ELISHA.

I.

THE NEW COLONY.

THE "Spirit of the Age," my beloved friends, is no empty name. More or less, the generality of the faithful feel the influence of that decomposing intellectual atmosphere which at present pervades the world. We meet in Zion, more frequently than formerly, with those troubled and corroded by theoretical doubts; yea, many seem like the timorous bird in the bush, which, breathed upon by the serpent that lies in silent concealment in the blooming grass beneath, cannot free itself from the magic power, but feels itself drawn down, notwithstanding every effort at resistance, nearer and nearer to the gaping throat opened to receive it. Strengthenings in faith are, at the present day, more welcome in Zion than ever, and declarations like the following obtain the most ready reception: "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His majesty; for He received

from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' And this voice, which came from heaven we heard when we were with Him in the holy mount." 1

Peter, at the moment he wrote these words, was placed in a serious and awful position, for he beheld the end of his earthly course approaching. The cross, which once his Master held out to him in the distance, was drawing near, as the harbinger of death: "Knowing," he says, "that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me." But, whilst he thus speaks, he does so with the deepest calmness and resignation. The body which he has to put off is to him merely a tabernacle; the dying, only a transition; death, a journey to a most blessed home. O what an enviable position this, all flesh being as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the field! when, leaving the quicksands of this life, to cast anchor with sure and steady hand upon a safe, though distant, shore; to find a refuge from the gloomy feeling.

"Alas! how vain is all on earth!" and, in the elevation of the thought," The best is cut off first,"-to hear, in the swift passage of the hour, only the rolling of the wheels which bear us to our home; when, on our final separation, we can cordially and confidently say to each other," To our speedy meeting;" to stand as above the blooming and fading in this world; above the coming and going; above the having and losing; above the rising and falling; above the growing up and the growing old; and raised above all by the thought,-"I am only journeying;" by the settled feeling,-"This is 1 2 Peter, i. 16, 17, 18.

not my home;" by the certainty,-" I am hastening to my father's house;" and by the silent exultation,-"The eternal heights above are my inheritance!" O this is indeed grand and sublime; the only true prosperity, delight, happiness, and glory!

And it is thus that Peter feels. He places no covering before his eyes; he does not imagine to himself any thing about a still distant end; he does not deceive himself as to the true form of death, neither does he cover himself with veil or cloak. He looks temperately and calmly upon things as they are; and yet he feels Not the rest of the churchyard; not the rest of a dull stupidity; not the rest of yonder bird of the wilderness, which, when it hears the sportsman's approach, hides its head in the thicket, and then fancies itself secure; but refreshing, lively, joyful rest,-the rest which is rooted in the bright consciousness of faith.

at rest.

In a blessed truth, which he acknowledges, rest the pillars of his exalted state of peace; and this acknowledged truth is to him the truth. "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables," says he; meaning literally, "not imagined and invented mythological stories." We possess, he means to say, the certain, the firm, the undeceiving, the authentic! Such as these is not possessed by any philosopher, or man of science in the world of transcendentalism. At the best, when

these people speak of God, immortality, and meeting again, if they are honest, they will only say,-"We think, imagine, conceive, and we will hope;" but not, "We are certain!" They preach upon themes, in the cause of which they do not allow themselves to be crucified; they build systems, for which, if it depended upon that, they would not risk a hundred dollars, much

less life itself; they flourish about them a language of consolation, at which, if any one else sought to console them with the same, they would make long faces; and they make a great show of importance with proofs which, alas! for themselves, would, in the storm of calamity, turn out to be only chaff, and in the fire of the hour of death, only stubble. Trust not to the bold looks of these dealers in wisdom; with their morsel of religion, it turns out with them all as with one who has a rotten cause in hand. To this one or that they perhaps bring a kind of consolation; but they themselves, insecure and wavering, put no trust in the thing. The most anxious doubt gnaws their very marrow. Safe and steady standing can only be had upon the rock of revelation.

The scriptural truth in which our Apostle so surely reposes is that, whose centre, as he himself shews, is the power and coming, or the mighty and sovereign effect of the appearance of Jesus Christ-of that Jesus who went over the earth, like a light-beaming and fructifying sun, in divine glory; before whom misery fled, hell fell back, death retreated, angels in homage fell prostrate in the dust; before whom devils trembled, the fear and anxiety of poor sinners vanished, and whose presence on earth is the miracle of all miracles, and the source whence naturally flowed the miracles by which he proved himself almighty.

I know that a much commended theological doctrine of our day holds this ground to be unsafe, and suspects believers in the Bible to be entangled in a string of legends, in the production of which, imagination has had a greater share than fact. But Peter remonstrates, and we with him: "for we have not followed cun

ningly devised fables," says he, "but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty." And, to cite at least one fact, he brings forward the event on Tabor. "For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' And this voice, which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy mount." Thus says the apostle. Imagine to yourself now that he is met and opposed by modern wisdom, with its philosophical remonstrance: "Simon, it is not conceivable that the Divinity should speak personally and corporeally, and be audible to men; that it should have a son born God of God, and that events could take place as you describe, when they really rest upon natural causes!" Say, do you not feel as if you saw a smile of pity appear upon the apostle's countenance, and as if you heard him, whilst pointing to his eyes, ears, and hands, calmly reply: "Behold, ye strange people. These are my witnesses; spare your futile contradictions! We were eyewitnesses of His Majesty !" And with Peter, we say experience buckles the armour on our breast also, against which the sharpest arrows of reason must break into shivers. The Jesus in whom we believe has enlightened us with his light, renovated the spirit of our mind, planted a paradise of peace in our heart, rooted us out of this world, and transplanted us in a heavenly sphere ;* armed us with the strength of the conqueror for life and for death; has heard us when we have cried out to him, and comforted us when we wept for him. The Jesus before whom we bend our knee bears us, raises us, protects us, guides us, delivers us; answers when we inquire of him; bends over us when we pray; refreshes