SERMON XVI.

GOD'S REFRESHMENTS FOR PENITENTS.

1 KINGS XIX. 7.

"The Angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him saying, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee."

If we begin Lent with holy fear, determined in earnest to deny ourselves in some way or other; if we go on soberly in that mind, and if we are not too impatient for comfort, we shall find before long that comfort comes. It may not come so soon as we had wished or imagined, it may not come in the particular way we should have chosen; for a while it may not seem to come at all; but come it will, sooner or later, to them that in humble obedience resign themselves to the want of it.

Look to those aweful times of fasting, which are set before us in Holy Scripture as patterns of Christ's true way of repentance. The Bible tells us of three solemn Lents at least, before our Saviour's Lent in the wilderness: three seasons of forty days, during which God's chosen and faithful ones sought Him in strict abstinence from earthly refreshment. Moses entered into the cloud fearing and trembling, and gat him up into the Mount, and was there forty days

and forty nights: he did neither eat bread nor drink water. Once he did this for fear and devotion's sake, that his soul might be more thoroughly awake and alive to contemplate the heavenly things, the pattern to be shewn him in the Mount. Again he did it in fear and anxiety, to obtain God's pardon for his people after their great sin in making the golden calf. He fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights, like unto the first, he did neither eat bread nor drink water, because he was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the Lord was wroth against His people to consume them. He fasted first for contemplation, and afterwards for repentance; first to obtain the knowledge of God's will, then to obtain pardon from IIim for his people's sin. These were Moses' two Lents, kept in Horeb the mount of God. And long after, in the fallen times of Israel, we find both these fasts copied in one, by the great prophet Elijah, in the same mount Horeb, and in a time even of greater distress and anxiety. Elijah was in danger of his life, because he had slain the idolatrous prophets of Baal; he was also utterly downcast and perplexed in heart at the grievous sin and apostasy of his people. The children of Israel had forsaken God's covenant, thrown down His altars and slain His prophets with the sword and Elijah alone was left, and they sought his life to take it away. He knew not what to do, nor which way to turn. So "he 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."

Moses had put up the same request before him: "If thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, and let me not see my wretchedness." Both sayings are to be understood as expressing the deepest agony of mind at the sad corruption of those for whose good they were sent as well as extreme doubt and perplexity, not knowing what God would have them do, and fearing whatever they tried, to make things worse instead of better.

Elijah then being in this case, a day's journey out in the wilderness, alone, and far from the habitations of men, "as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise, and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God:" and there God appeared to him, and told him what to do.

This was Elijah's Lent, the third great type of our Saviour's, and no doubt of ours also. He had to seek God in evil times, and seemed quite forlorn and helpless. He was out in the waste wilderness by himself and thought he was the only one left of God's prophets. But an angel was watching him out of sight bread and water was miraculously provided for him strength was given him to bear his fast

a Num. xi. 15.

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and at the end of it he was told what to do, and comforted with the assurance that there were others besides him, even seven thousand in Israel, who had not bowed the knee unto Baal. His body was refreshed with meat brought by an angel, and his soul with the sweet and comfortable knowledge that God had yet a chosen remnant, that there were among His people a few at least, whom Hist grace had preserved from the general apostasy and idolatry. God was with him, God's faithful ones, though few and undistinguished by the world, were with him too.

As then we might learn from Moses' Lent, with what fear and trembling we should enter on this holy season, so we may take courage from Elijah's Lent to meditate on the gracious refreshments and encouragements which our gracious Master ever provides for those who try to serve Him in true self-denial. "Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee" is in truth His message, sent in various ways to various persons, when He sees them really entering on their course of Christian mortification.

Even in those troubles and destitutions, which are not exactly penitential, not of our own choosing to afflict our souls for their good, in the ordinary wants and calamities of life, especially when they are borne patiently, He ever deals with us in that gracious and Fatherly way. "He stayeth His rough wind in the day of the east wind." When things seem most forlorn, yet are there little glimpses and drops of consolation and hope, for those who have b Isa. xvii. 8.

eyes and hearts to attend to them. When all around seems desert, when we look for some to have pity, but there is no man, when we have no place to flee unto, and no man caring for our souls, when people in their weakness have fairly wept themselves to sleep: then the Almighty and merciful One causes them to find an angel at waking, and refreshments ready prepared, bread and water, lest they faint altogether. The water was spent in the bottle, and Hagar had cast the child under one of the shrubs, and she lifted up her voice and wept; and the angel of the Lord called unto her and said, "what aileth thee Hagar? arise lift up the lad and hold him in thine arms." Abraham had stretched forth his hand, and taken the knife to slay his son; but the angel of the Lord called unto him from heaven, and said "lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God." Jacob was taking his solitary rest in the open air, sent away from his father's house, and in fear of being murdered by his brother: when the Lord shewed him angels ascending and descending to do him good, and promised him to make His covenant with him. So is it throughout the Holy Scripture and so is it, even according to what we can discern, in God's all gracious daily Providences. It is even come to be a sort of proverb, "when things come to the worst they will mend." All that have lived long and thoughtfully in the world must remember instances of it how they have been cared for, and helped, and consoled, in a thousand ways little and great, which they had no right to look for, just at

c Gen. xxi. 17.

d Gen. xxii. 12.