death. Often, doubtless, in the silent watches of the night, the weeping mother bewailed the absent one, her heart picturing the worst of evils as having befallen her. Often would she wake from happy dreams, in which the ringing laughter of her child had fallen like summer music on her ears, and her sunny smile had greeted her as she sported by her side-wake to the consciousness of the heart-sinking reality that that child was far away among strangers in a strange land, that— "Under the palm-trees she no more should meet her, When from the fount at evening she return, With the full water-urn; Nor will her sleep's low dove-like breathings greet her, Unconsciously, however, that Jewish maiden was the object of the watchful providence of her heavenly Father, who had chosen her to be an agent in effectuating the restoration of Naaman to health, and-better still-in leading him to a saving knowledge of. the God of Israel. This result of the mysterious movements of the divine hand was doubtless seen, in after days, to be one of the designs of Infinite wisdom in permitting her capture. The wrath of man is made to redound to the praise of God. It appears that the maiden brought with her from her native vales a vivid remembrance of the miracles of power and mercy which had been wrought by the prophet Elisha, and with the fame of which the mountains of Samaria had rung. She had probably heard of the transactions at Jordan and Jericho, at Shunem and Gilgal; and with such evidence of the possession of mysterious power, she reasoned that the prophet would be able to cure her master of his fearful disease; and she said unto her mistress, "Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy." * No doubt this Jewish maid had seen, as she waited upon her mistress, the gloom which this dark shadow had thrown across the path of Naaman and his wife, and her sympathy with them the evidence of native goodness of heart-constrained her to break the silence which her dependent and menial position might have enjoined, and to endeavour to relieve their oppressed spirits, by giving the * 2 Kings ii. 14, 19—22; iv. 32—37, 38—44. information which she possessed, and which she hoped might be serviceable to her afflicted master. Naaman was peculiarly favoured in his domestics, as the narrative will yet further show, when we come to consider the wise counsels which some of them gave him in the most critical hour of his life. We may observe, in passing, that what God, by an apparently insignificant instrumentality, was pleased to do in relation to Naaman, possessed by a grievous bodily disease, he often does now-and in the use of similarly feeble means to men affected with spiritual maladies of a yet more fatal character. A little child has not unfrequently been the means of turning ungodly parents from the error of their ways, by the artless language of a gentle and loving heart, baptized with the spirit of gospel truth. Some lessons, learned from the lips of a devoted Sabbath school teacher, have fixed themselves in the memory and heart of a docile pupil; some simple yet pungent tract has been given him, and both have been conveyed to the home of poverty, misery, irreligion, and blasphemy, and transformed that moral desert into a spot fair and fruitful as the garden of the Lord. A sermon is heard in some sanctuary, by a casual passer-by, that opens the spiritual world to his soul's vision, and renovates the entire man; while perhaps he and the preacher will never meet again till they stand before the great tribunal. The latter drew the bow at a venture, but he never knew, and never will know, till "the day shall reveal it," that the arrow went home to a human heart, and subdued an enemy of his Master, changing him to a friend. God sends a pious servant into an irreligious family, of the members of which it may, with painful truth, be said, "There is no fear of God before their eyes," and gives the opportunity, as well as the ability and willingness, to speak for him and for the truth. It may be that that dwelling is darkened by the shadow of death; a loved child may, amid the stillness of the hushed and curtained chamber, broken only by the sighs and sobs of those who weep around, be passing away to the happier land, whither angels wait to bear him; but those who mourn know not the way thither themselves. This devout domestic, however, points them to the Prophet who can heal their broken hearts; breathes words in season, that fall like dew on the fevered spirit; and leads that spirit, prostrate in the dust, so to think and feel, that at length, like David, it can say, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." Surely in all this there can be nothing wrong, nothing indecorous, or unbecoming a domestic's social position; nay more, it must be the only right course that a pious servant could, under the circumstances supposed, possibly pursue. If the little Israelitish maid, of whom we have been speaking, did not do wrong in proffering her advice to her mistress, that Naaman might be healed of his bodily leprosy, others similarly situated have resting upon them a mightier obligation to offer their assistance and advice to those who are affected with a spiritual leprosy, of the real nature of which, with all its fearful consequences, they are utterly ignorant; and who know absolutely nothing of the necessary means and instruments of cure. Such a servant or friend, who brings salvation to any house or heart, is a priceless treasure. The words of the child, though she was but a slave, appear to have fallen on eagerly listening ears. The wife of Namaan caught gladly at the hope they held out of a prospect of restoration to her husband. It is most |