wisdom and affection they could confide. If, as probably in the case of our text, it be a spiritual father whose loss is deplored, the affliction may be to the full as great. He has been the means of opening the eyes of your understanding, awakening you to the awful realities of eternity, to which the majority of the world is fast and fatally asleep, guiding you to the Saviour, conducting you to peace in a calm reliance on his precious promises, and a blessed hope of glorious immortality. He is separated from you; you will see him no more on earth: you cannot but weep over the loss you have sustained; and the only relief which, for the present, you can find is in suffering your tears to flow, and exclaiming, as Elisha did, " My father!"

But on the utterance of private feeling, however natural and excusable, it is not my design to dwell. When Elisha adverts to the calamity publicly sustained by the departure of Elijah from this world, he exclaims- The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!"

Chariots and horses were counted upon in those days as the chief strength of their armies; and, consequently, as the chief defence of their country against the enemy. Elisha, judging that Elijah, in his prophetical office, was the most efficient protector of his country, counts upon him as more valuable than all the chariots and horses

that Israel possessed. He speaks of his departure as a calamity as great as if they had been suddenly deprived of all their natural defence; as if none now remained to fight the battle and to achieve the victory; as if they now possessed no forces to withstand the invasion of their foes, to whose ravages they were constantly exposed.

A faithful Christian ministry is the chief protection of the country in which it is established. We may refer for proof not only to the declaration, but also to the examples of the Bible. Élijah was the means, by his intercessions, of preserving his country from a destructive famine. He prayed and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth her increase. God cannot withstand his people's prayers. "6 Here," says Luther," Omnipotence is weak." Therefore when he was angry with his people, he bid Moses "Let me alone, that I may consume them."-Ex. xxxii. 10.

The psalmist (Ps. cvi. 23) records the testimony of God himself upon the matter. "He said that he would

[No. 10.]

destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them." What other means could have averted Jehovah's wrath? What could chariots and horses have effected? See the efficacy of a prophet's intercession in the case of Amos, vii. 2, 3, 5, 6: "I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. The Lord repented for this: this also shall not be, saith the Lord God.' The New Testament also is fully fraught with testimony to the truth of God's jealous vindication of their office and authority. See Rev. xi. 3—6.

When a nation comes to disregard the ministry of God's word and sacraments, that nation's downfal is at hand. His ministers are under his immediate protection; he reproves even kings for their sakes, saying, "Touch not mine anointed."-Ps. cv. 15. Ten thousand times ten thousand chariots and horses can yield no help to any people, if God is turned to be their enemy; but he will hear and answer the intercessions of his faithful servants. He has chosen to be inquired of by his people through the medium of his prophets. It is not in them more than in any living to propitiate his favour; but thus he chooses to honour his own appointment; and it is wisdom to submit to His authority. As the removal of a powerful protection, the death of a devoted Christian minister is a loss. It is an occasion on which may be taken up the language of David," How are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph."

This expression of the text may convey to our minds the further idea that a faithful Christian ministry is the chief means of conducting to heaven the people whom God has chosen to himself. A minister is, in this sense, "the chariot of Israel." He is set apart in the providence of God for this purpose; and he gives the whole powers of his understanding to the prosecution of the work. Take Bunyan's affecting description of the picture representing nim who holds the sacred office of the priesthood. "It had eyes lifted up to heaven, the best of books in its hand, the law of truth was written upon its lips, the world was behind its back, it stood as if it pleaded with men, and a

crown of gold did hang over its head." He then further explains: the man whose picture this is, is one of a thousand "In Christ Jesus he begets his spiritual children through the Gospel; travails in birth till Christ be formed in them; and as a nurse cherisheth her children, so being affectionately desirous of his flock he is willing to impart unto them, not the Gospel of God only, but also his own soul, because they are dear unto him. The man whose picture this is, is the only man whom the Lord hath authorized to be thy guide in all difficult places thou mayest meet with in the way; bear well in thy mind what thou hast seen, lest in thy journey thou meet with some that pretend to lead thee right, but their way goes down to death."

Such a man, in the fulfilment of his ministrations, proclaims the truth in public-invites the intercourse of his people in private. They open their minds to him. They follow his advice and commit themselves to his spiritual guidance. He is, as it were, the chariot of their souls. He leads them towards heaven; and they cannot but "esteem him very highly in love for his work's sake."

