blemishing instead of adorning the doctrine I believe -discrediting instead of magnifying the only name under heaven I care to honour, because it is the only name under heaven given among men whereby I, or any sinner like me, can be saved.

Nay, but, brother, inactivity, reserve, hanging back, will not mend your position. You have got your post assigned to you; and whether you decline to act at all, or act amiss, the jewel of Christ's Crown you have in charge is in either way compromised. Nor have you any choice, or any liberty to stand aloof. Necessity is laid upon you. Woe is unto you if you preach not the gospel! Woe is unto you if you testify not for Christ! Woe is unto you if you speak not to your ungodly neighbour's conscience, and care not for his soul! You have your task, your office, your ministry, allotted to you, whether as a public functionary or as a private member of the Church; and if you undertake it with fear,-if your heart trembles for the ark of God, which you feel yourself to be so incompetent to handle, let us ask you, would either it or you be at all the safer were you to refuse?

Let me put myself now for an instant in the position of an onlooker or watcher, like the aged Eli; and what might be my thoughts, as I gaze, not on the faithless or the faltering part of the Lord's army, but on his true and earnest adherents?

Do I see any living for themselves alone-caring for their own souls-apparently finding food and refreshment in ordinances, and striving to have a close walk with God-while yet there is no sign of any special interest which they take in any department of the

Lord's work, or any specific duty with which they charge themselves, in reference to any one in particular of their fellow-sinners around them? I ask, if, with all their devout assiduity of personal and private piety, their souls are prospering and in health? Ah! the complaint is, "My leanness, my leanness!" And as I consider the selfish, secluded, isolated, and indolent character of their devotions, I cease to wonder; I simply mourn; and, having a regard to those very spiritual interests of their own which they seem to care for, more even than to the good cause which they are sinfully neglecting,-my heart trembles for the ark of God.

Do I see any who are keepers of the vineyards of others, and are not keeping their own-any spiritual busy-bodies in other men's matters, and idlers in their own-any who are tempted to put an officious and bustling energy in the Lord's work in the place of deep experimental searching of the Lord's Word—any, in short, who find it easier to exhaust themselves for whole days in active service, than to pass a still and silent hour in solitary prayer? Ah! I may cease to wonder that such incessant pains should issue in such scanty fruit; and, with special reference even to those public concerns which such persons seem to prefer to their own spiritual wellbeing, my desponding heart trembles for the ark of God.

Where, then, shall this trembling heart find rest? I pass in review before me the whole muster-roll of the tried and tested army of the Lord. of the Lord. I take the champions and captains one after another. I rely on the mature experience of many a hoary veteran. I hail the fresh ardour of many an eagle-eyed recruit. But

as, one after another, they take up the seemingly desperate battle, and one after another give some melancholy advantage to the foe-my heart still trembles for the ark of God. I cannot see a preacher, however gifted, ascend to his desk; or a pastor, however faithful, visit his flock; or an elder, the most conscientious, go his rounds; or a deacon, the most punctual, perform his service; or any private member of the church draw near a sick-bed where an anxious soul is tossing, or enter into a parlour where a word in season may be spoken and a clear testimony may be borne ;—but my heart must tremble for the ark of God. And all the while my heart must tremble the more, because the parties who are the occasions of its trembling seem themselves to tremble so very little. For if Israelites in the camp had trembled more for the ark of God, Eli's heart, as he sat by the wayside watching, might have trembled less.

XIX.

ELI-A GODLY MAN TREMBLING FOR THE ARK OF

GOD.

"His heart trembled for the ark of God."-1 SAM. iv. 13.

PART THIRD.

THE Composition of the army to whom the ark of God is committed, may but too well account for the trembling of an Eli's heart. Not to speak of the false and formal adherents to the cause,-how feeble and faint-hearted are many of the host-how ill at ease— how unbelieving! And even the best and bravest are compassed about with infirmity; and the holiest fall far short of any adequate apprehension of what it is to serve the Holy God, and uphold the honour of his holy name. It is a gloomy picture we have been contemplating. May there be no representation given, somewhat less discouraging, to relieve the gloom ere we pass from this first cause of the trembling of Eli's heart? Let us try. Let us ask if no company or army of men may be got together, to whom Eli could see the ark of God committed without his heart trembling,—at least so very anxiously? The three

sketches we have attempted to give, being reversed, may suggest the reply, and furnish the materials of a more trustworthy host. Let us summon our troops.

In the first place, let them all be men who come, not as fancying that the Lord hath need of them, but as feeling that they have need of Him. This is our primary and capital qualification. We are to have no self-righteous, self-confident cavaliers, who would either hire themselves to Christ for a reward, or espouse his cause with an air of condescending patronage, as if they were doing him a favour. But is there any poor sinner in all the world who looks upon himself as lost, and so far from imagining that he could ever lend a helping hand in an emergency, considers himself the very Jonah, that, if taken on board, would sink the ship-the worse than Achan, that, if admitted into the camp, would only mar the fight? Come, O sinner! whosoever thou art, with nothing but thy wants for Christ to supply-thy sins for Christ to forgive-thy diseases for Christ to heal-thy hard heart for Christ to break ;-come, Thou art the very man for whom Christ is looking out. It was to enlist thee that he came into the world; it was to save thee that he suffered and died. Come, and at thy coming, though thou bringest nothing but guilt and sorrow, wounds and bruises and putrifying sores,-Eli's heart will not tremble for the ark of God.

Secondly, let all who flock to the Lord's standard at first, or continue to rally round it, make sure and thorough work of the settlement of their covenant with Himself. Let there be nothing ambiguous or equivocal-nothing uncertain or precarious-as to the footing on which you are to be with him. And if any cause