2 Kings 7:9-11 Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace… On three grounds it is imperative upon us that we should carry that secret as far as we can, and as deep as we can, to hearts of our brother men. I. ON GROUNDS OF PRINCIPLE. "We do not well"; this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace. It is one of the obvious arguments for foreign missions that brotherhood and generosity, and the prodigality of the Great Message itself, all alike demand the widest proclamation of the Gospel. That is true, and can never be otherwise than true. There is a wealth of joy and of moral quickening in the good news of salvation, which it were an everlasting shame to limit by any miserable parochial barriers. Good news of this character is, in its very nature, expansive — universal. "We do not well," which being interpreted means, we are not acting honestly; we are revelling in sudden and incredible wealth. But it does not belong to us. It belongs to all; it is meant for all. There is no monopoly in the Gospel. Judaism is the historic example of the principle of religious monopoly at work, and Judaism measured swords with Christianity only to receive its deathblow. There are diversities of gifts; there are principles of election and selection at work undoubtedly; there are varieties of opportunity; but there is no diversity, no election, no variety, in regard to the destination of the Gospel. When the crass wails of Judaism fell before the outburst of the river of life the whole world was open to the hurrying stream, and thank God. could never more be severed or shut up from it again There is no hint in all the Divine programme that an Englishman should make a better Christian than a Chinaman, or that wisdom might die with Western civilisation. The broad fact which the gospel bears upon its front, the fact to which Christ witnessed in so many suggestions and assertions, is this: that He comes to seek and to save the lost of all nations, that differences of race count nothing before the boundlessness of His compassion and power, and that nobody on earth can predict — only the great day will declare it — which race or language or colour may rise to the noble pre-eminence of revealing most perfectly the bloom and the fruitage of a divine life. Indeed, we do not well in holding our peace. The spirit of our faith demands that we be not silent, and if we are, do we not repeat in a more subtle, but not less deadly, form the sin of which every worldling is guilty? But there are other grounds on which we ought to have a greater zeal for this work, and I mention secondly — II. ON GROUNDS OF POLICY. If we tarry till the morning light, our iniquity will find us out. Of course it will. A fine philanthropy may often be stimulated, and not unworthily, by some stirring of the instinct of self-preservation, when their craven deed of the night came to be known — and the morning would make it known inevitably — they would get but short shrift from those who at last came to their own; their wisdom lay in communicating the secret and sharing in the common lot of enrichment and of joy. And it seems to me that here there lies enshrined a warning of the gravest consequence to Christian people and Christian nations to-day. Expansion with concentration is the condition of a vigorous and worthy life. Concentration without expansion means sterility and death. III. ON GROUNDS OF PERSONAL OBLIGATION TO JESUS CHRIST. The parallel of our text may not carry us quite so far as I would go, yet it carries us a good way. "Let us go now and tell the king's household." There was clearly in the mind of the lepers some thought of loyalty to the king at this great crisis in national history, and for us Christians it is true that supreme above all other considerations, whether principle or policy, it is our personal obligation to Christ to see that His last words are obeyed to the letter. Our King's household is a great company — a multitude that no man can number. They are waiting in every country — among the jungle villages of India, under the sultry southern skies, amid the teeming millions of China among the islands of the sea, waiting to have their heart-hunger appeased by the Word of Life; waiting for the one splendid disclosure that can make the whole world new. And you possess the secret. You do not well nor wisely to hold your peace. Run, cry about for joy in the ear of all nations, Christ is King, and His mercy endureth for ever. Now, when the time comes you will be saved from all mishaps, end from that hand which is worse than any mishap. There will be no sweeter words spoken by the lips of the Master in the great day than these: "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye did unto Me." (A. Connell, M. A. , D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household. |
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