waters were to Israel, that faith is to every spiritual Israelite. Faith seems to be as feeble as a wall of waters: faith is as strong as a wall of iron. As long as we are in simple and real fellowship with the God of salvation, we are so surrounded that the devil cannot get at us to vex or slay us. And that same thing which was Israel's salvation became the distress of their enemies. "By faith the Israelites passed through the Red Sea, which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." I have kept you too long; just one word more in closing, and it is a word of warning. I do not think that this narrative ends so brightly as one would like for Israel. We are told that Israel saw the dead upon the shore, and they believed and feared the Lord, and His servant Moses. That is the faith that will not last. Soon shall we have them in the "wilderness of Sin" again. Faith that springs up because I see my dead lying therethat is an uncertain faith; and very soon afterwards you will find Israel at the old trick of grumbling again. They were walking by sight when they thought they were walking by faith. Israel saw the dead, then believed the Lord and feared Him. But by-and-bye, in the wilderness, the vision of the dead will grow dim, and their eyes will see things temporal that will discourage their faith, and it will melt away. It should be the other way about: Israel, from the first, should have believed to see the enemy dead upon the shore. That faith will hold, and that is the only faith that will hold. Thomas made the same mistake, and said, "Unless I see the print of the nails," and so on, "I will not believe.' And Christ said, "Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed; blessed are they, Thomas-blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." Thomas, that is the cheapest kind of faith and the poorest kind of faith that believes because it sees. The right kind of faith is that which believes to see. "I had fainted," said the Psalmist, "unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." I end, then, where all God's lessons should have their end. Fear not, only believe; and although we do not see all things by the eye, still, by faith, we see the Lord upon His throne, and in that there is the sign and the sure promise that we also shall overcome, and sit down beside Him there. May God bless this exposition to us. Amen. Henderson & Spalding, General Printers, Marylebone Lane, London, W. SHAMMAH AND BENAIAH. A Sermon DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, DEC. 1, 1889, IN AND ON MONDAY EVENING AT THE "THIEVES' SUPPER," ST. GILES, BY THE REV. JOHN MCNEILL. 2 SAMUEL XXIII, ε.-"These be the names of the mighty men whom David had," &c. 66 11 and 12.- And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in the midst of the plot, and defended it, and slew the Philistines and the Lord wrought a great victory." 20.—“ And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, he slew the two sons of Ariel of Moab: he went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow." 22.-"These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and had a name among the three mighty men." I WISH you for a little while to look at the deed of this man Shammah, who stood in the midst of the plot of lentils and defended it, and slew the Philistines, and Benaiah who slew a lion in a pit on a snowy day. These, of course, are instances of individual valour. These men are called mighty men-" the mighty men whom David had;" and in each case is given a sample of their mighty deeds—something to suggest that they were worthy of the names they carried, worthy of the great hero with whom they had been in association, even the mighty David himself, and worthy of the renown which was attached to their names for many a day afterwards in the land of Israel. Very likely when the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews breaks off from his detailed narrative and says, "The time would fail me to tell of them all," these are some of those whom he had in his mind. We will take a little time where he had none, and look for a moment at the brief narratives of these mighty men. How did Shammah's deed come about? The Philistines were gathered together into a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils, "and the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in the midst of the ground and defended it, and slew the Philistines: and the Lord wrought a great victory." The one idea that leaps up from this narrative is that which you often find through Scripture, that in the day of defeat and disaster all God wants is one whole-hearted man. If the Lord can only get a beginning made, if He can, amidst all the disgraceful stampede and rout, get but one man to stop running, one to stop flying, one soul to cease from unbelief and panic and fear, and begin to trust in Him, there and then the tide of battle shall be turned. You see how this glory came to Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. Some men are born great, it has been said; some achieve greatness; and others have greatness thrust upon them. Our hero of this morning, while he certainly achieved greatness, yet, in another view, had greatness thrust upon him. I mean that the occasion, the oppor tunity, seems to have come suddenly and unexpectedly and to have been used by Shammah in the same way. It was not sought, but sprang upon him by surprise. I have no doubt he was well through with the conflict before he came to himself, and understood what a wonderful thing the Lord had done by his hand. And that same element might give heroism to your spiritual life and to mine today. For as these were mighty men under David, who won their honours and proved their right to the title, so we are under the heavenly David, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, granted that many things connected with Christ and His cause, in ourselves and in the world round about, are very dark and disastrous-looking; out of that darkness and disaster is continually coming the very opportunity that the Lord wants to recover the defeat, if only we would play the man, as did these true men of Israel long ago. Israel under the power of the Philistines! That happens often-Israel disorganized and scattered, and the Philistines, for the time being, strong and triumphant. Israel was here dispirited, weak, helpless, and Philistia strong, victorious, insulting. One day a little group of the Israelites are going out in a feeble way to reap a wretched little patch of lentils, the seed of which they had sown in the spring; but lo! as they step out to reap it, down come the marauding, plundering, ravaging Philistines, and the people flee before them. It was expected. The Philistines did not suppose they would have to fight, and their expectations were answered: the people flee. That had been the state of things for a good while. Philistia has simply a walk-over; Israel was so "all-gone" they did not think of rallying for the conflict. On come the Philistines, and off go Israelites shamefully before them-all but one man; that the |