other.

4:20. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, she sat
him on her knees, until noon, and then he died.

4:21. And she went up, and laid him upon the bed of the man of God, and
shut the door: and going out,

4:22. She called her husband, and said: Send with me, I beseech thee,
one of thy servants, and an ass, that I may run to the man of God, and
come again.

4:23. And he said to her: Why dost thou go to him? to day is neither
new moon nor sabbath. She answered: I will go.

4:24. And she saddled an ass, and commanded her servant: Drive, and make
haste, make no stay in going: And do that which I bid thee.

4:25. So she went forward, and came to the man of God, to mount Carmel:
and when the man of God saw her coming towards, he said to Giezi, his
servant: Behold that Sunamitess.

4:26. Go, therefore, to meet her, and say to her: Is all well with thee,
and with thy husband, and with thy son? And she answered: Well.

4:27. And when she came to the man of God, to the mount, she caught hold
on his feet: and Giezi came to remove her. And the man of God said: Let
her alone for her soul is in anguish, and the Lord hath hid it from me,
and hath not told me.

4:28. And she said to him: Did I ask a son of my lord? did I not say to
thee: Do not deceive me?

4:29. Then he said to Giezi: Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy
hand, and go. If any man meet thee, salute him not: and if any man
salute thee, answer him not: and lay my staff upon the face of the
child.

Salute him not... He that is sent to raise to life the sinner
spiritually dead, must not suffer himself to be called off, or diverted
from his enterprise, by the salutations or ceremonies of the world.

4:30. But the mother of the child said: As the Lord liveth, and as thy
soul liveth, I will not leave thee. He arose, therefore, and followed
her.

4:31. But Giezi was gone before them, and laid the staff upon the face
of the child, and there was no voice nor sense: and he returned to meet
him, and told him, saying: The child is not risen.

St. Augustine considers a great mystery in this miracle wrought by the
prophet Eliseus, thus: By the staff sent by his servant is figured the
rod of Moses, or the Old Law, which was not sufficient to bring mankind
to life then dead in sin. It was necessary that Christ himself should
come, and by taking on human nature, become flesh of our flesh, and
restore us to life. In this Eliseus was a