mercy has led forth from the multitudes of the blind and dead into the kingdom of light; but happier he, who, when God bids him arise and depart, need not bid his dearest on earth farewell, but can rejoin them with the welcome greeting, "Behold, here am I also; ye went before me, but by God's grace I have followed after you; my name is written with yours in the same book of life, and your Lord and Master is now also mine." O what a blessed welcoming and embracing is this! Lost, but now found; once severed, but now united for ever and for ever! O ye converted parents of unconverted children, and ye believing children of unbelieving fathers and mothers! soon may such a joyful day dawn on your dwellings!

Elijah has no objection to Elisha's request. "Go," said he, "and return again." And to make his parting more easy, he adds the words, "Consider what I have done to thee;" and thereby fixes, as it were, a bond around his heart, which should ensure his return. He would thus be reminded of the solemn act of investiture which had just taken place, and the words would sound like a call of God in his ear, enabling him to withstand all the endearments of the parental roof, if he should be tempted by them to falter in his purpose. But we have no reason to believe that he was exposed to any such seduction His father's house was not to him a snare and a deep pit, as it has been to many converted children; his father and mother were, in all probability, pious and devout persons. It was doubtless no small sacrifice to give up a dutiful and affectionate son, probably their only son, and the joy and prop of their old age, and that too, to a public office, that could not but expose him, in an idolatrous age, to the greatest peril of his life; but the command was from the Lord, and they no doubt were enabled to say with joy, "The will of the Lord be done."

While Elijah was proceeding on his journey towards the city of Samaria, Elisha goes with a beating heart to his father's house, and relates to his astonished parents the

• German Version.

whole circumstances of the interview, in which Elijah had called him to so high an office. This done, he takes the yoke of oxen which he had been accustomed to drive, slaughters them, perhaps in sacrifice, boils the flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gives it unto the people to eat. The whole action was significant. Elisha sealed by it his covenant with the Lord, took a solemn leave of his previous station, life, and occupation, and testified his entire and unhesitating surrender and dedication of himself to God, who had called him to his office. A like procedure, my friends, must take place, in substance, in our own houses and hearts, if we desire to enter into life. "He that forsaketh not all he hath," saith Jesus, "cannot be my disciple." Whatever thou lovest out of him, or more than him, thou must bring to his cross and slay it before him. Is mammon thy idol? Renounce it, else Satan holds thee by a golden chain. Is it worldly honour? Away with it; cast back the baubles of this sorceress in scorn, and seek the honour that cometh from God only. Is it wisdom and understanding? Renounce them, and become a fool for Christ's sake. Is it indulgence, luxury, and pride? Burst the slavish bonds, and crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. We cannot be the Lord's, unless we are so entirely, with all that we have and are. He must be our whole portion, our all in all. And not only must we give up the golden calves themselves, the outward objects of sinful enjoyment; but the very reins and harness by which they drag us after them, our inward lust and concupiscence must be cast off, nay, most earnestly of all devoted to destruction, and hewn asunder by the sword of the Lord from heaven. "Whole burnt-offerings" are what the Lord requires for his altar; and his watchmen cry, "Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence; be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord."

Once more we enter the peaceful house at Abel-meholah, where a new scene presents itself. The solemn act of dedication is over, and the aged parent, his wife, and the servants of the household, have sat down to the friendly meal

which the parting Elisha had provided for them. It was such a feast as that at which Levi, the new disciple, entertained his Lord, when he put to shame the false austerity and captious ignorance of the Pharisees. It was a feast of joy called forth by the signal honour which the Lord had done to Elisha and his house. It was a farewell feast, in which the ties that bound heart to heart might be strengthened, and affection might prepare itself for a long living on tender recollections. Elisha, the master of the feast, appears already in his new character of prophet; and the old relations of every kind seem done away. His parents look on with strange solemnity, and with the submission due to a minister of Jehovah. The servants who formerly

