can find something better in other literature. But let him be broken on the cross; let him just see once into the valley of the shadow of death; let him once know the meaning of the sandy wilderness, and the rocky desert, and the place where there are no pools of water; let once his heart be shattered in every hope, and the whole sky drape itself in appalling gloom; then let the Psalms be read and the chapter be uttered in his hearing, and he will say, "This is the music I love, this is the voice I needed, this is the tender strain: read on, and on, for ever; for there is comfort in every tone, there is inspiration in every word; this is the balm of Gilead, this is as my Father's house."

When the child is not awaked do not blame the staff; when the neighbourhood is unaware of your spiritual presence do not blame the neighbourhood or the word, but seriously say to yourself, "Am I Gehazi? Am I the wrong man with the right staff? Have I got the right book, but am myself the wrong reader? Is the blame in me? Search me, and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and God be merciful to me a sinner." When there is more of such self-inquisition, and self-searching, and self-immolation, we shall awake to a nobler earnestness and give ourselves to a broader and deeper devotedness. Why did you take the staff? Was it only to see a miracle? Why did you turn preacher? Was it only to get a living? Why did you attach yourself to such and such a church? Was it merely that you might be counted orthodox? Can you say in your heart of hearts, "I would leave this ministry if I did not find bread in it. I would join another church if I should not lose social and ecclesiastical status. My limits chafe me, and I want some broader place, but dare not go forward, because I should leave behind me friends and patronage, personal and social ease and comfort"? If so, I will not pray that your church may be empty, and that your wages night by night may be the keenest disappointment. God will see to it that your teeth are broken with gravel-stones, and that the issue of your hypocrisy will be as a candle blown out, a name hated; when you are buried, it will not be in the sepulchre of the kings, and God will see that Gehazi does not play tricks with Elisha's staff; but he shall be unveiled, self-revealed, openly condemned, and die a leper without cure.

Now shall we change for one moment the point of view, and ask this question: Was not Elisha partly to blame in this matter? Did he send a staff when he ought to have gone himself? Did he seek a proxy? Did he say, "Spare me trouble; save my time; consider my convenience: Gehazi, take this staff, and run along and see what you can do with it"? We should instantly encounter the inquiry with a sharp and indignant denial, if we did not know that many men are practically doing the same thing. Does any man send a guinea when he ought to send a life? Does any man patronise Christ's Church when he ought to die to his own vanity, self-indulgence, and self-idolatry? Does any man endeavour to compound for self-immolation by sending other people to do his work? Jesus Christ gave-what? Himself. Body? Yes. "This is my body, broken for you." Blood? Yes. "This is my blood; eat ye all of this broken bread, drink ye all of this shed blood, this symbolic cup." He gave himself, and self-giving is the only true benefaction and donation. Let us not buy ourselves off by some gift of gold or silver. Such gifts we must give to be in the church at all; but they ought to represent sacrifice, denial, loss of enjoyment; they ought not to be mere asides, collateral incidents of which we take but small note. They ought to take bits out of us. We ought to be made to feel that part of ourselves has gone with every gift we gave.

No other man can do your work. There may be men as good as you, who can do their work better than you could do it; but no man can do your particular kind of work, no man can offer up your particular prayer. Every man has his own calling of God in this as in other matters. We do not all work in the same way. The good man to whom we have referred may not be what is termed a powerful, eloquent, or effective preacher, but he will speak healingly, lovingly, tenderly, and with sweet persuasiveness; and he will get hold of some who might be terrified by another style, and flee away from it, as men would seek to hide themselves from a threatening thunderstorm. No man can give away your tract; no other man can pay your visit to your sick friend. He knows you. A greater man would not be received. In some respects a better man would not be understood; but he knows you-every tone 9

VOL. VIII.

