even the Captain of the Lord's host who fights all the battles of His people. Did not Joshua give the children of Israel rest? No. See Heb. iv. 8: "For if Jesus"-that is, Joshua-" had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day." That day and that rest is enjoyed in the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. Canaan, then, is a type of spiritual life in the land of Divine revelation, spiritual promise, and covenant relationship, and the rest is that enjoyed by the living children of God as they are led by the Captain of their salvation over the spiritual Jordan into the land of spiritual life, light, and liberty. The meaning of the word Jordan is judgment. See John v. 24: "He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life." He has heard the voice of His God and Saviour; he trusts the whole concern of his salvation and security in His gracious hands; he has ceased from His own works as God did from His, according to the declaration: "There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His” (Heb. iv. 9, 10). As it is ours during our earthly pilgrimage to experience that restlessness attending the innumerable attacks of Satan and the burden of the flesh, we shall find no rest for our exercised hearts but that which JEHOVAH the Spirit reveals in Christ Jesus and His great salvation, and embraced by precious faith, the faith of God's elect, the faith of God's operation and gift. No rest for sensible sinners apart from Jesus. No rest for them but through His obedience and blood. "And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever. And My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places" (Isa. xxxii. 17, 18).

God's promise. When was the promise given? Paul says, "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began " (Titus i. 2). That was the Father's promise to the Surety of the covenant, the Head and Representative of grace, God's first Elect, for all those whom He took into His loving embrace, and for whom He held Himself responsible in all matters concerning their salvation, security, and everlasting glorification with Himself. Look at the stability of the covenant and the sureness of the promise: "By grace, that the promise might be sure to all the seed" (Rom. iv. 16). For all the promises of God in Him are Yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us" (2 Cor. i. 19, 20). From the two succeeding verses, we see that the promises of God are Yea and Amen in the experience of the anointed people of God by the grace, indwelling, and sealing of God the Holy Ghost. This is no cold theory, for we know there is no sealing without melting, no melting without a fire,

and no fire without warmth and heat. We shall know precious little of the melting and the fire except we are in the furnace, and as sure as we belong to Him, we shall be brought there, and know that His fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem (Isaiah xxxi. 9). See 2 Peter i. 4: "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.' Marvellous escape! Corruption troubles us, yet we have escaped from its damning power and dominion.

66

III. THE SAINTS' SHORTCOMINGS-" Any of you should seem to come short of it." Any of you." Who are these? Holy brethren with thorns in the flesh. Partakers of the heavenly calling, yet buffeted by Satan. Denizens of the heavenlies, yet frequently mourning in the vale of humiliation. Refugees of hope, yet blessed with strong consolation. Pilgrims and strangers, yet reserved by God the Father, redeemed by God the Son, and regenerated by God the Holy Ghost. Lest any of you should seem to come short of the rest provided, let us, therefore, fear. This is an incentive to watchfulness. It is a spiritual demand, ay, a Divine command to watch unto prayer. It is not simply asking God, but watching for Him to keep my hands, to keep my eyes, to keep my ears, to keep my tongue, and to keep my temper. It is knocking at Mercy's door, and waiting for an answer. It is seeking the King's face, though He may cover Himself with a cloud that our prayer shall not pass through" (Lam. iii. 44). It is waiting His time who will wait that He may be gracious unto us (Isaiah xxx. 18). "Any of you" who are spiritually taught and Divinely led, "should seem to come short of it." Oh, how my heart thrilled with delight the first time I noticed that word seem. It appeared to me as though there was not another word in the same verse. It is of God's sovereign mercy that we are made to know and feel daily, so far as our enjoyment and judgment are concerned, that we do come short of it. How much, during the past week, have you enjoyed of God's rest which remains, abides, cannot be swept away, and can never be disturbed or destroyed? Some of you will answer with fluttering hearts and moistened eyes, Precious little. See! Though, in your judgment, you have come short of it, yet, blessed be His name, according to JEHOVAH'S purpose, determination, and desire, you have not come short of one particle of the rest He designed for you before all worlds. Many of you may be mourning because of the position you occupy in God's never-failing providence. You would turn away, and for ever leave the earthly, sensual, and devilish influences which stare you in the face every day; but you cannot. You are forced to the conclusion that you come short of your birthright, and of your high calling of God in Christ Jesus, and with your manifold infirmities unknown to all

but your own souls, you will feel that you have come short altogether. Look here. Let your circumstances be what they may, and the influences which surround you reek with corruption, you do not come short, you only seem to do.

Let us look at a few Scriptural instances of this seeming to come short. I know that some who would have us believe they are very precise and proper, will object to this Scriptural mode of encouraging God's weaklings and magnifying His rich and sovereign grace; but we have to do with the failing whom God supports, with the fallen whom He upholds, and with the humble whom He exalts. Such can never fall into hell, for "underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deut. xxxiii. 27). Now, then, rummage your Bibles from Genesis to Revelation, and you can find no case of a failing child come short of the rest God had promised to him.

