a brother to angels, an heir of God, a joint-heir with Christ,-these are the titles which God has given to the scattered members of the redeemed family. Happy they who find the plague stayed in their own hearts, and live near to the Fountain of health, that they may "renew their strength," and mount, as with eagles' wings, towards heaven, -who are not emboldened by God's patience, but constrained by Christ's love,-who cannot help seeing disloyalty on every side of them, yet regard it not angrily, as if they were wronged, but with feelings of brotherly compassion, and with many wishes and prayers that men, unhappy by their own choice, may find rest and peace in Christ!

SERMON VII.

BALAAM'S WISH AND BALAAM'S END.

NUMBERS Xxiii. 10.

“Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!"

Also NUMBERS XXXI. 8.

"Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword."

(Second Sunday after Easter.-Morning.)

BOTH these passages, you remember, are taken from different parts of the history of Balaam. The first comes before us in the Lesson for the day; the second closes the Bible narrative respecting this unhappy man. It would be easy to treat of his character and history in many different ways. ways. We might try to explain what looks mysterious in his story, and conjecture why it was that God forbade him to listen to Balak's offers in the first place, and yet permitted him to return with the king's messengers on their second visit. We might turn to the supernatural portion of the history, and might say something about the angel who met

Balaam, and the "dumb ass," as St. Peter says, breaking silence to "rebuke" its master. Or, confining ourselves to practical matters, we might take the worldly-hearted prophet as an example to show how a person may be enriched with spiritual gifts, and yet blinded and enslaved by sin, so as to sink at last into deeper perdition than the crowd of common offenders.

Each of these subjects might afford ample matter for a sermon; but I am not going to touch upon any of them just now. I propose simply to contrast the two portions of the narrative contained in the two detached passages which I have read, and to found some plain remarks upon them for your guidance and warning. The first passage tells us how Balaam longed to die; the second tells us how he did die. When he stood by the altar and prophesied, with the tribes of Israel lying beneath him in the plain, he breathed out a passionate wish to end his days like God's people. He felt sure that there was no faith like theirs, and no peace like theirs. "When my time shall come," he says, "may I be sheltered, like the sons of Abraham, beneath the wings of Divine Mercy. With them, I see, is the light which guides a man safely through life, and makes the hour of nature's darkness to be bright with hope." And where and how did he perish at last? A single half verse in a later chapter informs us. He fell in the battle-field, fighting on the side of the Midianites against the Lord's hosts. He had gone, therefore, against his own convic

tions, had made it impossible for him to have what he once wished for,-had settled down in the habits and faith of an idolater,-had taken his part, finally, with the nations which were already doomed and cursed. May God give us grace to apply the lesson to ourselves, and make us faithful to our light, whether we have little or much! and then, instead of falling so low as this gifted but wretched man, we shall be advanced to greater heights than he ever attained to when the Spirit of Prophecy was on him.

I. We may observe, first of all, How many good prayers are wasted because they do not come from an honest heart!

What could sound better than this wish of Balaam's,-"Let me die the death of the righteous? It was the prayer of a man who saw clearly the difference between the vague, uncertain dreams about futurity, which amused his heathen neighbours, and the blessed hope of the patriarchs and their descendants, built as it was on the sure promise of Jehovah. They "had respect unto the recompense of the reward." They "desired a better country, that is a heavenly." They "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth," and were content to dwell in tents for a while, having no certain dwelling-place, because they had their eye upon a distant City which God had built, and which was pervaded, from end to end, with the light of His glory. "That people shall be

my people," says the prophet, like Ruth in a later day," and that God my God. Glad should I be, now that I know how rich they are, to live with them and die among them." And yet while he uttered these words, we know where his heart was. Balak was by his side, and some royal gifts had been bestowed already, and larger gifts were to follow if he could bring his lips to shape curses against the people whom God had blessed. The words were good words, but there was no sincerity or faith in the prayer; and so God, who knew Balaam's heart, never answered it.

Remember, my dear brethren, He knows our hearts, too. Our prayers, continually, come to nothing because we ask for blessings which we do not care for, or entreat God to turn our hearts to Himself while there is no fixed resolve to break from the world and sin. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,"-no, though I should prophesy like Balaam, or pour forth my song of thanksgiving in strains like those of holy David, or give utterance to prayers such as Paul addressed to God on behalf of his beloved Churches. It is all waste breath, if there be no genuine contrition, no lively trust in God's mercy, and no hearty desire to live a sober, righteous and godly life. Every man's conscience assents to this truth when he hears it. No man dares to stand up and say, 66 I expect that God will give me that good thing, or turn away from me that evil thing, because I have told Him what I want in my prayers; and now I