Our Lord's Last Words.
I. The last command of a friend who has left us is commonly regarded with more than usual interest. Whatever else men forget they remember this. It is connected with a moment sacred in their recollections. The last glimpse of the familiar form receding from their view, the vessel long watched amidst the distant haze these or similar remembrances are linked to those words. Nay, sometimes they were the last uttered on earth. The words of the dying oh, how we treasure them; how full they are to us of seeds of action; how deep we lay them in our hearts! And our dear Friend has been taken from us; not the Friend of one family, but of all the families of the earth; the Friend of manHe who loved us and gave Himself for us. We have in the Gospels four distinct testimonies that our Lord's parting words were a plain command to His Church to preach the Gospel among all nations, to make disciples of all nations, to preach repentance and remission of sins among all nations, to witness for Him unto the uttermost parts of the earth. This is the last sound of that Voice which spake as never man spake; this the utterance which yet vibrated in the air as He was borne upward, and which still speaks on in the ear of every one of His faithful followers: "Evangelise the world;" "Rest not till all know Him."
II. And what shall we say of the amount of this world's means which God has put into our hands for aiding such work? Need any good work languish, because England cannot afford to support it? Let our vast schemes, undertaken for comfort or luxury, witness what we can afford to lay out on any object when it pleases us. God has bestowed on us all our wealth. He has placed us for religious exertion foremost among the nations of the earth. He has provided us with instruments whereby we may avail ourselves of these opportunities, and lavished on us abundance of wealth to make those instruments effective. It is clear then that we are, as a Christian nation, deeply responsible for carrying on the evangelisation of the earth.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. vii., p. 291.
References: Luke 24:46; Luke 24:47. Homiletic Magazine,vol. x., p. 261.Luke 24:47. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vi., No. 329; Ibid.,vol. xxix., No. 1729; T. T. Lynch, Sermons for My Curates,p. 215; R. W. Dale, The Evangelical Revival,p. 149. Luke 24:47-53. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 536. Luke 24:45. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 280; J. Guinness Rogers, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 257; A. Mackennal, Ibid.,vol. v., p. 385; G. Moberly, Parochial Sermons,p. 134; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,10th series, p. 15.