associated with him as an equal, now sit still and silent, and cannot help looking up to him with eyes of wonder; hanging on his lips, and feeling themselves deeply honoured when he addresses them with his former kindness. There is joy and cheerfulness in the hearts of all, but a calm reverence has entered the house, and surrounded the table, as if a prince sat beside it, or an angel were entertained at it not "unawares." The emotions of Elisha himself may be imagined. Here he felt himself at home no longer. The present had lost for him its interest, and his thoughts wandered into the future. The mysterious memento which Elijah had left with him, had stirred his mind with the deepest emotions. He knew well that the casting of the mantle over him was the omen of great events, though what these events were to be, he could not tell. A whole world of great presentiments was opening up before him. Dear as his father's house was to him, the inward call was not to be resisted, and for bis sake it was not to be lamented that the hour of parting came so soon. Once more he gives his parents a tender embrace. The thoughts that are too deep for utterance shine through their mutual tears. With a convulsive start he breaks at length away from their arms, grasps with a brother's kindness the hand of each of his old associates and friends, and hastens forth sad and pensive from the house of his fathers. A pilgrim's staff, and the parental

blessing, is all that he carries with him. He leaves the care of the future with cheerful resignation to Him who had called him to his service, and who clothes the lilies of the field. With rapid steps and lightening heart he wanders over the plain, and having turned round for the last time to bless the home of his childhood, and to commend its dear inmates to the care of the great Shepherd of Israel, he tarries no longer by the way, but hastens to overtake his master Elijah on the road to Samaria, and to meet the scenes of that wonderful future, which lay before him in magic light, a more than earthly perspective, a veiled and mystic world of wonder.

With such struggling of unutterable hope, and sense of sovereign attraction, have all of us, my brethren in the faith, followed the Lord Jesus, when he cast over our naked souls the mantle of his righteousness, and we found him to be the Leader of our salvation, and our Guide to the Father Then there was no more leaving of him for ever, and no tarrying behind with aught that before was dear; an unquenchable longing to be complete in union with Him allowed us, while out of Him, no peace or rest. Our whole desires have received their bias for eternity. A mighty attraction has drawn them all upwards, and through all resistance they must follow Him to his throne. Let the might of earth or of hell turn the needle from its pole-star; it is but for an hour or a day, and it recoils to its heavenly bent with a more sacred violence. The fire that fell from heaven into our hearts has kindled the sacrifice, and it must mount again to heaven in its own flames. The world is not our rest. The satisfaction, the repose, the very element of our souls, is the presence of Jesus. Would that this glorious picture, my dear flock, were realized in all of you. May the wing of Divine mercy overshadow you all on earth, and gather you all under it to everlasting Sabbath rest!

VIII.-NABOTH'S VINEYARD.

"TRUTH, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fail from the master's table." This was the believing answer with which the woman of Canaan surmounted the last obstacle by which Jesus had tried her faith, Matt. xv. 27, 28. And as the brightness of the sun is reflected in a dewdrop, the whole glory of the gospel and the deepest experience of all true Christians shines forth in these words of this poor outcast from the commonwealth of Israel.

"Truth, Lord," said the woman; and how deep, my friends, is the import of that one word, "Truth." You remember the language of the Saviour, "It is not meet to take the children's bread and give it to dogs." He had applied this term to her in common with all who are not children of the household. The woman answers, 66 Truth, Lord;" and thus confesses the justness of the title, and hence the condemnation of all who are in a state of nature. But she adds, "yet;" and in this the whole glory of the gospel shines. The words in her mouth stand very near each other; but there stands between them a cross surrounded with the terrors of Divine wrath; an altar streaming with the only innocent blood that ever flowed on earth, a Lamb that taketh away the sin of the world; a Surety that receives the punishment due to the actual offenders. O blessed salvation! Though, fallen and condemned, we must sigh out, "Truth, Lord," the wonders of Calvary enable us to add our "Yet," with heartfelt joy. It is a great and difficult step to utter the former, as we see from the experience of David in the 32d Psalm. But it is not enough for salvation, unless we add the latter, as we see from the case of Cain and Judas. The union of both, as in this poor woman of Canaan, is required to form the true saint of God, and wherever the deep feeling of guilt and misery is relieved of its bitterness by hope in the mercy of God in Christ, there and there only do we find the glory of the gospel