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about the ark-his regard for God even more than his man parental or patriotic feelings, that rendered him too ard restless to abide within his house. Feeble as he was, ma he had gone forward to the road which the expected the messenger must pass; and had there sat watching, hour after hour, for tidings-as though the roar of conflict might be faintly borne to him on the breeze. His anxiety was at last but too fully satisfied. A bloody battle had been fought. The messenger appeared—“ a man of Benjamin, with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head"—the sign that he was the bearer of evil tidings. Eli's eyes were dim, so that he could not discern the ill-omened sight; but he was speedily aroused by the prevailing tumult and consternation. He enquired into the cause only to find his worst fears more than realized. "The man came in hastily," and told him"I am he that came out of the army, and I am fled to-day out of the army."- And Eli said, "What is there done, my son ?" The tidings were indeed fraught with melancholy reproach for his own misconduct. The vengeance had come upon Eli and on all his house; it had come upon the nation also, with crushing might— for God had" delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the the enemy's hand." "Israel is filed before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas are dead, and the ark of God is taken. And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that Eli fell off from his seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died.".

Human nature remains unaltered; the service of the Lord is still that from which the corrupt heart recoils, madly rushing on destruction, and arming against itself the unslumbering vengeance of the Almighty towards the daring and hardened transgressors of his law. How often has the tyranny of evil habit been suffered, as in the case of Eli's household, to become confirmed, without any adequate attempt to check its growth, to the production of misery in this world, and ruin in the next! The period has been permitted to pass away, during which preparation might have been made against the evil time of calamity and sorrow;、 when the memory might have been stored with pious precepts, the mind enlightened to discern between good and evil, the affections won over to wisdom's ways of pleasantness and peace. So melancholy a result would not be so frequently exemplified, were parents but faithful to their solemn charge; were children but impressed with that "fear of the Lord," which is the beginning of wisdom," and taught to seek from on high, light for the erring understanding, and strength for the feeble step.

The ages that have passed away since this history was recorded, have witnessed but too many similar illustrations of the consequences of such neglect; enough to show that the carelessness which operates in the first instance so fearfully in facilitating the ruin of those for whom fathers and mothers are responsible in the sight of God-whose blood will lie at their door, whose souls will be required at their hands, may become instrumental, to an extent which it is impossible to compute,

in diffusing around the poison of evil example, and in producing that amount of wretchedness which infests society along with ungodliness and crime-making the "land to mourn, because of the wickedness of them that dwell therein," and but too likely to draw down, even in this world, the vengeance of an offended God. As the carelessness of Eli was followed by results that pierced his soul with anguish the slaughter of his worthless sons, and the downfal of his house-—the disastrous defeat of Israel, and the capture of the ark of God; so will it still be found, that if a time arrive, when it may be said of a country such as our's,—highly favoured as it has been with the light of truth—that its children are "sons of Belial," who "know not the Lord"-the glory will have departed-the ark of God will be no longer present-the light of his countenance removed-to give place to revolting unbelief, to wickedness and wild despair. Oh! rather let the seed of the kingdom be sown in every household; let the leaven be imparted which silently works its way; let the followers of the Lord Jesus remember the dignity and the duty of their profession; seeking to be as lights shining in a dark place, as the preserving salt which keeps the mass from corruption. Let each individual beware how he trifles with the message of mercy; and admits the beginnings of evil; and, departing from the fear of the Lord, embarks in the perilous course in which so many-the sport of temptation, and the prey of evil desires-have made shipwreck of eternity, and cast away the hope of glory.

If any are persevering in such conduct as Scripture

has denounced, alike in positive precepts and by means of warning examples, though they have been taught that they who harden their hearts against the Lord cannot hope to prosper, assuredly their guilt will be enhanced, and their punishment prove the sorer, because of the opportunities of improvement which they have wasted, the convictions that have been lost upon them, and the remonstrances they have despised. They might have “known the Lord;" for He gave them a record of his will, a guide to point out to them the path of life; an unfolding of the scheme, devised and executed, for the recovery of the fallen; of the method in which the sin-polluted might gain entrance into the place that is irradiated with the glory that pervades the upper sanctuary. They might have known Him; for in early childhood He sought to draw them with the "cords of love ;" and said, "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." They might have known Him; for all their life-long did he shower down on them unnumbered and unregarded blessings; adding year after year to their existence-looking for fruit, but finding none-still sparing, for he waited to be gracious-appealing to every motive, whether of fear or of desire, that they might be drawn to engage in his service-by the terrors of the lost, by the love embodied and exhibited in the person of the Saviouronce the "Man of sorrows," but now the exalted Redeemer, gone to secure in His own lofty abode, a place for all his followers. They might have known Him; for He had appealed to them by providences and by judgments, that ought to have aroused them from

lethargy; and by many a holy life, and hallowed and peaceful death, that they might see how unspeakable a boon was the possession of His favour. And if, after all, they the children of so many mercies, and partakers of so clear light-have been apt in learning only Belial's lessons, will not the heathen and idolater rise up against them at the judgment-day, as the men of Nineveh shall rise against guilty Jerusalem-as Sodom and Gomorrah shall testify against greater guilt than their's? Must they not be consigned to more fearful misery, and plunged in darkness more appalling? Must they not, when the dead arise, and the elements dissolve, shrink with more bitter consciousness of unworthiness, and more agonizing terror from the glance of the Son of Man-invoking with more piercing shrieks than any other class of sinners that lived on earth, the vain shelter of rock and mountain to cover them from "Him that sitteth on the throne," and from "the wrath of the Lamb ?" Amen.