253 NAAMAN THE SYRIAN. HIS "BUT." THE CHAPTER V. MISSIONARY MAID. THE PAY ROYAL LETTER. In this most interesting chapter there are graphic touches so strikingly characteristic of human nature, that any one who studies the portrait must see it is not the product of the fancy of the writer, but a sketch drawn from a living original, that either stood. or sat for the likeness. We read that Naaman, the captain of the host of the king of Syria-that is, commander of the forces of that king-was in high favour with his royal master, and extremely honourable; and that he had been so favoured, that heathen as he was, God, by his hand, had given his master deliverance for Syria his country. He was also a man of courage, or a brave man; but he was a leper. There is a but in every man's character, a crook in every man's lot; the loftiest not exempt, and the lowest equally liable to it ;-" but he was a leper:" and this one but, this one stain defiled all his glory, poisoned all his happiness, and made him, even amid the sunshine of a palace, poor, miserable and wretched. The Syrians, his countrymen, had gone out by companies, and having conquered the enemy, had carried away captives; and among the captives a girl, or a little maid, a Christian, or as she was called then, a Jewess; and she waited on Naaman's wife. She said one day to her mistress, K with that sympathy with her master which was dutiful as a servant, and with that anxiety for higher interests which became a Christian, though a young Christian; "Would God my lord were with the prophet which is in Samaria." I see my lord suffer so much, and in so great pain and misery, that I wish he were only with the prophet in Samaria, for he would cure him of his leprosy. I ought here to state that leprosy was the incurable disease; that it was always assumed to be curable only by an immediate Divine hand. It was a special punitive infliction for special sins and crimes. One went in and told his lord, Thus and thus saith the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria instantly said, Well, this will soon be settled. Go to now; I will send a letter to the king of Israel:-for he thought that if there was anybody in Israel that could cure the incurable disease it must be the king. We attribute always to the highest in place and power the highest of privilege and prerogative. He therefore wrote a letter; and thought that his royal request addressed to a royal brother would secure an instant cure for Naaman; for if the king could not do it, he had only to command the prophet, and he would instantly obey. Well, when the letter was brought to the king of Israel, who was an enlightened Jew, and knew better than the king of Syria, he said: Why this man must suppose that I am God: everybody knows that this disease is curable only by Divine power, and nothing short of that; and, therefore, he must either suppose that I am God, or-perhaps it was uncharitable in him to conclude so-he wants to pick a quarrel with me; and if I do not cure Naaman, and do not attempt to cure him-for it would be blasphemy if I were to attempt to do so; then he will get up a quarrel, and there will be a war between Israel and Syria. The king rent his clothes-the token of humiliation. But when Elisha heard of this, he said to the king, Do not be so depressed; you have done nothing wrong, let the victim of the leprosy come to me. Then Naaman, who was a great man, and thought that the presentation of a great man must secure everything that he wanted, for we are all very prone to think that circumstance is what it often is, power; and we are sometimes disappointed, and it is wholesome, to find that it is not always power,-Naaman came with his chariot and horses, and stood at the door of Elisha. He thought that instantly every door in the house would be flung open to admit the illustrious visitor; but Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean." Now this seemed most impertinent in the prophet; instead of shewing the deference that was due to great rank, he sent out a message to Naaman by a servant to go and do so and so. So it would be in ordinary circumstances; but there was a great moral lesson to be taught; and it is better that one's pride should be ruffled for a little than that one's moral good should be lost sight of. Elisha knew that there was a lesson of humility to teach Naaman ; and he was acting not on private conviction; he was a prophet, and under the inspiration of the Spirit of God; and he acted, therefore, without any violation of that deference to whom deference is due; because there was a great lesson to be taught, and he was instructed to convey that lesson. The instant that Naaman heard this message he got excessively angry, and said with a contemptuous sneer, "I thought he would have come out to me, and that he would stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God"-not that Naaman believed in Elisha's God; he thought that he was one of the countless gods of the heathen -" and strike his hand;" or as it ought to be more correctly translated, "wave his hand over the place;" a sort of magnetic or mesmeric passage, which would instantly cure the disease; and as to going to wash in Jordan, are not the waters of Syria as good and as pure as those which the prophet has bid me go to ? How true is that portrait of human nature. We all feel that it is an original; there is no mistake that this is a reality, and that this picture is perfectly drawn. The servants of Naaman came to him; they seem to have been anxious for him; and they said, "My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean." You see good sense is not the monopoly of masters, nor is good sense always wanting in servants. Very often where there is the greatest learning there is the least amount of good sense; and very often where you would least expect it, it is to be found in its native purity. Common sense, as it is called, is the rarest thing upon earth. For one man gifted with common sense you will find twenty great poets, scholars, statesmen and politicians. I believe that common sense is one of the greatest gifts of God. Then, mark, he went down, not so much at the bidding of the prophet-and here was humbling still -but through the sound advice of his servants; he was evidently humbled or struck by the word in season which was so good; and he went down and washed, and in the beautiful language of the passage, "his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child;" and he was clean. Now he turned right round from his wrath against poor Elisha, his contempt of his God, his disparagement of his Jordan, in the very opposite direction, and he said, "Behold, now I know there is no God but in Israel. Now, therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant." You recollect he was instructed by his royal master to take large presents with him; a custom still kept up in eastern countries; but Elisha refused it, saying, "I will receive none." And he urged him to take it; but he would not. Now there was a reason for that. Naaman fancied that the prophet's cure was just to be got like a physician's prescription; take the prescription with the one hand, and put the guinea in the physician's hand with the other; and the whole thing is settled, and there is an end of all obligation upon either side. But Elisha told him that he was not a physician, but an ambassador of God, and conveyed a message that was not from himself, but from God. Then Nauman instantly said, his religion going into superstition, "Give unto thy servant, I pray thee, two mules' burden of earth; for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord." He thought that as the waters of Jordan were so sanitary and curative, the very earth of Palestine must partake of its virtue; and with a superstition that was most painful, but pardonable in one so recently enlightened, he begged that he might carry |