lious course, neither David's prayer nor Hushai's errand would have availed; and unless David had prayed that the counsel of Ahithophel might be defeated, and Hushai had gained a hearing in Absalom's councils, the Divine purpose would not have been accomplished. There is, therefore, an intimate connection between God's purposes and human means; and the particulars of this narrative may serve to teach us, that whatever the end which God has determined, he has determined all the means essential to that end, not excepting the prayers of his people.

We are, moreover, furnished with an answer to the various objections often made to prayer; objections founded as much in ignorance of its nature as in imperfect views of the Divine economy. Prayer is the offering up of our desires for things agreeable to the Divine will, and therefore God's immutability should constitute no hindrance to our prayers; nor would an answer to prayer imply that he is changeable in his purposes; it would be simply an instance of his immutable rectitude in suiting his dealings with us to our character and disposition. Or, as God has predetermined all things, it does not follow that prayer is useless, unless it follows that all human means are vain for the same reason; much less that, because God knows our wants, prayer is useless; since our acknowledgment of our wants may be the predetermined means of our relief, and the very circumstance, in our characters, that contributes to render us the proper objects of the Divine regard. Nor is it vanity and presumption in us to suppose that the great God will heed our prayers, since he himself has commanded us to pray; and, being our sovereign lawgiver, must be pleased with the obedience of his creatures.

It has been said that man has too little sagacity to resolve an infinity of questions, which he has yet sagacity enough to make; but there is this peculiarity in all such difficulties as may embarrass his mind in relation to prayer: they all vanish, when, in the providence of God, he is reduced to an extremity. Whatever may have been one's sentiments on the subject of religion, let him only be placed in circumstances of imminent danger, of pressing want, or of heart-breaking sorrow, and involuntarily does he look up to God, as to the only source whence help can come. It is in such circumstances that the

Christian feels only the more impelled to the throne of grace. David was a man of prayer; but we can easily conceive that he never prayed under a deeper sense of God's sovereignty, and his own helplessness and sinfulness, that when he prayed that the counsel of Ahithophel might be defeated.

There are on sacred record various instances of prayer answered: thus, in answer to the prayer of Abraham, Abimelech's family were delivered from their distresses; and God also assured Abraham, in answer to prayer, that if ten righteous men should be found in the cities of the plain, he would spare those cities. So, in answer to the prayer of Moses, the Israelites were delivered from various evils; of Job, God forgave the folly and sin of his friends; of Gideon, the dew fell on the ground and not on the fleece, and again on the fleece and not on the ground; of Samuel, the Lord thundered on the Philistines, and wrought a great deliverance for Israel; of Hezekiah, the mighty army of Sennacherib perished in one night; of Daniel, Gabriel was sent to explain the vision which he had seen; and of Cornelius, an angel was sent to direct him to the apostle who should teach him the way of salvation. But amid such instances, none is so striking to my own mind as David's prayer, or carries with it so deep a meaning. What a tribute to God's omniscience and all-pervading agency! How does that prayer serve to disclose Him to our contemplations, as presiding over all human councils as well as human actions, able to make the hidden devices of man's heart, alike with all the laws of nature, subservient to his high purposes! Was that prayer answered? were the counsels of Ahithophel defeated? What, then, should be our recourse, when enemies encompass us, but prayer, so that God may turn their hearts? To whom should we look but to him, when domestic troubles have driven peace from our hearth, or when political dissensions endanger the peace and prosperity of our land? Who but he that sitteth on the circle of the heavens, can save us from evil counsels, or counteract the devices of the wicked?

If other instances of the efficacy of prayer were wanting, the manner in which David's prayer was answered teaches us that there is power in prayer, a power which can control the cabinets of princes, and arrest the desolating march of war; before which the haughtiest ruler may hang his head as a

bulrush, and the wisest statesman stand convicted of his folly.

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Many in Israel might have looked on David's cause as hopeless. His enemies in their triumph reproached him, saying, Where is now thy God?" He is denounced as a bloody man, and stoned by a rebel. But penitence is opposed to despondency, meekness to injuries, and prayer to policy. Strange contrast does he present to those who had driven him from his throne! While they are exulting in their success, he is shedding bitter tears; while they pride themselves on their numbers, he prostrates himself in the dust on account of his sins; they are plotting against his life, he giving himself unto prayer. Despise him who may, as a weak and foolish man, unworthy to have the rule of a nation. The worldly-wise are still too prone to look down with sentiments akin to pity on one who prays. But that prayer of David's prevailed with God, to

the final overthrow of Absalom and his followers!

