3. The humble and victorious —
[Some there are who, though crying occasionally, " O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me ? " are yet able to add with joy, " I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Yes, many there are who can say, " Thanks be to God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ ! " Let them therefore be more and more joyful and confident in their God. But let none ever forget, that their enemies, however often repulsed, are watching for opportunities to renew their assaults. Whilst we are in this world we must not for a moment lay aside our armour, or intermit our exertions. Soon the period of final victory shall arrive ; and then shall we be invested with that glorious kingdom which God has promised to all that over- come^.]
s See how frequently this awful truth is repeated, and this terrific language used, in Mark ix. 43 — 48.
i» Isai. xU, 14, 15. i Zech. iv. 7. ^ Rev. iii. 21.
AHAB AND ELIJAH IN NABOTh's VINEYARD.
1 Kings xxi. 20. And Ahah said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, 0 mine enemy ? And he answered, I have found thee.
THE office of a minister is doubtless the most honourable that can be sustained by man ; but it is at the same time the most arduous. If indeed the people to whom we carry the glad tidings of salva- tion were willing to put away their sins and embrace the proffered mercy, there would be comparatively little difficulty in discharging our duty : but men are averse to receive our message : they " love darkness rather than light ;" yea, " they hate the light," and would even extinguish it, rather than be constrained to see the evil of their ways. Hence those minis- ters who are faithful, are universally accounted " the troublers of Israel," and the " enemies" of those whom they labour to convert : and they must go with their lives in their hands, if they will approve themselves to God and to their own conscience. The justice of this observation is manifest from the address of Ahab to the Prophet Elijah : in which we see,
I. How greedily men commit sin —
Horrible beyond measure was the conduct of Ahab which is here recorded —
[We blame not his wish to be accommodated witli Naboth's vineyard, nor the equitable offers which lie made to obtain it : but we blame the inordinate desire which he entertained for so worthless an object, and the vexation which the disappointment of it occasioned. Wliat a striking proof have we here of the misery which unsubdued lusts create! A king possessed of large dominions, augmented lately by the acquisition of immense power, is dejected, and sick at heart, because he cannot obtam a little plot of ground adjoining to his palace, of ground which the o%vner could not aHenate consistently with the commands of God.
Jezebel his wdfe, indignant that a potent monarch, hke him, should be thwarted in his desires, undertakes that they shall not long be ungratified. She takes his seal, and gives orders in his name, that the elders of Israel shall proclaim a fast, as if some gi'eat iniquity which menaced the safety of the state had been committed ; that then they shall arrest Naboth as the guilty person, and suborn false witnesses, who shall accuse him of blaspheming God and the king ; and that they shall instantly proceed to stone him to death. Shocking as this injustice was, methinks its enormity was small in comparison of that impious mockery of religion with which it was cloked.
352.]] AHAB AND ELIJAH IN NABOTH's VINEYARD. 431
But what must have been the state of that nation where such an order could be given so confidently, and be carried into execution with such faciHty! Truly we can never be suf- ficiently thankful for the equity with which our laws are administered in Britain, and the security which we enjoy, both of our lives and property, under their protection.