ness of our own which this law will accept. Mere law can accept none but a perfect righteousness.

By the deeds of the law" therefore "there shall no flesh be justified." From this tribunal we must appeal to the throne of grace, and rest for justification on the perfect righteousness of the Redeemer. As we contemplate the requirements of the law, we see at once our absolute need of the righteousness of Christ. But unless we are his disciples by faith, his righteousness can avail us nothing. And we are not his disciples unless we pant after holiness, and watch and pray and diligently use the means appointed. We must reach forth after a greater and still greater conformity to the divine law.— "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." Amen.

SERMON XVIII.

WHERE IS THE LORD GOD OF ELIJAH1

II. KIN. II. 14.

Where is the Lord God of Elijah?

This was the exclamation of Elisha at a time when his master had just been taken up from him in a fiery chariot, and he stood in need of the assistance of that God who had so remarkably displayed his power in the days of Elijah. In that period of declension from the worship of Jehovah, a long suffering God raised up a succession of prophets to bear testimony for him and to work miracles in his name. One of the most distinguished of these prophets was Elijah. The time in which he executed the prophetic office was a remarkable period in the history of that people. Except Moses and Samuel, there had been no prophet whose ministry had been attended with such pre-eminent tokens of divine power. At his request the heavens

were shut that "it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months;" when he was hungry the ravens were commanded to feed him; at his word the widow's meal and oil failed not during the famine; he restored the same widow's son to life; he gloriously triumphed over the prophets of Baal by calling fire from heaven on Carmel; "he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit ;" he called fire from heaven to consume the two captains with their hostile bands. At last when the time drew near for him to be received up into heaven, he came to Jordan with Elisha, and "took his mantle and wrapped it together and smote the waters, and they were divided,

-so that they two went over on dry ground.—And it came to pass as they still went on and talked, that behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces." At this time of distress, when that glorious season of divine wonders was past, (the season of Elijah's ministry,) when Elisha looked back on those delightful days as forever gone,-when his trembling soul panted for the return of those displays of divine power and glory,— when he ventured, in the strength of the Lord, to attempt the same things that Elijah had done; it was then that he looked upward and inquired, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" This inquiry

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he made when he smote the waters of Jordan with Elijah's mantle and opened a passage for himself on dry ground. This inquiry we may suppose he made when he healed the waters of Jericho,—when by his frown he called two she bears from the wood to destroy the children of idolatrous parents who had been taught to mock him,-when he multiplied the widow's oil,-when he raised the Shunammite's son, when he purified the poisoned pottage, when he fed the multitude with a few loaves,-when he healed Naaman,-when he smote Gehazi with leprosy,—when he made the iron swim,—when he ed his servant's eyes to behold the mountain full of chariots and horses of fire,-when he smote the messengers of Syria with blindness and again restored their sight. The spirit of Elijah did rest upon Elisha in an increased degree. When the former was about to ascend into heaven, he "said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee.-And Elisha said, I pray thee let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing; nevertheless if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee." Elisha saw him when he ascended: he caught his falling mantle, and with it a double portion of his spirit, and in the course of his life performed more miracles than his master had done.

The particular point in which I wish to view the prophet as inquiring for the Lord God of Elijah, is in the act of raising the Shunammite's son. It was her only child,-the son of her old age,-which God had given her for her hospitality to the pro