the Lord, thy healer." Every word of this gospel is full of grace, and power, and comfort. The Lord will Himself be our healer; is to-day; is your and my special healer; is in very truth the healer, who is fully adequate to all our maladies.

Let us then refresh and strengthen ourselves, as we meditate on Marah's Gospel:

"I AM THE LORD, THY HEALER."

We consider

I. That here all other help is excluded: "I am the Lord, thy healer."

II. That this help is of perpetual continuance: "I am the Lord, thy healer."

III. That it is both of universal and special application: "I am the Lord, thy healer."

IV. That it is irrevocably pledged, and demands, therefore, our fullest confidence: "I am the Lord, thy healer.

Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for this precious truth! Preach it here to-day, as first at Marah, and may this gospel, like the breath of life, penetrate and permeate all ailing hearts and homes. Lord, our complaints are so many and grievous, that Thou canst make Thy name renowned in our midst. Thou knowest them all better than we do ourselves. O, produce within us the conviction that we need a physician, and enable us to seek and find our remedy in Thee and Thy dear Son, that we may exultingly say, "Through His wounds we are healed!" Amen.

1. "I am the Lord, thy healer."

If we place the emphasis here, where God himself, because of His incomparableness, has placed it, we shall at once perceive that all other help or healing is here excluded. Israel had probably sought and expected help from Moses. And no wonder. A three days' journey in the wilderness, beneath a scorching sun and over burning sand, with waning strength of man and beast, was no ordinary trial; when, lo! they came to Marah. Water! water! is the tumultuous exclamation that echoes through Israel's camp. All rush to the fountain, when -O, cruel disappointment!" the people could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter." Sadness succeeds gladness-disappointment, transport. With murmurs long and loud the people turn to Moses, and despairingly ask, "What shall we drink?" "Man's extremity is God's opportunity," and the Lord, in answer to Moses' cries, sweetens the bitter waters by means of a tree.

The Lord was the healer, and the Lord exclusively. This is the first truth taught in the gospel of Marah: a truth, by the way, not easily learned. For how many and various are the

contrivances to which men resort--and even Christian men-before they learn this divine exclusiveness of help asserted in the text.

No man is without some healer or helper. Somehow, somewhere, he seeks for deliverance and comfort, be it in himself or in others. And to what sorry helpers he often resorts with his heart troubles! How little, after all, has the world learned to go directly to the living God for help. When men come to their Marah in any need or bitterness of life, what do they do? Just see. Yonder kneels the besotted heathen before his dumb idol, and that shall help him; or he runs to some priest, or wizard, or juggler, and they shall help him; or he plunges into some sacred stream, tortures or lacerates his body, or "offers his first born for the sins of his soul;" and all this shall deliver him from guilt and perdition!

In the

And how is it in Christian lands? Alas! Here the ointment for their wounded hearts is sought in haunts of pleasure, in convivial clubs, in diverting comedies, in amusing stories, in art galleries, in operatic entertainments; these shall divert, deliver, help, heal! Men everywhere act as though it had never been proclaimed, " I, the Lord, am thy healer.' lazar-house of this world one plague-patient seeks help of another, and if any one essays to deliver himself, it only proves that self-help is self-destruction. And why? Because all these helps and helpers are not adequate to the terrible malady that afflicts the race. So men have found it. So God has declared it. "Thus saith the Lord: Thy bruise is incurable, thy wound grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up; thou hast no healing medicines."-Jer. xxx: 12, 13. The whole world contains not within itself a single drop of cooling water to quench the thirst of the soul, or to penetrate to the burning conscience. The incessant cry, therefore, continues: "What shall we drink?"

Marah's sad experience is daily renewed. Water is at hand, but it quenches no thirst. Moses is near, but Moses alone is helpless. Self-upbraiding and murmurs abound, but deliverance comes not. World-help, human-help, self-help-all are inadequate.

By what right, now, can God claim this exclusive title of helper or healer? His name already, "the Lord," implies it. "I am Jehovah"-i. e., not only the Almighty, to whom nothing is impossible; nor simply the Omniscient, who thoroughly understands the nature and extent of all human complaints; but also the "Faithful and True," who will reveal Himself to thee-set thee apart for his people, and who is, even now, ready to enter into covenant with thee.

But His deeds, as well as His name, entitle Him to this exclusive right as helper or healer. With an outstretched arm

He had just delivered Israel from Pharoah's hand. Through the healing of the waters at Marah He had renewedly demonstrated that he controlled the forces of nature; and that in special needs he could provide special helps. And who, we may well ask, had, from the beginning, cared for the fallen. race? Who was, even now, gradually developing the great redemptive scheme, by the selection and training of a particular race and people? Was it not He alone?

But how much greater is God's right now to this exclusive title in the text? After the bitter waters of sin had flooded the earth, and one generation after another had drank its death-draught from the polluted stream, then he selected another tree and put that into the waters, and the curse and wrath-producing waters of sin were converted into streams of salvation. It was the cross of Christ, the only green branch on the dead tree of humanity. This did He and He alone, the Holy, the Triune God. Now the invitation, sweet as angel music, resounds through this wilderness world: "If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink." Whenever now a soul drinks of this fountain, opened in Christ the Lord, so that it thirsts not again-i. e., is truly healed-there God has been the physician through His Son, His Word, and His Spirit.

