But there is a fault of hesitancy, no less than of presumption. There is God's rebuke to the reluctant Moses, no less than Christ's caution to the overprompt follower. There is the absolute "Follow Me," and there is also the gentle "Go back again." Yet the duty is plain. Once certain that your Leader hath said "Follow Me," doubt not, hesitate not, believe only and obey. If the call be God's call, and not the echo of your own voices, man must at last recognise it, even as the aged Eli, "the third time," perceived that God had called the child Samuel. Then fear not; be strong: the promise to be with you is unto you and all His Church. We, indeed, are nothing, God all in all. Yet is Christ with us and in us the guarantee and surety of our strength. As we are weak, so is He strong. Wherein we fail in watering, therein can He multiply the increase. This must be our strength in weakness, and our stay in doubt.

And now, in conclusion, I have just three remarks to make of this, which I have called the vision of God in Christ. The first is, that all do not see the vision: "And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision." Most true but most sad it is, that some will hear and some will forbear; some will see, others will close their eyes. The light shone from heaven upon all the horsemen that rode that day toward Damascus, but Saul of Tarsus alone saw the vision. They heard. a voice, indeed, but stood speechless; Saul alone

recognised the Lord's words, "Why persecutest thou Me?" and he alone, trembling and astonished, said, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"

And the second remark is, that the vision still has an effect on those who see it not, and that is one of terror: "And I Daniel alone saw the vision: . . . but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves." The same face of our blessed Lord which gave life and warmth and joy to His faithful disciples, smote to the ground the faithless spearinen who came to seize Him. If Christ's word does not bless the fig-tree, His curse dries it up by the roots. The lightning of God's countenance, if it does not kindle a new fire in the soul, possibly blasts it for

ever.

And the last remark is, that the strength which the faithful receive from this vision is gradual. The hand touched Daniel, and set him first upon his knees and the palms of his hands; his feet and ankle-bones, as it were, had not yet received strength. But again the vision touched the lips of Daniel; then, at length, "When He had spoken unto me," said Daniel, "I was strengthened, and said, Let my Lord speak; for Thou hast strengthened me." First his fear is put away," Fear not ;" then peace is spoken to his soul,

"Peace be unto thee;" next he receives partial strength,-"Be strong;" and lastly, full strength with the emphatic words,—" Yea, be strong." Thus gradual are God's works. Still He may work in a thousand different ways. Who shall say unto Him, What

doest thou? Who can know in how

many ways He is pleased to draw the individual soul to Himself, giving it to see His exceeding loveliness, and transforming it by the light of His countenance? In some few the transition from darkness to light, weakness to strength, may be instantaneous, yet never the change to full light, to full strength. In others the spark of the true life may have gone on gradually developing itself till the soul finds itself living, yet scarcely knowing how, in the full light of God's love.

But there is a time with most of us, when what was before almost unconscious becomes a conscious reality; when what was before dormant bursts forth into life; when life and religion become living verities to us; when the parade-ground of life has been exchanged for the battle-field of life; when the thrilling words of our Baptismal Service rings in our ears as our real battle-cry; when out of our great weakness we get our first portion of strength, and when in this strength we pledge ourselves afresh to "fight manfully under Christ's banner against the world, the flesh, and the devil: and to continue His faithful soldiers and servants unto our lives' end." Then, like Daniel, we begin to stand erect, and to say, through Christ strengthening us, "Let my Lord speak; for Thou hast strengthened me."

This vision, then, of God's eternal and unapproachable holiness, of our utter weakness and inability to meet that holiness, and of Jesus Christ as our sole and only strength, do we at all realise? As the smitten

Israelite who beheld the brazen serpent lived, so he who sees by faith this vision of the Crucified One hath everlasting life. But if we have not turned our eyes to the tokens of an undying love, hanging on the Tree for us, well may we doubt whether He who was lifted up from the earth be drawing us unto Himself.

If, therefore, under the imperfect garb in which I feel I have robed my thought, there be a real truth, a true vision, then I bid you ponder that truth, realise that vision. What the Baptist said of old in a physical sense permit me now to say to you in a spiritual,-" Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world!" Then shall you know, better far than I can express, what it is to "see the Son and believe in Him," and so to possess in your own selves here on earth the earnest of that everlasting life which shall be realised only in heaven, when, seeing Him face to face, and beholding Him as He is, we shall be transformed into His divine likeness.

June 3, 1860.

SERMON VII.

The Biographical Study of the Bible—Elijah.

I

1 KINGS Xviii. 42.

So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel.

PROPOSE, asking God's blessing, to bring before

you this morning the character of Elijah,-not so much Elijah the prophet or the worker of miracles, as Elijah the man, the man of God. And I have chosen for our consideration to-day the life of God's saints because I have never yet spoken to you of any example of the holy men of old; and I therefore wish to take this my last opportunity to urge upon you the biographical study of the Bible.

The Bible is, as you must have remarked, beyond all others the book of biographies. Throughout it we find men and women, of all times, and all nations, and all characters, limned, one and all, by prophetic hands, sketched with inspired pens. There we see them as they judge themselves and as others judge them, and there we also read God's verdict upon them. We hear the noble Baptist proclaiming himself to be a voice,-to re-echo what God should speak,nothing more, and we hear a few among the crowd