2 Kings 7:3-8 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?… Last night when I was thinking upon this subject, I had a half-waking dream, and I thought I stood along the Hudson River Railway track, and I saw a man sitting on that track. I went up to him, and said: "My friend, don't you know you are in peril? The Chicago express will be along in a few moments." I found he was deaf, and did not hear. I tried to pull him away from that peril, and he resisted me and said: "What do you mean by bothering me. I am doing nothing. Am I disturbing you? I am doing nothing at all. I am just sitting here." At that moment I heard in the distance the thunder of the express train. A moment afterwards I saw the head light of the locomotive flash around the corner. I held fast to the rocks that I might not be caught in the rush of the train. Like the horizontal thunder-bolt it hurled past. When the flagman came, five minutes after, with his lantern, there was not so much as a vestige left to show that a man had perished there. What had the victim been doing there? Nothing at all. He was only sitting still — sitting still to die. So I find men in my audience. I tell them the peril of living without God. They say, "I am not doing anything. I don't lie. I don't swear. I don't steal. I don't break the Sabbath. I am sitting here in my indifference, and what you say has no effect upon my soul at all. I am just sitting here." Meanwhile, the long train of eternal disaster is nearing the crossing, and the bridges groan, and the cinders fly, and the driving wheels speed on, and there is a blinding rush, and, in the twinkling of an eye they "perish from the way, when God's wrath is kindled but a little." (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? |
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