life travelling at the present time, and towards which
side of the impassable gulf?"

At present we know that the way of Christ is still open before us, and
that He calls us with a voice which never grows weary; but we feel
equally that the future is dark, if we waste or misuse the present, and
we do not know how long the heavenward path may be as open, or as easy,
as it is to-day. For the question is not a question of God's untiring
patience or the never-failing love of Christ. It is not how long will
His Spirit continue to strive with us, as it has striven hitherto,
through the care and love of parent or friend, through the exhortations
or efforts of a teacher, or the example of a companion, or in a thousand
other ways. The question is rather whether it is not folly to expect
that God will send upon us some other more powerful regenerating and
strengthening influence, if we are now neglecting all this care and love
and patient striving on our behalf. "If they hear not Moses and the
prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."

Consider these things while life is fresh, and good influences are
present with you. Whatever our faults may be, they all come under this
one rule, that to-day is given us to win our freedom from their power--to-
day and not to-morrow. The question which is pressed home through the
warning of this parable is thus a very plain one: "What is my future hope
or prospect, if I let this or that particular sin lurk and linger in my
heart, feeding upon me every day, and growing stronger in consequence?
What if I do not resist any fault that has a hold upon me? What if I do
not pray to be delivered from it? What if I do not flee from it?"

If you hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will you be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead.

VI. WHAT DOEST THOU HERE?

"And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, and he said unto
him, What doest thou here, Elijah?"--1 KINGS xix. 9.

There is a sound of rebuke in these words. They seem to imply that the
lonely mountain of Horeb was not the place in which God expected to find
such a servant as Elijah, and that there should be no indefinite
tarrying, no lingering without an aim in such a solitude.

As you read the familiar history you see how the record of the prophet's
retirement and his vision in Horeb is a record, first of all, of reaction
after fierce conflict; it exhibits the picture of a