National Republican., 1886-12-13
SOMETHING AWFUL TO TELL.
EVERYBODY HAS SOMETHING HE
WISHES HE HAD NOT.
DIR. Taimage Says the Reason Of This
Is That God Does not Want This
World to be Too Bright.%-''He Is n
Leper."

PRISoETowN, ILL. Dec. H. .-yne Rev. t. De
Witt Talmage, D. D., preac' IcSs this morning
from the text. II Kings, v, Il E~He was leper."
He said:
Here we have warrior. sick, not with pleu-
Tisies or rheumatismsor consumption, but with
disense worse than Al these put together;
req marx mas come Out. on his forehead, pre-
cursor Of complete isasurement and dissolu-
tion. have som ething awful TO tell YOU
Gen. Naaman, the o0mmander.in-c chief OF all
the Syrian forces, has the leprosy. 1t is on his
hands, on his fa q. ON his feet on his entire
person. The J ypVosy Get out of the way of
the pestilence II his breath strike you, you
are dead M lu. The commander-in-chiefo OF
all the force OF Syrial And yet he would be
glad 70 exc mango conditions with the boy at
ms stirrul ,, ca the hoster that blankets his
charger. The news goes like wildhre all
through the realm, and the people are sympa-
thetc and they cry out: "Is 1t possible that our
great iepo who shot Ahab, and around whom
we co me with such vociferation when he re-
inIn' a from victorious battle-can II be possi-
pc hat our grand and glorious Naaman has
Yes. Everybody has somethingh he wishes he
III I'd not-Dayid, an Absalom to disgrace him;
aui, thorn to sting him; Job, cafbuncles to
Ahsb. a Naboth to deny him; Haman,. a Nor.
childiessness TO afiiict him; John Wesley.
ttrmagent wife to poster HIM Leah, weak
Men SSd
sane sister; and you and you, and you, some,
thing, which you. meyer bargained for and
that God does not not want this world to be too (,
bright; otherwise, we would always want to
stay, and eat these. fruits, and lie on these
lounges, and shake hands In this pleasant so.
ciety. We are only In the vestibue of grand
temple. God does not want us TO stay on the
doorstep, and therefore he sends aches, and
Annoyances, and sorrows, aud bereavements of
all sorts TO push us on and push us up toward
ripper fruits, and brighter society, aud more
ahead ahead The Teason that Edward Pgs Payson and ID
Robert Hall had more rapturous views OF
heaven than mla,,, other people people. 0 had WAS Was
God pushed them nearer up TO II. II God
dashes out one Of your pictures IL is only to
chow you brighter one. Il He sting your
foot with gout, your brain with neuralgia, your
tongue with an inextingulshablo thirst, II is
only because He is preparing 10 substitute
Ss nee5 SGa sndh S yEu o eis1 o 10
Thing grander and better, that God sends upon
you rs He did upon General Naaman, sOme-
thing you do not want. Seated In his Syrian
manslon-all the walls glitteTlng with the
shields which he hal captured in battle the
corridors crowded with hdmirlng visitors who
Just wanted TO see him once, mu'ic aud mlrth
aud banquetlng illling all the mansion, from
tesselgted iloor TO pictured ceillns-Naaman
would have forgotten that there was anything
better and would have been glad TO stay there
10000 years. But, oh how the shields dim
unu now tno NlhllOIs ny lIOln llc HhllI duu now
the music drops dead from the string, and how
the gates of the mansion slam shut with sepul-
chral bang as you read the closing words of
the eIloglum: He was a lepor Ho was
leper r.
There was one person more sympathetic
with General Naamun than any other persOl.
Naamans wife walks the floor, wringlng her
hands and trying to think what she can do TO
alleviate her husbands suiierings All RENEE
dies have failed. The surgeon general and
the doctors of the royal staff have met. aud
they have shaken their hOads as much as to
say; mo cure, no cure" think that the
oiiice.seekers had all folded up their recon-
mendations and gone. home Probably most
of the employees of the establishment had
dropped their work and were thinking OF look.
ing fOT some other situation. What shall now
ecome ofpoor Haaman's wife? She must have
sympathy somewhere. In her despair she
Pof 10 a little Hebrew captive a servant glrl
In her house, 10 whom she tells the whole
story, as sometimes lwhen Overb lrue with th F,
EoTTows of the word, and finding no sympathy
anywhere else, you have gone out aud fOnnd
in the sympathy Of some humble domestic
Rose, or Dinah, or Dridget-a help which the
world could not give you.
What scene II was One of the grand sst
women In ell Syria in cabinet council with
waiting maid over the declining health of the
mighty general ~ know something" says