2 Kings 6:8-23 Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.… I. THE SAINT'S POWER AND PERIL. 1. Observe to what heights of power a saint may come. 2. See how Peril waits on Piety that comes to Power. Where is the marauder who can calmly brook the parrying hand of a saint? "Let us alone, what have we to do with thee?" cry the lawless when checked by the godly. Ambition turns to rage, foaming like baffled breakers at the cliff-foot. II. WITHIN THE FLAME-CIRCLE, AND AT REST. Two men stand in the seraph-ring. One is a saint, the other a possible saint. One is serene; panic takes the other. Elisha's serenity is the quiet of a man all of whose heart-strings are lovingly held in the hands of Infinite Power — a quiet which is only broken by rising praise, as a wave will sometimes edge up, whiten, and turn in music in the midst of a gentle blue sea; or by that profoundest of merriment, the laughter of a fearless soul facing peril. In the processes of sublimation Elisha has become conscious of an ever keener sight for the life men call unseen; and of a familiarity with that border-land of human life, and that infinite beyond out of which heavenly helps come trooping. Serenity is the still air, drenched in smiling light, that enwraps the soul that traffics steadily with God the Undaunted, God the Unshakable. It is the quiet breathing of faith cradled in "the everlasting arms." III. Within the circle, yet afraid. 1. Elisha's servant is trembling. He is like "a reed shaken with the wind" at the foot of a granite crag. Though the ring of fire belts them twain, he does not attain serenity. Where Elisha saw the sun-white host his servant found a blank. The blank upon the hill coincided with a blank in his soul. Little did it avail him that his eyes were young and keener to detect the common furniture of earth than the old man's — his master's. Even had Elisha been stone-blind, and the youth's eyes so superb that he could fix the forms of flying motes; or tell the spot a mile beneath grey seas where the Euplectella hides its loveliness in slime; or figure forth the astral systems careering in the infinite beyond the glittering fence of the Milky Way, such seeing would not be worth a thought beside the vision, the ever-widening, ever-strengthening vision of the seer's pure and spiritual heart. All life's advantages are not the heritage of youth. Holiness is heir to more and greater. The lamp of faith illuminates a wider and a gander world than the shining of the sun. 2. The seer who has saved his king now saves his own servant. Deep in saintliness, as an integral part of it, is this amazing versatility of helpfulness. Away over the young man's head flies Elisha's prayer. Every day such intercessions flock heavenward, carrying often the ripest faith and love the Church Militant can show. (J. Dunk.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. |
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