2 Kings 6:15-17 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots… And when the servant of the man of God was risen, etc. The context illustrates two circumstances too frequently overlooked, but ever demanding the recognition and study of mankind. 1. The value of a good man to his country. The Syrian monarch makes war with Israel; his counsels are formed, his arrangements are complete, and sanguine are his hopes of victory. But there is a good man in Israel - Elisha - who reads the hidden purpose of the Syrian despot, sounds the alarm, puts his country on its guard, invokes Heaven, and thus confounds the wily stratagems and thwarts the murderous purposes of the foe. "So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel." True piety is the source of true patriotism; its prayers and prophecies are the sure "defenses" of nations. This idea is dawning on the world now; and in coming periods will blaze in broad daylight on mankind. We shall one day see that the victories of truth and prayer were the only victories that ever served the interest of any nation, and that many a pious man, who lived in obscurity and died under oppression, conferred greater blessings on the commonwealth than those statesmen and warriors whose patriotism has been emblazoned in history and sung in verse. The context illustrates: 2. The source of a wicked man's weakness. Why did not this Syrian tyrant succeed in his plans? The words which one of his servants addressed to him explain the cause: "Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the King of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber." His projects would not bear the light. As a principle, wicked men would seldom, if ever, realize their ends were there a prophet to unveil their hearts, and publish all the selfish, sensual, dishonest, and blasphemous thoughts that transpire in the hidden chamber of their souls. Wicked tradesmen, lawyers, statesmen, and others succeed only as they conceal their hearts from public view. Let some prophet, like Ezekiel of old, break open the barred door of their "chamber of imagery," and expose the hideous forms "portrayed upon the wall," the impious works that are wrought "in the dark, and forthwith they will lose all public sympathy, patronage, and support. O my soul, cherish thou thoughts that shall bear a prophet's fiery glance - principles that will glow, bloom, and look attractive in the daylight; and purposes that will commend thee to the Divine consciousness of brother spirits, and to the favor of the Everlasting. I proceed to state, with the utmost brevity, a few general truths suggested by the incident before us. I. THAT THE GOOD ARE OFTEN PLACED IN CIRCUMSTANCES TO REQUIRE SUPERHUMAN HELP. Elisha and his servant were, at this time, at Dothan. The Syrian king, enraged with the prophet for frustrating his military designs on Israel, sends "horses, and chariots, and a great host" in pursuit of him. The mighty army "came by night, and compassed the city about." Early in the morning the prophet's servant beheld the armed and ruthless multitude drawn up around the city. Here were enemies, which the prophet himself could not subdue, perils from which his unaided power could not extricate himself. Faint symbol this of the spiritual enemies that surround our dwellings! True, in these days, the antagonists of the good are not so outwardly visible as they were in times that are past. The great enemy does not send forth his host now garbed in the attire of the persecutors. They appear not amongst us in the grim and savage forms of the Julians and the Neros, the Maximins and the Diocletians; they assume an habiliment more consonant with the tastes of this civilized era. Their forms fascinate rather than terrify. They seek to draw rather than to drive. But still, are they any less deadly in their aim, or formidable in their power, because they change their garb, drop the sword, and stretch out the hand of false friendship? It is not the plundering of our property nor the wounding of our bodies that injures us most, but the corrupting of our souls. The awakening within our spiritual natures of an impure suggestion may work a far more fearful ruin than incarcerating us in dungeons, or sending us to the martyr's stake and flames. I call those forces mine enemies that are unfavorable to my spiritual interests. Whatever dims my inner vision, and tends to veil from me the sublimities of the "unseen;" whatever deadens my sensibility to duty, and interferes with the free and vigorous play of my faculties; whatever draws me from the eternal future, and links me to the transient present; whatever cools, materializes, and contracts my sympathies, and keeps me more in connection with the contingent than the absolute; whatever depresses me in my struggles to reach that ideal of perfection dimly portrayed in my soul, but drawn out in abiding loveliness in the life of Jesus; whatever forces act thus, I call, with emphasis, my foes. And do not such foes surround us? Tell me of a period when "sinful lusts," which "war against the soul," were more potent and active than now? Our civilization is little more than