swords into spades, and every one is digging for his life. That is in God yet-that way of just turning my wisdom into contempt, and making me do the thing that I did not dream of doing, and putting me upon this at any rate, "Will I obey God or not? Will I really give myself up into His hands, and fall in with His plans, and His way of doing things? Am I being led by God Almighty, or am I being led by policy, and carnal wisdom, and selfish ambition?" Look at these words, and what was done with them. These soldiers were most of them Israelites. I can imagine them saying, "Well, things are come to a bad pass, and some one has blundered " (as our poet has it)—" some one has blundered, and I do not know what is to be done; but really, I draw the line at beginning to dig, which is just a little infra dig. It is just a little below the mark that I, a soldier, should begin here navvying away and digging. I came out to fight, to be grand and brave, and to do a soldier's work, and here I am with a mattock and shovel, digging as if it were piecework, to turn this valley into so many ditches.". What is translated with many words in our own version is in the Hebrew simply ditches, ditches." That is what Elisha said. "Thus saith the Lord, Ditches, ditches, ditches, ditches. Thus saith the Lord, Get ready for Me, and then ye will be ready for Moab." That is the wisdom of it. That is the philosophy of it. 'First, ye should have asked Me at the beginning. My arm can reach Moab anywhere, and ye poor fools thought that ye could do without it. And there! Now I will give you the victory, but I will give it to you in such a fashion as shall pour contempt on your leaguing, and your confederating, and your wisdom, and your way of doing things. Make ditches. Bend

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your backs and dig. Make ditches, ditches." That was a downcome. It was. But we all need it for all our troubles, and for all our trials. Make ready for the blessing. A whole sermon could be preached on that one outburst of God's mind and heart through Elisha's mouth: "Ditches, ditches." Prepare for a blessing. You are always right to calculate upon that when you come back and put yourself right with God. Then prepare for a blessing. At home, yonder, make a trench. Prepare at home for a home blessing. Has Moab got no home? Have the world, and the devil, and the flesh troubled you at home? Now, give up your own wisdom at home, and your own way of fighting, and go away and lie down before God, and confess your home sins; and then build up a family altar, and pray and make ready at home. Make ready, make a receptacle at home for God's blessing at home; and, be sure of it, it will not stand empty long. So with your Sabbath-school; with your Bible-class; so with Holborn Hall; so with Regent Square; so with all our work everywhere, and all over the land, and all over the world. First of all, back to God, back in humility and contrition, and with a good, red, blushing face, which every way becomes us, and a lowly head. Back to God. Then He comes back to us. Although justly in His anger He may turn us away, yet because of His own great name, and because of what the heathen might say, He comes back, and then is the time for us to recover our mistake, and to listen to what He says. Make the valley full of ditches. God's Church to-day in the land looks like a dry, parched valley. There are no great big clouds in the sky that one

can see.

Never mind. Do not walk by the sight of the eye. Do

not walk by the appearance of things. Take in this word: "Make this valley full of ditches. Make it so against all appearances." What did God say to Elisha, or Elisha say to them? "Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet this valley shall be filled. And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord. He will deliver the Moabites also into your hands."

Now, have we got our eyes upon this Holy God to-day -God, the God of Israel? How it would strengthen our hands and encourage our hearts! How these that have feeble knees would be invigorated! How these that have been filled with a false strength would be brought to their level and their senses! "Not by might, not by power; but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." "I will give you no sign. You will be tested right down to the ground upon this point. Can you, will you, at least believe Me and My bare word? Will you? You will not see wind, and you will not see rain. You will dig these trenches in a choking drought, with the dust rising like to choke you, and for ever inclined to lift up your backs and say, What in all the world is the use of all this digging in this dry land? Dig; dig; dig. Obey. Believe Me. Trust Me down to the ground; to the last syllable." God wants to pulverize out of us the trust in ourselves-to take the courage out of us, and to make us simple.

I can scarcely get on because I feel so the application of it to individual men as well as to the whole problem of the day. My friends, there are some of us sitting here who to this hour have never learnt this lesson. You do not know God, and there is only one way to get to know Him, and it is along the path of obedience-along the path of bowing your stiff knees, and opening your lock-jawed mouth, and

praying out of your heart, and giving your own obedience. Now, at that rate of it, how long will it be before some of us get the signs of heavenly blessing and heavenly power? At this rate of it, it will be postponed for ever. There is no making of the trench, and until that is done there will be Make ready for God. If you room for Him. Make ready. Show to Him that you are

no reception of the blessing. want Him to come, make Make a clearance for Him. preparing for His coming.

I like that word in the 18th verse. "This is but a light thing: He will deliver the Moabites into your hands." Oh sorely troubled child of God, with all the trouble in England through drink, and lust, the commercial trouble, the poverty on the one hand, and the too much riches on the other, face to face with that, and oh Church of God! face to face with the dead, hoary systems of heathenism in India, and in China, and in poor dark Africa, it is but a light thing in the eyes of God. He can do that, so to speak, with His little finger; but the big thing is to get us down upon our knees. That is the tremendous difficulty even to Almighty God. When that is done, the rest comes in course. That is the difficulty. How can I get past it ? Down, down, down, and how often God's people have seen that everything was changed when prayer began, when the ditch was opened, when the channel was made. Why, bless His name! we had barely dug it when the bubbling water was there, and we were refreshed. Then out we went, and God's cause went on amain. Yet this is but

a light thing. He will deliver the Moabites also into your hands.

Our time is gone; but, you know, it was actually fulfilled. After they had offered the usual sacrifices, there came

water in an unexpected way, by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water. Commentators spend a good deal of time trying to give natural explanations for the coming of this water. That is it. Anything but just simply resting on this, "God did it, and God sent it." Try a long-winded explanation that God sent an unusual freshet, and the snows melted, and the water came. God sent it. "You will not see wind or rain; yet this valley shall be filled. I will do it." And He did it. It is the same yet. Believe in Him. Trust in Him. When I stand up here to preach the Gospel, when you go to preach the Gospel, is there anything that is more needed? "Never mind signs. Never mind wonders. Do what I have told you 'to do, and I-I will do the rest. It is My great prerogative. And I will give it to no other."

But it is worth while to notice the great mistake that the Moabites made. It is very suggestive; and although some might not consider it as fairly coming out of the passage, I cannot help seeing it, and I cannot help preaching it. When the Moabites rose in the morning they saw the sun shining upon that glistening pool of water, and they "Blood! blood! this is blood. The kings are surely

said,

slain. They have smitten one another. Now, therefore, Moab to the spoil." And in they rush, and on they lash as water against a wall, for Israel rose and scattered them like chaff before the wind. What was a blessing to Israel became a stumbling-block to their enemies. It was refreshment that God had sent to Israel, and Moab coming, and suddenly looking upon it, took another meaning out of it. "Ah!" they said, "this is blood. They have been killing each other." They stumbled at that stumbling-stone.

What God had sent, and what