Ryle on Mark 5:18-20

Imported boundary: J. C. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on Mark from the Internet Archive DjVu OCR for the 1858 Robert Carter St. Mark volume. Title pages, preface, contents, running heads, page numbers, OCR boilerplate, and indexes are not mirrored. The source includes Ryle's printed Scripture text and exposition; this scan-derived text remains needs-verification.

Primary passage: Mark 5:18-20.

Source Text

We are taught that in the striking words which our Lord addresses to the man who had heen possessed with the devil. " Go home/' He says, " to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee." The friends of this man had probably not seen him for some years, excepting under the influence of Satan. Most likely he had been as one dead to them, or worse than dead, and a constant cause of trouble, anxiety, and sorrow. Here then was the path of duty. Here was the way by which he could most glorify God. Let him go home and tell his friends what Jesus had done for him. Let him be a living witness before their eyes of the compassion of Christ. Let him deny himself the pleasure of being in Christ's bodily presence, in order to do the higher work of being useful to others. in all these professions. Colonel Gardiner and Captain Vicars have prob- ably done more for the cause of Christ as military men, than they would ever have done if they had left the army and become clergymen. In steering our course through life, we should carefully look for the call of providence as well as the call of inclination. The position that we choose for ourselves is often that which is the worst for our souls. When two conflicting paths of duty lie before a believer, the path which has least of the cross, and is most agreeable to his own taste, is seldom the right one. I write all this with a due recollection of many eminent Christians who began in a secular profession, and left it for the office of the minister. John Newton and Edward Bickersteth are instances. But I apprehend such cases are exceptions. I apprehend moreover that in every such case there will be found to have been a remarkable call of providence as well as an inward call of the Holy Ghost As a gen- eral rule, I believe that the rule of St. Paul ought to be carefully ob- served : " Let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God." (1 Cor. vii. 24.) 97 How much there is in these simple words of our Lord ! What thoughts they ought to stir up in the hearts of all true Christians ! - " Go home and tell thy friends." - Home is the place above all others where the child of God ought to make his first endeavors to do good. Home is the place where he is most continually seen, and where the reality of his grace ought most truly to appear. Home is the place where his best affections ought to be concentra- ted. Home is the place where he should strive daily to witness for Christ. Home is the place where he was daily doing harm by his example, so long as he served the world. Home is the place where he is specially bound to be a living epistle of Christ, so soon as he has been mercifully taught to serve God. May we all remember these things daily ! May it never be said of us, that we are saints abroad but wicked by our own fireside - talkers about re- ligion abroad, but worldly and ungodly at home ! But after all, Have we anything to tell others ? Can we testify to any work of grace in our hearts ? Have we experienced any deliverance from the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil ? Have we ever tasted the gra- ciousness of Christ ? These are indeed serious questions. If we have never yet been born again, and made new creatures, we can of course have nothing to " tell/' If we have anything to tell others about Christ, let us resolve to tell it. Let us not be silent, if we have found peace and rest in the Gospel. Let us speak to our rela- tions, and friends, and families, and neighbors, according as we have opportunity, and tell them what the Lord has done for our souls. All are not called to be ministers. All are not intended to preach. But all can walk in the 5 steps of the man of whom we have been reading, and in the steps of Andrew, and Philip, and the Samaritan woman. (John i. 41, 45, iv. 29.) Happy is he who is not ashamed to say to others, " Come and hear what the Lord hath done for my soul." (Psal. lxvi. 16.)