a perfection in those arts that minister to the senses, pander to the appetites, and gratify the desires of the flesh. When did worldliness ever wield a more wide and mighty sway? When were the votaries of mammon so numerous and enthusiastic in their devotions? The deepest cry of the age seems to be, "My soul thirsteth for gold." When did corrupt literature scatter over the social soil the seeds of error, impiety, and licentiousness to such an extent as now? We are as truly hemmed in by antagonistic forces as was Elisha by the horses and chariots and hosts than encompassed him at Dothan. As we glance at them, the impression of the prophet's servant comes to us, "Alas, master! what shall we do?" We require the help that Elisha had - help from without - from Heaven. II. THAT HEAVEN HAS PROVIDED HELPERS FOR MEN SUPERIOR TO ALL ANTAGONISTS. "And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them" It is generally supposed that the reference is here to the angels "that excel in strength," and that they were the horses and chariots of fire that came to the prophet's help. Angels are the hosts of God, and "the body-guard of the good" -"ministering spirits, sent forth to minister unto the heirs of salvation." This doctrine is so antecedently probable, so clearly revealed in Scripture, and so generally believed, as to require no evidence. It is to their superiority that our attention is now called. 1. They are "more in number than the foe. If we confine our attention to merely what we see in this world, we shall conclude that the agents of evil are the mere numerous. A wider survey of the general realm of spiritual being, as suggested by philosophy, and as revealed in the Bible, presents an opposite view. As malformations in nature are few compared with symmetrically organized existences, so evil spirits are few compared with the good. The great cities, principalities, and hierarchies of the universe are loyal subjects of the great King, and zealous agents in promoting his will; it is but a little province that has here and there thrown off its allegiance. Hell is but a withered leaf in the waving forest of life - a flickering meteor in the starry vault of being. It is our happiness to know that evil is the exception in the universe; good is the rule. Thus evil exists as a contingency - it might or might not be; but good exists by an absolute necessity - it is and must be, because God is and must be. 2. They are more in the instrumentalities they wield. The agents of evil are not only fewer in number, but inferior also in their armor. Falsehood, selfishness, wrong, - these are their miserable weapons; and are they not weakness compared with truth, love, right, the weapons of the good? Ay; they can no more stand before them than dry stubble" before the raging fire - the gloom of the night-heavens before the rising sun. The history of the world gives many instances of one man, with truth and right on his side, subduing countries under the reign of falsehood and wrong. 3. They are "more" in their invincible determination. The power of a moral intelligence in any operation will not be entirely or chiefly determined by the instruments he employs, but by the strength of the purpose under which he acts. A man with a weak purpose, however great his advantages, will not do much. Now, the agents of evil can have no invincible purpose, for the obvious reason that their consciences - whose sanctions can alone give invincibility - are not on their side. Just as far as any being is under the influence of evil, he must be fickle and fearful. "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion." 4. They are "more in the authority under which they act. The Bible teaches that the angels of evil are under the control of one master-spirit of darkness - the prince of the power of the air;" but those of the good are under the authority of the Infinite. His Spirit inspires them, his will they obey, his energy is their strength. Satan, the master of the evil spirits, is himself the creature and slave of God. The moral usurper cannot move or breathe but by the permission of him who "maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." Truly, then, my pious friend, however great the spiritual foes, thy helpers are greater. To the eye of sense, indeed, thou seemest to wrestle against fearful odds. Wealth, fashion, customs, influence, worldly maxims, habits, and even numbers, seem against thee; but "fear not: for they that be with us are mere than they that be with them." Open the eye of faith, and look beyond the boundary-line of sense, and thou shalt see that the great "mountain" of universal being is "full of horses and chariots of fire round about" thee. III. THAT THE SUPERIOR HELPERS OF THE GOOD ARE ONLY SEEN BY SOME. Elisha saw the celestial helpers, but his servant saw them not - saw nothing but the enemy. The one, consequently, stood calm amidst the gleaming and rattling weapons of the Syrian army, the other was all perturbation and alarm. Thus men under similar circumstances receive different impressions. The event which overwhelms one with alarm inspires another with hope and heroism. The reason of this is that some have eyes to see only the evil in things, others to see the good as well. Why is this? Why is it that all men cannot see the spiritual helpers that surround them? Several reasons might be assigned. 