"Behold," he says, "I have divided unto you by lot these nations which remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes. . . . And the Lord your God, He shall expel them from before you. Be ye therefore very courageous'." And so in like manner Christ has done the whole work of redemption for us; and yet it is no contradiction to say, that something remains for us to do: we have to take the redemption offered us, and that taking involves a work. We have to apply His grace to our own souls, and that application implies pain, trial, and toil, in the midst of its blessedness. He has suffered and conquered, and those who become partakers in Him, undergo in their own persons the shadow and likeness of that passion and victory. In them, one by one, is acted over again and again the history of the Son of God, so that as He died they die to sin, as He rose again, so they rise again to righteousness; and in this imitation of His history consists their participation of His glory. He truly has planted us in the land of promise, and has given our enemies into our hands; but they are still in it, and they have to be expelled from it; and as the Israelites after Joshua's death entered into a truce with them instead of obeying his command, so we too, after our Lord's departure, instead of making that righteousness our own, which He has of His free grace imputed to us at the first, too often are content with that nominal imputation, and think it enough that He has "divided out the nations which remain," careless about fulfilling His directions in destroying them.

1 Josh. xxiii. 4-6.

[S. D.]

M

4

says,

"the

weapons

of our

We

To conclude though Joshua is a figure of Christ and His followers in that he is a combatant and a conqueror, in one point of view he plainly differs from them. He was bidden use carnal weapons in his warfare; but of ours St. Paul warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong-holds." And, again, as the Prophet says, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." "Ride on," says the Psalmist," because of the word of truth, of meekness and righteousness;" and the armies which follow Christ are "upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean ;" and "fine linen is the righteousness of saints 1." Such is the rule of our warfare. advance by yielding; we rise by falling; we conquer by suffering; we persuade by silence; we become rich by bountifulness; we inherit the earth through meekness; we gain comfort through mourning; we earn glory by penitence and prayer. Heaven and earth shall sooner fall than this rule be reversed; it is the law of Christ's kingdom, and nothing can reverse it but sin. As Achan could cause the defeat of the armies of Israel, so sin, indeed, of whatever kind, habitual, or hidden, or scandalous, may disturb this divine provision, but nothing else. Let us pray that we may all of us be kept pure from sin; let us pray that at last, when we are well stricken with years, we may be as Joshua, not gifted with riches of this world, or with the blessings of life, or with "the precious things brought forth by

1 2 Cor. x. 4.
3 Ps. xlv. 4.

2 Zech. iv. 6.

4 Rev. xix. 8. 14.

the sun," or "the precious things put forth by the moon;" but with " a name better than of sons and of daughters," "the Eternal God for our refuge, and underneath the everlasting arms."

SERMON XIII.

ELISHA A TYPE OF CHRIST AND HIS FOLLOWERS.

(ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.)

2 KINGS ii. 9.

"And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me."

HERE is so much alike at first sight in the history

THERE

of Elijah and Elisha, that it is not surprising if many of us (as I suppose is the case) confuse them one with the other. Yet if we examine the sacred narrative carefully, we shall find that they differ from each other as widely as those children in the market-place, described by our Lord, the figures of Himself and St. John Baptist, who first piped and then mourned. Certainly there are many things which correspond in their respective histories. Both wrought miracles; both withstood kings; both, at God's bidding, visited in mercy the heathen in their neighbourhood; both lived in one age and one country, and apparently with one principal design in God's Providence, viz. that of witnessing against idolatry. Even the same miracles were wrought by the one and the other; both multiplied

oil; both raised a dead child: so far they resemble each other.

Yet they differ in many important respects. Elijah led an ascetic and solitary life, and was the great Reformer of Israel; he was a preacher of repentance, and the avenger of God's honour upon false gods and their worshippers. What the kings Hezekiah and Josiah did in Judah, that work Elijah the Prophet did in Israel, and by the same weapon, the sword. On the other hand, Elisha lived in the world, mixed with all classes of people, had greater political influence (as we now call it), and the higher invisible gifts.

Of Elijah it is said, "He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins1." We read of him first as miraculously fed by ravens in concealment, then living on the oil and meal miraculously increased; and this for three years: next, as showing forth the great miracle on Mount Carmel before all the people, of calling down fire from heaven on the sacrifice, and as slaughtering the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal; then, as fleeing to the wilderness, sustained miraculously by an Angel, going forty days and nights without food; then as returning and denouncing judgment upon Ahab; then as calling fire from heaven upon the messengers of Ahaziah; and, lastly, as taken up without dying in a whirlwind. Such is the course of his history, very mysterious throughout, as if he did not live on earth, but only appeared from time to time for special purposes. Like Melchizedek, he has neither beginning of days nor end of life; he is introduced 12 Kings i. 8.