Even to unbelievers methinks this subject is not vnthout its appropriate use : for, who was Elijah more than others ? Was not he once " a child of Avrath even as others ? " and may not those who are now children of wrath, become even as he ? Yes, there is a cloud of witnesses to prove, that, though Elijah is gone, Elijah's God remaineth, and that he is the same gracious, merciful, loving, and almighty Friend as ever. O seek him then as your reconciled God in Christ ; and you shall soon be able to say, " He is my God, and I will praise him ; my father's God, and I will exalt him^."]
"^ Jam. V. 16 — 18. « 2 Cor. xii. 9. * Dent, xxxiii. 25.
u Luke xvi. 22. ^ Ps. Ixxxiv. 11. y Isai. lix. 1.
■'■ Isai. li. 9, 10. ^ Exod. xv. 2.
2 Kings ii. 19 — 22. The men of the city said unto JEllsha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: hut the tvater is 7iaught, and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the tvaters, and cast the salt in there, and said. Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these tvaters; there shall 7iot be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, accordiyig to the saying of Elisha which he spake.
THE miracles recorded in the Old Testament are replete with most important instruction. Many of them are typical ; such as, the deliverance of the first-born through the blood of the paschal lamb ; the passage of Israel through the Red Sea ; tlie guidance of them by the pillar and the cloud ; their supplies of manna from the clouds, and of water from the rock ; their healing by the brasen serpent ; and many others. Some, which were not strictly types, were of an emblematical nature, and well calculated to convey instruction beyond the mere exhibition of power or grace contained in them. Amongst these may be ranked the miracle which is recorded in my text. It cannot properly be considered as a type ; yet, I think, it may well afford occasion for the fol- lowing observations. I would observe then,
I. That there is no evil so great, but God is both able and willing to remove it —
The evi] experienced at Jericho was great —
[I do not conceive that the water had originally been bad, or the ground barren: but that God had sent a curse both upon the one and the other, on account of the wickedness of those who had rebuilt the city, in direct opposition to his recorded will. Joshua having destroyed the city, had declared that the man who should presume to rebuild it should lay the foundation in the death of his first-born, and put up the gates with the loss of his youngest son. And till the days of Ahab, no one had dared to contravene the will of God respecting it. But at last Hiel, the Bethelite, presumed to restore the city :