robes and made them white in His blood. Come death with the breath of the pestilence, come death on the battle field, come death in the shape of pining sickness, come death in the shape of the broken heart-O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ. Fear not, dying believer; more and mightier is the force that is with us than all in death that can be against us. But look down, if you can, in the third place, not to the grave, but to what is more terrible than the grave-the dens of the lost; the habitations wherein, in the awful language of Scripture, God hath forgotten to be gracious. Hear that wild and piercing wail; listen to the noise of those burning waves that beat against a blasted and a blighted shore for ever; hear the cry of the rich man for one drop of water to cool his parched tongue; read upon the gates, if I might refer to a poet, the words of Dante "Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'intrate;" "Leave behind you all hope, ye who enter here." If you could be suffered to look down into the depths of that den, and to see and gauge the hopeless sorrow that is there, would you not shrink in horror? Compassion you might feel, pity you could not but have. Explain why there should be such a spot in God's universe, you cannot; but would you be alarmed? would you be afraid? If a Christian, you might, like the three Hebrew youths, tread its burning floor with an elastic step, and feel as if they were beds of roses; for neither the hosen garment nor the hair of your head would be singed; for your destiny is an inherit ance prepared for you from before the foundation of the world; that place is the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, and never meant for you. Then fear not; for there is with you in that precious Saviour, who is Christ in us the hope of glory, that which makes death, and hell, and the grave lose all power over you. Suppose, in the next place, the curtain rolled aside suppose you see the great white throne, and the Judge seated upon it. You see one approach Him, and say, "I have eaten in thy presence, and drank in thy presence, O Thou, on whose head are many crowns, but who once hung upon a cross; O Thou, in one of whose hands is the sceptre of the universe, and in the other of whose hands are the keys of death and hell; and I have done many wondrous works in thy name;" and He will answer, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity, I know you not." And others will come and say to Him, "I have made long prayers; I am not as this publican; I have made broad my phylacteries; I have paid tithe in mint and aniseed; I have observed all the laws of ecclesiastical exaction;" and He will say, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; how shall ye escape the damnation of hell ?" But what will the humblest sinner who has fled to Christ say? "O Prince of peace, thou art He in whose wounds I hid myself, at whose cross I lay; whose righteousness I put on, in whose precious blood I was washed. I am a poor, guilty, undone sinner in myself, but I laid hold upon thee; and having found thee as my righteousness, and my salvation, and my all, I have sought on earth by thy Spirit to serve thee. I have often come short; but I have never let go my grasp of thee;" and such a one will hear the blessed sound, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." And all the redeemed as they look at death, and the grave, and hell, and the judgment throne, will be able to say in the magnificent oratory of Romans viii. "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. He that spared not His own Son, shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay; in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us, and gave Himself for us." Fear not, Christians; angels are with you, ministering spirits to you. Fear not, Christians, for all God's people throughout the world compose the same army and are engaged in the same battle with you. Fear not, Christians, for your father, your mother, your sisters, your brothers, your children, are the great cloud of witnesses looking down from heaven, spectators of the race. "Wherefore, seeing we are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith." Fear not, believer, Christ is interceding for thee; Satan hath desired to have thee, that he may sift thee as wheat; but He has prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. Fear not, Christian; for the Lord of provi→ dence, the Lord of wind and storm, the Lord of the ocean, the earth, and the sky, is with thee. Fear not Satan, he is a beaten foe; fear not sin's condemna tion, Christ's blood has washed it away; fear not the law, for Christ has magnified it; fear not affliction, for Christ sweetens it. Truth is with us, right is with us; and truth is always success, and right is eternal might, and faith is the evidence of these things, though unseen, and the substance of these things, though only hoped for. Blessed are the people that are in such a case; yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord; for if your eyes could be opened you would see, where none appear, all heaven and earth with you; and where things appear hostile you would see they contain the elements that will do you good. And when that hour shall come when your head shall throb upon the last pillow, and the heart weary, like an overtasked sentinel, with the march of life, shall begin to stagger and to stand still, you will be taken from where things seen looked so hostile, and there you will lament, if lamentation can be heard on the margin of heaven, that you said for one moment, "Alas, my master, how shall we do?" or, "All these things are against me;"—when from all points favourable winds were blowing, and all ele ments were conspiring by an inspiration that God gave them to work for good to you, and to all that love God and are the called according to His purpose. Wherefore comfort yourselves with these thoughts. Strengthen the feeble knees, lift up the hands that are cast down; go forth, not with a breaking but with a bounding heart; feel that in the height and in the depth God is with you; and when things are sorest, and troubles are heaviest, and griefs are most poignant, be sure of this-first there is a needs be, and secondly there is a blessing at the end; where on arriving you shall see that it was indeed so. DELIVERANCE FROM FAMINE. II KINGS VII. PREDICTION OF ABUNDANCE DISBELIEVED. DIVINE PURPOSE AND HUMÁN MEANS. THE VISIT OF THE LEPERS TO THE In the previous chapter we read of the consuming and universal famine that had spread through all Samaria ; a famine so intense and so universal that the people were driven under the pangs of hunger to the most desperate means and expedients to remove or satisfy it. In the course of that famine, Elisha, the messenger of God, raised up at a special exigency for a special purpose, is commissioned by God to announce to the king, that "To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel "—that is, a large quantity of flour for a very small sum ;-"and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate," or public market, "of Samaria;" in ofher words, Instead of the pinching famine of which we are now the miserable and afflicted victims, we shall to-morrow have abundance of food of all sorts, and at the least price that ever food was purchased at before. But when the prophet stated this, knowing who he was, and that his statements were not his own dreams, but the inspiration of God, the lord, or chief minister, on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of God contemptuously, certainly with great incredulity; "Behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, might this thing be;" the thing is absurd, it is impossible; you want to make merry with us, to make sport |