the means to the end, what covild a single cruse of salt have effected, in a spring of water, and in all the adjacent land ? and why must it be brought in a new cruse, rather than in one which had been used ? It is plain that these means were no more than the erecting of a brasen serpent to heal the wounded Israelites, or than our Lord's making clay of spittle to restore to sight a man that had been born blind ^.]
Nor are the means which we use for the conver- sion of the world at all more adequate to the end proposed —
[How is it that we attempt to operate on men, so as to sanctify their hearts and lives ? It is by the simple preaching of the Gospel to them ; or, as the Apostle expresses it, " by the foolishness of preaching'\" How little this can effect, may be seen in the ministry of the Prophets, and Apostles, and even of our blessed Lord himself. To few, comparatively, was the word accompanied with any saving power.
" Neither Paul was any thing, nor Apollos any thing:" whatever was done through their instrmnentality could, if God had so pleased, been as easily effected without them, as with them. So at this day, what is any minister, but " a voice crying in the wilderness?" Yet, when God is pleased to make the word effectual, the dead are quickened, and the bond-slaves of Satan are sanctified unto the Lord. Behold, on the day of Pentecost, what a change was wrought by one single discourse, delivered by a poor illiterate fisherman ! Methinks, as to any intrinsic power to produce the miracle which was wrought that day, the cruse of salt was on a par wdth the sermon of the Apostle. And it is no little encou- ragement to us to know, that no weakness of ours wiU be any bar to the efficacy of our ministrations, if only God be pleased to work by us : for he " has committed his treasure to earthen vessels, on purpose that the excellency of the power may be seen to be of God, and not of us\"]
It is certain, too,
III. That there is no benefit so great, but God will confer it through the ministry of his faithful servants —
What a rich benefit was that conferred by the hands of Elisha!
[We, who are accustomed to drink of wholesome springs, and to eat in rich abundance the fruits of the land, have very
s John ix. 6. '» 1 Cor. i. 21. ' 2 Cor. iv. 7.