Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-12-13

| They vituperate against ministers,
against churches, against Christian peo-
| pie. One would think from their lrate
| behavior that God had beed studying how
| to annoy and eXasperate and demollsh
them. What has He been doing? Only
trying to cure their death-deallng leprosy.
| That Is all. Yet they whip up their horses,
they dig in the spurs, and they goaWay IN
rage.
So, after all, it seems that this health
excursion of General Naaman is to be
dead failure. That little Hebrew captive
might as we'll have not told him OF the
prophet, and this long journey might as
we'll not have been taken. Poor, sick,
dying Naaman! Are you going away in
| high dudgeon and worse than when you
| came? AS his chariot halts moment.
! his servants Chamber up in it and coax
| him to do as Elisha said. They say: Its
| easy. If the prophet had told you to walk
| for mile on sharp spikes in order to get
rid of this awful disease you would have
| done it. 1t is easy. Come, my lord, just
] get down and wash in the Jordan. You
| take a bath every day, anyhow, and In
| this climate it is so hot that 1t Will do you
good. Do it on our account, and
for the sake Of the army you COM
mand, ana for the sake of the
nation that admires you. Come,
my lord, just try this Jordanic bath"
''Well," he says, "to please you l Will do
as you say" The retlnue drive to the
brink of the Jordan. The horses paw
and neigh to tget into the stream them
selves and cool their TANKS. General
Naaman, assisted by his attendants, gets
down out of the chariot and painfully
comes to the brink OF the river, and steps
in until the water comes to the ankle, and
goes on deeper until the water comes to the
girdle, and now standing so far down in
the stream, just a little Inclination OF the
head will thoroughly immense MIN. He
bows once into the flood and comes up and
shakes the water out OF nOstrils and eyes,
and bis attendants look at him ana say:
"Why, General, how much better you do
| look" And he bows second time into
the flood and comes up, and the wild
stare is gone out of his eye. He bows the
third time into the flood and comes up,
and the shriveled flesh has got smooth
again. He bows the fourth time into the
| food and comes up, and the hair that had
fallen out is restored in thick locks again
all over the brow. He bows the fifth time
into the food and comes up, and the
hoarseness has gone out of his throat. he
bows the sixth time and comes up, and
ali the soreness and anguish have gone
out of the limbs. "Why," he says,'"I
am almost well, but l will make
complete cure" and he bows
the seventh time into the flood and
he comes up, and not so much as
tester, or scale, or an eruption as big AS
the head OF a pin, is to be seen on him.
He steps out on the bank and says: sis it
possibler' And the attendants look and
say: sis it possible?" Aud as, with the
health Of an athlete, he bounds back into
the chariot and drives on, there goes up
from all his attendants a wild "HuZZal
huzzap OF course they go back to pay
and thank the man of God for mis- counsel
so fraught with wisdom. When they left
the prophets house. they went off mad;
they have come back glad.
People always think better of minis
ter after they are converted than they do
| before conversion. Now we are to them
| an intolerable nuisance because we tell
! them to do things that 90 against the
| grain; but some of us have great many
| letters from those who tell us that once
| they were angry at what we preached, but
afterw gladly received the Gospel at
| our hands. They once called us fanatics
or terrorists or enemies; now they call us
friends. Yonder is a mani speak a
| literal fact-who said that he would never
| come into the church again. He SAID that
| two years ago. He said: My family
shall never come here again if such doc
| trInes as that are preached" But he
| came again, and his family came again.
| He is a Christian, his wife a Christian, all
|
hold Christian, and l shall dwell with
them in the house of the Lord forever.
! Our undying coadjutOrs are those who
once heard the Gospel and ''went away in
a rage"
Now, my hearers, you notice that this
! General Naaman did two things in order
to get we'll. The first was, he got out of his
chariot. He might have stayed there
with his swollen feet on the stuffed otto
man, seated on that embroidered cushion.
until his last gasp, he never would have
got any relief. He had to get down out of
his chariot. And you have got to get
down out of the chariot of your pride il
you ever become a Christian. You can
not drive up TO the cross with coach
and-four, and be saved among all the
| spangles. You seem to think that the
Lord is going to be comphmented by your
coming. Oh, no: you poor, miserable,
scalv, leprous sinner, get down out OF
that. We all come In the same naughty
way. We expect to ride into the
Kingdom of God. Never until we get
down on our knees will we find mercy.
The Lord has endorsed us, uncharloted
us. Get down out of your pride,
Get down out of your self-righteous-
ness and your hypercrIticism. We have all
got TO do that. That is the journey we
have got to make on our knees. 1t is our
Internal pride that keeps us from getting
rid of the leprosy OF sin. Dear Lord, what
have we to be proud of? Proud of our
scalesp Proud of our uncleanness
Proud of this killing Injection? Bring us
down at Thy feet, weeping, praying, pen
itent, believing suppllcantsl
For sinners. Lord, Thou earnest to bleed,
| And I'm sinner vile lnjeed;
Lord, believe Thy grace is free,
on, magnify that grace In me.
But he had not only to get down out OF
his chariot. He had to wash. "Oh,''
you say, 81 am very careful of my abiu.
lions. Every day plunge into bright
and beautiful bath" An, my hearer,
there is a food brighter than any other.
IL is the flood that breaks from the gran.
ite of the eternal hills. 1t is the food OF
pardon, and peace, and life, and heaven.
That flood started in the tears of Christ
and the sweat of Gethsemane, ana rolled
on, accommodating flood, until all earth
and heaven could batne in it. Zschariah
called il the 'iountaIn open for sin and
uncleanness." William Cowper called
il the ''iountain filled with blood" Your
fathers and mothers washed all their
sins and sorrows away in that fountain.
on, my hearers, do you not to-day feel
like wading into it? Wade down now
into this glorious flood, deeper, deeper,
deeper. Plunge once, twice, thrice, tour
times, Eve times, six times, seven times.
1t will take as much as that to cure your
soul. on, wash, wash, wash, and be
/ ala