His host seemed uneasy. Helon supposed he might apprehend that they had brought infection with them, and might communicate it, and he hastened to set him at ease on this point. His host shook his head in answer to Helon’s assurances, and looked sorrowfully at him. At length he said, “It is not to myself but thee that my grief relates. Collect all thy firmness; in vain dost thou go to Alexandria to bring back thy mother. She is dead! The tidings of the death of Elisama and the rumour of thy wife’s unfaithfulness reached her together, and her heart broke with its double weight of sorrow.” Sulamith uttered a piercing shriek, and Myron wept in grief and shame. Helon felt what an affectionate child feels when bereaved of a mother, but he knew that the hand of Jehovah guided him; that the Lord woundeth, but also healeth; that his ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts. “Comfort me, O Jehovah,” he exclaimed, his eyes raised to heaven, “comfort me as one is comforted by his mother!” Then seating himself in a corner he gave vent to those tears which soften the anguish of the heart to a tender sorrow. It was determined, notwithstanding this intelligence, that they should continue their voyage to Alexandria, where Helon’s presence was necessary. Selumiel with his wife, his son, his daughter-in-law, and his grandson, Helon, Sulamith, Sallu, and Myron, embarked on board a Phœnician vessel. They ran swiftly along the coast, and Jamnia, Ashdod, Ascalon, Gaza, and Raphia were soon left behind. The mind of Helon was as clear and calm as the mirror in which the sea reflected the bright blue heavens. His grief for the death of his mother had only increased his trust in the Divine compassion, which had bestowed on him that perfect peace of mind, which neither in death nor life sees any thing to fear. One morning they were watching the broad red dawn announcing the approach of day. All were in an unusual frame of mind. Helon, full of tranquil joy, was relating to his friends, as they sat around him on the deck, the course of Divine Providence with respect to him in the year that was just completed, and how it had conducted him to that true peace which he had sought in vain before: “I could call upon the whole world, Praise Jehovah, all the world, Serve Jehovah with joy! Come into his presence with rejoicing, Confess that Jehovah is God. He has made us and we are his, His people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, His courts with songs of praise. Bless him, praise his name! For Jehovah is good, his mercy is everlasting, And his faithfulness from generation to generation.—Ps. c. “And through all the vicissitudes of my life, in calamity and in death, these words shall be my comfort, which the last of the prophets spoke, when the oracle of prophecy was about to be closed in silence: