How to Raise the Dead
Charles Spurgeon · The Soul-Winner; or, How to Lead Sinners to the Saviour
AN ADDRESS TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHERS.
HOW TO RAISE THE DEAD,
Fellow-labourers in the vineyard of the Lord, let
me call your attention to a most instructive miracle
wrought by the prophet Elisha, as recorded in the
fourth chapter of the Second Book of Kings. The hos-
pitality of the Shunammite woman had been rewarded
by the gift of a son; but, alas! all earthly mercies are
of uncertain tenure, and after certain days the child fell
sick and died.
The distressed but believing mother hastened at once
to the man of God ; through him God had spoken the
promise which fulfilled her heart's desire, and she re-
solved to plead her case with him, that he might lay
it before his Divine Master, and obtain for her an an-
swer of peace. Elisha's action is recorded in the fol-
lowing verses:
"Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take
my stafif in thine hand, and go thy way; if thou meet
any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer
him not again: and lay my stafY upon the face of the
child. And the mother of the child said. As the Lord
liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
And he arose, and followed her. And Gehazi passed
on before them, and laid the stafif upon the face of the
child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Where-
fore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying,
The child is not awaked. And when Elisha was come
140 THE SOUL WINNER.
into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid
upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door
upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord. And he
went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth
upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his
hands upon his hands; and he stretched himself upon
the child ; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then
he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and
went up, and stretched himself upon him ; and the child
sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite.
So he called her. And when she was come in unto
him, he said, Take up thy son. Then she went in, and
fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and
took up her son, and went out." — 2 Kings iv., 29-37.
The position of Elisha in this case is exactly your
position, brethren, in relation to your work for Christ.
Elisha had to deal with a dead child. It is true that,
in his instance, it was natural death; but the death
with which you have to come in contact is not the
less real death because it is spiritual. The boys and
girls in your classes are, as surely as grown-up people,
"dead in trespasses and sins." May none of you fail
fully to realise the state in which all human beings are
naturally found! Unless you have a very clear sense
of the utter ruin and spiritual death of your children,
you will be incapable of being made a blessing to
them. Go to them, I pray you, not as to sleepers whom
you can by your own power awaken from their slum-
ber, but as to spiritual corpses who can only be quick-
ened by a power divine. Elisha's great object was
not to cleanse the dead body, or embalm it with spices,
or wrap it in fine linen, or place it in an appropriate
posture, and then leave it still a corpse: he aimed at
HOW TO RAISE THE DEAD. 141
nothing less than the restoration of the child to life.
Beloved teachers, may you never be content with aim-
ing at secondary benefits, or even with realising
them; may you strive for the grandest of all ends,
the salvation of immortal souls! Your business is not
merely to teach the children in your classes to read the
Bible, not barely to inculcate the duties of morality, nor
even to instruct them in the mere letter of the gospel,
but your high calling is to be the means, in the hands
of God, of bringing life from heaven to dead souls.
Your teaching on the Lord's Day will have been a fail-
ure if your children remain dead in sin. In the case
of the secular teacher, the child's fair proficiency in
knowledge will prove that the instructor has not lost
his pains; but in your case, even though your youth-
ful charges should grow up to be respectable members
of society, though they should become regular at-
tendants upon the means of grace, you will not feel that
your petitions to heaven have been answered, nor your
desires granted to you, nor your highest ends attained,
unless something more is done — unless, in fact, it can
be said of your children, "The Lord hath quickened
them together with Christ."
Resurrection, then, is our aim! To raise the dead is
our mission/ We are Hke Peter at Joppa, or Paul at
Troas, we have a young Dorcas or Eutychus to bring
to life. How is so strange a work to be achieved? If
we yield to unbelief, we shall be staggered by the evi-
dent fact that the work to which the Lord has called
us is quite beyond our own personal power. We can-
not raise the dead. If asked to do so, we might each
one of us, like the king of Israel, rend our clothes, and
say, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive?" We are,
however, no more powerless than Elislia, for he him-
self could not restore the Shunammite's son. It is true
142 THE SOUL-WINNER.
that we by ourselves cannot bring the dead hearts of
our scholars to palpitate with spiritual life, but a Paul
or an Apollos would have been equally as poweriess.
