the belief that "God's foolishness" is infinitely more wise than all human rationality and wisdom, and that He is able to fulfil what He has promised, as His arm is not in any way bound.

Yes, nothing less will be expected from God by him who desires to obtain the citizenship of Zion. His self he must deny, and with the abandonment of all that which is called the glory of the flesh, be able to resolve upon the believing admission of things which the natural reason will only reject, may treat with mockery, as childish fables. Amongst the rest he must be able to believe that a serpent and a jackass once talked in human language; that the race of the whole family of man and all the species of the animal world were rescued in a ship from a great flood of waters; that a prophet ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire and flaming steeds; that at the command of a Jewish soldier the sun stood still; that at the word of another Hebrew the shadow of the sun-dial of Ahaz fell back ten degrees; that the touch of a rod was enough to divide in an instant the waves of a raging sea, and to wall them up like a tower; that the bones of a long interred Israelite gave back life to another deceased mortal; and that the blast of a trumpet dashed to pieces the gigantic walls of a strong fortification. Yea, he must be in a condition to believe, that the Almighty, who created the ends of the world, once hung as a lisping babe in swaddling clothes at the breast of its mother, sucked in the milk of the earth, grew up humanly like another boy, and although himself the original Source out of which all life flowed, bound his head on a cursed martyr's stake to a death of expiation. This miracle of all miracles, with which none other can be brought into comparison, he must believe, and not

merely believe, but therein find his whole wisdom and

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his whole salvation, and therefore be a fool for Christ's sake" in the world. For to him to whom this may appear difficult and severe, are directed the words: "Do you desire to return? Then go !" What is to the Lord, the applause of the blind crowd?-If, however, you think to yourself: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life:"2 then you have already made the first step towards the closest intimacy with those wonder-works, and will soon, instead of shaking your head, come forward, anticipate their divine import, and draw forth the water of life from their depths.

The enlightened lord at Samaria meets with an answer to his objection which he was hardly prepared to receive. The Most High and Holy One, who will not permit Himself to be mocked, made an example here for His own honour and that of His messenger. Scarcely had the mocker sputtered forth his wicked cavil, “ If the Lord should make windows in heaven," when already, as if filled with the Holy Spirit, Elisha looks at him with a fixed gaze, and pronounces," Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof!" Whether this word of threat called for the greater faith, or not, than had been met with by the blessed message, nevertheless what he might now not wish to believe, he will experience within four-and-twenty hours afterwards.

Alas! a sentence of condemnation, similar to that pronounced upon the man of war, hovers, ye unbelievers, over all your heads. You, likewise, will experience, only in a more dreadful manner, the fate of that despiser

1. Numb. xiv. 3.

2 John vi. 68.

You will also once behold,

of Jehovah and His word. what you now scoff at, realised, but only, though then too late, with wringing hands to bemoan and lament your denials. Ye shall behold that the blood of Jesus Christ really purifies from all sins, but yourselves sink eternally in your misdeeds; you shall be convinced that the Man of Nazareth has, in truth, the keys of peace for his disciples-for others only; while ye shall suffer and languish outside. Those marked with the seal of the Lamb will appear before you glorified at His right hand to you none shall say," Come hither, ye blessed!" Those you will behold take possession of the kingdom; whilst you must away to the flames prepared for the devil and his angels.

Think, unhappy creatures! of the rich man in the Gospel. He was as one of you: no criminal, in the common meaning of the word, but a man beloved, courteous, hospitable, nay, liberal even and munificent, where the honour of his house required it; but an egotist, who had no other centre for his action and reflection than himself,―a Sadducee, who converted temporal enjoyment, certainly the more refined and allowable, into the sole object of his life; therefore he was a man like yourselves, an enlightened, a modern man, who proudly threw aside, as empty sounds, the words, "penitence," "preparation for eternity," and so forth; and held, on the other hand, with the saying, "Let us eat, drink and be merry, for to-morrow we die !"

The sick beggar, on the contrary, at the rich man's gate, represents the people who live a life of faith in Christ. Perhaps it would suit us better, my brethren, if another, in whom the glory of the hidden life of faith, should shine forth more richly in word and deed, per

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haps an Elisha, a John, or Paul, as representatives of our kingdom, had advanced to meet that man of the world. But it is with a deep purpose that the Lord has given so prominent a place in the picture to the mute lowly form of the infirm beggar, instead of to such heroes as that lord, in order thereby to make it the more strikingly evident, that heaven, with its blessings, is a gift, and the way thither more a standing still, a state of self-denial and acceptance, than a labour and effort. And is it not so really? After we have resigned self, we are satisfied with the ordinances of salvation of God, desire to be in and for ourselves nothing, but only an object in which grace may be glorified, and are well content that a hand from above should purify, clothe, adorn and guide us. As of a babe, hardly any thing more can be said, than that it is nowhere more comfortable than at its mother's breast, and that as it is nursed in its mother's arms, in her smile it meets its heaven, and knowing nothing of itself, nor desiring aught of itself, it reposes on the guarding care of maternal love as on a soft and secure resting place; so is it only necessary to transfer these features to the relations of a soul to its Creator, and in them we shall find distinguished and represented the features of the life of all true children of God.

But the two characters-the beggar and the rich man —are exhibited in the gospel as essentially distinct from each other in disposition, as in external circumstances. The man of the world lives in affluence and opulence; the heavenly-minded man bears the beggar's staff, and a dreadful disease consumes away his life. But will the former ever be able to say, "My temporal condition was the cause of my not believing?" Just as little as the other will ever find foundation for the assertion that he

has to thank his poverty for the change of mind he has experienced. Even though in an external relation, something exists which renders conversion difficult, so many alleviating circumstances continually contribute, on the other hand, to keep the balance, that there no longer remains any excuse for the non-converted. Thus, for instance, in our time, according to human judgment, to attain conversion is difficult; but what facilities again counterbalance the difficulties! It is difficult: for how manifoldly effeminated and perverted are we, the children of this age, by the spirit of the times,-how susceptible are we, from youth upwards, to all the allurements of sin and the world, and how filled with sensual fancies! It is easy; for what divine rigour opposed to sin is revealed and made manifest in the present day; what sentences of punishment begin to burst upon the fallen race, and call us with a voice of thunder to repentance! Difficult; on account of the false enlightenment, which we have already sucked in with our mother's milk,-we, to whom while still upon the school-bench nothing was credible, but what could be calculated by our every-day arithmetic. Easy; for, what overthrows does not even now the system of the anti-christians suffer; and how are its superficialities and barrenness exposed in its rationalism? Difficult; for it is inculcated upon the majority of mankind from childhood upwards, that a gospel which tells of a man become God, is only a fable. Easy; for how distinctly do we hear the feet of that God-man again sweep over the sphere of the earth, and how, in a thousand wonders of regeneration and new births, do we not see the gospel experience from him manifestations of His almighty power and presence! Difficult; for how few