What befell Hushai we know not: doubtless he felicitated himself in having cajoled Absalom; but as no mention is afterward made of him, it is probable he fell in the general battle that ensued between the king and the insurgents.

But where is he who had joined the conspiracy under so strong a persuasion that he would be the oracle of the party? That boasted wisdom of his has been turned into foolishness. And where now are his ambitious plans? what is there to support that high estimate of his powers which scorned comparison with the "muddy-pated" throng? Instead of enjoying the power and place which he had anticipated in reward for his counsels, disgrace and punishment due to treason stare him in the face. It were vain, however, to attempt to depict the passions which racked his mind; his contemptuous hate, his wounded pride, his disappointed ambition, each giving place in turn to the agonizing conviction that all is lost. To have espoused the cause of a hairbrained youth, only to be at last subjected to so deep a mortification; been on the eve of final triumph, only to witness the most ruinous counsels prevail over his clear and certain judgment, was an ordeal to which his moral strength was fearfully unequal. Too much outraged to submit to the indignity offered to his wisdom, and yet too proud to return to his allegiance; foreseeing Absalom's ruin, and the

king's vengeance, dark thoughts take possession of his mind; and he returns to his home; not to give vent to his contending emotions, nor to brood in sullen silence over the wreck of his proud hopes, but to "set his house in order!" Strange that the associations of home did not calm his troubled breast! that the warm welcome and kindly words of its once-loved inmates did not cause him to relent in his fell purpose: but he was not the man to waver, having once come to a decision, much less to draw back from any deliberate resolve. To avoid the ignominious end of a traitor, he dies the awful death of a suicide! Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Ahithophel, notwithstanding his wisdom, died as a fool dies. His death has been recorded as a warning to all who think, by their own far-sightedness, to overreach God's providence. He who thinks of himself more highly than he ought to think," will yet see another preferred before him. He who leaves God out of his counsels, will in due time be left of God "to eat of the fruit of his own ways." Sooner or later, every Ahithophel is “snared in the work of his own hands," and sinks into the pit of his own digging.

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Men may say in their hearts, "There is no God;" or impiously inquire, What profit shall we have if we pray unto him?" Still, God reigns. He will confound the wisdom of the wise, humble the proud heart, and overrule all evil counsels to the furtherance of his own sovereign purposes.

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Ahithophel sought to compass David's death; but, in so doing, dug his own grave. In like manner, Caiaphas conspired against the son of David, and flattered himself that he had succeeded; but that "one man" who for expediency's sake, was put to death for the nation," declared himself to be the Son of God with power, by his rising from the dead. Yes; he rose: to pour shame on the wisdom of the Sanhedrim, to abash the lofty looks of his enemies, to assume the sceptre of universal dominion, to overturn and overrule, until "the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ!"

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G

THE SELF-IDOLATER.

THE historical Scriptures cannot be read with profit unless the object for which they were written be kept in mind; and this was, not to gratify curiosity, much less to silence cavils; not to transmit the knowledge of Hebrew manners and customs, nor an account of every thing that happened to the Hebrews as a people; but to record only such occurrences as were best adapted to illustrate the Divine authority of their religion, to set before them an abstract of God's proceedings; and, in furnishing posterity with an instructive view of the Divine attri butes, to exhibit in the depravity of a miraculously governed and divinely instructed nation, the necessity of that redemption which had been so early promised by the prophets.

Though the sacred historians did not derive from Revelation the knowledge of those things which might be gathered from the common sources of human intelligence, from public records and authentic documents; yet were they restrained by God's Spirit from registering material error; and, as they had an acquaintance with the counsels and designs of God, and often revealed his dispensations in the clearest predictions, it follows that they were at times directly inspired, as they were always superintended by the Holy Ghost. Hence their unity of design: the grand moral purpose of all such matters as they relate. Viewed in this light, each portion may be rendered subservient to our spiritual culture; and it is with reference to this that the historical Scriptures should be read; not to detect flaws or urge objections; not to display our "knowledge of science falsely so called," or to furnish ourselves with weapons for controversy, much less for uncharitableness and abuse; but, as it were, to ask one's self, "Of what sin does this convince me? or against