Need this fact discourage us? Does it not rather direct
us to our true power by shutting us out from our own
fancied might? I trust we are all of us already aware
that the man who lives in the region of faith dwells in
the realm of miracles. Faith trades in marvels, and her
merchandise is with wonders.
"Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees.
And looks to that alone;
Laughs at impossibilities,
And cries, 'It shall be done.' '*
Elisha was no comijwn mafi now that God's Spirit
was upon him, calling him to God's work, and aiding
him in it. And you, devoted, anxious, prayerful teach-
er, remain no longer a common being; you have be-
come, in a special manner, the temple of the Holy
Ghost, God dwelleth in you, and you by faith have
entered upon the career of a wonder-worker. You
are sent into the world not to do the things which are
possible to man, but those impossibilities which God
worketh by His Spirit, by the means of His believing
people. You are to work miracles, to do marvels.
You are not, therefore, to look upon the restoration
of these dead children, which in God's name you are
called to bring about, as being a thing unlikely or
difficult when you remember who it is that works by
your feeble instrumentality. ''Why should it be thought
a thing incredible with you that God should raise the
dead?" Unbelief will whisper to you, as you mark
the wicked giddiness and early obstinacy of your chil-
dren, "Can these dry bones live?" But your answer
must be, "O, Lord, Thou knowest." Committing all
cases to the almighty hand, it is yours to prophesy to
. HOW TO RAISE THE DEAD. 14S
the dry bones and to the heavenly wind, and ere long
you, too, shall see in the valley of your vision the signal
triumph of life over death. Let us take up at this mo-
ment our true position and let us realise it. We
have dead children before us, and our souls yearn
to bring them to life. We confess that all quickening
must be wrought by the Lord alone, and our humble
petition is that, if the Lord will use us in connection
with His miracles of grace, He would now show us
what He would have us to do.
// would have been well if E lis ha had recollected that
he was once the servant of Elijah, and had so studied
his Master^s example as to have i^nitated it. If so, he
would not have sent Gehazi with a stafY, but have done
at once what at last he was constrained to do. In the
First Book of Kings, at the seventeenth chapter, you
will find the story of Elijah's raising a dead child, and
you will there see that Elijah, the master, had left a com-
plete example to his servant; and it was not until
Elisha followed it in all respects that the miraculous
power was manifested. It had been wise, I say, if
Elisha had, at the outset, imitated the example of the
master whose mantle he wore. With far more force
may I say to you, my fellow-servants, that it will be well
for us if, as teachers, we imitate our Master — if we
study the modes and methods of our glorified Master,
and learn at His feet the art of winning souls. Just
as He came in deepest sympathy into the nearest con-
tact with our wretched humanity, and condescended
to stoop to our sorrowful condition, so must we come
near to the souls with whom we have to deal, yearn over
them with His yearning, and weep over them with His
tears, if we would see them raised from the state of
sin. Only by imitating the spirit and manner of the
Lord Jesus shall we become wise to win souls.
114 THE SOUL- WINNER.
Forgetting this, however, EHsha would fain strike
out a course for himself, which would more clearly
display his own prophetic dignity. He gave his staff
into the hand of Gehazi, his servant, and bade him
lay it upon the child, as if he felt that the divine power
was so plenteously upon him that it would work in
any way, and consequently his own personal presence
and efforts might be dispensed with. The Lord's
thoughts were not so. I am afraid that very often
the truth which we deliver from the pulpit — and doubt-
less it is much the same in your classes — is a thing
which is extraneous and out of ourselves; like a staff
which we hold in our hand, but which is not a part
of ourselves. We take doctrinal or practical truth as
Gehazi did the staff, and we lay it upon the face of the
child, but we ourselves do not agonise for its soul. We
try this doctrine and that truth, this anecdote and the
other illustration, this way of teaching a lesson and
that manner of delivering an address; but so long as
ever the truth which we deliver is a matter apart from
ourselves, and unconnected with our innermost being,
so long it will have no more effect upon a dead soul
than Elisha's staff had upon the dead child. Alas! I
fear I have frequently preached the gospel in this place,
I have been sure that it was my Master's gospel, the
true prophetic staff, and yet it has had no result, be-
cause I fear I have not preached it with the vehemence
and earnestness and heartiness which ought to have
gone with it! And will you not make the same con-
fession, that sometimes you have taught the truth —
it was the truth, you know it was — the very truth which
you found in the Bible, and which has at times been
precious to your own soul, and yet no good result
has followed from It, because while you taught the
truth you did not feel the truth, nor feel for the child
HOW TO RAISE THE DEAD. . 145
to whom the truth was addressed, but were just like
Gehazi placing with indifferent hand the prophetic staff
upon the face of the child? It was no wonder that you
had to say with Gehazi, "The child is not awaked," for
the true awakening power found no appropriate me-
dium in your lifeless teaching. We are not sure that
Gehazi was convinced that the child was really dead;
he spoke as if it were only asleep, and needed waking.
