Mark you, preacher, it is not enough that you are a cruse; you must be filled with that which heals. Have we salt? It is not a question as to the quality or style of pottery; it is salt that is needed. A common flower-pot filled with salt was better than a vase of classic mould if empty!
Elisha did not waste time by trying to heal the stream. “He went forth to the spring.” What expense and trouble are thrown away by vain attempts to heal the water lower down! We shall never succeed in keeping the tongue from bitter words if the heart is left to itself. It is useless for men to think blue ribbon will save them from drink if they do not look to God to take the selfishness out of the heart. It is a wise prayer, “Cleanse Thou the thoughts of our heart by the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit.” Is it not strange that men do not see that an impure fountain cannot be cleansed by either altering the course of the stream or using remedies lower down?
III.—And then we have the results of conversion. “The waters were healed.” Mark you, the prophet took care there should be no mistake as to the cause. It was neither he, nor the cruse, nor the salt: “Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters.” “It shall be to the Lord for a name.” Let the crown be on the Head. So the waters were healed. What a change in a short time! But the results would not be seen all at once; it would take time to prove the realness
of the change, yet each season would only prove the grand conversion that had happened. If we have received Christ into our hearts, the results will be shown; and there are no evidences of Christianity better than these true conversions, which change a man’s life, and make it evident that he, like the fields around Jericho, has passed from death unto life. The other day, a Lancashire coal-miner was killed in the pit; only a minute before he was killed he was overheard praising God. He had been a sad drunkard; his home was wretchedness itself. Money was in his hands only helpful to hellish enjoyment. But the grace of God changed his heart and life. His home and family were soon made happy. He became a preacher, went about from village to village testifying of God’s saving grace. In one place he said: “When I was here last, I won £20 by jumping, but my wife and children were no better for it; the publican got it all, and I was locked up into the bargain.” He was buried with every sign of respect; hundreds followed him to the grave, and everyone felt that the world was the poorer now that he was gone. These are the evidences we want; these proofs of the truth of the Bible close the mouth of the infidel and scorner. If you would help on the cause of Christianity, love the truth, and make the fields, once barren, bloom with beauty; so shall the name of the Lord be magnified. Shall we not all join in Charles Wesley’s prayer?—
Jesus, Thy salvation bring,
Cast the salt into the spring,
In my heart Thy love reveal,
Nature’s bitter waters heal;
Let the principles of grace
Bring forth fruits of righteousness:
Then the barren curse is o’er,
Sin and death are then no more.
LVIII. THE FIRST LIE.
“Ye shall not surely die.”—Genesis iii. 4.
I.—Who was the First Liar?
The old serpent, the devil, called elsewhere “the father of lies.” But he had not always been a liar; he had fallen from a position very eminent, teaching us not to measure our safety by our condition. The higher we are elevated, the more dreadful the fall. Some of the most degraded vagrants were cradled in comfort, and have wandered from homes of splendour. Perhaps the vilest of the vile once were ministers of the Gospel. In a village, the other day, I was told of a man, once a Sunday-school teacher, but now a professional gambler, and, in a coal-pit I know in the North of England, the foulest-mouthed blasphemer was once a Methodist local preacher.
Who would have expected that one of God’s angels would ever have turned tempter, and that one who had lived with God would have the bottomless pit dug for him and his companions? “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”