The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-12-16
"THE PROUD INVALID"
REV. 7. DEWITT TALMAeE's SER
MON AT THE TABERNACLE.

Everybody Has Something He wishe
He Had Not-God Does Not Wish t,
Make this World So Bright that W.
Shall Forget the Brighter.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 12.-The Rev. 7. Dewitt
Talmage, D. D., preached this morning from
the text, II Kings, V, 1: -"He was leper.
He said:
Here we have a warrior sick, not witt
pleurisies or rIeumatisns or rconsumptions, but
with a disease worse than all these put to
gether. a red mark has come out on the fore
head, precursor Of compIete Disagreement
and dissolution. have something awful &c
tel you. Gen. Naaman, the commander-irt
chief Of all the Syrian forces, has LIE
Ieprosy. 1t is on his hands, on his face, on
his feet, on his entire person. The leprosy
Get cut of the way of the pestilencef If his
breath strikes you you are dead man. The
coinmandeT-in-chief Of all the forces OF
STrial And yet he would be glad to ex-
change conditions with the boy at his stir1up
or the hostler that blankets his charger. The
news goes like wildfire all through the realm,
and the people are sympathetic, and they cry
out: as it possible that our great hero who
shot Ahab, and around whom wo came with
such vociferation when he returned from
victorious battle-can it be possible that our
grand and glorious Naaman has the leprosy9'
Yes. Everybody has something he wishes
he had not-David, an Absalom to disgrace
him; Paul, a thorn to sting him; Job, car
buncle9 to plague him; Samson, Delilah TO
shear him; Ahab, a Naboth to deny him;
HamGn, Mordecai to irritate him; George
Washington, childlessness to afflict him:
John Wesley, a termagant wife to poster him;
Leah weak eyes; Pope, a crooked back;
cItrl, Tol,r, MfIfnn Hind
Charles Lamb, an insane sister; and you, and
you, and you, and you, something which you
never bargained for, and would like to get
riI of. The reason of this is, that God does
not want this world to be too bright; other
wise, 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 temple. God
does not want US to stay on the doorstep, and
therefore he sends aches, and annoyances,
and sorrows, and bereavements of all sorts to
push us and push us up toward ripper
fruits, and brighter society, and more radiant
prOsperities. God is only whipping us ahead.
The reason that Edward Payson and Robert
Hall had more rapturous views OF heaVen than
other people had was because, through their
aches and pains, God pushed them nearer up
81 IT, If God dashes out one of your pictures
e is only to show you a brighter one. If He
haAli8 gOuu AOOb WIN t5OuL, Jul III an WIN
neuralgia, your tongue with an inextinguish-
able thirst, it is only because He is preparing
TO substitute a better body than you ever
dreamed Of when the mortal shall put on i'm
mortality. 1t is to push you ON and push you
up toward something grander and better that
God sends upon you, He did upon General
Eaaman, something you do not want. Seated
in his Syrian mansion-all the walls glitter
ing with the shields which he had captured
in battle; the corridors crowded with adj
Iniring visitors who just wanted to see him
once; music and mirth and banqueting filling
ali tho mansion, from tesselated floor to pic
tured ceiling-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, and how the
visitors fly from the hall, and how the music
drops dead fromi the string, and how the
gates of the mansion slam shut with sepuchral
bang, as you read the closing words of the
eulogium: "He was leperi He was a
leperl"
There was one person more sympathetic
with General Naaman than any other person.
Naaman's wife walks the floor, wringing her
hands and trying to think what she can do to
alleviate her husbands suffering All RENE
dies 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" l think that the
office 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
looking for some other situation. What shall
now become of poor Naaman's wifei She
must have sympathy somewhere In her de-
spair she goes to a little Hebrew captive, O
servant girl in her house, to whom she tells
the whole story, as sometimes, when over
borne with the SORROWS of the world, and
finding no sympathy anywhere else, you have
gone out and found in the sympathy of some
humble domestic-R Rosa or Dinah or Bridget
"a help which the world could not give you.
What scene it was One of the grandest
women in all Syria in cabinet council with a
waiting maid over the declining health of the
mighty generall Il know something" says
the little captive maid, Il know something"
rs she bounds to her bare feet ain the land
from which 1 was stolen there is a certain
prophet known by the name of Elisha, who
can cure almost everything, and l shouldn't
wonder if he could cure my master. Send
for him right away" "Oh, hushI" you say.
"If the highest medical talent in all the land
cannot cure that leper there is no need of
your listening 20 any talk of a ser
want girl" But do not scoff, 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 mothers hearth and many a
time have laid and cried all night because
was so homesick." Then flushing up into
childish indignation she might hRvo said:
Good for them; I'm glad Naaman's got the
leprosy; wish ell the Syrians had the
ieprosy.n No Forgetting her own personal
sorrows, she sympathizes with the suffering
of her master and recommends him to the
famous Hebrew prophet.
And how often it is that the finger of child
hood has pointed grown persons in the right
direction. o Christian soul, how long is it
since that you got rid of the leprosy of sini
You say: "Let mo see. 1t must be five years
now" "Five years. Who was it that point
ed you to the Divine Physician~ "Oh," you
say, sit was my little Annie or Fred or Char
lev, who clambered up ON my knees and
looked in my face and asked me why didn't
become Christian, and, all the time strok-
ing my cheeks so couldn't get angry, in
sisted upon knowing why 1 didn't have fam
lily prayers" There are grandparents here
who have been brought to Christ by their
little grandchildren. There are many
Christian mothers here who had their
attention first called to Jesus by their
Httle children. How did you get rid
of the leprosy of sinl Flow did you find your
way to the Divine Physicianl "Oh," you
say, my child, my dying child, with wan
and wasted finger pointed that wayl Oh,
shall never forget you say, "that scene at
she cradle and the crib that awful night! 1t
was bard, hard, very hard; but If that little
one on tts dying bed had not pointed me to
Christ, don't think ever would have got
lid Of ny leprosy." Go into the Sabbath