138 THE OLIVE LEAF, CHAP. 



hath hid it from me, and hath not told me." In 

 sending Gehazi with his staff to lay it upon the dead 

 child's face, he was therefore trying an experiment \ 

 he was doing not what the Lord had revealed to him, 

 but what he himself imagined was the best thing to do 

 in the circumstances. He transferred the mantle of 

 Elijah from himself to Gehazi in perfect faith. He 

 expected that some good might be done, if the grand 

 miracle of restoration could not be accomplished. The 

 circumstances brooked no delay. The child was dead ; 

 and in that hot Eastern clime, burial speedily followed 

 upon death, for the work of decay began almost as soon 

 as the breath left the body. If therefore the dreadful 

 process of dissolution was to be prevented, and the 

 corpse was to be restored, while the echoes of life were 

 still ringing as it were about its central parts, no time 

 was to be lost. The prophet himself could not go ; he 

 could not leave the poor mother in her anguish; he 

 must try and do something to comfort her while she is 

 clinging to his feet and imploring his sympathy and 

 aid. And therefore he sent his servant with his staff: 

 that instrument of power which on former occasions 

 God had honoured with success which, like Moses' 

 rod, had wrought wonderful miracles ; hoping that if it 

 could not restore life, it might at least avert decomposi- 

 tion, and preserve the body in that exquisite marble 

 beauty which in little children is so like an angel's 

 sleep. He did what he could at the time ; but it was 

 not sufficient. His action was impersonal ; it was 

 wrought by another, by a mere servant ; it did not 



