now to seize you, which of your present ways should you most earnestly desire to have broken yourself of. Think again; should you not wish that you were a regular partaker of your Lord's Body and Blood, instead of having at such a time either to do without it, or to receive it in that hurry and agony? Should you not wish to have set all right with your neighbours? to have restored all dishonest gains, paid all just debts, cared for wife and children, parents and brethren, and all to whom you are any way tied? Should you not wish to have got into a habit of praying earnestly, of examining yourself, of confessing your sins to God one by one, of thinking often on Christ and His Cross? Yes: these are the things which in the very deep of our heart we shall long to have done, when we feel ourselves taken for death, whether it be by cholera or any other complaint. These things, then, let us do at once; and since it is a hard up-hill work, and we shall want all the prayers we can obtain to help us, let us be as active as we can in all works of charity; giving and forgiving, enduring, and waiting upon others, in humble following of those who have given up all for Christ. There is not one in this congregation but might in this way if he would be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. It is God's own teach ing, the lesson of His awful Providence. May He write it upon all our hearts, and make this day of humiliation a day of real amendment! May it be the beginning of better times to us all! HURSLEY, Fast Day for Cholera. SERMON XLVI. 2 KINGS iv. 34. "And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm.” THE first Lesson this afternoon introduces us to the history of the Prophet Elisha, for it gives an account how, while he was plowing, the elder Prophet Elijah passing by, cast his mantle upon him, and he presently followed him, having first bidden farewell to them that were of his house. It will not then be out of place to consider this greatest of his miracles, related in the chapter from which the text is taken, the fourth of the Second Book of Kings. For to this end was he called, that he might be in Elijah's place, a witness to the truth among God's fallen and degenerate people, and therefore God bore him witness by signs and wonders and divers miracles, such as Elijah had done before him. And of this the mantle of Elijah cast on him was a token and pledge, both in his first calling, which we hear of in the Lesson to-day, and when Elijah was taken up into heaven, and Elisha took up his mantle as it fell, and presently began to work miracles with it, dividing the river Jordan with its touch. In a word, Elisha came after Elijah, as the PP holy Apostles and the Church came after our Lord, and was a type of what our Lord spake when He said, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall ye do also; and greater works than these shall ye do, because I go to My Father. Accordingly, we find that several of Elisha's miracles, and especially this one of which we read in the text, was so ordered by God's especial providence, as that no one coming to the knowledge of the one could help remembering what he knew before of the other. In each, as you know, a young child is raised from the dead. For each the way is prepared by kindness shewn to the Prophet; Elijah found a widow woman willing to share her last morsel and her child's with him. For Elisha, not a widow, but a married woman, as yet childless, had provided a lodging, poor enough to most men's thinking, for it was but a room upon a wall, furnished with a bed, a table, a stool, and a candlestick; nevertheless it was acceptable to him when he passed by that way. For the love of God she did it, and for the love of God Elisha counted himself deeply obliged by it. Again, the Lord by Elijah rewarded the woman of Sarepta by commanding the barrel of meal not to waste, nor the cruse of oil to fail, until God sent rain upon the land, that was two or three years, she and her child were saved from starving; and to the other woman who had as yet no child, a son and heir was given by an extraordinary providence, as to Hannah the mother of Samuel, and to Elizabeth the mother of St. John Baptist. Thirdly, upon both of these families it pleased God to send the same trouble; the two mothers lost each her only son; not in infancy, but after several years growth; and in their great distress they bring their complaints to the Prophets. The one says, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come hither to bring my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? The other, not bearing to speak out what had happened, comes and falls down at Elisha's feet, and merely says, Did I desire a son of my Lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me? Thus they were alike in their distress, and the Lord by His Prophet was alike merciful to both. Elijah takes the widow's son out of her bosom, carries him up into the loft where he abode, lays him upon his own bed, prays over him, and then stretches himself upon the child three times; and the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. But Elisha sends his servant with his own staff in his hand, and bids him lay it on the face of the child; and when he comes himself afterwards into the room, and finds the child not awaked, but dead and laid upon the bed, as our Lord found Jairus' daughter, this is the account of what followed: He went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. Thus you see how very nearly the two great miracles answer the one to the other. Now in all this, doubt it not, God's holy and awful providence had a deep and mysterious meaning. The Prophets applying themselves with such especial care to the corpses of the children and to every part of them, signify to us that merciful and blessed work, the Incarnation of the Son of God, the nature of God applying itself to the nature of man, and restoring life and health to every part of us, both to soul and body, dead in trespasses and sins. Think a little, and you will perceive that it is so. Here, in this world of ours, ever since the coming in of sin and death, this our fallen nature has been of itself lying helpless; and when the messengers of God have come even with [the Cross], His token, in their hands, and have tried to waken men up by preaching and instruction, still there has been no voice, nor any that answered; no voice to speak the words of God, and acknowledge His faith; no change in the heart to answer to the Divine call. To know, and in a manner to will, has been present with men, but how to perform that which is good they found not. But now in the end of the world the Only-begotten prepares Himself a body of the Substance of the Blessed Virgin, and a divine soul to breathe into that Body; and then by His wonder-working Sacraments applies Himself, both body and soul, to all who come to receive Him worthily; and so His mouth is put upon our mouth,our evil and corrupt words are taken away, and the words of the Lord, which are pure words, are put into our mouth, to be spoken in their place; for he who is of God, speaketh the words of God. Again, the eyes of Christ are put upon our eyes; the mind of Him who hath purer eyes than to behold iniquity is so far given to us by His heavenly Spirit, that we too, if we will, may make a covenant with our eyes, never to look upon any evil thing. Christ's hands also are put upon our hands; and whereas before they were benumbed with sinfulness, and dead to all that is |