St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-12-25
LEPROSY AND PRIDE.
Sermon by Rev. IT. De Witt Tai
mage, D. D.
The Sick Warrior and How He Was
Cured-Obedience and Life-The
One Flood of Pardon, Peace
Life and Heaven.

Kings: He Was Leper." The preacher
said:
Here we have a warrior sick, not with
plourisy Or rheumatism or consumption,
but with disease worse than all threse put
together A red mark has como out on his
forehead. precursor Of complete dishgure-
ment and dissolution. | have something
awful to tell YOU: General Naaman, the
Commander-in Chief Of all the Syrian
forces, has the leprosy; 1t is on his hands,
on his face. Oh his feet, on his entire per-
SON The leDroSy. Get out of the way of
the pestilencc. If his breath strikes you you
are a dead man. The COMMUNICATIVE Chief
of all the forces If Syria And yet he
would be GLAD to exchange conditions with
the boy at his stirrup or the hOstler that
blankets hia charger. The news goes like
wildfire all through the realm, and the peo-
pie are sympathetic, and they cry out: rs
it possible that our great hero who shot
Ahab, and around whom we came with
such Tociferation when he returned from
victorious battle-can it be possible that
our grand aud glorious Naaman has the
leprOsy3'
Yes. Ever body has something he wishes
he had not-OaVid, an AbSaiOm to disgrace
him; Paul, q thorn to sting INN; Job, car
buncles to plague him; Samson, Delilah
to shear him; Ahab, Naboth to deny him;
Hannah, Mordecai to irritate him; George
Washington. childlessness to afflict him;
John Wesley. a tcrmagant wife to poster
him; Leah. weak eyes; Pope, a crooked
back; Byron, a club foot; John Milton,
blind eyes; Charles Lamb, al insane sister;
and you, and you, and you, and you, same-
thing which you never bargained for and
4>r 81 81 y
is, that God does not want this world t. be
too bright; otherwise we would always
want to stay and cat these fruits, and lie
on these lounges, and shake hands in THIS
pleasant society.
We are only IN tho yestlbule of O grand
temple. God does not want us to stay On
the doors step, and, therefore, He SENDS
aches, ana annoyances. and sorrows, AMI
bereavements Of ell sorts, to push us Up
toward ripper fruits. and brighter society,
and more radiant properties. God is only
whipping Us ahead. The reason that e.
ward Payson and Robert Hall had more
rapturous views of Heaven than oth1r
people had was because, through their
aches and pains, God pushed them rp
nearer to it. If God dashes out one of
your pictures, IT is only to show yoH a
brighter one If He sting your foot with
govt, your brain with neuralgia, yoLr
tongue with an inextinguishable thirst, it
is only because He is preparing to substi-
tute better body than you ever dreamed
of, when the mortal shall put on immCr-
tality
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 filing all the mansion, from tessel-
ated floor to pictured ceiling -Naaman
would have forgotten that there was any
thing better, and would have been glad to
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 a lepers"
There was one person more sympathetic
with General Eaaman 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
royal staff have met, and they have shaken
their heads as much as to say: "No cure;
no cure.'' I think that the office-seekers
had all folded up their recommendations
and gone home. Probably most of the
employees of the establishment had dropped
their work and were thinking of looking
for some other situation. What shall now
become of poor Mammals wifes 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,
you have gone out and found in the sympa-
thy of some humble domestic-Rosa, or Di-
bah, or Bridget help which the world
could not give you.
What scene it wasl One of the grand
est women in all Syria in cabinet council
with waiting maid over the declining
health OF the mighty General. II know
says the little captive maid,
II know something's as she bounds to her
bare feet. ''In the land from which I was
stolen there is certain prophet known by
the name of Elisha, who can cure almost
every thing, and / shouldn't wonder if he
could cure my master. Send for him right
away" ooh, hush," you say. eff the
highest medical talent in all the land can
not cure that leper, there is no need Of your
listening to any talk Of servant girl" But
10 not scott, do not sheer The finger of that
little captive maid is pointing in the right |
direction. She might have said: "This is
1 judgment on you for stealing me from my |
native land. Didn't they snatch me off in
the night, breaking my fathers and moth
sr's heart, and many a time I have laid |
and cried all night because was SO home |
sick" Then flushing up into childish in
lignation she might have said: GOOD for |
hem; l am glad Naaman's got the lepro-
y; wish all:the Syrians had the leprosy."
No. Forgetting her own personal sorrows,
he sympathizes with the suffering of her
master and recommends him to the famous
Hebrew prophet
Years ago the astronomers calculated
hat there must be q world hanging at