ADDRESSES.

ADDRESS I.

THE YOUNG PERSONS WHO MOCKED ELISHA.

My dear Children,

I am going to talk to you this afternoon about two of the Prophets: but let me first explain to you who the Prophets were. They were persons whom God sent,in former times, to the Jews, to make known his will, and to warn them of events which were to come; and he gave them power to do many wonderful things, which other people could not do. Samuel, you will recollect, was called to be a prophet, when he was a child; and it was through him that God told the Israelites that David was to be their king, as you read in the first book of Samuel, the sixteenth chapter. Elisha was another of the Prophets;-he made the water of a well sweet and fit to drink, though it had always before been bad; and he increased the stock of the poor widow's oil so much, that she had enough to pay all her debts; and he raised the child of the Shunamite woman to

life by stretching himself upon it. Dániel was another of the Prophets, and he told the king of Babylon, that he had been 'weighed in the balance and found wanting,' and that his kingdom should be given to the Medes and Persians. And so too Isaiah and Jeremiah were Prophets; and they told, before it came to pass, how the Jews should return from their captivity, and live in their own land again. The Prophets, then, were men, who had power and authority from God, to make known his will to mankind, and to tell what would happen in after times.

I dare say that all of you know, that one of the Prophets was called Elijah, and that he was taken up in a chariot of fire into heaven without dying. Now Elijah had a friend, the Prophet Elisha, of whom I have already spoken to you; and a short time after Elijah was taken up into heaven, Elisha was going along the road, and there came some children, or young persons, out of the town, who mocked him, and said, 'Go up, thou bald-head! Go up, thou bald-head!' 2 Kings ii, 23. By this they meant to deny that Elisha was really a prophet. It was as if they had said, 'If you are truly a Prophet, as you pretend to be, let us see you go up into heaven in a chariot of fire, as your friend Elijah did.' But it was very wicked in them to say this; for the man whom they were

mocking, was really and truly a prophet, and they might have know him to be one; for he had turned bad water into good at the well of Jericho, which no one but a Prophet could do; and it was nothing but hardness of heart and bad dispositions, which prevented them from acknowledging him to be what he said he was.

But the fault of those young persons was made worse by their calling Elisha names; for they said, Go up, thou`bald-head!' It is a great fault in any one, and particularly in children, to call names. Elisha perhaps had a bald-head, which made him appear very singular. But this was no reason for their calling him names; it was rather a reason for their treating him with more than common respect, since he was probably bald because he was an old man. But who was it that had made him so bald? Was it not God? And is it not God who inakes one man very little, and another very tall, and one man lame, and another hunchbacked and deformed? If then it be God who has made us all what we are, to mock those who have any defect or deformity of body is nothing less than to mock God himself.

It was God who made us, and not we ourselves; and we find that he is good to all, and that he treats all with constant kindness, Whether a man be handsome or plain, whether he be straight or crooked, tall or short, it

makes no difference with God; but he causes his beautiful sun to shine equally upon all, and giveth to all air to breathe,and 'rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons,filling their hearts with food and gladness.' If then the great God, who is our Father in heaven,be kind and good to all his creatures without distinction, so ought we to be kind to all and to treat with respect, whatever be their condition in life, or whatever be their deformities.

But let us make the case our own. Suppose that one of us is born with a hunch on his back, or with one leg shorter than the other, or with some defect in his eyes, should we like our companions to call us names on this account, or to laugh at us for what we cannot help? No; we should think it very cruel and unfeeling of them. When, therefore, we feel ourselves disposed to mock and ridicule others, we ought always to ask ourselves, whether we should like to be so treated? And if not, we ought carefully to refrain from what we had intended to do or say, remembering our Saviour's golden rule, as it has been called, 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.'

But the children of whom I have been speaking to you, showed themselves to be as silly as they were wicked. They had not sense enough to see that appearances signify nothing; and that

a man may be very wise and very good, though he may not be handsome to look at. Elisha, although he had scarcely any hair on his head, was the very wisest man that was then living on the earth; and it often happens that the best men, and those most able to teach others, are either very short, or very plain, or deformed in some way or other-which shows that we should not look only to a man's outward appearance, but that we should try to discover from his words and actions whether he is truly wise and good; and, if he be, we should respect him, and be willing to learn from him.

We now come to the punishment of these young persons. We are told that the prophet ' turned back and cursed them in the name of the Lord;' the meaning of which is, that he told before it happened the dreadful punishment which God was going to inflict upon them. 'And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tore forty-two children of them.' Such was the dreadful fate of these children; they were torn in pieces on the spot by wild beasts: and such will be the punishment of all those who sin like them. Not indeed that all those who mock and call names will be devoured by wild beasts. In this country there are no wild beasts to come out of the woods and devour us; but they who commit wickedness, and offend against the laws of God, will surely be