A

in your voice, every motion of your hand within his, every look of your eye, every variation of your countenance, and a word from you has an effect which it would not have from any other living creature. Let every man, therefore, recognise his individual election and calling in this matter, and fulfil the same self-sacrificingly and gladly. Do not imagine that the failure is always attributable either to Elisha or to the staff, or even to Gehazi. There are some failures in the ministry of the word which are not to be spoken about as involving dishonesty on the part of the particular minister exercising it. Even Jesus Christ himself sometimes said, "The child is not awaked; there is no sound of voice; there is no sign of hearing." Christ could not do many mighty works because of unbelief. God tries

us by our failures to see how faithful we really are. There is a temptation in success, and we need occasionally the empty church, the deserted pew, and the ineloquent time in the pulpit, to show us that this work is God's and not ours; that we have the treasure in earthen vessels, but the excellency of the power is of God and not of us.

And whilst there are failures attributable to the Gehazi spirit, and that may be attributable to the neglect of Elisha, there are other failures that have other explanations. My toiling brother, devoted minister, teacher with no harvest into which to thrust the sickle, messenger coming back again with the staff, saying, "The child is not awaked," do not let me afflict you with unjust reproaches. Sometimes all this experience occurs in the case of the best and noblest men. I merely put a case for inquiry. Do not spare the inquiry. Do not withhold your attention from it in all its aspects and merits; and if you can truly say, "I have done my utmost, God helping me; I have not spared myself; I have worked hard; I have been patient and hopeful, and here is the staff-the child is not awaked;" God will see to it that to-morrow you shall do a miracle that will bring back your joy, and seal the validity of your ministerial call. Take an example from the Shunammite herself. When Elisha said, "Take the staff, and run on before," she said, "As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, thou shalt go too." No staff for her. She wanted the presence of the living man, and she said she would not go without Elisha himself.

That was the right spirit. "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." We will wrestle here, not till dawn, but till mid-day, and round again to midnight. Throw me in this wrestling. It will be omnipotence conquering feebleness, and that is not a victory. Thou must win. Let my feebleness be my strength: let my poverty be my introduction; let my loving entreaty and desire be the guarantee of my prevalence. "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me."

A noted preacher was being waited for on the hills of Wales. The time had elapsed, the preacher was in the town, but was not on the hillside. The people were impatient, and the host of the preacher sent a messenger to tell him that the occasion was complete, and the people were ready and earnestly expecting him to come. The messenger went. The messenger came back again and said, "I do not know what is the matter, but the chamber door is locked. I heard voices within. I listened, and I heard the preacher say, 'I will not go, unless you go with me.' He is talking to some other man. He wants the other man to come, and unless that other man will come, he says he will not appear amongst us to-day. What is to be done?" The host understood the case. He said, "All will be well presently." And so it was. The closeted preacher unlocked the door, came out with an invisible companion, "one like unto the Son of man," and old Wales, accustomed to the noblest religious eloquence that ever fell from human lips, was never more deeply stirred and vitally thrilled than when that man spoke in the power of the other Man, and revealed the kingdom of God to an expectant and thankful people. Do not go without the other Man-the Man Christ Jesus. Do not go alone. Say, whenever you go to the pulpit, or class, or sickchamber, or district for any kind of Christian work whatsoever, say, "I will not go alone," and if that desire be uttered heartily, lovingly, honestly, you shall not go alone. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost will go with you, and the prey shall be delivered into your hand, and you shall return more than conqueror through him that loved you.

2 Kings iv. 38-44.

38. And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets.

39. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not.

40. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof.

41. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.

THE BANE AND THE ANTIDOTE.

HERE was rest in the days of the early ministry, as we may see the from thirty-eighth verse. A very beautiful picture is given in that verse, and yet a very ghastly one; the ghastliness being seen in the dearth or famine that was in the land, the seven years' dearth of which Elisha had prophesied; and the beauty of it is seen in the simplicity with which service was rendered to the prophet and the sons of the prophets: "Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets." The picture is that of the prophet seated among his young disciples, and caring not only for their intellectual culture but for their bodily welfare. In this sense how beautifully Elisha succeeds to the fatherly office which Elijah had so strongly and nobly sustained: one of the prophets went out into the field to gather herbs. Let him that is greatest amongst you be your servant. There is nothing wrong whatever in any minister whose circumstances dictate such a course going out to do his own work, to attend to his own necessities, and to be his own servant. The young prophet who went out found a climbing