The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 42

which porhaps your dRrling sang-and 9.8 you look there surely you cannot but ~ay, "It is well-it is well with the child." .A word here to 'all parent9. Can you say, a8 you think of your children one by one, "It is well with the child"? If they should die in infancy, it certainly is well with them. But your children of maturer years, who are growing up into manhood and womanhood-how i9 it with them 1 Are there not some in your household that you know are still unsaved? 0 parents, can you rellt until you win them for Christ? It is right to give them a good education. But the -most important concern of all is the salvation of their immortal souls. II. A DEAD OHILD uuouaHT TO LIFE. All dead children will be brought back to life. The body only dies; the soul lives for ever. This little one, however, was brought back to the life of earth. Perhaps God thought that this poor mr,ther bad been sufficiently tried. Perhaps he wanted to give even then some proofo of the possibility of a resurrection. It was an exceptional act then. It is not to be expected by bere~nd parents now. They can only say with David, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." Is it not better so 1 Could we wish them back again? Look upon them in that bright land where Jesus is, and where the angels are, where their little feet are never weary, where their little faces are always bright and happy, where their little bodies shall nevermore be racked by pain or enfeebled by sickness, where their minds shall never know another thought of sin, and tell me if you would bring them back to this world of wickedness, of temptation, of sickness, and of sorrow? Surely not. Surely they were taken away from the evil that is to come. To depart and be with Christ is far better. 1. Notice the means of this chi?rJ:s revival. (1) First of all, there wa9 prayer. " And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord." So it must be in all efforts for the revival of dead souls. Parents must have recourse to prayer if they would see their children converted. W a want more praying families; we want more praying Churches. Nothing but the Spirit of God can make the dry bones to live. If our work is to last, it must be done in prayer. (2) Then, again, observe that Elisha used the meana to bring about an answer to his prayers. He asked for a certain blessing, and he showed that he expected an answer. He stretched himself upon the child, that his body might communicate heat to that of the child, and his breath upon the child's mouth encouraged the returning vitality. It is God's method of converting the world, of quickening dead souls. It is the Spirit of God that alone can quicken a dead soul. But he uses human instru- mentality. He 'USes living Christians. The apostles were men on fire with the Holy Ghost and with zeal for souls, and therefore their labours were blessed. The reason there are so few conversions, the reason the Church has so little influence upon the world compared to what it might have, is that too often the Church itself is worldly, seeking for temporal position and worldly gain, and that Christians show too little of the spirit of their Master. They have a name to live, but are dead. But it is wonderful what one or two living Christians can effect in o. congregation, in a community, even through- out the world. 2. Notice also the signs of this chilrJ:s revival. "The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes." It was enough. Elisha did not wait for the child to speak. He did not wait for him to walk. He recognized the unmistakable signs of life, and at once he restored the child to his sorrowing mother. Christians ought to watch for signs of spiritual life as the result of their labours and their prayers. They should not be discouraged if there seems but little fruit. Do not discourage the slightest indication of a desire on the part of any one to tum from sin and come to Christ. Encourage those who may be ~Kikers after God, groping feebly after the truth, struggling, perhaps, with their difficuitiOH -ind doubts. What souls have you been the means of bringing from death into life ?-C. H. I. Vars. 38-41.-Death in the pot: a sermon to young men. These young men were very nearly being poi5oned. There was a famine in the land. Elisha came to Gilgal, where there was a school or college of young men in training for the sacred office of teaching others. Perhaps they were not skilled in the art of making the most of the vegetables which grew round about them, and were badly off for food. Elisha ordered his servant to put on the great pot, and make some pottage, or thick broth, for the hungry students. One of the young men went out to gather herbs for the purpoee.  