Sharp County record., 1886-12-23
'EPROSY AND PRIDE.
mon by Rev. T. De Witt TAI
mage, D. D.
q Sick Warrior and How He WAS
Cured-Obedience and Life-The
One Flood of Pardon, Peace,
p, Life and Heaven.

y frSt verse OF tnG HUI CHdpUol vi ~
rtZings: "He Was a Leper" The preacher
)ckid -,;tn
-,ere we have warrior sick, not WIN
h}leurisv or rheumatism or consumption,
n ,1ut with disease worse than all the9e puV
together. A red mark has come out on his
forehead, a precursor of complete dlshgure-
nent and dissolution. | have something
-AWful to tell YOU General Naaman, the
\ vommander-in-C Chief of all the Syrian
lNorces, has the leprOsy; it is on his hands,
7 N his face, on his feet, on his entlre per-
ION. The leprosy! Get out OF the way Oh
. ,he pestilencel If his breath strikes you you
are a dead man. The COmmander-in-CheI
# all the forces of Syria! And yet he
would be glad to exchange conditions WIN
7 boy at his stirrup or the hOstler that
Y blankets his charger. The news goes ike
wildfre all through the realm, and the peo-
'9Ie are sympathetic, and they cry out; rs
possible that our great hero who shot
'Ahab. and around whom we came with
siCuch vOciferation when he returned from
cyictorious battle-can it be possible that
BUR grand aud glorious Naaman has the
leprosy!"
Yes. Every body has something he wishes
he had not-David, an Absalom to disgrace
MIN; Paul, thorn to sting him. JOB, car
buncles to plague him; Samson, DeIilah
20 shear him; Ahab, Naboth to deny him; :;
Hamau. a Mordecai to irritate him; George
,., Washington, childlessness to at1ilct him;
L.John Wesley, termagant wife to poster
him; Leah, weak eyes; Pope, crooked
o11,h fOOt' Holm Milton.
blind eyes; Charles Lamb,an insane sister;
5and you, and you, and you, and you, some
thing which you never bargained Tor, and
I would like to get rid of. The reason Of this
is, that God does not want this world to be
4 too bright; otherwise we would always
want to stay and eat these fruits, and lie
on these lounges, and shake hands in this
! pleasant society.
| We are only in the vestibule Of grand
i temple. God does not want us to stay on
! the doorstep, and, therefore, He sends
i aches, and annoyances and sorrows, and
| bereavements of all sorts, to push us up
/ toward ripper fruits, and brighter society,
/ and more radiant properties. God is only
!. whipping US ahead. The reason that Ed
ward PaysOn and Robert Hall had more
| rapturous views of Heaven than other
people had was because, through their
aches and pains, God pushed them up
nearer to it. If God dashes out one Of
your pictures, it is only to show you a
brighter one. If He sting your foot with
| gout, your brain with neuralgia, your
tongue with an inextinguishable thirst, it
'si3oniy because He is preparing to substi-
a ho++O,, hCl,r tban up11 6pnamp6
Of, when the mortal shall put on immor-
| tality.
I Seated in his Syrian mansiOn-all the
walls glittering with the shields he had
captured in battle, the corridors crowded
with admiring visitors who just wanted to
see him once, music and mirth and ban
quoting filling all the mansion, from tessel-
.ated floor to pictured ceiling -Naaman
lsYould have forgotten that there was any
it1fng ffnS- 6sfTer. anu v5r4 glad
stay there ten thousand years. But, oh,
how the shields dim, and how the visitors
fly from the hall, and how the music drops
dead from the string, and how the gates OF
the mansion slam shut with sepulchral
bang, as you read the closing words OF the
eulogium "He was leper"
There was one person more sympathetic
with General Naaman than any other per-
son. Naaman's wife walks the floor
wringing her hands and trying to think
what she can do to alleviate her husbands
suffering. All remedies have failed. The
Surgeon General and the doctors of the
roval staff have met and they have shaken
their heads as much as to say: "No cure;
no cure.n / think that the Office-seekers
had all folded up their recommendations
and gone home. Probably most Of the
employes of the establishment had dropped
their work and were thinking Of looking
for some other situation. What shall now
become of poor Naaman's wife! She must
have sympathy somewhere. In her de-
spair she goes to little Hebrew captive,
a servant girl in her house, to whom she
tells the whole story, as sometimes, when
overborne with the sorrows OF the world,
and finding no sympathy anywhere else,
Won have gone out aud found in the sympa-
thy of some humble domestic-Rosa, or Dl-
nah, or Bridget--a help which the world
could not give you.
What a scene it was One of the grand
est women in all Syria in cabinet council
with a waiting maid over the declining
health of the mighty General 81 know
something says the little captive maid,
81 know something" as she bounds to her
bare feet. ''In the land from which | was
stolen there is a certain prophet known by
the name of Elisha, who can cure almost
every thing, and l shouldn't wonder II he
could cure my master. Send for him right
aWav.n ooh, hush," you say. 'lf the
highest medical talent in all the land can
not cure that leper, there is noneed OF your
listening to any talk of servant girl" But
do not scott, do not sneer. The finger of that
little captive maid is pointing in the right
direction. She might have said: "This is
a Judgment on you for stealing me from my
native land Didn't they snatch me off in
the night, breaking my fathers and moth
ers heart, and many time l have lald
and cried all night because was so home
sick" Then flushing up into childish In
dignation she might have said: GOOD for
them; am glad Naaman's got the lepro-
sv: I wish all the Syrians had the leprosy."
No, Forgetting her own personal sorrows,
she svmpathizes with the suffering of her
master and recommends him to the famous
Hebrew prophet.
Years ago the astronomers calculated
that there must be a world hanging at a
certain point in the Heavens, and large
prize was offered for some one who could
discover that world. The telescopes from
the great observatories were pointed in
vain, but girl at Nantucket Mass, fash.