Before Elisha, with the sorrowing mother, arrived at Shunem, Gehazi had discharged his commission, although in vain, and was on his way back again, when he met the prophet, and said, “The child is not awaked.” Though he had the external symbol of the prophet’s power, yet it lacked the spirit of Jehovah, which was the special gift of God, and which even Elisha might not delegate, according to his own will and pleasure, to his servant. The want of success of Gehazi’s commission spurred on the prophet all the more to do what he could in order to restore the child to life. Having reached the house of sorrow, and the little chamber where the loving hands of the mother had laid the body of her child, Elisha shut the door, and “prayed unto the Lord.” In that awful hour of a mother’s heart-crushing suspense, God heard His servant’s cry, and gave back the precious child to life again. The closing scene is very beautiful indeed. The mother having been called, when she reached the chamber, Elisha said, “Take up thy son!” We are not told whether the mother heart first leaped to embrace the child, or, out of modest gratitude, she first fell at the prophet’s feet in a flood of grateful thanksgiving. The bread of kindness she had been casting upon the waters, in honoring God’s servant, now all returned to her. She certainly was reaping with tears of joy, and, had she lived in this gospel age, she could have heard the Lord of life saying, “Inasmuch as ye did it to one of these My servants, ye did it unto Me.” Marvels of marvels, that prophets’ homes do not dot our land in this day of gospel light. As Elisha broke asunder Death’s cold hands and said, “Arise,” Give the child back to his mother-- So Thy power doth still suffice. Immortal woman of Shunem! Home-builder for the prophets of the Lord; the saints in glory salute thee to-day, and the saints on earth are thrilled with thy worthy example. There is scarcely a story in the Old Testament which is more beautiful than the one related of this “great woman” in White Raiment, who built a prophet’s chamber in her own house at Shunem, where the servant of the Lord might turn in out of the glare of the noontide sun and find rest. From the incidents connected with the beautiful life of the rich woman of Shunem, to the time of Queen Esther, there is a period of about four hundred years, and they are years of turbulance on the part of the people and admonitions on the part of God, until finally He suffered them to be led away into captivity. The scene of our next woman in White Raiment is in the reign of Ahasuerus, son of Xerxes, who lived B. C. 462. After several severe conflicts he was settled in peaceable possession of the Persian Empire, and, in honor of his victory, appointed a feast in the city of Shushan, which continued for one hundred and eighty days, after which he gave a great feast to all the princes and people who were in Shushan for seven days.