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Jericho, a city of high antiquity, was one of the most important in the land of Palestine. Its walls were so broad, that at least one person — Rahab — had her house upon them. Silver and gold were so abundant that one man — Achan — could stealthily appropriate 200 shekels. Between the city and the far East, there had existed for years, before its occupation by the children of Israel, a wide and extensive commerce, of which the "goodly Babylonish garment," purloined in the act of dishonesty just mentioned, may be accepted as proof. The New Testament notices of Jericho are full of interest. The lonely limestone rocks behind the city formed the scene of our Lord's temptation. It was down the banks of the Jordan, at Jericho, the Master had previously gone to be baptized. Three times in Jericho did our Blessed Lord give sight to the blind. Once in Jericho, the descendant of Rahab the "hostess" accepted the hospitality of Zaccheus the publican. For five hundred and fifty years a doom had lain upon Jericho. She had been the first city to resist the advance of Israel under the leadership of Joshua. She was therefore not only condemned to fall "before the captain of the Lord's host," and amid the much ceremony with which we are all familiar — the annihilation was accompanied with a terrible curse. The man who ventured to rebuild Jericho was to lay the foundation in his first-born, and in his youngest son to set up the gates. Josephus describes the district in his day as quite a fairyland, with its palms and roses, and fragrant balsams and thickly. dotted pleasure grounds — a perfect garden and paradise of Eastern beauty. At the period of the text, however, things were very different. The spring was still suffering from the old doom pronounced against Jericho, it was noxious, unfit for drinking, prejudicial to the soil: "The men of the city said unto Elisha " — who was at this time residing here in the sacred college — "Behold. I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my Lord seeth, but the water is naught, and the ground barren."

1. The Gospel is "a new cruse" for the world. Christianity comes not in "the oldness of the letter" and the law, but in "the newness of the Spirit." The Gospel, too, begins at the origin of the evil — the heart — that is "the spring of the waters." What is needed is "a clean heart and a right spirit"; the poison is at the fountain-head, and must be dealt with there. Once again, like the salt in the cruse, how unlikely and insufficient at first sight the simple Gospel appears for the world's conversion. The words with which Elisha accompanied the casting in of the salt, and the consequent working of the miracle, are very noticeable: "Thus saith the Lord," exclaimed the prophet, "I have healed these waters." How the change was effected, we cannot tell. Means were employed to show that God in His greatest works has a place for the instrumentality of man. Elisha "cast in" the salt.

2. In the redemption of a lost world, God has room for the energies of believing men. "As ye go, preach." "Sow beside all waters." But God is the grand agent. The power of the healing waters comes from the Great Physician. "The new cruse" and "the salt" in it, both are God's sufficient honour for poor sinful men to be their administrators — let God be "All in All." There was no mistaking the result of the Divine interposition by the hand of Elisha in relation to the bitter waters of Jericho. "Thus saith the Lord, there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land."

3. The figure is that of the Gospel again, both in its influence on society at large and the individual believing heart. Put "the new cruse" and "the salt" once really in, and a new heart leads to a new life, and the world at large, once its springs are really touched, feels it through all its tributaries and ramifications. What has Christianity not done for the social life of man? It has abolished polygamy. It has put honour on the marriage tie. It has created lazar-houses for the sick, and asylums for the penitent profligate. What has it not done for the cause of civil liberty? It has struck the fetters from men. It has proclaimed freedom of conscience. What has Christianity not done for the commercial enterprise and the outward prosperity of the world? The missionary is the pioneer of the merchant.

(H. J. Howat.)

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KJV: And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren.

WEB: The men of the city said to Elisha, "Behold, please, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land miscarries."