to which men give into your bosom the same measure that ye mete.'

Assisted by his wife Jezebel, who was as impious and artful in contriving a wicked strife against God, as he was willing to follow her bloody devices, Ahab, king of Israel, involved himself in a course of wicked abominations, which brought on him and Jezebel the woc pronounced by the prophet Elijah, which gave his "blood to the dogs, in the place where he slew his neighbour; and the body of Jezebel to the dogs by the well Jezreel." Such measures as they meted, men rendered into their bosoms.

The vehement and memorable strife that Haman raised against the divine command, which required him to love his neighbour as himself, and which hurried him on in his wicked and bloody purpose to destroy all the Jews, that he might satiate the malicious revenge which rankled in his corrupt heart against Mordecai, who sat in the King's gate, brought upon his head an examplary woe, which should serve as an awful admonition to deter us from engaging in a like conflict. Even before he became in the least apprehensive for the safety of his own life, and while he thought he could boast of his vast riches, his numerous family, the confidence of his majesty the king, and even that of the Queen, so heavy was woe resting on him, that he told his friends and Zeresh his wife, "all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.' So true is it, that there is no peace to the wicked; that even while strife against our Maker seems to be in flattering success, a deadly woe cankers and corrodes all our pleasures, and throws a portentous gloom over future prospects. But Haman's strife against his Maker raised a gallows for his own neck, fifty cubits high, where it terminated his miserable life.

Another truely awful instance of strife against our Maker, we find in the enmity of the religious

Jews against Jesus and his gospel. The Scribes and Pharisees, the doctors of the law, with the whole estate of the elders, and the high priest at their head, were deeply engaged in this most cruel strife. They saw in Jesus, a friend to publicans and sinners; they heard his gracious words of pardoning mercy; they saw vast multitudes following him, who had never conformed to their traditions ; all this kindled in their hearts the fire of jealousy, envy and hatred, which were all blown to a flame, by such faithful reproofs as we find recorded in that last address, which Jesus delivered in the temple, to his mortal foes. "Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites," is many times repeated in in one chapter; and the abominations which those hypocrites practiced are stated in direct charges against them, as follows: "Ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.-Ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence of make long prayers: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.-Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.-Ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omited the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the others undone.-Ye make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.-Ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." These and other like charges the faithful and true witness brought against the enemies of his blessed gospel, who went on in their strife against their Maker, until they imbrued their hands in the blood of Jesus, and in the blood of his disciples, filling up the measure of their fathers, and

preparing themselves for the woes which soon came upon them, in the dire destruction of their city and temple, in the slaughter of many millions of the Jews, and the final dispersion of that ancient people. So violent, so perversely wicked, was the strife in which the enemies of Jesus were engaged, and so truly awful were the woes which he saw gathering like a dark cloud, over Jerusalem, that he wept over the city, saying, “If thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee: and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation."

It is a truth, which we ought always to keep in view, that the woes which striving against our Maker is sure to bring upon us, are those of our own procuring; they consist in wrath, which we, according to the hardness of our hearts, treasure up to ourselves, against the day of wrath. It is our wicked hearts and polluted hands which are employed in surcharging, with vengeance, the dense cloud which must burst on our heads. Jesus and all his saints may weep over us, they may pity our madness and our strife with our Maker, but the woe must come. God is a fountain of living waters; and if we strive against them and forsake them, these waters do not pursue us with drought and parch our lips with thirst; but we hew out to ourselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

These truths Jesus very clearly set forth in that beautiful, and well adjusted, and properly applied parable of the two sons. On the one hand, there was a multitude of publicans and sinners, who seemed to come to him as lost sheep to a shepherd,

or as a prodigal child to a compassionate father; on the other hand stood the Pharisees and Scribes, murmuring, and accusing him of receiving sinners and eating with them. In his reply, Jesus represented the humble, penitent publicans and sinners by the younger son, who having obtained his patrimony, left his father; and soon spent his substance in riotous living. In his poverty he endeavored to supply the cravings of hunger by the meanest services; but after all his fruitless endeavours, he found himself perishing with hunger. In this forlorn condition he exclaimed, "how many hired servants are there in my father's house, who have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger." He now comes to the resolution to go home to his faiher, humble and contrite. He goes; his father receives him kindly, cloths him in the best robe, puts shoes on his feet, a ring on his hand, kills the fatted calf, orders music and dancing, saying, "this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." The Pharisees and Scribes, who murmured because he received sinners, Jesus represented by the elder son, in the following words: "Now, his elder son was in the field; and, as he came, and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked him what these things meant? And he said unto him, thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in ; therefore came his father out, and entreated him. And he, answering, said to his father, Lo these many years do I serve thee; neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment; and thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends; but as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fated calf. And he said unto him, son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make

merry and be glad; for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found."

In the parable now under consideration, we find two instances which represent two sorts of strife against our Maker; and the woes which belong to them, respectively, are clearly set forth. All the time, in which the prodigal was wasting his estate, he was striving against all the wise and salutary councils and advice which a prudent and experienced father had given him. The father did not pursue his wicked son in wrath and indignation; he did not send after him a minister of vengeance to torment him. The father's heart was all the time full of pity, and his compassion was ready to receive him, on his return. When and where, let us ask, did this prodigal meet the woe, which our text denounces against him who striveth with his Maker? See the wretch, yonder, among swine! fain would he satisfy the cravings of hunger with the husks which the unclean swine eat; but no man giveth unto him. This is truly a woeful case; but his own folly has brought it on him; nor can a father's pity prevent the dire calamity so long as the son maintains his strife against him. In this woful ease of the prodigal, the impious, the profane, the immoral among men, have a mirror presented to their eyes, in which they may see themselves, and clearly discern the sure consequences, which must attend a life of disobedience to the commandments of God.

On the other hand, the question occurs, when and where did the elder son meet the woe, which his striving with his father procured for him? Look at the circumstances set forth in the parable. In his own house is his father, his brother, and the rest of the family. The fatted calf is dressed, and feasting and joyful merriment are there. But where is he? Is he among the happy ones? Is he shouting for joy that his brother is alive and a home? Does he thank his father for his kindness > his long lost brother? No, he is angry; he will