periences! How much they feel their faith strengthened! how is their heart encouraged! When one member is gloriously sustained, the rest participate in his joy, just as when a member suffers, the whole spiritual body shares his pain. There is a great and blessed secret connected with the communion of the holy. When in his heart a man becomes converted to the Lord, it does not happen merely from having opened before him an entire world of new contemplations, ideas, sensations and prospects, into which his soul is drawn; but he is occupied outwardly with circumstances which he never before anticipated, and connexions are formed, which already shed over his existence here, the glory of paradisiacal light. He discovers in the midst of this world of death a new land. "O thou land of peace," he exclaims, delighted, as he lowers the storm-lashed sails, "thou sweet beloved country, let me now once land on thy shores!" An extended circle of new friends, brothers and sisters, bids him welcome, beings whom hitherto he passed with indifference, nay, perhaps with secret hatred, and from whom he never would have dreamed that the breath of that love, so pure and full of self-denial, would have been poured out upon him, of the existence of which under heaven he long since had despaired. And now he reposes, blessed in this bosom of love. The purest sympathy accompanies him in all his paths. He has gained hearts, whose fidelity he may regard as everlasting. Communion, in the most extensive meaning of the word, is the essence of his new existence. What belongs to others, is also his; what blooms for them, sends forth its refreshing fragrance for him also. In their experiences of salvation are con tinually opened for him fresh fountains of never-anticipated vivification; in their victories he triumphs also; the light of the manifestations which are vouchsafed them, shines also on his path, and his days flow on in the sweetest interchange of the most precious gifts Yea, no thought can measure the fullness of the blessing and joy, which rest in the godly union of believing souls. No heart can conceive the heavenly delight of the closely-united existence of those favoured ones, unless from actual experience of this sweet mystery. of heaven. That which makes our elders at Samaria so especially happy, is the circumstance itself that the beloved prophet, in spite of the threatening danger, was once again preserved to them; and then the thought in which they are so deeply interested, that altogether they need not so soon have to dread the loss of that distinguished servant of God. And if there existed aught to make them rejoice, it was indeed this prospect. Wherever Elisha sojourned, he found men who clung to him with the utmost tenderness. And how could it be otherwise? The man whose presence ever exhibited the most evident good will, and the most sincere humility, must gain and govern the hearts of all. There are also great men, in whose presence every thing flourishes, the sweet verdure of love alone excepted, and who therefore may be compared to the proud broadtopped tree of the tropic regions, around which, for twenty yards, no other plant, nay, not even a green weed can be made to grow. Admirers surround them with those personalities; friends do not thrive in the chilling atmosphere of their loftiness and self-love. Elisha resembled an elm-tree, under whose shade dwell peace and comfort, and which permits the tender plants to lean for support against its trunk. Everywhere Elisha seems encircled by the confidence of the elders among the people; yea, it was often with difficulty, that his bitterest enemies could resist the heart-subduing influence of his presence. "The words of the tried in a furnace of We now, for a time, take leave of Elisha, and not without drawing, I trust, strength and encouragement from his experience. For myself, I feel as if I had soared to a serene height, and beheld all my cares floating, like mist and vapour, down in the valley below, and were greeted with the music of harps, whose charm had banished fear from my soul. And when I listened more attentively, I found it was a delightful harmony of the sweetest words of promise: "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him."1 Lord are pure words, as silver earth, purified seven times."2 He defends the cause of the oppressed. He raises the fallen, and delivers those who are in bonds. Rejoice Jerusalem, exalt thyself from the dust! None that plot against thee shall succeed. The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with shouts. Eternal joy shall be theirs. They shall be filled with delight; and pain and sorrow shall be far from them. Yea, happy is that man whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope rests upon the Lord his God. The Lord is King Eternal, thy God, O Zion, for ever and ever. Hallelujah! 12 Chron. xvi. 9. 2 Psalm xii. 6. 174 VI. THE CURSE OF UNBELIEF. As throughout the Holy Scriptures, salvation is shewn to depend upon faith, so is unbelief there declared to be the sole ground of the divine sentence of condemnation. Consequently, according to the Holy Scriptures, unbelief is more than an isolated error of the mind. It is understood as a predominant disposition, an inward moral tendency,-as a feature of the heart of man. Unbelief is, according to Scripture, estrangement from God, devotion to lying, pride and idolisation of self. It only requires that man should come out from the magic circle of mischievous self-blindness, into the kingdom of truth, acknowledge the dominion and justice of the judgments of the eternal law, and substitute for his worldly-mindedness a desire for communion with God. Whoso does this, faith in God's word and salvation in Christ will soon find an entrance into his heart. Religious doubt pervades the world in our days. Not many, even of the faithful, pass on through the world unwarped by it. The vanquishment of doubt, however, does not proceed from the mind, but from the heart. It is not before subtle speculation, but rather before the awakened necessity of the heart that stumbling-blocks Examine your give way in the things of revelation. self, contemplate yourself, in the light of the sanctity and righteousness of God, as that which you really are, —a sinner; then will you quickly feel reconciliation and mediation to be the sole conditions of your future peace. Perhaps you seek this mediation primarily with yourself, and fancy by your own endeavonrs to make good what you have done amiss, and propitiate the favour of him whom you have offended; but you will soon learn with trembling, that you can neither appear before the Eternal Judge with the holiness required, nor are capable of transforming thereby an offence once committed into innocence. There then you stand without counsel, until the book of revelation unveils before you the scheme of salvation, which the Eternal Love founded in the blood of a second Adam, of the divine Redeemer, of the surety, Jesus Christ. But to approach this mysterious work of God, to let fall over it the wings of your longing, and to cry out loudly, "Here I find what I longed for in doubt," and to freely declare, "This fully supplies my inmost need,"-all this will be the work of a moment. You believe in the power of salvation in Christ, because you have arrived at the quickening perception as well of his heart-contenting, as of his love-inspiring and hallowing power. But if once this centre-point of revelation is fixed as your faith, you thence pass over the remaining portion of the region with a sure footing. The greatest miracles which surround you there are no longer cause of doubt, but they thenceforward appear to you only as gentle introductions to the incomparably great one, whose historical truth you have experienced in yourself. That God should act and speak in the human form, and freely |