steeds of his bounding chariot, "The driving is like the driving of
Jehu, the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously." Displaying a
courage that seemed his only redeeming quality, or bereaved of sense,
according to the saying, Whom God intends to destroy He first makes
mad, Joram instantly throws himself into his chariot, advances to meet
the band, and demands of its leader, Is it peace, Jehu? What peace, is
the other's answer, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother and her
witchcrafts are so many? With the words that leave his lips an arrow
leaves his bow to transfix the flying king--entering in at his back
and passing out at his breast; and when he is cast, a bloody corpse,
into Naboth's vineyard, and dogs are crunching his mother's bones, and
Jehu has climbed the throne, and Elisha walks abroad with his head
safe on his shoulders, and the curtain falls on the stage of these
tragic and righteous scenes, it was a time for the few pious men of
that guilty land to sing, "Lo thine enemies, O Lord, lo thine enemies
shall perish; but the righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree:
they shall grow like a cedar of Lebanon."

Such was the mission of Jehu, the son of Nimshi. How different that of
Jesus, the Son of God! They might have been identical; presented at
least grounds of comparison rather than grounds of striking contrast.
Yet so remarkable is the contrast that Jehu's mission--and therefore
have we related the story--forms as effective a background to
Christ's, as the black rain-cloud to the bright bow which spans it.
The cause of the difference lies in God's free, gracious, sovereign
mercy--in nothing else; for had mankind, at the tidings that the Son
of God, attended by a train of holy angels, was approaching, met Him
on the confines of our world with Joram's question, "Is it peace?"
that question might justly have met with Jehu's answer, "What hast
thou to do with peace?"--what have you done to obtain it, or to
deserve it? Yet, glory be to God in the highest, it is peace--peace
more plainly and fully announced in these most gracious words, "It
pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having
made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all
things to himself, whether they be things on earth, or things in
heaven."

IX.

JESUS BRINGS PEACE TO THE SOUL.

Having reconciled us to God by the blood of His cross, Christ is "our
Peace," as the apostle says. He is called s