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chased with money. His money is works, prayers and spiritual exercises, or preparations which are acceptable in the eyes of God. Do good works as much as you can, only do not deposit them as coin in your purse; and if the works which you thought you possessed become suspicious to you as false pence, do not pine over it too much, for nothing could be redeemed with them. Offer up prayers to the Lord as often as the Spirit leads you. To pray is bliss and delight. Only desire not to barter and pay with your prayers; and if you cannot even pray, nevertheless, do not directly lose courage. For you do not live by your prayers. Have faith, love, devotion as richly as they have been supplied to you by God, but do not think, "Now I have a well-filled travelling purse, and many a divine succour and charity will now be purchaseable for me!" Why, by your inward riches nothing is purchaseable for you with God, as on account of your inward poverty, nothing will be withheld or withdrawn from you. Travelling-money you do not require upon your journey through life. Listen to your Lord's word: "Come buy wine and milk without money, and without price!" What do you say to that? If your courage for travelling rises or sinks, according to the measure of your moral purse,

then are you a sinful man, who doubts the liberal loving

kindness of God, who freely supplies his children with every thing, and you substitute a usurer and moneydealer in the place of your God.

The travelling-guide enjoins that the "shoes" should be left behind. Shoes cover the feet and preserve them. We are not to suffer ourselves to think as if we were forced to take care of ourselves. This care also, the

Isaiah lv. i.

Lord takes upon Himself. Still the little book does not command that we walk upon the naked sand. Something we pilgrims are to have under the feet.

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What?

Soles," says the Lord. Yes, have them bound under you with thongs of faith! You have the divine promises. Upon them walk forth; with them travel onwards. O! with those how lightly it is to travel, as if we had wings on our feet! and these foundations are indestructible. Besides this, the travelling guide will only have one coat taken, not two. Which coat? That of which we sing, "Christ's blood and righteousness, that is my covering and coat of honour!" In this coat the pilgrims of God are amply recommended and completely arrayed in His eyes. Do you believe this always? Alas! no! Mostly we think, that over that another, a second coat, is necessary—that of a personal sanctity. And assuredly this also is given to us together with the former one; but if we cannot even observe it in us, let us not be faint-hearted on that account, beloved! In order to be pleasing to God, the one coat of the attributed righteousness of the citizen is enough. Let us in faith be clothed in that one, and we may abandon ourselves to the joyful conviction of standing before God, perfect and without blame. This feeling of delight will procure us many a victory over the world and the devil; but do not let us assume these victories as an adornment, as if we should thereby be still more acceptable to the Lord. One coat suffices, for God only knows and looks on us in that one. Let confidence and courage be felt in that one alone. Let us comfort ourselves in that one, as in our proper attire, before the Lord! Then may we be comforted in Him, when we recognise in ourselves nothing but poor sinners stripped of every other kind of adorning!

Thus it is commanded by the travelling guide, the aim of which is, to divest us of all self-appropriation, and to raise us completely to the condition of faith.

Still, if the little book has informed us more fully of what, upon our pilgrimage through life, we are to leave behind us, than of what we are to take with us, it now finally recommends to us, likewise, something that is to be taken hold of. That is a "staff." The beggar's staff? O, yes; that likewise; but here the staff of pilgrimage is meant. "Let your life be a pilgrimage!" the little book means to say. Well, it is so already; but it must be so completely. Do not so cling to your sins, as to be astounded at their contemplation, or to fret yourself with fears. Proceed onwards towards Golgotha without tarrying, the grave of your transgressions, and seek there release from your sins! Do not, when tribulation surrounds you, let yourself be led captive by fear and dejection. Journey on! A day of jubilee will succeed to the season of weeping! Soar up in spirit into the light of that day, and be blessed in hope! Journey on, whether you are deficient in this thing or that. Do not stand sighing before the empty chest ; rouse yourself, and repair to the rich store-house above, where every thing is prepared, and you will ever be gladly welcomed! Journey on, in spirit lifted above every thing that may here benight and oppress you. On! on! through the realm of want into the region of redemption, where you are expected; through the day of toil to the great Sabbath; past imperfect works to perfect works; through death into life; through the grave into the paradise of joy and delight! But behold, you already journey on, and all that is in you already bears the staff of pilgrimage. Your sighs ascend to the throne of grace; your faith soars to Christ; your love

points to the eternal magnet; your longing is to the perfected community of God; your hopes rise above the childish trifling of earth to the kingdom of glory, and you yourself are about to enter upon the pilgrimage to the grand coronation feast, and your eternal glorification. Blessed company of pilgrims! Yes, journey on! Journey on!

If ever one on earth proceeded on his road faithfully and without staggering, according to the articles of that divine travelling guide, it was Elisha. Nor had he reason to regret that he did so. How happily has he sped his journey! The promises of the little book have not deceived him. How many a heart-inspiring fact has afforded us proof of that! And fresh examples of this kind press upon all sides, from Elisha's introduction into the circle of our meditation. Let the contemplation thereof encourage us to place ourselves, as he commanded, upon an equal footing with him.

2 KINGS, VII. 3-7.

And there were four leprous men at the entering of the gate : and they said one to another, "Why sit we here until we die? If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall into the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die." And they rose up in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host; and they said one to another, "Lo the King of Israel hath hired against us the Kings of the Hittites, and the Kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us." Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.

T 3

The fulfilment of the prophet's announcement so full of promise over Samaria, begins to be accomplished. The scene which we have been contemplating, forms, though it may not seem so, the very stepping-stone of the proclaimed deliverance. No, the Lord's hand is in verity not cut short, so as not to be able to succour. He knows a way in all circumstances, He is not in want of means. THE LEPERS BEFORE THE GATE claim, first of all, our immediate attention; then THE BATTLE WITHOUT WEAPONS. May we return from this last, as well as from the former scenes, not without some spiritual booty! May the right treasure-finder, the Holy Spirit, accompany us on our pilgrimage!

I.

The divine pro

Now let us return to Samaria. mise is announced with gladdening confidence; and the enlightened lord has heard his doom proclaimed. The multitude now silently disperse; but the hearts of all beat in impatient expectation. The king withdraws himself, and retires in deep contemplation to his palace. Elisha and his friends remain praying in their small chamber, awaiting the events which are to happen. The people sit together, in larger or lesser groups, around in the houses, and think, and murmur, and advise together, as to the way in which the word of the man of God will be fulfilled. Over the whole city there rests a mysterious solemnity, as if a grand festival were about to be ushered in by heavenly music. In the looks and actions of all something is expressed, which hovers between blessed hope and anxious doubt, and even upon the brow of the most severely-visited among the people, it seems as if the night-storm of dread were dispelled by the moon's light. As it was

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