by rote of the words of devotion—deserves not the name of prayer. Keep these formal compliments to yourselves; the Lord does not want such service. The sighs of the broken and contrite heart, the cry of the humble and needy, who lie in the dust and are "in the depths," the groans of conflict with the body of sin and death, the language of dependence, confession, thanksgiving, and earnest zeal : these and these alone constitute true prayer.

Brethren, pray for earnestness, pray for the Spirit of grace and supplication, and ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. He "that cannot lie" has promised it. We, too, have a Mount Carmel, on which to pray for what we will, "and it shall be done unto us." This is the ground of thy Redeemer's merits; and when thou standest there, the heart of God will yearn over thee; and his hand will deny thee nothing that is for thy good. Take hold only of his eternal faithfulness in Christ, and rest on the footing of his immutable promises; and then thou art in the true place of prayer; then thou art in the attitude which secures an answer. You may have to sigh, and implore, and weep, but the watchman on the height shall at last bring a message of joy. Though he comes six times with the answer, "I see nothing," let him six times return, "while you pray as in an agony;" at the seventh time it will be said, "Behold there is a cloud, and it will rain." Often we cannot ourselves see the answer to our prayers. But could we, like Elijah, place a watchman at the sick-bed of those sufferers for whom we implore consolation; or amid those dear friends at a distance, for whom we seek grace and protection; or by the cradles of our children, for whom we desire the guidance and the guardianship of angels; how often would we learn with joyful astonishment, that at the very moment when we bent the knee on their behalf, the commandment had gone forth to help them. O, let the voice of prayer rise then with new frequency and ardour in the midst of us, that it may be made manifest to the glory of God, and the shame of the adversary, that we are encamped under the banner of the living God, the God that heareth

prayer. Pray in faith, and pray in humility; pray for your selves, and pray for all: and pray in hope, for there stands written, as on the rock of eternity, the great and immutable word, that must outlast heaven and earth. Verily, verily,

I say unto you,

whatsoever ye

shall ask the Father in my

Dame, he will give it you." Amen.

PART II.

I-THE FLIGHT INTO THE WILDERNESS.

"He that cometh from heaven is above all." Such was the testimony of the Herald in the wilderness, to him whose shoe's latchet he did not count himself worthy to unloose. The whole appearance of the Son of Man upon earth serves to confirm this testimony. It is the self-revelation of one who is "above all;" and wherever we behold our Saviour appear and act on the stage of gospel history, the conviction irresistibly forces itself on an unprejudiced mind, that here is one indeed greater than Moses and all the prophets and apostles, that here is one "separate from sinners" and above all creatures, one who has descended but for a short space upon earth, as upon strange ground, while his proper seat is above the clouds, and on the throne of majesty and glory.

In all his actions, we feel that a mere man could never have so acted, however wonderfully he might have been endowed with heavenly powers. No doubt many prophets and apostles performed miracles as great as his; but if we look at the style and manner in which they performed them, his miracles rise above theirs as high as the heaven is above the earth. Let us view them in the moment when they are exerting all their miraculous power, and we see at once that they are not in their own element, but are liker persons who have been led on ground where all is strange and untried. We find them, for the most part, in great excitement, anxiety, and confusion. They divide seas with trembling

hands; the dead that come forth at their call inspire them with the same astonishment as the surrounding multitudes, and the anxious measures and preparations which generally precede their miracles, show them to be but feeble mortals, who are in themselves less than nothing, and who are only invested for a moment with a power not their own, under whose gigantic weight they are well nigh overwhelmed. The power is not bound up in the essence of their nature, nor is it even lent them for the moment, they are but the frail instruments of an invisible miracle-worker.

