I would repeat it, then, addressing it to every individual among you, not in the spirit of impertinent intrusion or curiosity, but of deep, and earnest, and affectionate solicitude for the best interests of your immortal souls. "Is it well with thee?"

How much is involved in that little question; how much hangs upon the answer. Would that we might say to each of you, as St. John says to "the well-beloved Gaius," "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper, and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." But alas! we should be afraid, in the smallest congregation, to make such an assumption, to take so vital a truth for granted. We, therefore, urge you to ask yourselves, "Is it well with me?"

To assist you in the inquiry, consider that you are all of you the baptized and avowed followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, pledged by your own voluntary declaration, to renounce the devil and all his works, the world, and all its lying vanities, the flesh, and all its polluting lusts. Now, are you fulfilling, or endeavouring, by God's help, to

fulfil these baptismal obligations? Are you living to the world, or to God? Are you indulging, it matters not how secretly, in any known and habitual sin? Be that sin concealed in the deepest recesses of your heart, from the most searching eye of your fellow-men, it is perfectly known to God; and if you are, at this moment, conscious of any one such cherished and forbidden feeling, so long as it remains unforsaken, and unrepented of, be assured that "it is not well with thee." The world may smile upon you, friends may flatter you, your own heart may deceive you, but the living God has said, by the mouth of his prophet Isaiah, "Woe unto the wicked; it shall be ill with him,"* and what God has said, God will one day verify before assembled worlds.

But once more, we would repeat the question, addressing ourselves to you who have reason to believe that you have been so renewed in the spirit of your mind, by the power of the Holy Ghost, that you are enabled to say, with an Apostle, "The life which I now live in the flesh,

* Isaiah iii. 11.

I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Do you feel an increasing love for God, as revealed to you in the person and character of the Lord Jesus Christ? an increasing hatred of all sin, and desire to avoid even the least deviation from the will of God, as far as you are enabled to understand and receive it? Do you endeavour to cultivate an unworldly, self-denying, devotional spirit, fulfilling all your duties, whatever be your rank and station in society, as unto God, and not merely unto man, seeking daily more and more of that close union with the Saviour, as living branches in the true vine, without whom you can do nothing?

Then have we the authority of the living God, in answering also for you the inquiry of the text, for has He not said, by the mouth of the same prophet,* "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him."

Yes, beloved brethren, it is well with you. Though at this moment you feel and acknow

*Isaiah iii. 10.

ledge that you are but unprofitable servants, though you dare hardly take the consolation to yourselves, though your own infirmities and transgressions are much more present to your thoughts than any symptoms of spiritual life and holiness, it is well with you now, and your God has said, "It shall be well with you;" a promise from which no time of future trial, no moment of distant anxiety, is meant to be excluded. It shall be well with you in every season of approaching sorrow, or adversity or distress; it shall be well with you at the hour of death; it shall be well with you in the day of judgment, and in the eternity that shall follow. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away;" and that eternal Word has said, "Say ye to the righteous, It shall be well with him," even for ever and ever.

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LECTURE IV.

2 KINGS V. 10.

"And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean."

AFTER the deeply-interesting narrative which engaged our attention upon the last occasion of my addressing you, we find Elisha passing on from Shunem to Gilgal, paying another visit to the school of the prophets there, and again performing a miracle of kindness and mercy.

He then retired to his watch-tower upon Mount Carmel, returning, necessarily through Shunem, and no doubt occupying once more his prophet's chamber on the wall, and gladdening his heart yet again with the sight of the happy mother, and her restored and healthful child. While immersed in his beloved solitude, the providence