his earliest sayings, and divided even on the cross his latest thoughts. "Let me, I pray thee," said Elisha, "kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again; for what have I done to thee?" I have done nothing which should break these ties, I have done nothing to fetter thine own free-will, or to force a reluctant compliance. Follow as the Spirit of God shall lead thee, the result will be rightly and wisely ordered.

"So he returned back from him," and having paid that parting tribute of respect and affection

to his parents, so justly due to them, having shown that the strongest aspirations after heaven are perfectly consistent with the holy affections of earth, and having feasted the people with the oxen which he no longer needed, to mark, perhaps, the cheerfulness and alacrity with which he was thus surrendering all for God, "he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him."

The earthly course of this remarkable man, however, was, as we have seen, now drawing towards its close, for the Lord had determined to "take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind ;”* in vain did he, when he felt his departure was at hand, entreat Elisha to leave him; in vain did he urge him to tarry at each of the different places through which they passed; the answer of his devoted follower to the thrice-repeated request was still the same, "As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee."

So they proceeded together from Gilgal to Bethel, and from Bethel to Jericho, and from

2 Kings ii. 1.