How different is the impression which the miracles of Jesus force upon us! When he comes forth amid the tumult of the elements to rebuke them, or draws near the graves to reanimate the dust, how distinctly do we feel at once that "He is above all." These efforts of Omnipotence seem his familiar work; this divine power of creation is seen to be inherent in his nature. Here we find no lengthened preparations, no anxious and awe-struck employment of means; here we have nothing of that inward struggle which Moses felt as he stood by the Red Sea, nothing of that convulsive earnestness with which Elijah raised the widow's son at Zarephath. He proceeds to the great work with a divine repose, as one who ruleth over all, and whom nature is accustomed to obey. He bears no staff in his hands as a badge of dependence: in tranquil majesty he stretches forth his hand; and the blind see, the palsied arise and walk. He needs not, like prophets and apostles, to command in the name of another, or appeal to a power above his own! His language is "I will; be thou clean," and the leper is cleansed. He beckons, and the winds and waves obey; He commands, "Young man, arise!" and life starts up from the midst of corruption. Thus a majesty shines everywhere around him, which reveals to us nothing less than "all the fulness of the Godhead" in him. Nay, He must, so to speak, check the thunder of his power and hide the fulness of divinity that dwells in him; and so when we find him at other times veiling his glory, and standing before us in the sinless weakness of humanity, we feel at once that

this is but an assumed nature, and not the original; while, on the contrary, the lustre of supernatural power that rests on prophets and apostles is but a reflected splendour, and the frailty and weakness all their own.

And not only does he differ immeasurably from all in his working of miracles; his whole life is beyond all parallel. Who ever spake like him, whose very prayers were expressions of his will? Who ever reproved like him, in whose Woe! Woe! the trump of judgment seems already to sound? Who ever consoled like him, who not only prayed for a bome in heaven to his people, but bought it with his blood, and went before to prepare its mansions? Thus he appears before us everywhere as the Holy One of God, distinct from all creatures; higher than the heavens, entitled to all homage, worthy of unlimited trust; since every display of his nature is but a raying forth of the glory, majesty, and greatness that fills heaven and earth, and in the blaze of which we should perish, if it were not a glory "full of grace and truth."

Yes, "He is above all." And the history of perhaps the most glorious of all prophets, the prophet Elijah, will, as it proceeds, more and more display and confirm the great truth.

1 KINGS xix. 1-4.

"And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal, how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die: and said, It is enough: now, O Lord, take away my life: for I am not better than my fathers."

The history here takes a turn. The man of God is called away from his public work of reformation, and his path loses itself once more in the silence and desolation of the wilderness. This is a fresh trial and spiritual exercise for the prophet. The torch is shaken that it may blaze more brightly; the reformer of Israel must now descend himself into the furnace of purification. Our attention is here

called, I. To Elijah's persecution; II. His Flight; III. His dejection.

I. We have now left the height of Carmel, and are approaching the palace of Ahab, in the rich plain of Jezreel, where the monarch, charmed with the beauty of the place, had fixed his summer residence. The queen stands at the window of the palace, and awaits, with impatience, the return of her consort. He comes at full speed amid the violence of rain; hastily alights and hurries at once into the apartments of his haughty consort, to be the first messenger of the astonishing events which he had just witnessed. Elijah meanwhile remains in the neighbourhood, awaiting the impression of the stupendous miracle. The most joyful hopes may have filled his mind; and can we pronounce him too sanguine, if he promised himself the complete and immediate return of the court, as well as of the nation, to the faith of their fathers?

Ahab, full of the emotions which the wonders of the day had produced, begins his recital in high excitement, "The Tishbite has conquered. Fire from heaven has confirmed his mission. With these eyes, I have seen, at his prayer, flames descend from the clouds, consume the burnt-offering, wood, stones, and earth, and lick up the water in the trench. All the people can bear witness to it. They fell on their faces and confessed, as with one voice, that Jehovah is God. The priests of Baal are slain. They have fallen by the sword of the prophet; and their blood flows with the brook to the sea. The people have applauded the deed. They were laughed at as liars and impotent deceivers. Their authority and their worship is for ever destroyed. The enthusiasm for Elijah is universal. He is a prophet of the living God. The miracle on Carmel has placed it beyond doubt; and this deluge of rain now universally confirms it. It pours down at his command. He it was that shut up heaven; and he has now opened it again."

Thus probably the king proceeded. Suddenly he breaks off in the midst of his narrative, recoils in confusion, and