In administering the saving means, God employs, indeed, human instrumentality, as Moses at Marah, but the specifically efficacious healing power is always He, His Word, His Spirit, His grace, His peace. So that, in view of all this, God can now, with infinitely greater reason than at Marah, stand before mankind, and assert with unwonted emphasis: "I, I alone, am your healer;" and century after century of redemptive history responds with one loud, prolonged Yea and Amen.

Have we learned this, and do we fully appreciate it? Physicians dislike, when, along with them, we secretly call in others for consultation. The Heavenly Physician dislikes it as well. And yet so many "halt between two opinions;" so many human devices are resorted to, that the divine remedy is either greatly impeded, or rendered nugatory altogether. It is, therefore, no matter of astonishment that so much spiritual ailment abounds everywhere, and also here among you. O, my countrymen! you who seek deliverance by so many whom the Lord has not appointed as healers of your deepest sores, would that I could publish it in all your homes and hamlets, along all your hills and valleys, that One is your helper. High above all controversial strifes and animosities, He stands to-day before. you, beholding all your secret woes and unmollified wounds, saying: "I am thy physician." Acknowledge Him at last as your exclusive Saviour; flee with all your sufferings and sorrows to His peace-bestowing wounds, and your entire restoraration is accomplished.

2. But there are yet many other springs of truth and comfort issuing from this Gospel of Marah. A new one is indicated in the perpetual continuance of this Divine help. "I AM," says the Lord, "thy healer;" am it always, and will continue to be it forever more. Human physicians come and go for awhile, and then either death or recovery ends their visits. The malady of the human race, however, as it has existed from the beginning of time, and will continue to the consummation of all things, needs an eternally abiding help. Here all things change, except sin; it has an obstinately tenacious existence, and transmits its blighting life from generation to generation. Hence has this little word, "I am," not yet passed away. High above all times and changes, thrones He who uttered it; before whom is no past nor future, but who surveys all in one eternal "Now;" who was, and is, and is to come, and who, therefore, can always continue to say: "I am the Lord, thy healer." He was it from the beginning, is it now, and ever shall continue to be it, world without end.

He continued to be Israel's helper. Else why does He not say, Behold I was thy healer; was it just now. Why, "am?" Because He wishes to intimate that He purposes to remain such. And this our text specifically confirms. "There He made for them a statute and an ordinance; and then He proved them and said: If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, then will I put none of these diseases upon thee, which I brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, thy healer." It was, you perceive, to be an ordinance and a statute forever, including on the one hand the leading them to the bitter waters from which nature recoils; but, on the other hand, also, the sweetening, the restorative efficacy of this water, redemption. That shall be a statute for God's Israel of all times, for all his children of all ages, "who diligently hearken to the voice of their Lord," so that they may definitely reckon on the Divine help.

How often was this firm and unalterable statute verified in Israel's history. Marah was but the beginning of the wilderness, not the end. And how faithfully did God continue their physician in all their wanderings! His face shone upon them from the pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night; it was the visible pledge of His ever gracious presence. And O! how comforting for them in all their needs to see and to say: Yonder, in the front of the long, long procession, is the pledge of our help, the Angel of the Covenant!

Kings and princes usually take their family physician with them on their journeys. Israel had its physician along, both for body and soul. It was led and accompanied by Him who had said, "I am and remain the Lord, thy physician." And

whenever, in its subsequent history, even after long-continued faithlessness and monstrous iniquity, Israel cried unto the Lord in its sorest needs and greatest oppressions, becoming again obedient unto Him, the sweet truth was renewed by: "I am thy healer."

Is the case different at present? This holy sanctuary, this quiet Sabbath hour, this sacred volume, which, thank God, shines to-day like "the fiery, cloudy pillar" all along our pilgrimage through this wilderness world, all demonstrate the perpetually enduring force of this word "am." It is felt in the healing power of the Cross to-day, and it will continue to be felt to the end of time. And when time shall be no more, this self-same power shall stand out in all its fullness and majesty, in glory everlasting. In all the history of the past, where is there a single soul that humbly sought and believingly applied its healing efficacy, was either disappointed or rejected? Who can count the hearts it has quieted, the tears it has dried, the consciences it has unburdened, the soul-hunger and thirst it has satisfied?

Ah yes! This joyous news is still true. The Gospel of Marah still sounds forth its glad tidings. It has been clearly interpreted, graciously extended, mightily strengthened, amazingly deepened, and unshakenly established by the Gospel of Calvary. Its expiring victim, despite thy waywardness, is still "thy Healer," thy Saviour. And He remains such as long as "repentance and forgiveness of sin are preached in His name among all nations." His power is not limited. His arm is not shortened, that it cannot help. His kingdom increases, and with it the means of help.

And mark! whether thou recognizest the fact or not, He, unseen, has attended, with His gracious aid, each step of thy life-journey. As in Israel's case, thou had Him ever near thee. And this day thou mayest come to Him; and having been accepted, thou mayest come again and again. After each sin, each misstep, run to Him at once and say: Now Lord, more than ever Thou, and Thou alone, art my healer. O, neglect not the day of grace. It lasts long, but it has its limits for each one; else thou mayest knock in vain for admission when once the door is shut. Only to those that obey His voice it lasts forever; to such it is continued through the dark valley of the shadow of death, and will be perpetuated in the city of our God, when the mighty Helper and Healer, Jesus Christ, shall lead His flock "unto living fountains of water," and "unto the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations."

3. Or does any doubt in the ability of this physician to heal just your sickness hinder you? Then let me disclose to you a new spring of comfort in the Gospel of Marah. You have already seen how copiously the streams of salvation flow from