God will not bless those teachers who do not grasp in
their hearts the really fallen estate of their children.
If you think the child is not really depraved, if \ou
indulge foolish notions about the innocence of child-
hood and the dignity of human nature, it should not
surprise you if you remain barren and unfruitful. How
can God bless you to work a resurrection when, if He
did work it by you, you are incapable of perceiving its
glorious nature? If the lad had awaked, it would not
have surprised Gehazi; he would have thought that
he was only startled from an unusually sound sleep.
If God were to bless to the conversion of souls the
testimony of those who do not believe in the total
depravity of man, they would merely say, "The gospel
is very moralising, and exerts a most beneficial influ-
ence." but they would never bless and magnify the re-
generating grace by which He who sitteth on the
tlirone maketh all things new.
Observe carefully what Elisha did when thus foiled
in his first effort. IVheti we fail m one attempt, we
must not therefore give up our work. If you have
been unsuccessful, my dear brother or sister, until
now, you must not infer that you are not called to
the work, any more than Elisha might have concluded
that the child could not be restored. The lesson of
your non-success is not — cease the work, but — change
the method. It is not the person who is out of place,
146 THE SOUL-WINNER.
it is the plan which is unwise. If you have not been
able to accomplish what you wished, remember the
schoolboy's song:
"If at first you don't succeed,
Try, try, try again."
Do not, however, try in the same way unless you are
sure that it is the best one. If your first method has
been unsuccessful, you must improve upon it. Exam-
ine wherein you have failed, and then, by changing
your mode, or your spirit, the Lord may prepare you
for a degree of usefulness far beyond your expectation.
Elisha, instead of being dispirited when he found that
the child was not awake, girded up his loins, and hast-
ened wdth greater vigour to the work before him.
Notice where the dead child was placed: "And
when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child
was dead, and laid upon his bed." This w'as the bed
which the hospitality of the Shunammite had prepared
for Elisha, the famous bed w^hich, with the table, the
stool and the candlestick, will never be forgotten in
the Church of God. That famous bed had to be used
for a purpose which the good woman little thought
of when, out of love to the prophet's God, she pre-
pared it for the prophet's rest. I like to think of the
dead child lying on that bed, because it symbolises the
place where our unconverted children must lie if we
would have them saved. If we are to be a blessing
to them, they must lie in our hearts — they must be our
daily and nightly charge. We must take the cases of
our children to our silent couch with us: we must think
of them in the watches of the night, and w^ien w^e can-
not sleep because of care, they must share in those
midnight anxieties. Our beds must witness to our
cries: "Oh, that Ishmael might live before Thee! Oh,
HOW TO RAISE THE DEAD. 147
that the dear boys and girls in my class might become
the children of the living God!" Elijah and Elisha
both teach us that we must not place the child far from
us, out of doors, or down below us in a vault of cold
forgetfulncss, but, if we would have him raised to life,
we must place him in the warmest sympathies of our
hearts.
In reading on we find, "he went in, therefore, and
shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the
Lord." Now the prophet is at his work in right earn-
est, and we have a noble opportunity of learning from
him the secret of raising children from the dead. If
you turn to the narrative of Elijah, you will find that
Elisha adopted the orthodox method of proceeding,
the method of his master Elijah. You will read there,
"And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took
him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft,
where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. And
he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord, my God,
hast Thou also brought evil upon the woman with
whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? And he stretched
himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the
Lord, and said, O Lord, my, God, I pray Thee, let this
child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard
the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into
him again, and he revived." The great secret lies, in
a large measure, in powerful supplication. "He shut
the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord."