When such a one dies, the loss is felt by very many who are ready to exclaim, "The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!"

This description, I conceive, applies in no inconsiderable measure to our departed friend, whose death inflicts a calamitous blow on the church militant on earth.

If panegyric were intended to be offered here, I were not the proper person to undertake the work. My acquaintance was neither sufficiently long nor sufficiently intimate to furnish me with materials to offer it; but it was sufficient to convince me that it is neither presumptuous nor false to affirm that the foregoing remarks belong in no inconsiderable measure to his character. Let me refer again to the description just quoted from Bunyan, It had eyes lifted up to heaven. Surely it was abundantly obvious that our lamented friend was of a praying spirit. You might have taken knowledge of him that he had been with Jesus. The best of books in his hand. It were not easy to determine whether his life or his discourses were fullest of the Bible. The light of its truth shone constant and conspicuous in exhibition in the one, and in expression in the other.

It is not my intention, neither am I prepared, to dwell upon many of the distinguishing features of his history, but I will touch upon one which I always most admired, and which was always manifest. Simplicity of character was predominant and pervading. There was no appearance of ostentation. There never was any retiring from the most friendly intercourse with those who were younger than himself, in consequence of any assumed importance derived from his attainments or his age. This simplicity was equally manifest in public and in private, and added lustre to the other graceful embellishments of his character. He possessed a highly cultivated mind, tender delicacy of feeling, deep experience of divine truth, and pure and holy demeanour.

His pulpit addresses were adorned by great purity of style and mellifluous elegance of language, yet there was no fondness for these ornaments as if they could of themselves render more effectual the Gospel that he preached -he never sought artificially to dress up the wisdom of God in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, because he knew that eloquence could never be effectual to convert the soul to God. His sermons were always characterized by a rich developement of Scripture-truth, clothed almost exclusively in the expression of Scripture language. I trust they will be found in the last day to have been instrumental in turning many from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, and begetting them again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

His last illness was very short; not more than four days. He was employed in his proper calling to the very last day that health was given him. There was a remarkable correspondence between the circumstances connected with his departure and that of Elijah.

The prophet, on the very day of his extraordinary flight, was employed in visiting the schools of the prophets at Gilgal, at Bethel, and at Jericho. So our departed friend on Friday, the day previous to his attack, had arranged to go on the Saturday the distance of twenty miles to preach on the ensuing Sabbath. Elijah, anticipating his departure from this world, affectionately inquired of Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for thee before

I be taken away from thee." And in like manner the last hours of this holy man were employed in sending various messages of affection, consolation, and encouragement to the various members of his family and his numerous friends, especially to his son here in the ministry, he bid them say from him in the name of his Divine Master, "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life."

After a life thus long and useful, the application to the present case of the last clause of our text is particularly affecting; "He saw him no more." The place that knew him shall know him no more. But he is gone to that better land where the inhabitant shall not say I am sick, and the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. He is blessed, for he died in the Lord. He rests from his labours and his works follow him.

I must not omit to mention one circumstance. Very near the time of his dissolution, in the extremity of bodily weakness, he broke upon a period of silence, by the utterance of these few emphatic words, "More than conqueror!" I beseech you, brethren, meditate upon, and try to realize the scene. How gloriously sublime! Subdued by disease, yet more than conqueror! The prey of death, yet more than conqueror! Descending to the dark grave, yet more than conqueror! Ah! but it was not the saint that was dying. It was only his frail tenement that was dissolving and returning to its kindred dust. He himself was about to take his triumphant flight to the throne of God.

More than conqueror! What mean these mysterious words? The proudest boast that ever earthly warrior sought to make his own was that he might be called a conqueror. But it is at once the holy ambition and the high attainment of the believer in Jesus to be more than conqueror. He grapples with all the confederated power of his enemies, in the name and strength of the Redeemer, and is more than conqueror, for he not only overcomes them but brings them over to his side. Death, the most formidable and the last of all our enemies, shall one day be destroyed and in the meanwhile it is the believer's privilege to regard him as if he were a friend approaching with the most welcome of all messages-to bid you into the immediate company of angels, and into the presence of the Lamb.