forth, "I have sinned against the Lord," and drawn forth the answer of peace, "the Lord hath put away thy sin." But Gehazi added sin to sin; one more lie now proceeds from his heart of stone. "Thy servant went no whither," is the hardened reply. Sinner! dost thou not know many such a pause in thy career; many a time when good and evil, the truth and the lie, the good path and the perverse way, have stood out in more than usual contrast to your soul, and a voice from within has said, "Why will ye die?" and does memory tell of the rejection of the warning, the refusing to hearken; what bitter pangs of eternal remorse, are such seasons preparing for the unchanged! "How often would I have gathered thy children together. . and ye would not.” And now, no

longer shall doubt as to his discovery be any solace to Gehazi's mind; the prophet's reproof lays bare the sin and exposes the sinner.

"Went not mine heart with thee when the man

turned again to meet thee?" Alas! it was Gehazi's fond hope that no eye beheld him; but it was a vain hope: not only the eye of the omniscient God, but, by His power, the eye of his master, which Gehazi dreaded more, had tracked his sinful path. Whither he had

been, what he had done, where he had laid up his dearly purchased gains, all was solved and opened; his dream of concealment is at an end. I have said, that Gehazi dreaded more the eye of his master than the eye of God, and it is so with every unconverted soul. The presence of man will at once stay from outward sin his fellow man, with whom the fear of God prevails not. The one is palpable to sense, faith only realizes the presence of the Most High. Oh! that these words were "in power, and in the Holy Ghost," engraven on our hearts, "Thou, God, seest me!" How would the unholy act be stayed, and sinners cast away their transgressions from them! Three windows are there through which God beholds the children of men, and knoweth all their doings. He hath a window in our homes ; close up every crevice as we will, there is no shutter that can darken that inlet; He sees our conduct one to another; He marks our course. He hath a window in our secret chamber. "Behold! he prayeth," is the record of one; thou "restrainest prayer before God," is His charge against another. In our conscience, He hath His watch; the unmortified sin, the proud malicious thought, the 1 2 Kings vi. 12.

deceit ;-as well as the contrite heart, the tear of godly sorrow, the yearnings of the affections set on Him; He readeth each and all. How vain will be the attempt in the lost soul, to put away the awful condemnation, when God shall set before him the things that he hath done. "Went not Mine heart with thee?" shall silence each excuse, put away every subterfuge; the lie shall avail no more.

III. Judgment accompanies the reproof. "The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow." To some the judgment may appear severe; men cavil at the visitations of God's wrath, and would fain believe Him to be One Who taketh not vengeance. But as

surely as His mercy abounds to every believing and repentant soul, so surely is "our God a consuming fire," to those that "refuse Him that speaketh." Who art thou that repliest against God? dost thou know the real evil, the exceeding sinfulness of sin; dost thou know the malignity of sin; dost thou know what it is in the sight of a Pure and Holy God? How light the judgment of leprosy, or any temporal affliction, for the short period of our sojourn

on earth, compared with that judgment, as certain as it is near to those that obey not the Gospel of God "Depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!"1

That infliction of leprosy defeated Gehazi's object. If that object were pleasure,―money and garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, might be his, yet can he know no comfort; "but he was a leper," denied him the enjoyment of them; sick in body, and sick at heart, his soul would loathe the very dainties that once he so ardently craved. Was it dignity and honour that he sought? contempt and derision, or at the best, pity, would be his portion, as he was seen a spectacle of misery, the procurer of his own woe. Nor was it to himself only, that the evil did cleave ; his children shall be partakers of the parent's woe; "unto his seed" shall the leprosy cleave, and that for ever. Truly, a "man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth :" nor is a large heritage a desirable portion for our children. If you seek happiness for yourselves and your offspring, seek it not in laying up treasure upon earth, seek it in a close walk with God, leave with 'Matt. xxv. 41.

them the remembrance of a holy, heavenly, conversation; "the memory of the just is blessed."...That leprosy marked his crime. As afterwards, in the judgment on Ananias and Sapphira, "great fear would come on all who heard these things." He would witness to the truth of God, not in honour as did Elisha, the successor of Elijah, but unwillingly, awfully, yet truly; he would tell how wrath follows sin; he would forewarn others that exposure might even now attend their deeds, and if not "the day," the day of God would "declare them." But that judgment also told of the longsuffering of God. He was not cut off in his sin. Life is yet his. He is left to bewail and repent. The only trace we afterwards find concerning him is, his recounting to the king, at his request, the miracles of Elisha. "And" (we read) "the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done.' And who can tell the preciousness of that boon of minutes, hours, and days, continued to those who, as yet, are without Christ, without God, without hope. "Let it alone this year," is the intercession, and another year is granted. But there is added, "If it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that Thou shalt Acts v. 11.. 2 2 Kings viii. 4.

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