ally are, at one. Let Christ's name lie behind every thought let his Spirit nestle in the silent depths of every heart let the earth be to us like the shining jewel on which we see that name engraved everywhere. And when Christ is felt by all, to be all and in all, then we shall love as brethren, all will be Abrahams, none will be Lots, and all God's people being taught of him, great will be the peace of his family. CHAPTER VI, A CITY MISSIONARY. "Man's plea to man is, that he never more Makes his old gifts the examples of the new!" "And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there may be fifty righteous," &c. GEN. Xviii. 23-33. THE patriarchal petitioner is thus described by the inspired historian. "And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes: Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it. And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. And he said, Behold now, have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake. And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place." We read in a previous verse that the cry of Sodom had risen up into the ears of God, because the sin of Sodom was very great. This is a frequent scriptural description. of the effects of sin. "Thy brother's blood crieth from the ground." St. James says, "The hire of the laborers which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth." Thus we find that sins done in the utmost secrecy, amid the silence and the darkness of midnight, yet ascend up to heaven with a piercing and a ceaseless cry; and that though no man's ear has heard, yet it has entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Wherever there is sin God sees it; and wherever a deed of blood has been perpetrated a ceaseless cry will ascend, until God arise from his judgment throne and " come down," in the language of the passage, and see what has been done. When God indicated to Abraham what he was about to do, Abraham drew near to God, and prayed in that expressive litany, which we have read. It is the most beautiful comes. interceding prayer in the Old Testament Scripture. So much of reverential awe, filial boldness, earnest sympathy, melt and mingle in it, that I know, indeed, nothing in the whole Old Testament Scriptures that approaches it. Jesus wept over the approaching doom of Jerusalem. Abraham, in the spirit of Jesus, groaned at the certain catastrophe of Sodom, and anticipating that catastrophe every moment, he felt for it as if it had been his own life, and cried with a fervor, an intensity, a boldness, and an awe, that present to us the most perfect and beautiful model in the Old Testament Scriptures of Christian devotion. In whose name did Abraham pray? ? There never was but one Name known in which man could pray, and there will never be another. name given amongst men till the end of this dispensation The way by which a sinner's prayers can travel to a prayer hearing God, is "Christ Jesus." No sinner ever prayed in that Name and was rejected. No saint ever prayed in any other name and found acceptance. The prayer that is expressed in the most imperfect language, but breathed from a heart that feels deeply its wants, and longs earnestly for their satisfaction, rises faster than an angel's wing can soar, and is heard louder in the presence of the throne of God than the cry of Sodom's sins in demanding vengeance and righteous retribution. And as he prayed in one Name only, so he prayed by one Spirit. The same Holy Spirit that breathes into a believer's heart true faith, breathed into Abraham's heart this beautiful prayer. It indicates its origin of itself. It needs merely to be read to hear in it the voice and the evidence of the inspiration of the Spirit of God. In ancient times, not only was it forbidden to offer sacrifice on a strange altar, but it was equally forbidden to consume that sacrifice by a strange fire and in Christian times, not only must prayer be offered in one Name, but the prayer must be offered by the inspiration e; of the one Holy Spirit. The Name of Christ is not a mere musical close to a formal petition; the inspiration of the Spirit in the heart of the believer is not a mere figure of speech exhausted of its meaning the moment it is quoted; both are realities; and whoever prays under a deep sense that he can neither see his wants as he should, nor feel them as he ought, nor express them as others can, but seeks the Holy Spirit to lead him, and prays under a deep sense that the purest sigh that ever emerged from the holiest heart can find no acceptance with God, unless it be in the golden censer of the great High Priest, and perfumed with the much incense of his intercession, such a believer prays as a Christian should, and heaven and earth may pass away, but the Hearer of prayer cannot refuse his petition. In looking at Sodom, and the impending catastrophe which God denounced on it, we learn from its fate, and its history, and the description given of it, what it is that brings to wreck the most illustrious capitals, and destroys and sweeps from the face of the earth the most powerful and accomplished nations. Sodom was in a pleasant site, it had many streams about it, prosperous manufactures, and wide spread commerce, merchandise, and traffic with surrounding districts. It is described as a populous, a prosperous, and a mighty capital; but yet this did not defend it. Sin is the ruin, as it is the shame, of any nation; and the same element that left Sodom to the flames will destroy any nation in which it finds a lodging, and is allowed to act and operate; for not only does sin vitiate all the springs of social life, disorganize the structure of society, waste down and deprave all that is the strength, the life, the ornament, and glory of a land, but in addition it cries to heaven for vengeance, and demands, as an exhibition of the justice of God, which earth cannot do without, that He should arise and punish a nation or a city that knows not God, and obeys |