indeed will be the outpouring of your gratitude, and zealous and earnest its returns in the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, and holy obedience, when you consider what you are, and what you might have been; nay, what you were, and what you still would be, were it not for God's sovereign grace, to which alone you are indebted for your revival from a death in sin, to a life of holiness here, and of happiness in the eternity which is awaiting you.

But we must pursue this eventful story to its melancholy close.

"So Hazael departed from Elisha, and came to his master, who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover." How utterly false and unjustifiable was this reply. Elisha had certainly said that Benhadad might recover, but he had never said he should do so; he had distinctly declared that he should surely die." " This falsehood,

however, was only the first step in the downward career of guilt, which the prophet had predicted, and which, as usual, darkened as it advanced.

No doubt the intention of Hazael was to blind Benhadad to his danger. For had he repeated truly the prophet's message, in all probability the sick man would have sent, not "forty camels' load of every good thing in Damascus," but four hundred, if he might but have prevailed upon Elisha to do for him, what he had done for Naaman. But Hazael had a very different project, and he must lull his victim into a false security, that he might encounter no difficulty, and lose no time in carrying it into effect.

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How often does Satan, even at the sent hour, practise precisely the same cunning and destructive stratagem. Is the sick man terrified at the thought of approaching dissolution, Satan dreads lest this be followed by a heartfelt cry for mercy, a strong, deep feeling of re

pentance, and like Hazael, he whispers in his ear, "Thou shalt surely recover; this sickness is not unto death, be not alarmed, all will yet be well. Is the sinner partially awakened to a sense of his own dreadful situation? does he see the opening gulf which his sins have prepared for him? does he fear the justly awakened anger of God which he has so long despised? the same false and deluding comforter is present to assuage his fears, and calm his apprehension, “Thou shalt not surely die, for God doth know" that thou art not so bad as thousands around thee; dismiss, therefore, thy fears, "eat, drink, and be merry."

Brethren, beware of the tempter, under what form soever he present himself, but fear him most of all when he counterfeits the Comforter, when disguised as an angel of light he would carry peace and consolation to your heart. It is like Hazael, only that he may the easier stifle your cry for pardon, and smother the convic

tions which are perhaps for the first time struggling into life within your bosom. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Listen to him, and he will destroy you. Be not thus robbed of what may be to you your last, your only hope. Be not, I beseech you, thus fooled out of a soul's salvation. Let your earnest, heartfelt cries ascend to that mercy-seat where prayer was never yet in vain. Ask for that Spirit who can alone convert the heart. Plead powerfully with that Saviour who is the sinner's friend, whose blood cleanseth from all guilt, who "hath life in himself, and quickeneth whom he will." Nothing can keep you from him, unless you permit Satan to harden your heart, to postpone your repentance, to suffocate your prayers.

"And it came to pass on the morrow, that Hazael took a thick cloth, and dipped it in water, and spread it on Benhadad's face, so that he died."

Hazael's lie, therefore, was abundantly

successful. Benhadad's fears were calmed, his apprehensions quieted, he no longer desired to see the prophet, he no further doubted as to the result; his anxieties were succeeded by a peaceful and gentle repose; and his friend, the man who was indebted to him for all that he possessed of worldly rank and affluence, the man whom the king delighted to honour, and placed at his own right hand, converted, in one guilty moment, that sleep of peace into the sleep of death.

"And Hazael reigned in his stead," is the brief and only comment of Holy Writ. The benefactor dies a violent death, and the murderer becomes a prosperous and successful king.

Brethren, if it were only for cases such as these, and history is full, and human life, alas, even at the present hour, is not destitute of them, a disbelief in a future state, and in that Saviour who alone can make it, to us, a blessed and a happy one, would "dim the stars above our