HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 1, 2, with 12-20.-17.e wMel:ieving lo1·d. Elisha interrupts the king's evil • design by a prediction of plenty in Sa.maria. His mention of a fixed time doubtless induced the king to wait until he should see if the prophecy was fulfilled. "Thus saith the Lord, 'l'o-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria." It was a bold statement to make, for there was no human likelihood of its fulfilment. If the next day had proved Elisha to be a deceiver, no doubt he would have been tom limb from limb by the infuriated and hungry populace. But Elisha makes not the state- ment on his own authority, but uses the words, "Thus saith the Lord." One of the king's principal courtiers, on whose arm he leaned, could not conceal his scorn and incredulity. "Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?" Observe, his statement is not "If the Lord would make windows in heaven, this thing might be." He doesn't even admit that. It is a question expressing entire impo86ibility. "Even if the Lord would open windows in heaven, is it at all lilcely that such a thing as this would happen?" But what seemed impossible to him was possil,le with God. '1.'he prophet warned him that he would suffer for his unbelief. "Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but she.It not eat thereof." As it was prt:dicttd, so it came to pass. During the night, the Lord caused the Syrian army to bear a great noise, like the noise of horses and chariots and a mighty host, and they fled in terror, leaving their camp with all their possessions and provisions behind them. Four lepers, going out of the city in the evening twilight, discovered the deserted camp. They brought back the news to the beleaguered city. At first, a stratagem ott. vtr. 1-20.J TH}<} BECONO BOOK OF THE KINGS. 151>
was feared ; but by-and-by in wild eagerness for food and plunder, the famished citizens rushed forth. The unhappy lorrl, who had doubted the prophet's message 11nd the promise of God himself, was trodden upon at the gate and died. From this striking and tragic story we may learn- I. UNBELIEII' MAY HAVE REASON, APPARENTLY, ON ITS BIDE, This courtier might have given many plausible reasons for doubting the prophet's message. 1. He might have disputed the prophefs right to speak in the naTM of God at all. He might have said, "How do I know that this man is speaking the truth?" though even there Elisha had already given pretty tangible proof of bis credibility and trugtworthiness. The faithful minister of Christ need not mind the sneers of men, provided God has owned his work, and set his heavenly seal upon bis ministry. 2. Or be might have said, " The thing is utterly vncredible. It is utterly impossible. Where is flour to come from in such plenty as to supply this whole city of Samaria? There has been a besieging army around our walls for many days. They have desolated and plundered the country round about. Where is the food to come from, even if there was any one to bring it to us? And we know of no friendly army that is coming to raise the siege or cut its way through the serried ranks of the Syrians." All these would have been very natural thoughts to pass through that courtier's mind. No doubt they were the very reasons, 01· some of them, which led him to disbelieve Elisha's message. Probably, if he had stated his reasons to the people, be would have !(Ot a hundred to agree with him for every one who believed Elisha. No doubt they all looked upon Elisha as a fanatic and an <>ntbusiast. They, t., all appearance, bad common sense, had reason on their side. And yet it. turned out to be one of those many cases in which "God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and the weak things to confound the might.y." Unbelief can be very plausible. Unbelief nearly always appears to have reason on its side. There is not a doctrine of the Bible against which the most plausible arguments might not, and have not, been advanced. Even Scripture itself can be quoted in support of unbelief and sin. "The devil can cite Scripture for bis purpose," Oood arguments are not necessarily a proof of the truth or Justice of a case. '.l.'h1s needs to b11 remembered in an age when many arguments are urged against the truth of Christianity. What plausible reasons have been urged against the main truths of the Christian religion I Take the Deity of Ghrist, for example. How plausible are the arguments which human reason can bring forward against the doctrine of the Trinity and the Divinity of Christ! And yet of what value are such arguments when placed side by side with our Lord's statement, "I and my Father are one;" with the statement- of the Apostle John, "'l'he Word was with God, and the Word was God;" or with the statement of the Apostle Paul, that" in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily"? In the same way the most plausible arguments can be, and are being, brought against the atoning nature of Christ's death, although we have the clear state- ments of God's Word that" he bore our sins in his own body on the tree," and Christ's own statement that he laid down his life for the sheep. Over and over again it has been asserted that the Gospel miracles are incredible. Over and over again the most plausible arguments have been brou:,:ht against future punishment, although we have the clear and emphatic statements of our Lord Jesus Christ himself on the subject. Unbelief may have reason, apparently, on its side. II. Oun REASON IS NO TEST OIi' POSSIBILITY. Our ideas are no test as to what is possible or impossible. Our minds are limited in their range. How often in the march of scientific discovery and inventiou it has happened that things which seemed impossible in one century were proved to be possible in the next I It is not yet three hundred years since Galileo was condemned to imprisonment by the Inquisition for asserting that the earth moved round the sun. Even our own Sir Isaac Newton, little more than two hundred years ago-the man who discovered the force of gravitation, and invented the first reflecting telescope-was assailed with such abuse on propounding his discoveries, that he actually determined on suppressing the third hook of the 'Principia,' which contains the theory of comets. And what ~hall we say of the invention of the steam-engine by James Watt, scarcely a hundred years ago-an invention which bas revolutionized our manufact11res, and made pos,ible a speed of locomotion by land and sea that would have been ridiculed as impos,i ble only a few years ago? Every discovery of science, every invrntion in the useful art~, has at first been scorned as an l-10 THE SECOND DOOK OF THE KINGS. [ ctr. nl. 1-20.