there, that while the internal condition of a body of people standing in acknowledged relationship to God may be corrupt in the extreme, and all but ripe for judgment, God, in sovereign goodness, may still use it to humble the pride of his avowed enemies and blasphemers. It is to Ahab, the wicked king of Israel, that a man of God is deputed to say, "Thus saith the Lord, Because the Syrians have said, the Lord is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys; therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the Lord." And so it was: twice were the Syrians defeated before Israel; and in the second instance, no fewer than "an hundred thousand footmen of the Syrians" were slain in one day. And this was not a deliverance wrought for Israel without their knowledge or any communication between God and them as to it. God uses them as instruments in this overthrow of His enemies; He condescends to send "a prophet" and "a man of God" to Ahab, assuring him beforehand of the victory, and instructing him how to set the battle in array. And it is in compliance with these directions that Ahab gains this glorious victory. Now, would any one in that day have been warranted to conclude that because Israel and Ahab were thus externally owned of God, the internal affairs of the kingdom and the character of the king were such as God approved? The Lord keep us, beloved brethren, from glorying in our success, instead of trying our ways, and judging ourselves in the light of the Lord's presence, by His Spirit and word! Even in this chapter we have further proof of Ahab's characteristic sin. The prophet is driven out in the previous chapter, because Jezebel vows vengeance against him, and Ahab lends himself to be the tool of her wickedness. Now, Benhadad finds the weak point in this unhappy man, and plies him therewith as successfully as Jezebel. He flatters him, crouches to him, teaches even his servants to practise upon him, and in the end effects his escape from the destruction to which he had been doomed. The terrible message which Ahab receives from God in consequence: Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast let go out of

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thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people," sends him home heavy and displeased; and thus, through his sinful pliableness, a day which began in such signal triumph ends in sorrow and in gloom. He is the instrument of his wife's malice in persecuting God's faithful and honoured witness; while a little flattery prevails upon him to spare God's sworn enemy, appointed of God too, to utter destruction. Such is the pliableness of mere human nature. Cruel to the saints and servants of the Most High; tender and indulgent to His foes and blasphemers. May our souls, beloved, tremble at God's word!

Chap. xxi. discloses to us a scene of wickedness surpassing all that have preceded it. Ahab sets his eye and heart on Naboth's vineyard; and when it is denied him. by the godly owner of it, like a spoiled petted child he goes home and lies down upon his bed, turns away his face, and refuses to eat bread. Jezebel receives not disappointments thus. She upbraids him with his weakness, and volunteers to put him in possession of what his heart desired. "Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite." Who can fail to trace here, in bolder relief than in any former instance, the leading traits of each character. It was not Ahab that conceived the horrid plot against Naboth's life: so far from it, he was pettishly lamenting the apparently unavoidable disappointment of his wishes. A bolder and more determined spirit both conceives and executes the scheme by which his wishes are to be fulfilled. But she "wrote the letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal"; and when the vineyard has been procured at the cost of the innocent blood of its owner, Ahab is not loth to avail himself of the fruits of his wife's cruelty and cunning. How frightful too, the use of God's name in this transaction. A fast must be proclaimed, and Naboth arraigned before the nobles of his city. All the forms of justice must be mimicked; and for the crime of blaspheming God and the king, falsely laid

to his charge by Jezebel's command, Naboth must be stoned! And what a view we get of the moral degradation of both nobles and people, that such a command should be so unhesitatingly and implicitly obeyed. How analogous to another transaction in which One greater than Naboth became the victim of equal cruelty and cunning, and all under the cloak of judicial forms and high religious pretensions. They, like Jezebel, could suborn false witnesses, and pay the price of innocent blood, even the blood of God's holy Lamb; but they were too scrupulous to cast it into the treasury of the Lord, or to enter the hall of Pilate, lest they should be defiled!

Successful wickedness is next door to utter destruction. Again is our prophet introduced into the scene. "The word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it. And thou shalt speak unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine." Elijah meets him. The guilty king trembles in his presence, and asks not as before," Art thou he that troubleth Israel ?" No, his conscience makes it much more a personal question than that. "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" "I have found thee," is the prophet's reply; and he then proceeds with the awful denunciations of wrath and judgment from God against Ahab and Jezebel, and their household. But oh, the grace of our God! Because Ahab, terrified by these predictions, humbles himself and puts on sackcloth, and goes softly, the evil is not to come in his days; but in his son's days the evil is to be executed on his house.

But Ahab, though for the season humbled, is not converted. Of this we have ample and mournful evidence in chap. xxii. There we find, that pliable as was this wicked king when in the presence of his wife or Benhadad, Micaiah is as much hated by him as Elijah. And for the same reason. They were not pliable. They

had set their faces as a flint, and could yield nothing, no, not an inch or a hair's-breadth, of the testimony of God entrusted to them. "There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophecy good concerning me, but evil." And how sorely was Micaiah's fidelity tested on this occasion. "The messenger that was gone to call Micaiah, spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth; let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good." As though he had said, in more modern language, "Do not be so morose and eccentric, Micaiah. Do, in this instance at any rate, go with the stream. There are four hundred prophets all of one mind. Do not set up your single voice against so many, as though you were wiser, and knew better than any one besides." "As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak." This is all that the prophet can reply. The sequel of the history shews us that Micaiah had been allowed of God to be behind the scenes. He could account for the unanimity of the prophets. It was a lying spirit from the Lord which had put words into their mouths, by which Ahab was to be hardened to go up to battle to his own destruction. The prophet's testimony, however, is disregarded, and he himself shut up in prison. Ahab, and alas! Jehoshaphat, go up to Ramoth-Gilead. Jehoshaphat is there made the tool of the wily king of Israel. The latter disguises himself, while the former enters the battle in his royal robes, a mark for the arrows of the enemy, who have been instructed to aim only at the king! But God defends Jehoshaphat. He is humbled, yea, disgraced. He has to cry for his life. But God delivers his poor erring, failing child; while all the craft of Ahab avails him nothing. No one can aim at him as the king; his disguise prevents that. But "a certain man drew a bow at a venture," and the arrow, guided by an unseen hand, "smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness." He is borne, wounded and bleeding to Samaria, and he dies; and the dogs lick up his blood, as Elijah had spoken to him by the word of the Lord.

The Lord grant us, beloved brethren, Elijah's and Micaiah's firmness and decision; and keep us from the yieldingness of the unhappy man who "sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up"!

A FRAGMENT.

ON THE POSITION OF SATAN, OR RATHER, OF THE CHURCH IN CONFLICT WITH SATAN.- "The warfare in Eph. vi. really supposes an elevated position of the saints, themselves delivered and raised up to a heavenly position with God,-they have to contend with Satan there, for he is not yet cast down nor bruised under their feet. No doubt, being in such a conflict, the fullest vigilance and the spirit of dependance is needed not to succumb; internal, practical truth being first called for,and then, power; but, whatever the diligence called for, the position is one of entire deliverance and enlistment on God's side, - brought into heavenly questions and standing. I judge there is a different measure in the deliverance from Satan, according to the different character of the epistles in Peter, Colossians, and Ephesians. He is roaring about as a lion, on earth, in Peter, where the saints are pilgrims; triumphed over, in the cross, in Colossians, where they were in danger of not holding the head; and led away captive in Ephesians, where the heavenly place of the saints is given, but then the combat, practically, has not ceased, but we are in God's army with His armour, in a heavenly warfare."