The old proverb is, "Every true pulpit is set up in
heaven," by which is meant that the true preacher
is much with God. If we do not pray to God for a
blessing, if the foundation of the pulpit be not laid
in private prayer, our open ministry will not be a
success. So it is with you; every real teacher's power
must come from on high. If you never enter your
148 THE SOUL-WINNER.
closet, and shut to the door, if you never plead at the
mercy-seat for your child, how can you expect that
God will honour you in its conversion? It is a very
excellent method, I think, actually to take the chil-
dren one by one into your room alone, and pray with
them. You will see your children converted when God
gives you to individualise their cases, to agonise for
them, and to take them one by one, and with the door
closed, to pray both with them and for them. There
is much more influence in prayer privately offered with
one than in p'Vayer publicly uttered in the class — not
more influence with God, of course, but more influ-
ence wdth the child. Such prayer will often be made its
own answer; for God may, while you are pouring out
your soul, make your prayer to be a hammer to break
the heart which mere addresses had never touched.
Pray with your children separatel}', and it will surely
be the means of a great blessing. If this cannot be
done, at any rate there must be prayer, much prayer,
constant prayer, vehement prayer, the kind of prayer
which will not take a denial, like Luther's prayer, which
he called the bombarding of heaven; that is to say,
the planting a cannon at heaven's gates to blow them
open, for after this fashion fervent men prevail in
prayer; they will not come from the mercy-seat until
they can cry with Luther, "T/V/," ^'I have conquered,
I have gained the blessing for which I strove." *'The
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent
take it by force." May we offer such violent, God-
constraining, heaven-compelling prayers, and the Lord
will not permit us to seek His face in vain!
After praying, Elisha adopted the means. Prayer
and means must go together. Means without prayer
— presumption! Prayer without means — hypocrisy!
There lav the child, and there stood the venerable
HOW TO RAISE THE DEAD. 149
man of God ! Watch his singular proceeding, he stoops
over the corpse, and puts his mouth upon the child's
mouth. The cold, dead mouth of the child was touched
by the warm, living lips of the prophet, and a vital
stream of fresh, hot breath was sent down into the chill,
stone-like passages of the dead mouth, and throat, and
lungs. Next, the holy man, with loving ardour of
hopefulness, placed his eyes upon the child's eyes, and
his hands upon the child's hands; the warm hands of
the old man covered the cold palms of the departed
child. Then he stretched himself upon the child, and
covered him with his whole body, as though he would
transfer his own life into the lifeless frame, and would
either die wdth him, or would make him live. We have
heard of the chamois hunter acting as guide to a fearful
traveller, who, when they came to a very dangerous
part of the road, strapped the traveller firmly to himself
and said, "Both of us or neither," that is to say, ''Both of
us shall live, or neither of us; we are one." So did
the prophet effect a mysterious union between himself
and the lad, and in his own mind it was resolved that
he would either be chilled with the child's death, or
warm the child with his life. What does this teach us?
The lessons are many and obvious. We see here,
as in a picture, that if we would bring spiritual life to
a child, we must most vividly realise that child's state.
It is dead, dead. God will have you feel that the child
is as dead in trespasses and sins as you once were.
God would have you, dear teacher, come into contact
with that death by painful, crushing, humbling sym-
pathy. I told you that, in soul-winning, we should
observe how our Master worked; now how did He
work? When He would raise us from death, what
did it behoove Him to do? He must needs die Him-
self: there was no other way. So is it with you. If
150 THE SOUL-WINNER.
you would raise that dead child, you must feel the chill
and horror of that child's death yourself. A dying
man is needed to raise dying men. I cannot believe
that you will ever pluck a brand from the burning with-
out putting your hand near enough to feel the heat of
the fire. You must have, more or less, a distinct sense
of the dreadful wrath of God and of the terrors of the
judgment to come, or you will lack energy in your
work, and so lack one of the essentials of success.
I do not think the preacher ever speaks well upon such
topics until he feels them pressing upon him as a per-
sonal burden from the Lord. ''I did preach in chains,"
said John Bunyan, "to men in chains." Depend upon
it, when the death that is in your children alarms, de-
presses and overwhelms you, then it is that God is
about to bless you.
Thus realising the child's state, and putting your
mouth upon the child's mouth, and your hands upon
its hands, you must next strive to adapt yourself as far
as possible to the nature, and habits, and temperament
of the child. Your mouth must find out the child's
words, so that the child may know what you mean;
you must see things with a child's eyes; your heart
must feel a child's feelings, so as to be his companion
and friend; you must be a'student of juvenile sin; you
must be a sympathiser in juvenile trials; you must
so far as possible, enter into childhood's joys and griefs.
