our Lord appeals to us as children of God. A very definite and most sacred bond of union exists between the people of Christ and their Father in heaven-the Creator and Preserver of us all. This bond has been made by Christ, in whom God reconciled the world to Himself, and who is the One Mediator. It is the most holy, the most vital, and the dearest of all relations. The lofty and holy standard of life and conduct held forth to us in the text may seem to some to be wholly beyond the reach of feeble, tempted, and fallen men. To be perfect as our Father in heaven may well seem impossible to us "Frail children of dust, And feeble as frail," for the greatest of God's chosen servants have stood abashed at the revelation of His holiness and power. Who then is sufficient for these things? The answer must come from above " My grace is sufficient for thee." "Without Me ye can do nothing." Let us, then, not regard the words of Christ as expressing alone the great necessity of a high and holy pattern for those who only desire to go on from the first principles of faith and practice to perfection. II. THIS COMMAND BECOMES PRACTICABLE BY VIRTUE OF THE UNION EXISTING BETWEEN CHRIST AND HIS PEOPLE. "Because I live, ye shall live also," are the Saviour's words to those who follow Him, and the encouragement given to us to work out our own salvation is this, that it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do His pleasure. It is impossible for us to imitate the power of the Almighty, or to attain to His infinite wisdom, His all-pervading presence, His awful purity, or His boundless love; yet, undoubtedly, as Holy Scripture teaches us, we may imitate our Heavenly Father in Holiness, in forgiving injuries, in loving truth, in seeking peace, in doing good. We are to be followers of God as dear children, because God has given to us the Spirit of adoption; because He has sent His Spirit into our hearts; otherwise, it would indeed have been hard for us to become followers of Him. Now we find that special stress is laid on our imitating our Heavenly Father in showing mercy. Mercy to others is made the condition of our own forgiveness in more than one passage of Scripture. How admirably is the free mercy of God shown in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Is there anyone that has injured or insulted you, or towards whom circumstances have made you prejudiced? -that is the opportunity for showing love and mercy truly Divine; for in showing kindness to those who seem to have no claim on you, you are truly followers of Him who continually pours His blessings on the unthankful and unjust that they may be drawn to repentance and life. GRANGE OVER SANDS. SAMUEL BARBER. A TRACT-A SEED. "A TRACT is a seed, a vital particle, that, deposited and diffused, will produce appropriate fruit. It is not truth in a great mass, but it follows all the analogies of nature in all departments of her operations. A tract is not too weighty to be carried; it is not too bulky to be deposited; it may be carried anywhere; it may be deposited almost anywhere. We know that the seeds of plants and of flowers are carried by the birds of the air, are carried even by the breezes of heaven from one island and from one continent to another; they are deposited in most unlikely places, in crevices of rocks, on mountain sides, in places untrodden by the foot of man, and so an unsuspected vegetation springs up in places that have received no ministry from human hand. So it is with a tract."ARCHBISHOP BENSON. RELIGION AND JUSTICE. "RELIGION is the expression of the Divine mind, and, however little our feeble vision may be able to discern the means by which God may provide for its preservation, we may leave the matter in His hands, and we may be sure that a firm and courageous application of every principle of justice is the best way for the preservation and maintenance of religion.”— GLADSTONE. SEEDS OF SERMONS ON THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. The Death of Elisha. “IN THE THREE AND TWENTIETH," &c.-II. Kings xiii. THE Book of Kings is, for the most part, a record of crime, and of crime of the most heinous and aggravated character. The terrible monstrosities recorded are ascribable, directly or indirectly, to Kings. In this very chapter we have a sketch of two of those monarchs-and their name is legion-who have been the greatest curses of their race. Jehoahaz, son and successor of Jehu, King of Israel, whose reign was disastrous to the kingdom to such a degree that his army was all but utterly destroyed, and had become like the dust on the "threshing floor." And Jehoash, who for three years was associated with his father in the government, when his father was swept away was a curse to the world and reigned sixteen years. The only portion of this chapter worth noticing is from verse fourteen to verse twenty-one. These verses present to us four subjects of thought, a great man dying, a good man leaving the world interested in posterity, a wicked man regretting the event, and a dead man exerting a wonderful influence. I-A GREAT MAN DYING. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died." The whole history of Elisha is not only the history of the marvellous but the history of loyalty to Heaven and devotion to the interests of his race. But here we find this great and good man dying. Elijah, his master, had escaped death and had been borne to Heaven in a chariot of fire, but Elisha had to die in the ordinary "way of" mankind, through sickness. "Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness three whereof he died." It is true he was an old man, score years had passed since he commenced his prophetic ministry. For a great many years we are told nothing about him, but no doubt he had been actively and usefully engaged. Even the most useful public men and the most popular, too, cease to attract great public attention as they pass into years. Often they become as "dead men out of sight," albeit they are useful. Though all men have to die, death is not the same to all men. It has a widely different significance to different men. To the good man it is life breaking through exuviæ and taking wing to revel in a sunny universe. It is the "mortal putting on immortality." Here we have II. A WICKED MAN REGRETTING THE EVENT. "And Joash the King of Israel came down unto him and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father." Why did he weep? Not because he had any sympathy with the character of the departing man. His moral sympathies were in antagonism to those of the prophet. Not because he felt that the event would injure the prophet himself. He must have known the reverse. The prophet might have said to him, "If ye love me ye would rejoice;" but because he knew that the event would be a loss to the living in general. He cared nothing for his race, not he; but because he knew that the prophet was the "Chariot of Israel and the horseman thereof." His chariots and horsemen were gone, and Elisha was his only hope. Here we have III-A GOOD MAN LEAVING THE WORLD INTERESTED IN POS TERITY. Elisha, though dying, was excited to some interest in the future of his country. "Elisha said unto him, Take bows and arrows. And he took unto him bows and arrows." (Verse 15-19.) He here seems to be touched by the king's tears, and held out the hope that he would yet become victorious over the Syrians. The symbolic action which the prophet recommended, putting his hand upon the bow, opening the window, shooting the arrow, smiting the ground, does not, I think, necessarily mean that the prophet approved of the future wars of the kings, but merely indicated the fact. He foretold his success; for, in three campaigns against the Syrians, he recovered the cities which they had taken from his father. He was also successful in the war with Amaziah, king of Judah. But the point worth notice is, the interest felt in the future by the prophet in his dying hours. Had he not done with life? Would he not soon be in his grave? What would the world be to him in the future? An interest in posterity seems to be an instinct in humanity. There is a nerve in humanity that runs through all races and all generations, linking men together. "No man liveth to himself;" all men are in one. The more moral goodness a man has in him the more sensitive this nerve becomes. Hence the best men in all ages have been the men who made provisions for posterity. Here we have— IV.-A DEAD MAN EXERTING A WONDERFUL INFLUENCE. "It came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet." The incident which takes place in his grave is as strange as it is significant and suggestive. The bearers of a dead man struck with terror at the approach of enemies in their way, instead. of carrying the remains to their appointed resting-place, left them to fall into the sepulchre, where slept the bones of the illustrious Elisha. No sooner did the corpse touch the sacred reliques of the great seer than it quivered with life, and the dead man, to the astonishment of all, revived, and stood on his feet. This miraculous incident was designed and calculated to make a wholesome moral impression on the mind of the age. It had a tendency to demonstrate to all, the divinity of the prophet's mission, to show the honour with which the Eternal treats the holy dead, to prove the existence of a power superior to death, and |