many a man's religion, and to make him treat it very much as he treats his great coat or cloak; putting it on or off as the gales of preferment may blow. In my time I have seen much of this. Hence in the days of Elijah, an immoral, dishonest, worthless man, if he was only a Baalite, was sure to be made great, while a man upright, conscientious, and honourable, because a follower of the Lord God, was in disrepute and despised. If such motives ever prevail, it must be in minds that neither think deeply, nor feel keenly, nor are troubled by a conscience, nor value anything beyond this world and this world's good things. A day comes when all the pomp of equipage-all the trappings of circumstance-all that man thinks great and covets as grand, shall weigh less than one straw in the judgment of a dying man; while one drop of living water from the great fountain of life will be more ap preciated and more valued than all that the gold of India and the riches of Europe ever could or then can supply.

Such are some of the pretexts assigned for not following true religion, even after we have found out that it is the truth. If you intend to decide, your decision must be instant. Elijah did not say, if the Lord be God, take it into consideration to-morrow; but, “If the Lord be God, follow him." In other words, the duty was as instant as it was logical and right. All duties lie in the present; never in the future. When you say, I feel this to be my duty, but I will not attend to it till to-morrow, translated into plain words it is, I feel my duty, but I do not intend to carry it out. Procrastination to to-morrow of what you feel to be an obligation to-day, is, translated into plain terms, the refusal to do what God commands.

Elijah's words imply also that true religion is exclusive. It must be exclusive of every other religion whatever. You cannot take a little of Mahometanism, and a little of Hindooism, and a little of Christianity; and thus believe. Cæsar offered to the image of Christ a niche in the Pantheon 1800 years ago; but what was the answer of the Christians then? No: Christianity must fill the whole Pantheon with its glory, or it will not accept a niche or a nook in it. It is so with our hearts. Christ Jesus must occupy the throne of your hearts, or he will continue standing outside saying, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man will open I will come in." This religion of ours is uncompromising-I mean in its essential truths. There is one sense in which it is not uncompromising. I would do anything, suffer anything, to conciliate an enemy; nay, I would concede anything in outward form, if it would only lead to the conviction of a man's heart in reference to vital and essential truth. Christianity in its externals is magnificently latitudinarian ; but in its essential truths it is exclusive and uncompromising. It must be all in all, or it will be nothing; and every attempt at a compromise in religion has failed. What is Tractarianism? It is just an attempt to make a compromise between Protestant and Romish Christianity; and hence it is neither cold nor hotwithout the simple grandeur of the one, without the magnificent consistency of the other. And what is the issue? Any one that makes that compromise to make Protestantism popular and palatable never stops there. You rarely hear of a man dying a Tractarian; he either goes back to the Protestantism he unhappily left, or he goes forward to the Romanism which he has unhappily copied.

This appeal implies that man must have a God. "If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal be God, follow him." There is not in any assembly in Christendom a single thoughtless, worldly man, who is not as really and truly worshipping a god as the most devout Christian is worshipping the living God. When man was made, his whole soul was meant to be the chancel of God; in that consecrated chancel God dwelt. The instant that he sinned his soul did not cease to be the chancel, but God forsook it. But as by a great law there can be no vacuum, the instant the living God left, false gods of all sorts took possession of the deserted and forsaken shrine. It is of the very essence of a creature that he must lean. You never see a vine that is not fastening its tendrils upon something, that it may climb by. The affections must cling to something superior to themselves. Now what is superior to man? There is nothing superior to man but God. Man's greatness is so vast that he has no superior to him but the living and the true God. It is the evidence of a man's fall that he seeks a God in created things; it is the evidence of man's greatness that he can never find a being in the universe to fill the place that belongs to the living God. But depend upon it because you do not accept the true religion you are not living without a religion. Common sense-all the recollections of what God has done all the remains of the aboriginal glory, the sparks of which are not yet trodden out-all I have said as to the deference paid to this Book by the greatest, wisest, and best-all impel you, if you would be without the greatest criminality and danger, to accept this religion; and be happy upon earth, and the heirs. of a greater and richer happiness beyond it.

If you have accepted this religion, follow it out. "Where thou goest I will go; thy people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God." This is your safety. The Israelites were always safe when they followed the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. The prescription implies progressfollow the living and the true God. And by a singular law the longer you walk the easier you feel it to follow. The law of this world is that the farther a man walks the more weary he becomes; but the divine law is that the longer you walk the stronger you are; you walk and are not faint, you run and are not weary; you go on from strength to strength. This practical following of God is the solution of many a difficulty. When I find people puzzling their minds about election and predestination, my first impression is that they have never seriously and soberly embraced the Gospel. If f you follow on to know the Lord you will find your path like the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day. Here also is true consolation. When you follow Christ you follow a sun that never sets, whose rays are brightest and most genial in the hour when the heart is faintest and its burden heaviest. If you follow Christ you follow him around whom are grouped all that you loved on earth, and you would keep, but whom Christ took and you are following him to the general assembly of the first-born, to the spirits of just men made perfect; and every inch of ground that you tread has been beaten by the feet of near ones and dear ones that have preceded you; and consecrated by the footsteps of Him who hath left us an example that we should follow his steps..

;

THE FAINTING HEART.

ELIJAH IN THE COURT OF JEZEBEL.

ELIJAH.

JEZEBEL'S HATRED OF

ELIJAH'S COWARDICE. HIS DESPONDENCY. JOURNEY TO HOREB. HIS COMPLAINT. GOD'S WAY WITH HIM. REPROOF. ELISHA.

IN the last chapter we had the record of that remarkable scene which took place between Elijah and the false prophets; and the great conflict, and the decision of the conflict in favour of the claims of the Lord God of Israel. In this chapter we find Elijah returning to the court of Jezebel, and Ahab telling Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. It would appear that Jezebel was a woman of sanguinary and ferocious temperament, and that she had more to say in the government of the realm than Ahab himself, as one must necessarily infer from what she does when she hears of what Elijah had done. Ahab probably told Jezebel what had transpired in order that exaggerated accounts might not reach her; and in some degree, perhaps, because he wished to say a word in favour of Elijah, whose revelation of the Lord God of Israel had made a very great impression upon his royal heart. However, Jezebel, after she had heard the whole story, was not impressed with the truth, nor convinced by the miracle of the fire descending