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I. GOD HAS AN ELECT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, scattered up and down among men found in various places, and in almost all communities, as his chosen ones. Men may take this principle in a light which does not belong to it, and affirm that they can deduce conclusions from it which in the Bible are directly and distinctly denied. There are, I might observe, two things which always make it appear to me, not only in a light that is harmless, but in a light that is most beneficial.

1. The one is, that it is never separated from its moral influences. "Predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son." "Chosen that we may be blameless and harmless, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation." And here, in the passage before us, it stands allied with a devotional character and with a praying habit of mind: and we are sure of this, that, practically felt in the mind, it does humble, prostrate, purify, inspire, and awaken within the lowest gratitude, and, at the same time, the loftiest and the holiest joy.

2. The other thing that I would wish to remark respecting it is, that it interferes not in any degree with the universal invitations of the gospel.

II. THE ELECT OF GOD ARE DISTINGUISHED BY THEIR DEVOTIONAL CHARACTER — THEIR PRAYING FRAME OF MIND. "Shall not God avenge His own elect who cry day and night before Him?" The evidence that we are chosen of God, called into His Church, made partakers of His mercy, is in this, that we recognize His providence; that we live in daily dependence upon His bounty; that we lift up our hearts to Him in supplication; that believing we pray, and that praying we confide. Then I would add, that an elect and praying people are beautiful in the eyes of God, and His ears are ever open to their cry.

III. Their prayers particularly regard THE RETRIBUTION UPON THE ENEMY, AND THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM. "Shall not God avenge His own elect, who cry day and night unto Him?" There is emphasis on the word "cry." "Abel's blood did cry; there was a shrill, piercing, importunate voice in it." Just before God came down to deliver the Israelites in Egypt, on account of their bondage and oppression, it is said they did "sigh and cry": and we find the Church, when distressed and in anguish by reason of the enemy, is said to "cry." A widow, a desolate person, sustaining injury, bleeding under injustice, cries, and asks the judge for justice; and precisely in the same way the Church is said to cry to God for justice. And against whom? The answer is, against Satan, the great adversary, who has established a tyranny and an usurpation in this world, who has built up his kingdom amidst darkness, and violence, and blood. And we ask for justice upon him, and pray God to bruise him under our feet, and to do it quickly. The Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil; and we call on the Son of God in the exercise of His supremacy to do His work.

IV. THE PRAYER OF THE ELECT CHURCH FOR JUSTICE SHALL BE HEARD AND ANSWERED WHEN THE LORD COMETH. I am not sure that the word "avenge" here is the right one: if the widow had asked vengeance on her enemy, peradventure the judge would not have granted it; but it means more properly "justice." "Though He bear long with them," says the text. A very learned critic, on the authority of many ancient manuscripts, observes it ought to be "though He compassionate them": that is, while they cry, though God appeareth not to attend to them, yet He does hear them and tenderly compassionates them. If we take it as being correctly "avenge," I beg to remark that the world and the wicked have had their time of vengeance. Here is a picture! "All that pass by clap their hands at Thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem." With ferocious face they clapped their hands, and hissed, and wagged their heads, "saying, Is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty, the icy of the whole earth? All Thine enemies have opened their mouth against Thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it." Unholy vengeance! Revenge, in the true and strict sense of the expression, awful to contemplate! That was man's day; that was the day of the adversary: and God stood silent by. But God has His day: the day of the Lord cometh: and this is referred to in the text.

V. We come to the last thing, when the Lord shall come to execute His justice, FAITH WILL BE AT A LOW EBB ON THE EARTH. "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh shall He find faith on the earth?" when He cometh to execute justice. It is very observable that in almost every great and signal instance in which God has remarkably come for a purpose specified in the passage, it has been suddenly, in a moment, and when there is no belief of it.

(J. Stratten.)

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KJV: And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

WEB: He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up,