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this, you have that within you which is to wither or to flourish in eternity. Do you say where is this Christian's manna to be met with? In every part of this vast earth,—in every kingdom,-in every city,-in the fields,—in the desart,-in the closet,-in this very place;seek it whilst it may be found; "look unto Jesus," for this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.

205

SERMON XIII.

CHRIST THE AVENGER OF HIS ENEMIES.

2 KINGS, V ii. 2.

Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of God and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

ST. PAUL, in the course of instruction that he gave to the Corinthian converts, set before them, in the way of familiar illustration, the rebellions and the downfall of Israel. He first shows how sorely they were visited by the displeasure of Heaven, and then how justly they were rewarded according to their iniquities. "With many of them," says he, "God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness ;" and then, as if fearing lest his own converts might stumble at the same stumbling stone, he compassionately adds, "Be ye therefore not idolaters, as were some of them ;

neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer." And he gives this warning in conclusion, "Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come"-" Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed, lest he fall." In the same spirit, and with the same interest, I beseech you, my brethren, to lay to heart the tendency and importance of the text. The sin that destroyed that nobleman who leaned upon the king's hand, was unbelief. It was not man's power he questioned, but God's; not an act of the creature, which might come to nothing, but that of the Creator, the everlasting Father, the Almighty Architect of all that is, who had only to say, "let there be light, and there was light." What was his unbelief, but his want of confidence either in the willingness or the ability of God? He looked to human probabilities, and because his eyes could discover none, he impiously determined that there could be none: his thoughts were altogether upon the empty granaries of Samaria; he neither regarded nor believed in those which have been everlastingly overflowing in heaven. Alas! what a blind presumption, what deceiving views float about the infidel's mind! He fancies

that to believe what he cannot comprehend, is weakness; his own comprehension is to be the test whether this or that truth is to be received into his mind, or rejected: but this is directly confuted by an apostle, who says, not that without reasoning and argument, but that "without faith it is impossible to please God."

It is here necessary to remind you of the circumstances immediately connected with the event in the text. "It came to pass," says the writer of this scripture," that Benhadad, king of Syria, gathered all his host, and went up and besieged Samaria, and there arose a great famine in that city, and they besieged it until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver;" and the wrath of the king of Israel waxed hot against the prophet Elisha, and he threatened to take away his life on account of it; and Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; thus saith the Lord, to-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof."

The first remarkable thing to be considered

in this history, is the rank of the person who replied to the man of God! He was a lord! and one so favoured, that the king himself leaned upon his arm. The speech of Elisha was no doubt heard by multitudes, but one only answered it ; it might have been listened to by all, with unconcern and indifference, but in his heart there was something more decisive and deep-rooted than indifference, a common but unsuspected sin, “enmity against God." The words were not immediately or remotely addressed to him, but his prejudiced spirit could not remain silent, it revolted against them. My friends! there is an atmosphere in which the high ones of the earth exhaust their being, that is most unfavourable for spiritual meditation; it acts, as it were, insensibly, like a slow poison upon the mind, and seems to throw it into a state of restlessness and agitation; we ourselves have some practical knowledge of it, though we dwell neither in courts nor in palaces. If we are not the companions of kings and princes, yet we are perhaps in a situation where, though the temptations may be less obvious, the dangers are equally pressing. The world has its various schemes and snares, which it applies to the particular condition of mankind; and it neither requires that we should be lords, or men of wealth, to be made sensible that we are liable

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