The two gospels.
I. THE FIRST GOSPEL. That which was proclaimed to Abraham, repeated, enforced to his posterity, standing before them in the way of duty and of hope, even in the darkest days of Egyptian bondage. It was a gospel that proclaimed rest, settlement, worship, and service in the land of Canaan. And though special attention is called here to the great Abrahamic and Mosaic promise to Israel, yet be it also noted that God is ever a Being sending forth gospels when there is need of them and ground to show that there will be anything substantial in them. Never did an ἄγγελος go forth without an εὐαγγέλιον of some sort. It is we that turn gospels into the worst of news, because in benefiting others they may make it needful for us to suffer. And yet what seems bad news on the first look of it may turn out in the end to have been the best of news. The good news which Moses brought to Israel of the impending deliverance from servitude may fairly be called, in common parlance, bad news for Pharaoh and the Egyptians, seeing it meant national humiliation, the loss of so much useful labor. Yet who can doubt that even for Egypt, after all the calamities of the plagues, there was a great good in that which brought good to Israel? A gospel prominently set forth for some is really a gospel for all.
II. THE SECOND GOSPEL. A second, and yet in truth it was nothing but the fullness of the first. Liberty for the enslaved, rest for the weary, a secure and fruitful inheritance for the true children of Abraham, those of like faith with him,—these are the promises of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so this gospel, an everlasting gospel, remains uttered forth, wherever the need of man presses. This is one of the great uses of preaching, that by it gospel promises, possibilities, and invitations are forever sounding forth in the ears of men. The complaint is that preachers are ever saying the same old thing; yet that is to a certain extent their virtue and their value. The ear that heard yesterday belonged to a man who rather preferred to hear the gospel coming from worldly wisdom; but today he has found that gospel to be no gospel, and the true heavenly message not heard at all, or only half heard, is received in all its pertinency, its sweetness, its fullness. The throng of men abounds every day in what conventionally is called bad news, news of money losses, shattered health, ruined reputation, relatives and friends passed away. Over against these how supremely important to feel that there is always good news in this, that "God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life"!—V.