1. There is the tendency to judge after the senses. The majority of men, like the servant of the prophet, see only with the physical eye. Although true philosophy shows that all things that come within the cognizance of the senses are shadows, not substances - semblance, not essence, they reversely consider the visible and tangible only as real Spirits, therefore, which lie beyond the line of sense, and which are the living creatures in all the "wheels of human events, and in all the forms of matter, are never practically realized, and often theoretically ignored. 2. There is the habit of referring everything to secondary causes. This habit allows no room for God, nor for spiritual interpositions, but in a miracle. What is regular it calls natural; what is miraculous alone is Divine. It sees God in holding the sun over Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon, but sees nothing of him in rolling these stupendous bodies, age after age, in their spheres, with an undeviating regularity, and a swiftness incalculable. I say nothing of the irrationality of this habit, nor of its prevalence, of which there can be no question. All I say is that, since God helps us by natural laws, this habit manifestly prevents men from seeing the helpers he sends. 3. There is also a gloominess of disposition. This is sometimes a cause. There are men who will not see good. They hear no music in the harp of love; they see no brightness in the unclouded sky of noon. On this earth, even when robed in its summer beauty or laden with autumnal wealth, they sing, or rather groan - Lord, what a wretched land is this, That yields us no supply!" The horses and chariots of mercy may move around them as celestial guards, yet they cry, "All these things are against me." 4. There is want of sympathy with God. Strong and earnest sympathy with a being always induces the mind to bring that Being near - near to the inner eye and heart. By this law we bring the distant near - cross oceans and continents. Yes; from worlds beyond the grave the imagination wafts the loved one home to our inmost breasts; and we see the form and hear the voice again. Had we this sympathy with God and holy spirits, we should set them always before us. Jesus had it, and he said, "Ye leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." IV. THAT TO SEE THESE SUPERHUMAN HELPERS ONLY REQUIRES THE OPENING OF THE EYES. "Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes." The outward world is to us according to bur five senses. Had we fewer, it would be less than it is; or, if more, it would be greater. There are, probably, properties in the material system which we have at present no sense to discover; or, peradventure, there may be senses closed up within, that will one day be developed, and make this old world a new thing to us. But, likely as this may be, the existence of a sense in the soul for seeing spiritual existences is more probable. I am not disposed to pronounce all who have stated that they have seen such beings to be either fanatics or impostors. The a priori wonder is, not that they should be seen, but that they are not more generally perceived. We are related to the material world, and we have senses to discern material existences. We are, confessedly, more intimately and solemnly related to the spiritual; and is it not natural to expect that we should have a sense to see spiritual beings? Were such a sense to be opened within us, as the eye of the prophet's servant was now opened, what visions would burst upon us! The microscope gives to us a new world of wonders; but were God to open the spiritual eye, what a multitude of worlds would be revealed! Ah, my skeptic brother! deniest thou a spiritual world? Where is thy reason? Wilt thou plead the fact that thou hast never seen a spiritual existence? This, assuredly, will not serve thee. Wilt thou permit a deaf man to deny that a thunderstorm ever rent our cloudy atmosphere, because he has never heard the terrific rear; or a blind man to deny that a rainbow has ever spanned these skies, because he, forsooth, has never seen the beauteous arch? Why, then, shouldest thou deny a spiritual world? Before the eyes of the prophet's servant were opened, he might have denied the existence of these helpers. When his master spoke to him of them, he might have said within himself, "Has my master lost his reason, or is he dreaming? I see nothing on the mountain but the Syrian host." All at once, however, his eyes were opened, and what a scene burst upon him! "The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." Even so it will be with thee, my friend: ere many days shall pass, God will open thine eyes; and that spiritual world in which thou art now living, and whose existence thou deniest, will burst in awful sublimity upon thine astonished soul! - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? |
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