You must not fret at the difficulty of this matter, or feel
it to be humiliating; for if you count anything to be
a hardship, or a condescension, you have no business
in the Sunday school. If anything difficult be required
of you, you must do it, and not think it difficult. God
will not raise a dead child by you, if you are not willing
to become all things to that child, if by any possibility
you may win its soul.
liOW TO RAISE THE DEAD. 151
The prophet, it is written, "stretched himself upon
the child." One would have thought it should be writ-
ten, **he contracted himself!" He was a full-grown
man, and the other a mere lad. Should it not be ''he
contracted himself?" No, "he stretched himself;" and,
mark you, no stretching is harder than for a man to
stretch himself to a child. He is no fool who can talk
to children ; a simpleton is much mistaken if he thinks
that his folly can interest boys and girls. It needs our
best wits, our most industrious studies, our most earn-
est thoughts, our ripest powers, to teach our little ones.
You will not quicken the child until you have stretched
yourself; and, though it seems a strange thing, yet
it is so. The wisest man will need to exercise all his
abilities if he would become a successful teacher of the
young.
We see, then, in Elisha, a sense of the child's death
and an adaptation of himself to his work; but, above
all, we see sympatJiy. While Elisha himself felt the
chill of the corpse, his personal warmth was entering
into the dead body. This of itself did not raise the
child ; but God worked through it — ^the old man's heat
of body passed into the child, and became the medium
of quickening. Let every teacher weigh these words
of Paul, ''But we were gentle among you, even as a
nurse cherisheth her children; so, being affectionately
desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto
you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls,
because ye were dear unto us." The genuine soul-win-
ner knows what this means. For my own part, when
the Lord helps me to preach, after I have delivered
all my matter, and have fired of¥ my shot so fast that
my gun has grown hot, I have often rammed my soul
into the gun, and fired my heart at the congregation,
and this discharge has, under God, won the victory.
152 THE GOUL- WINNER.
God will bless by His Spirit our hearty sympathy with
His own truth, and make it do that which the truth
alone, coldly spoken, would not accomplish. Here,
then, is the secret. You must, dear teacher, impart
to the young your own soul; you must feel as if the
ruin of that child would be your own ruin. You
must feel that, if the child remains under the wrath
of God, it is to you as true a grief as if you were
under that wrath yourself. You must confess the child's
sins before God as if they were your own, and stand
as a priest before the Lord pleading on its behalf.
The child was covered by Elisha's body, and you must
cover your class with your comj>assion, with the agon-
ising stretching forth of yourself before the Lord on
its behaif. Behold in this miracle the modus operandi
of raising the dead; the Holy Spirit remains mysteri-
ous in His operations, but the way of the outward
means is here clearly revealed.
The result of the prophet's work soon appeared:
"the flesh of the child waxed warm." How pleased
Elisha must have been; but I do not find that his
pleasure and satisfaction caused him to relax his ex-
ertions. Never be satisfied, dear friends, with finding
your children in a barely hopeful state. Did a girl
come to you and cry, "Teacher, pray for me?" Be glad,
for this is a fair token; but look for more. Did you
observe tears in a boy's eyes when you were speaking
of the love of Christ? Be thankful for it that the flesh
is waxing warm, but do not stop there. Can you relax
your exertions now? Bethink you, you have not yet
gained your end! It is life you want, not warmth alone.
What you want, dear teacher, in your beloved charge,
is not mere conviction, but conversion ; you desire not
only impression, but regeneration — life, life from God,
HOW TO RAISE THE DEAD. 153
the life of Jesus. This your scholars need, and nothing
less imist content you.
Again I must bid you watch Elisha. There was now
a little pause. "Then he returned, and walked in the
house to and fro." Notice the restlessness of the man
of God; he cannot be easy. The child waxes warm
(blessed be God for that, but he does not live yet);
so, instead of sitting down in his chair by the table,
the prophet walks to and fro with restless foot, dis-
quieted, groaning, panting, longing, and ill at ease.
