The Newtown bee., 1897-08-13

alone, the enemies of God Quailed, a whole royal line skulked and feared"
 70 my father, my father.' Elisha WAS overwhelmed with a sense of his loss; that was the cry of orphanhood. Elijah was as a father unto Elisha; we do not usually think of him in that light. We think of him as a comet, as a flash of lightning darting through the sky, as 8 whlrlwind, under any figure that sug- gests grandeur, majesty strength; we al- most never think of him under any figure that suggests repose, as filled with graciousness, tenderness, love. You cannot get the right idea of any great man by looking at him
 FROM ONLY ONE POINT,
 or on any one angle or side. Lincoln at a meeting of his cabinet, where he, the once unlettered rail-splitter, sat as peer among some of the best intellects of his day, was not the same Lincoln that you would have seen with heart breaking over the death of his little boy Tod. Gen Washington, giving sharp rebuke at Trenton for seeming cowardice to Gener- al Lee, was not the same Washington whom you would have seem among his slaves on the estate at Mount Vernon. The sculptor who wished to make cor rect bust of Shakespeare had his death mask photographed from 20 or 30 differ ent points of view. Elijah was as father in his graciOusness and tenderness to Elisha, and yet he was Israel's chari- otry and weapons of war. His anger be- came blazing fire that swept from the .arth whole royal line because it set itself in opposition to God. At his con- mand in the name of God fire and sword united their force to work mischief among his foes ;..and what wall of pro- tection he was to the believers! They found in him one whom Ahab feared more than Israel's host. He was one who, in the right, could stand unshaken, irrepulsible and alone.
 So it ever is, good men are the strength of nation. We make mistake. It is not armies, it is not coast defence, it is not navies, it is not constitutions, it is not forms of government; it is good men that preserve our land. Cicero, Seneca, Marcus AureliHs-a few such men saved Rome as long as her glory survived amid an ocean of foulness and sweeping tempest of moral turpitude and shame. Righteousness exalteth the individual life and righteousness exalteth the na- tion. The pages of history are filed with one long succession of the rise and decay of empires, and you cannot point to one single instance where an empire has fallen except it has been through the load of corruption that bore it down. Good men are the salt of the earth; they keep it from putrefaction, they cause it to endure. The mining camp that is fill ed only by saloons and brothels must soon be a waste; it has nothing about it that can make it live.
 70 my father, my father! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!"I There is yet another meaning to these words as they came from the lips of ElisEa, and for this interpretation of them am indebted to Dr Alexander Maclaren. This interpretation has given the words new beauty and force with me, and hereafter they shall mean very much to me. A company of the sons of the prophets had come out from Jericho to witness what would happen to Elijah. We are distinctly told that they did not see the flaming chariot and horses that bore Elijah to Heaven. They did not see them, for they supposed he had been caught away and was hid somewhere in the mountains they were for lnstituting a search-partY that they might find the prophet. Elisha had been promised a double portion of ElIah's spirit if he should see his friend leave him.
 ELISHA SAW THE DEPARTURE. He saw the fame-wreathed chariot come