The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1904-09-08

jah's career one was to be added
which would surpass them all, even
in their surprising scenic effects. He
who had set the Lords house in order
with such a mesterful hand found it
a comparatively small matter to put
his own in readiness. He was intent
upon conserving the reform which he
had inaugurated. This could be best
done by confirming the faith of the
young men preparing for the proph-
etic Office. They were the hope of
national goodness. So Elijah under
takes last visitation of the prophet
communities at Bethel, Gilgal, and
Jericho. With heroic purpose he
sought to rivet these sons of prophets
to the law and to the testimony.
There is something touching in the
firm adhesion of Elisha to Elijah in
this closing scene. 1t reminds us of
Ruth's "Entreat me not to leave
thee" If, as has been suggested,
Elijah was putting his successor to a
final test, his tenacity must have
been very reassuriug. He saw that
he was "steadfastly minded"
1t is an instructive impulse on the
part of the dying to bestow a last
gift, the value of which it is bestow-
ed, so Elijah said, ASK what l shall
do for thee before l be taken away
from thee" Elisha's wise choice re-
minds US of Solomon's. He gives the
prophet another assuring token of
his fitness to be his successor. He
asks for what pertains solely to his
success in his holy calling-a double
portion of Elijah's spirit. Not twice
as much as Elijah had. That would
be incongruous. Not an evangelical
spirit which would be twice as good
as the legal spirit. Subsequent
events do not sustain such a contrast.
But it is as if Elisha had said, eff you
wish to bestow a part gift, which
shall serve at once as a memorial of
YOUR affection and be helpful to me
in my career, recognize me as your
eldest son by giving me the double
portion which falls to the eldest son
by law; give me, for example, twice
as much of the prophetic spirit as
comes to any one of the fifty of your
younger sons on yonder hilltop"
Elijah answered: "You have done
hard in asking, for the matter is not
one CT explicit revelation to me.
However, we will put it into the
Lords hands in this way: | do not
know how | am to quit the earth,
whether visibly or iuvisibly. If in
the former manner, so that you see
me when | am taken from you, take
it as the Lords own token that your
request is granted, and that a double
portion of prophetic spirit is yours
Any attempt at minute description
of Elijah's translation leads to exag-
gerated rhetoric. Human language
can not depict the scene. 1t was a
theophany. The Lords minister on
this occasion, as on so many others,
was a flaming fire-''a chariot of fire
and horses of fire and parted them
both asunder: and Elijah went up by
a whirlwind into heaven"
"Myl father. my father (thou)
chariot of Israel and (thou) horseman
thereof "'-an epitaph without tomb
stone, Committed to the immortal
custody of the sacred Scriptu res, it
has survived many a psuegyric
''sculptured in the rock or craven
with an iron stylus on sheet of lead
forever" The first exclamation is
expressive of that tender relationship
subsisting between the prophet in the
air and the prophet on the earth. 1t
is as if Elisha had, said: An! see
thee! Thou art then my father and
l the eldest of thy prophetic sons.
BY the Lord S own token name is now
the double portion of the eldest son.
The remainder of the epitaph tells
with Oriental picturesqueness what
the Tishbite was to Israel. The
chariot was the strongest arm of
Eastern military service, correspond
ing to our modern artillery. 1t was
usually built of oak, covered some
times with metal. AS many as three
poles and as many spans of horses
We're hitched abreast; from the hubs
hooked blades extended Imagine
such a deadly engine, driven at full
speed into the ranks of an enemy!
No wonder in ancient times some
trusted in chariots.n
Such chariot was Elijah. With
irresistableipower he had hurled HIM
self into the ranks of idolatry. The
merciless blades of his wheels dyed
the Kishon with the blood of four
hundred bestial priests. The track of
this awful chariot left no trace of two
blasphemous captains and their
tifties. Yet, more through that i'm
material something called the spirit
of the times" he rode with fear or
favor. The timorous guards at the