Faithful Abraham was faithless in Egypt and Gerar, and seemed to come short, but he now rests in the bosom of His faithful God.

Noah, the just man, is in his tent. Would you look at him to speak of his failure and his shame? No. Fleshly minds and free-will spirits may do that, but those enlightened with the sweets of the covenant will use all means to hide the sin of one so signally loved. In fact, God, on new covenant ground, recognises none, and why should I? Noah sinned, but Noah was saved. Noah fell, but Noah was upheld. Noah seemed to come short of God's rest, but Noah enjoys it now in all its bliss and blessedness.

Do you see Lot in the cave at Zoar? No, I see him a man in Christ. But he fell foully! Yes, and he was saved fully. He seemed to come short of rest. Ay, he seemed, and that was all.

David on the housetop looked, lusted, and fell. He seemed to come short of the rest provided in Christ, but "the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went" (2 Sam. viii. 6).

Jonah was cowardly, and then peevish, but God was very merciful unto him. He seemed to come short of it, but he is up yonder now, enjoying the rest which remaineth, and cannot be disturbed. With such a rich and precious portion as that provided in the text, we see magnanimous grace shown to the failing and the falling continually. Though failing, yet firm and secure. Though falling, yet upheld and preserved. Though wavering, yet guided by a sovereign, omnipotent hand to the regions of eternal rest, to the halls of the glorified, there to bow down before their God and King, and sing, "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." Salvation from Satan. Salvation from sin. Salvation from

self.

May the Lord add His blessing. Amen.

ABIJAH.

A Sermon

PREACHED IN GROVE CHAPEL, CAMBERWELL, ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 30TH, 1875, BY

THOMAS BRADBURY.

"And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam."-1 Kings xiv. 13.

IN

N looking at this very interesting and instructive portion of God's most Holy Word, it is necessary to scan the narrative in the midst of which it appears.

Our

A child is sick. A child! What is a child? An object which a God of sovereign and unchanging love has chosen to show forth the characteristics of those who are "born again, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John i. 13). These are they upon whom He has lavished His affection and compassion, and to whom He continues His kindness and His care. A child, not a great one. blessed Lord in prayer to His Father and ours could say, "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight" (Matt. xi. 25, 26). Children, simple and confiding; not your wise and prudent, cautious and worldly-wise

ones.

Here we have a child: he is a prince, the son of a wicked and idolatrous king, a king of whom it could only be said by way of distinction, "who made Israel to sin." Jeroboam is in great distress. Though a reprobate, he has naturally a father's feeling to his child, and anxious as to its fate; but duplicity accompanies his distress. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jer. xvii. 9). Such is man. He is not transparent and open to view; but careful, cautious, jealous. When left to ourselves, we can

No, 88,-PRICE ONE PENNY.

not afford to be honest and upright, and are on a level with Jeroboam here. He sends his wife to the prophet Ahijah, but cautions her to disguise herself, so that she be not known. The double-dealing king takes advantage of the weakness and infirmity of the old prophet whose eyes were set by reason of age. Now mark! If God has chosen a servant in whom a mental or physical infirmity is manifest, should any attempt to steal an advantage over such, He, a sovereign God, will take care of His own, and prove more than a match for such subtle designers, sooner or later. Since the very moment God first called me to the ministry of His Word there has not been a conspiracy for or against me but He has in some remarkable manner warned me of its existence. Glorious privilege, to be guided by His wisdom and upheld by His power!

woman.

The prophet Ahijah was blind with age, and not able to see who passed before him, yet the Lord said to him, "Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son; for he is sick thus and thus shalt thou say unto her; for it shall be when she cometh in that she shall feign herself another And it was so. As assuredly as God had said it, so it must be." When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings." Ah! this must have startled the crafty lady! Blessed be God, "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness."

Now we come to notice a stroke of wondrous and marvellous sovereignty. "Go tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Forasmuch as I have exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over My people Israel." Yes, this is truly marvellous! To the greatest reprobate in all Israel JEHOVAH said, "I exalted thee from among the people." To the truly-enlightened child of God sovereignty is seen in everything, and it is his glory and delight to roam amidst regions so bright and fair. See how our glorious Lord asserts this in His prayer to His Father and ours: "As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh!"-imperious, lordly, conceited flesh. He has power over all, and knows well how to manage it. That is a glorious declaration of Divine sovereignty in the Book of Common Prayer; but who believes it? Listen! "O God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men!" Mark! Not simply the wills and affections of His people; but "the wills and affections of sinful men." He orders and arranges all things in heaven, in earth, and in all deep places, and will cause His glory to be seen in all. Look at Pharaoh! "But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea; for His mercy endureth for ever" (Psalm cxxxiv. 15). Mercy, say you? Yes, mercy toward His own, and justice to their enemies. Look at Exod. xv. 9, and Isa. xiv. 13-15. The foes of JEHOVAH exult