faith wavered,_ and. t~ere was a tendency to confine the supernatural within the narr0wcst possible hm1ts. It was eal!y to enQ:gest that the expression "the o.ngels of God.," WI\S a periphrasis for God himself, and that he harl no need to ao't and therefore p~obably did not ec_t, by intermediaries. But the faith of the Church h~ always been <l11ferent. The festm1.l of St. Michael and All Angels has been generally celebrated from a ,ery ancient date; and the Collect for that festival has borne witness to the perpetual ministration of angels, not only in heaven, but also upon earth, and to the part borne by them in the succour and defence of God's people. Ill. THE POSSIBILITY OF A MANIFESTATION OF THE PRESENCE IN QUESTION TO TTil!I BODILY BE~SES OF THOSE WHOSE FAITH IS TOO WEAK TO APPREHEND IT, Elisha's servant did not see a vision. It was not his mind only that Wall impressed. His bodily eyes beheld an appearance as of chariots and horses of fire (ver. 17), which was based on the objective reality of the actual presence of an o.ngelic host upon the hill whereon Dothan was situated. The prophet prayed that his eyes should be opened, and his prayer was granted. "The Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw." Physicists are probably right in saying that what is absolutely immateri11l cannot be seen by the optic nerve. But we are nowhere told that angels are absolutely immaterial. It is the belief of many philosophers that all finite spirits are attached to bodies of some kind or otber-bodies more or less volatile and ethereal. We can readily conceive that the optic nerve may, by an increase of its sensitiveness, be made to see these; and in this way we may account, not only for the wonderful sight beheld on this occasion by Elisha's servant, but for the many other appearances of angels to men and women recorded in Scripture (Gen. iii. 1; xix. 1-15; xxxii.: 24--30; Judg. vi. 11-22; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16, 17; 1 Kings xix. 5-7; Isa. vi. 6; Dan. vi. 22; ix. 21; x. 16-21; Zech. i. 11-19; iv. l, etc.; Luke i. 11-19, 26-38; ii. 9-13; John XL 12; A.cts v. 19 ; viii. 26; xii. 7-10; Revelation, passim). Miraculously, power is given to the optic nerve which it does not ordinarily possess, and it is enabled to see beings actually present, who under ordinary circumstances are invisible to it. Vers. 24-33.-Half-heartedness. Jeboram was altogether half-hearted In his religion. He "halted between two opinions." While he paid a certain amount of respect to Elisha, as the prophet of Jehovab, he nevertheless allowed the worship of Baal to continue in the capital (eh. x. 18-28), if not elsewhere, and maintained the calf-worship also at Dan and Bethel (eh. iii. 3). He had suffered himself to be guided by Elisha in respect of the Syrian prisoners captured by the prophet (ver. 23), and had evidently been in communication with him on the subject of the present siege, bad probably been exhorted by him to repentance, and promised that, if be would wait upon Jehovah, in due time there should be deliverance. The prophet's words had made some impression on him; he bad to a certain extent turned to God, had put sackcloth upon his Joins, not ostentatiously, but secretly (ver. 30), had borne the privations of the siege without murmuring, had refused to surrender the town, and looked to Jehovah to deliver it. But there was no depth in his penitence, no surrender of the heart and the will to God, no firm and rooted faith in God's truthfulness, and in the certain accomplishment of his promises. His repentance was but Ii. half• repentance. A single incident of the siege, a horrible one certainly, but yet not with- out a parallel in other sieges and in shipwrecks, shattered the whole fabric of hie repentance and his resolution, turned him against the prophet and against Jehovah, caused him to threaten the prophet's life, and to make up his mind that he would follow his own course, a.nd not wait for the Lord any longer (ver. 33). He thus revealed the true state of bis heart and soul, 6howed his spiritual unsoundness, revealed himself e.s one whose character was rotten at the core, who had never turned to Jehovah in sincerity and truth. What wonder, then, that God had not granted the de~ivera~ce promised to true faith and true penitence, that a half-repentance had not availed with him? So it had been with Ahab (1 Kings xxi. 27; xxii. 34); so it would always be with all those who, after Jehoram's example, should be half-hearted in religion, should at once " fear the Lord, and serve their own gods" ( eh. xvii. 83)-own for masters both God and mammon. A. half-repentance is useless. Nothing avails but to turn to God with all the heart and all the soul and all the strength. God hates wavercrs. To such he save, '' I know thv works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would OD, VI. 1-33,] THE SECOND BOOK OF 'rHE KINGS. 129
thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, l will spue thee out of my mouth" (Rev. iii. 16, 16). Ver. 32.-Princes ma,y be resisted when they are bent upon wrong-doing. There was & time when princes were flattered, by being told that they" could do no wrong;" that "a divinity hedged them in;'," that their subjects were bound to render them, under all circumstances, an absolute and unqualified obedience. But this is certainly not scriptural teaching. The higher powers are to be obeyed in their lawful commands, but not in their unlawful ones. When Pharaoh, King of Egypt, comman,~ed the midwives to put to death all the male children borne by the Hebrew women, "the midwives feared God, and did not as the King of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive" (Exod. i. 17); and God rewarded them for so acting : " There- fore God dealt well with the midwives; . . . and because they feared God, he made them houses" (Exod, i. 20, 21). So now Elisha, the prophet of God, bids the elders resist the king's messenger-" hold him fast," and not let him execute the king's commands. Again, the higher powers, the great council of the Sanhedrin, commanded Peter and John, shortly after t.ho Day of Pentecost, "not to speak at all nor preach in the Name of Jesus" (Acts iv. 18); to whom the apostles replied, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard" (Acts iv. 19, 20). Resistance to lawful authority, when it commands unlawful acts, is an important part of a Christian man's duty, and ought to be inculcated just as much aa obedience to lawful authority when it commands le.wful acts.