trariety whenever they open their Bibles. Many things which are there required they do not find in themselves; many things which are there forbidden they do find to their sorrow. They have "a form of godliness," and perhaps a zeal; but if they possess any of the religion of love, it is but a spark buried under the ashes of their idol altars. The way to obtain "the full assurance of hope," is to have more love to God and man; to bring all our habits of feeling, conversing, and living, under the control of this principle; to go through all our habits with a scrutinizing eye, to correct whatever is wrong, and to confirm whatever is right; making it a matter of conscience daily and hourly to act, in small matters as well as great, from a sacred regard to the will of God.

In the light of our subject we discover the strictness of the service which God requires. "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life." The charity which I have described is very far from that latitudinarian principle which makes the way broad enough for a whole world to go abreast. It is a principle of strict and scrupulous holiness. "Sir," said a worldly man to Mr. Rogers, (the first martyr in queen Mary's reign,) "I like your company, but you are so strict." “Ah, Sir," said Mr. Rogers, "I serve a strict God."

We see from our subject that the law of God" is exceeding broad," even if we look only at that part which respects our neighbor. As a whole it extends to every moral action, word, thought, and feeling. How impossible to present a righteous

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ness of our own which this law will accept. Mere law can accept none but a perfect righteousness. By the deeds of the law" therefore "there shall no flesh be justified." From this tribunal we must appeal to the throne of grace, and rest for justification on the perfect righteousness of the Redeemer. As we contemplate the requirements of the law, we see at once our absolute need of the righteousness of Christ. But unless we are his disciples by faith, his righteousness can avail us nothing. And we are not his disciples unless we pant after holiness, and watch and pray and diligently use the means appointed. We must reach forth after a greater and still greater conformity to the divine law.— "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." Amen.

SERMON XVIII.

WHERE IS THE LORD GOD OF ELIJAH?

II. KIN. II. 14.

Where is the Lord God of Elijah?

This was the exclamation of Elisha at a time when his master had just been taken up from him in a fiery chariot, and he stood in need of the assistance of that God who had so remarkably displayed his power in the days of Elijah. In that period of declension from the worship of Jehovah, a long suffering God raised up a succession of prophets to bear testimony for him and to work miracles in his name. One of the most distinguished of these prophets was Elijah. The time in which he executed the prophetic office was a remarkable period in the history of that people. Except Moses and Samuel, there had been no prophet whose ministry had been attended with such pre-eminent tokens of divine power. At his request the heavens

were shut that "it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months;" when he was hungry the ravens were commanded to feed him; at his word the widow's meal and oil failed not during the famine; he restored the same widow's son to life; he gloriously triumphed over the prophets of Baal by calling fire from heaven on Carmel; "he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit ;" he called fire from heaven to consume the two captains with their hostile bands. At last when the time drew near for him to be received up into heaven, he came to Jordan with Elisha, and "took his mantle and wrapped it together and smote the waters, and they were divided,

-so that they two went over on dry ground.--And it came to pass as they still went on and talked, that behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces." At this time of distress, when that glorious season of divine wonders was past, (the season of Elijah's ministry,) when Elisha looked back on those delightful days as forever gone, when his trembling soul panted for the return of those displays of divine power and glory,— when he ventured, in the strength of the Lord, to attempt the same things that Elijah had done; it was then that he looked upward and inquired, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" This inquiry