2 Kings 4:8-38

2 Kings 4:8

What Elisha did for the Shunammite's son, the Church wishes to do for you.

I. The Church is like Elisha because it touches you. It touches you through its one book, the Bible; it touches you through its prayers, and praises, and sermons.

II. The Church is like Elisha because it fits you. As the prophet carefully adapted himself to the child, so the great truths of the Gospel fit your mind and heart. Christ lowers His vast mind to our level, and teaches us truth as we are able to bear it. The Bible truth is likened to bread, to water, and to light. All these are for young and old alike.

III. The Church would also fain warm you into life. It may do as much for your souls as Elisha did for the young Shunammite. Pray that God's Spirit may touch you, and then you shall be warmed into a new life that shall live for ever in the paradise of God.

IV. You will then be a blessing in the Church and in the world, like the revived boy in the home of the Shunammite. When the young yield themselves to the Saviour, the Church is like that boy's mother when, overcome with joy, she bowed herself to the ground and folded her living son in her bosom. That was the day of days in her history. The chief crown and joy of any flock is the fresh, warm life of young Christians who have life before them, and who mean, by God's help, to lay themselves on His holy altar.

J. Wells, Bible Children,p. 107.

Reference: 2 Kings 4:8. Parker, Fountain,March 22nd, 1877.