The world has been cursed by sin. There is in it both the good and
the bad, both food and poison. God has placed us in the world that we
may as Christians, do the work which Elisha did in his day. When we
look about us, how many people we see who have been poisoned. There
are murderers, suicides, thieves, robbers, liars, all these are acting
in the way they act and live, because they have in them poison. It is
well for us to understand that we need not expect in this world to
find the good unmixed from the evil. Christ prayed that God would not
take His own out of the world, but that He would keep them from the
evil in the world, and we are taught in the prayer called the Lord’s
Prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” As
God’s children, we cannot mix with the children of this world. We
cannot allow the amusements of this world and its allurements to lead
us away from God and His Kingdom. We are in the world, but not of it.
We are but pilgrims, passing through, on the way to the country of God,
but all that we are and have are in this world; just as all the herbs
were thrown into the pot, but there is also poison there. Is there any
pleasure, without its tinge of pain? Is there any hope without the
presence of a cloud? Is there any expectation without some kind of a
disappointment? But Christ is our Elisha. The poison in the pot can be
removed and He will remove it for us. The pleasures of the world may be
rendered sweet and pure. The work of this world can be raised to the
highest dignity. The power of this world may be turned to the highest
good of all. We are not left helpless and hopeless.