mourned, as a child, that his father was taken from him, he sorrowed as a patriot, that the chariot and horsemen of Israel were gone. Here, brethren, is a truth, pre-eminently worth your learning, that the real strength of our beloved country exists not in her fleets, her armies, her wealth, or even in her free and invaluable institutions, and the high intellectual endowments of her senators, but simply and entirely in the blessing of her God! and this will rest upon her in proportion as her governors are holy and God-fearing men, and her inhabitants a religiouslyinstructed and praying people. These are the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof."

And now the parting scene was over; Elisha's earthly guide, and spiritual father, was taken from him; his house was left unto him desolate; the last worldly tie was severed, and he was called to go forth a houseless and a solitary man, through evil report and

good report, to bear the message of the Almighty to the thousands of Israel. Still might he truly say, as his Divine Master, in after ages, said, "Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me."

Then, taking up the mantle which had fallen from the ascending prophet, and once more retracing his steps to the banks of Jordan, he smote the waters with the mantle, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah, even he? (for so it is in the original, but the two last words are not translated,) and immediately the waters parted hither and thither, and he again went over dry-shod, and returned to Jericho.

Here for a time we must leave this instructive history, thankful if, by God's grace, we carry away with us but this single lesson - When Elisha's only earthly friend was taken from him, and he had poured forth the first strong wailings of his natural grief, his heart

1 John xvi. 32.

was,

fled upward from the broken cistern to the Living Spring; his earnest inquiry "Where is the Lord God of Elijah, even He?" His friend is gone, but the God in whom that friend trusted, still remains; he asks not for Elijah, but for Elijah's God. It was much that he possessed the prophet's mantle, a double portion of his spirit; but more, infinitely more, that he knew, he felt, that he possessed that prophet's God.

Brethren, in the darkest hours of nature's trials, when those you love the dearest, and the best, are taken from you, let this be your consolation. In the still deeper darkness of spiritual bereavements, when your joy, and hope, and peace are all forsaking you, still seek your surest. refuge here; if you have been enabled, by Divine grace, to say, "This God is our God for ever and ever; " though frames and feelings change, He in whom you trust shall

1 Psalm xlviii. 14.

never alter. The waters of your sea may ebb and flow, and as long as you carry about with you a body of sin and death, they will do so, but your Rock cannot, for it is "the Lord God of Elijah, even He!" "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."

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26

LECTURE II.

2 KINGS II. 21.

"AND HE WENT FORTH UNTO THE SPRING OF THE WATERS, AND CAST IN THE SALT THERE, AND SAID, THUS SAITH THE LORD, I HAVE HEALED THESE WATERS."

AT the close of the last lecture, we left Elisha at Jericho, whither he had gone after the translation of Elijah, and where there was a school of the prophets. While he tarried there, as the inspired historian informs us, the men of the city came unto him, and said, "Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my Lord seeth; but the water is naught, and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they