262

LECTURE XI.

2 KINGS XIII. 14.

"NOW ELISHA HAD 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, O MY FATHER, MY FATHER! THE CHARIOT OF ISRAEL, AND THE HORSEMEN THEREOF."

WE this day arrive at the close of the eventful history which it has been my endeavour plainly and simply to bring before you. I trust, by the aid of the good Spirit of our God, that the effort has not been utterly in vain; but that some features in the portraiture of so holy a man of God may have made that deep and abiding impression upon our hearts, which was intended by the historian who was commanded to record them.

The last scene of the prophet's life is very briefly narrated by the inspired penman; and such is usually the case in the book of God; with the exceptions of Jacob, Joseph, and David, there is scarcely an example in which any particulars of a death-bed are recorded; there are more than twenty instances in each of which the solemn event is despatched in the original in a single word, and " he died :" as if to teach us that it is comparatively of small importance in what manner men die. question is, How have they lived? It is not, what are the frames and feelings, often greatly deceptive, which manifest themselves during the last few painful, and it may be, almost delirious hours of mortal sickness, that will, generally speaking, avail any of us; the serious consideration is, what is the state of our hearts, what are the words of our mouths, the actions of our lives, while health and

The

strength are our own, and the fear of death is distant?

If men would only look at these important features now, with the feelings with which they will one day view them, if they would only examine themselves now, with half the anxiety, the self-suspicion, the misgivings, with which they will scrutinize their conduct, when the last great enemy approaches, and the veil now hanging between them and the eternal world is slowly drawing up; how different would be the apprehension of our hearers. How much more agreeable the office of the preacher. Instead of having frequently to remind you of unpleasant truths, of awful threatenings, of dark forebodings, of a doubtful or a dreary eternity, we should only be, as the apostles were to many among their converts, "ministers by whom ye believed," and

helpers of your joy." Our far more pleasing duty would then be to comfort

God's people, to cry aloud, "Lift up your hearts;" to remind you of your privileges; to impress upon you your blessedness; to endeavour to render you more and more meet for the high, and holy, and glorious inheritance awaiting you. But we shall return to this subject at a later period of our discourse.

The only particular of the last hours of Elisha, which the historian has bequeathed to us, is the visit paid him by the monarch of the country in which he dwelt. "Now Elisha," says the Word of God, "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, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof."

There is something in the departure of the good and wise, which often powerfully affects the feelings, and calls forth the sympathies even of the thoughtless and indifferent. No very great regard

N

may have been paid to their instructions, no very fervent love felt for their persons, no particular predilection entertained for their society, and yet, when we are assured, that the voice to which we have listened, at least with respect, perhaps occasionally with deep and thrilling interest, is for ever silenced; that the eye which may possibly have beamed upon us with kindness, or even frowned upon us with anxiety, is closed in darkness; that the form which we have been, from our earliest years, accus

tomed to behold with respect, it may be

with affection and love, is about to be committed to its narrow dwelling-place; if there be a latent feeling, either of gratitude or remorse, existing within the breast, such a state of things will often call it forth into sincere and irrepressible emotion. While many of the most thoughtless, are, at least for the moment, struck with regret that they have lost for ever a counsellor, by whom they might