cannot turn to any one else? to cling to him because the world forsakes them? to offer the dregs of existence to Jehovah, when the cup of life has been well nigh drained in honour of other gods? to bring the last moments of life, -the small atoms of the diamond-dust of time, which are all that remain, when the bag has been well shaken of the more precious jewels of months and years, that have been lavishly devoted to the service of Satan, and to the dishonour of God,-and to offer these! Can any of you calmly reflect on this, and persevere in a course of utter neglect of the calls of your Maker and Judge? Can you do it, "before whose eyes Christ has been evidently set forth crucified," and before whose souls' vision from time to time have flashed the indescribable glories of a blissful heaven, as the Spirit of Truth unveiled the better land, while the minister of the gospel was inviting men to secure and partake of its joys? May not you expect that the very stones of the street would find a voice to upbraid you, if God has to wait another hour for the proffer of your service? Oh! let all press forward eagerly to the footstool of God; and as your hearts thrill under the consciousness of his infinite goodness, exclaim,

"In vain our mortal voices try,

To speak compassion so divine:
Had we a thousand hearts to give,

A thousand hearts should all be thine."

Whether you are ready to recognize the fact or not, it is true, that you are bought with a price, and are therefore bound "to glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's." Ponder this, and remember it is not a service which you may if you please refuse, but a settled and positive duty, to which the voice of Jehovah imperatively calls you, and from which no unwillingness whatever can excuse you. You are environed by obligations

from which no power in heaven, or earth, or hell, can free you. You are God's creature, and as such you cannot escape the essential obligations which spring out of this relationship. God says, "Behold, all souls are mine;" and in laying claim to them, he lays claim to all that belongs to them. Will you now recognize that claim, and,—not merely because "the Spirit of God hath made you, and the breath of the Almighty hath given you life," but because the Son of God has redeemed you, and that at an immense price,-yield to him "soul and life and all?"

LECTURE VI.

SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES; OR, GEHAZI, A

LIAR AND A LEPER.

2 KINGS V. 20-27.

THIS episode, relating to Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, is a very painful and melancholy close to an otherwise instructive and interesting history. It is introduced here because it is associated with the closing actions and words of Naaman, and because of the salutary though terrible lessons it teaches. The first verse of this chapter and the last both speak of a leper, but how appallingly different are the respective positions of the two men, where the narrative leaves them! As we float along the stream of history, the last look we gain of Naaman, who appeared before us in the early part of this chapter shaded by the clouds of sorrow, shows him to us restored and happy; the sunshine of goodness and mercy streaming around him with a bright and joyous radiance. The last glimpse we get of Gehazi is that of an outcast,

with the mark of God's finger upon him-fleeing from the society of men, who would not suffer him to remain amongst them, to nurse in solitude and misery the bitter remembrances of his consummate folly, and to bewail his severely, though justly, punished guilt. The former case is presented to our notice, that we may perceive the greatness of the divine mercy, and rejoice in both the bodily and spiritual cure which was wrought for Naaman; the latter, that we may see the abhorrence of God against sin, and be warned to avoid the transgressions which here meet with such a terrible curse. Naaman, so far as we know, was not suffering for any sin of his own, but probably had inherited the disease from his parents,-as it is well known to be hereditary in families; and our sympathy with him under the dire calamity is therefore more readily excited, and our gratitude and pleasure are greater, when, through the miraculous interposition of God, he is freed from his leprosy. Gehazi's case is represented as the direct infliction of a holy God, in a spirit of righteous judgment, because of the sins just before committed. So that there was accompanying the disgrace and serious inconvenience, which attached them

selves to the discase, the sharper pang and deeper degradation, which arose from the conviction that he was suffering under the indignant curse of an offended God.

We shall find that the servant of the prophet had more than one guilty propensity chargeable upon him. In the previous chapter he is first introduced to us, in connexion with the interesting circumstances related of the Shunammite woman, towards whom however there was one act of his that did not indicate a kind and sympathizing heart. His character seems not at first to have been fully perceived by the prophet; put the prophet's Master knew Gehazi; and when the child of the Shunammite lay on the couch of death, and Elisha sent his servant to place his staff on his face, with the hope that he might be restored, no return to life followed. God thus silently testified against the unworthy servant; and refused to work a miracle in connexion with the movements of any such agent.

In the twentieth verse we have his soliloquy, in which the covetousness and irreverence of the man broadly display themselves. "Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the Lord liveth, I will run