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humbled sinner. "Call upon the gods whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired!" Such may hereafter be the reception which your late entreaties will encounter, at the hand of a neglected God. Oh, rather, "seek him while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near." "Turn to your only stronghold," which is Jesus Christ. Take refuge from the coming storm, under the shadow of his wings. Then you will be safe-then you will be at rest. Come what come will, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee."

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SERMON II.

2 KINGS XIII. 14.

Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, Oh, my father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!

WE have here a very instructive and affecting history. Here is one of the greatest of the ancient prophets, after a long life of laborious and devoted piety, about to render up his account to the God who had sent him. Death, you see, makes no distinctions-no exception in favour even of those, who are eminently honoured of God, and useful to mankind. The holy, as well as the ungodly, must have their encounter with the last enemy; "and there is no discharge in that war." Oh, happy are they who, like Elisha, have their "loins at all times girded up, and their lamps burning;' and who are "like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. And if he shall

come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, blessed are those servants!"

By means of the extraordinary ministry of Elisha, some knowledge of the true religion had been preserved in Israel, at one of the very darkest periods of their ecclesiastical history: and now at length, his death-bed is honoured by a visit from the king himself-who had succeeded to the throne of Israel about one year before this time. The afflicted monarch hangs over his dying subject, full of grief for the loss he is about to sustain; and passionately declaring his belief, that the nation had derived more advantage from Elisha's ministry, than from all their military defences -from their "chariots" and from their "horsemen." Hereupon he is given to understand, that, even after Elisha's departure, Jehovah would be their support, if only the nation would trust in him and obey him. This truth is represented to king Joash by a significant ceremony, in which Elisha requires him to perform a part. "Take

bow and arrows," says the prophet; and the king complies. Now, "put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands. And he said, Open the window eastward: and he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot; and he shot. And he said, The arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria! for thou shalt smite the Syrians" (they were the constant

enemies of the kingdom of Israel,)" in Aphek, until thou have consumed them." But the prophet is not contented with a single emblematical sign. He now proceeds to say, "Take the arrows .. and smite upon the ground: and the king of Israel smote thrice," and then left off. "And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice."

Do you ask the reason of the prophet's anger? It was occasioned by his disappointment with regard to the young king who stood at his bedside. Joash, doubtless, had good cause to know, that Elisha was acting under a Divine influence: and, by the coldness of his compliance, the prophet was enabled to see, that he had no true faith in God's promises. His last words, therefore, are a prediction of the loss which he would sustain through this sinful distrust. The former promise is not recalled; "Thou shalt smite the Syrians:" but it is limited as to its extent; "Thou shalt smite them only thrice."

In further commenting upon this history, I shall beg you to notice the following principal points. You may behold in it, 1. The convincing power of a holy life; 2. The eagerness of a true believer, to take advantage of every promising occasion for doing good; 3. The secret unbelief, by which the most promising appearances of religious character

are often brought to nothing; 4. The just and equitable measure which God deals out, according as men trust or disbelieve his word.

Behold, in the first place,

I. THE CONVINCING POWER OF A HOLY LIFE. It was now above sixty years, since Elisha had been solemnly called to succeed Elijah in the prophetical office. The Scriptures attribute to him more miracles, and those of a more remarkable kind, than to any former messenger of God—with the exception, perhaps, of Moses. And his miraeles were, for the most part, acts of beneficence, either to individuals, or to the nation at large. Yet because, with all this, he protested openly against the national sins, little public respect seems to have been shewn to him by his countrymen. His character appears to have been more duly appreciated by some of the inhabitants of the adjoining heathen nations. Thus "Naaman, the captain of the host of the king of Syria," took a journey for the express purpose of being healed by Elisha of his leprosy. On another occasion, when the Syrian king found himself counterplotted in several of his designs against Israel, and, suspecting that he had traitors in his court, furiously exclaimed, "Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel?" one of his servants replied, None, my lord O king; but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel