under the suthority of the Infinite. His Spirit inspires them, hia will they obey hi1 energy is their strength. &tan, the master of the evil spirits, is himself the cre~ture and slave of God. The moral usurper cannot move or breathe but by the permission of him wh~ "ma~eth his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." Truly, then, my pious friend, however great the spiritual foes, thy helpers are g1·eater. 'l'o the eye of sense, indeed, thou seemest to wrestle a.era.inst fearful odds. Wealth fashion, customs, influence, worldly maxims, habits, and even numbers, seem againsi thee; but " fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them," Open the eye of faith, and look beyond the boundary-line of sense, and thou she.It see that the great "mountain" of universe.I being is "full of horses and chariots of fire round about" thee. III. THAT THE SUPERIOR HELPERS 011' THE GOOD ARE ONLY SEEN BY SOME, Elisha eaw the celestial helpers, but his servant saw them not-saw nothing but the enemy. The one, consequently, stood calm amidst the gleaming a.nd rattling weapons of the Syrian army, the other was all perturbation and alarm. Thus men under similar circumstances receive different impressions. The event which overwhelms one with alarm inspires another with hope and heroism. The reason of this is that some have eyes to see only the evil in things, others to see the good as well. Why is this? Why is it that all men cannot see the spiritua.1 helpers that surround them? Severa.I reasons might be assigned. 1. There is the tenMncy to ;"udge after the. senses. The majority of men, like the servant of the prophet, see only with the physical eye, Although true philosophy shows that all things that come within the cognizance of the senses are shadows, not substa.nces-semhlauce, not essence,_ they reversely consider the visible and tangible only as rea.L Spirits, therefore, which lie beyond the line of sense, and ,,hich are the living creatures in all the "wheels" of human events, and in all the forms of matter, are never practically realized, and often theoretically ignored. 2. There is the habit of referring everything to secondary causes, This habit allows no room for God, nor for spiritual interpositions, but in a miracle. What is regular it calls natural; what is miraculous alone is Divine. It sees God in holding the sun over Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon, but sees nothing of him in rolling these stupendous bodies, age after age, in their spheres, with an undeviating regularity, and a swiftness incalculable. I say nothing of the irrationality of this habit, nor of its prevalence, of which there can be no question. All I say is that, since God helps us by nature.I laws, this habit manifestly prevents men from seeing the helpers he sends. 3. There is also a gloomine1Js of disposition. This is sometimes a cause. There are men who will not see good. 'l'hey hea.r no music in the harp of love; they see no bri"htness in the unclouded sky of noon. On this earth, even when robed in its 11u~mer beauty or laden with autumnal wealth, they sing, or rather groan- " Lord, what a wretched land is this, That yieldJI 11B no supply ! " The horses and chariots of mercy may move around them as celestial guards, yet they cry, "All these things are against me." 4. There is want of sympathy with Gfd, Strong and earnest sympathy with a being always induces the mind to bring that Being near-near to the inner eye and heart. By this law we bring the distant near-cross oceans and continents. Yes; from worldJI beyond the grave the imagination wafts the loved one liome to our inmost breasts; and we see the form and hear the voice again. Had we this sympathy with God and holy spirits, we should set them always before us. Jesus bad it, and he said, "Ye leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." JV. THAT TO SEE THESE SUPERHUMAN HELPERS ONLY REQUmES THE OPENING OF THE EYES. "Lord, I pray thee, open _his eyes." 'l'he outwa.!d _world ~s to us ~ccording to our five senses. Ha.d we fewer, 1t would be less than 1t 1s; or, if more, 1t would be greater. There are, probably, properties in the material system which we haye _at 1,reseut no i;ense to discover; or, peradventure, there may be senses closed up w1thm, that will one day be developed, and make this old world a new thing to us_. But, likely as this may be, the existence of a sense in the soul for seeing spiritual eustences is rucre probable. I am not disposed to pronounce all who have stated tha~ they havt, &eeu i;uch bei.ugs to be either fanatiCli or impostors, The a priori wonder 1s, nut tliat on. vr. l-33.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KIN'GS. 141
they should be eeen, but tb11t they are not more generally perceived. We are rr.laterl to the material world, and we have senseR to discern material exiRtences. We are, confessedly, more intimately and solemnly related to the spiritual; and is it not natural to expect that we should have a sense to see spiritual beings? Were such a sense to be opened within us, as the eye of the prophet's servant was now opened, what visions would burst upon us I 'fhe microscope gives to us a new world of wonders; but were God to open the spiritual eye, what a multitude of worlds would be revealed! Ah, my sceptic brother I deniest thou a spiritual world? Where is thy reason ? Wilt thou plead the fact that thou hast never seen a spiritual existence? This, assuredly, will not serve th~. Wilt thou permit a deaf man to deny that a thunderstorm ever rent our cloudy atmosphere, because he has never heard the terrific roar; or a blind man to deny that a rainbow has ever spanned these skies, because he, forsooth, bas never seen the beauteous arch? Why, then, sbouldest thou deny a spiritual world? Before the eyes of the prophet's servant were opened, he might have denied the existence of these helpers. When his master spoke to him of them, he might have said within himself, "Has my master lost his reason, or is he dreaming? I see nothing on the mountain but the Syrian host." All at once, however, his eyes were opened, and what a scene burst upon him! "The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." Even so it will be with thee, my friend : ere many days shall pass, God will open thine eyes; and that spiritual world in which thou art now living, and whose existence thou deaiest, will burst in awful sublimity upon thine astonished soul !-D. T.