He could not bear to look upon the disconsolate
mother, or to hear her ask, "Is the child restored?"
but he continued pacing the house as if his body could
not rest because his soul was not satisfied. Imitate
this consecrated restlessness. When you see a boy
getting somewhat afifected, do not sit down and say,
"The child is very hopeful, thank God; I am perfectly
satisfied." You will never win the priceless gem of a
saved soul in that way; you must feel sad, restless,
troubled, if you ever become a parent in the Church.
Paul's expression is not to be explained in words, but
you must know its meaning in your hearts; "I travail
in birth again until Christ be formed in you." Oh,
may the Holy Ghost give you such inward travail, such
unrest, disquietude, and sacred uneasiness, until you see
your hopeful scholars savingly converted!
After a short period of walking to and fro, the prophet
again "went up, and stretched himself upon the child."
What it is well to do once, it is proper to do a second
time. What is good twice, is good seven times. There
must be perseverance and patience. You were very
earnest last Sabbath; do not be slothful next Sab-
bath. How easy it is to pull down, on any one day,
what we have built up the day before ! If by one Sab-
bath's work God enables me to convince a child that
154 THE SOUL- WINNER.
I was in earnest, let me not convince the child next
Sunday that I am not in earnest. If my past warmth
has made the child's flesh wax warm, God forbid that
my future chilliness should make the child's heart cold
again! As surely as warmth went from Elisha to the
child, so may cold go from you to your class unless
you are in an earnest state of mind.
Elisha stretched himself on the bed again, with many
a prayer, and many a sigh, and much believing, and
at last his desire was granted him: "The child sneezed
seven times, and the child opened his eyes." Any form
of action would indicate life, and content the prophet.
The child "sneezed," some say because he died with a
'disease of the head, for he said to his father, "My head !
my head!" and the sneeze cleared the passages of life
which had been blocked up. This we do not know.
The fresh air entering afresh into the lungs might well
compel a sneeze. The sound was nothing very articu-
late or musical, but it betokened life. This is all we
should expect from young children when God gives
them spiritual life. Some church members expect a
great deal more, but for my part I am satisfied if the
children sneeze — if they give any true sign of grace,
however feeble or indistinct. If the dear child does
but feel its lost estate, and rest upon the finished work
of Jesus, though we only find out the fact by a very in-
distinct statement, not such as we should accept from
a doctor of divinity, or expect from a grown-up per-
son, should we not thank God, and receive the child,
and nurse it for the Lord?
Perhaps, if Gehazi had been there, he would not have
thought much of this sneezing, because he had never
stretched himself upon the child, but Elisha was con-
tent with it. Even so, if you and I have really agon-
ised in prayer for souls, we shall be very quick of eye
HOW TO RAISE THE DEAD. 155
to catch the first sign of grace, and shall be thankful to
God if the token be but a sneeze.
Then the child opened his eyes, and we will venture
to say Elisha thought he had never seen such lovely
eyes before. I know not what kind of eyes they were,
the hazel or the blue, but this I know, that any eye
which God helps you to open will be a beautiful eye
to you. I heard a teacher talking the other day about
a "fine lad" who had been saved in his class, and an-
other spoke of a "dear girl" in her class who loved the
Lord. No doubt of it; it would be a wonder if they
were not "fine" and "dear" in the eyes of you who have
brought them to Jesus, for to Jesus Christ they are
finer and dearer still. Beloved friends, may you often
gaze into opened eyes which, but for divine grace own-
ing your teaching, w^ould have been dark with the film
of spiritual death! Then will you be favoured indeed.
One word of caution. In this meeting is there a
Gehazi? If there be among this host of Sunday-school
teachers one who can do no more than carry the staff,
I pity him. Ah! my friend, may God in His mercy
give you life, for how else can you expect to be the
means of quickening others? If Elisha had been a
corpse himself, it would have been a hopeless task to
expect life to be communicated thr(nigh placing one
corpse upon another. It is vain for that little class of
dead souls to gather round another dead soul such as
you are. A dead mother, frost-bitten and cold, cannot
cherish her little one. What warmth, what comfort,
can come to those who shiver before an empty grate?
And such are you. May you have a work of grace in
your soul first, and then may the blessed and Eternal
Spirit, who alone can quicken souls, make you to be
the means of quickening many to the glory of His
grace!
156 THE SOUL-WINNER.
Accept, dear friends, my fraternal salutations, and
believe that my fervent prayers are with you that you
may be blessed, and be made a blessing.