78 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [on. IV, 1-4.4, -------------------------- There is a species of wild gourd or m13lon, called Oucu,mis prophetarum, which is common in the hill country, and which, when green, is sliced and boiled as a vegetable. ~ut in t~e J?lains n:~r Gilgal there is a plant _extremely similar in appearance, but very different m its qualities. It was frobably this-the colocynthus, or squirting cucumber -that is called the "wild p;ourd in this chapter, and that the young men gathered and sliced down into the large pot of broth (see Thomson, 'The Land and the Book'). When the pottage had been poured out, the young men began to eat of it, but, alarmed by itR bitter t~ste, and probably suspecting then that poisonous herbs had been put into it, they cried out to Elisha, "0 thou man of God, there is death in the pot I" From this inci,lent we mny show that, while there is many an enjoyment, many a course of conduct, I\S pleasant to the e.ye and apparently as safe as those poisonous herbs appeared to be, yet there is need for caution. "There is death in the pot." "There is a way that seerneth right unto a man, but the end thereof nre the ways qf death.." I. THIS MAY BF. SAID OF FRAUDULEJIT PRACTICES. "There is death in the pot." They nearly always begin in ways that seem perfectly safe and harmless. A man takes a little from his employer's desk, intending to return it again. But in nine cases out of ten he never returns it. He has touched what is not his own. The brand of the thief is on his brow and the curse of the thief is on his life. A young man who had been well brought up went from home to enter a bank in a large city, It was noticed, when he returned home, that he was beginning to dress very extravagantly. Each time he returned, some fresh extravagance was noted. He had already begun to spend money faster than he made it, for his salary was but small He was a smart young man, and would soon h:i.ve got on well iu his business, for he was a general favourite. But in a foolish honr he began to abstract some of the bank money, Little by little it went on, until his defalcations were very considerable. At last he was discovered, dismissed iu disgrace from the bank, and it was only the intervention of an influential friend of his family that prevented his arrest. He broke his mother's heart, and brought down his father's grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. Fraudulent practices may be very often traced to the habit of gambling or betting. This was testified once more quite recently in London by Mr. Vaughan, the Bow Street magistrate, on a charge which came before him. There was a cashier in the receipt of a salary of £150 a year, with prospects of advance. For eight or nine years he had filled his post creditably; but having got behind in his home expenses, he took a few shillings, and invested them in betting. As he was lucky, from taking shillings he proceeded to pounds; and having once started, he found that it was impossible for him to stop. He had always the hope of winning some day by a stroke of luck, and of thus being able to pay back again the sums which he had embezzled. But the "luck" never came, and he had at last to confess to hie employers that he had defrauded them to the· extent of £250. "I wish," said Mr. Vaughan, "that the clerks in mercantile honees would come to this court, and see what I see, and hear what I hear. This is only one of a multitude of cases in which prisoners have confessed that their robberies are entirely due to betting. I reyard it cu a cu,rse to the country." Beware of dishonesty in any form. " There is death in the pot." It means death to a man's reputation, death to his worldly prospects, death to his peace of mind, for he must live in constant terror of discovery; and if he should escape discovery and judgment upon earth, how can he endure the thought of that <lay when the secrets of every life shall be disclosed, and when he shall stand condemned at the judgment-seat of God? JI. THIS MAY BE 8.ill> ALSO OF PBAOTICES OF IMPURITY. "There is death in the pot." Temptations to it abound on every side. A corrupt press sows broadcast its demoralizing stories, with its suggestive pictures. The theatre, with its brilliant lights and strains of sweetest music-so often dedicated to the service of the devil-lures men into the way of the tempter, and into the den of the de~troyer. It appears an innocent, harm- less amUBement. But "there is death in the pot." For one who comes unscathed and safe out of the theatre, there are scores who come out of it morally and spiritually the worse for its influence. Let men say what they like about tbe influence of the drama 11B a teacher of morals-and there is nothing to be said against the drama in itself-is there a single case of a man made better by going to the theatre ? Where is he P Let him 'be produud. And even if one or two could be produced, what would they be aq OH, IV, 1-44,] THE SECOND BOOK OF 'rHE KINGS. 79