The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-11-30

sisted upon knowing why didn't have
family prs yers." There are grand
parents who have been brought
TO Christ by their little grandchil-
dren. There are hundreds of Chris
tian mothers who had their at
tention first called to Jesus by their
little children. How did you get rid
of the leprosy Of sin? How did you find
your way to the Divine Physician?
''Oh," you say, my child-my dying
child, with wan and wasted finger,
pointed that way. Oh, shall never
forget" You say, "that scene at the
cradle and the crib that awful night.
1t was hard, hard, very hard; but if
that little one on its dying bed had not
pointed me to Christ, / don't think /
ever would have got rid of my leprosy."
Go into the Sabbath-school any Sun
day and you will find hundreds of lit
tie fingers pointing in the same direc-
ton, toward Jesus Christ and toward
Heaven.
Perhaps you have had an invalid go
out from your house on a health ex-
cursion. You know how the neigh
bors stood around and said: ''Ah,
he will never come back again
alive" Oh, it was a solemn nc
ment, 1 tell you, when the in
valid had departed and you went
into the room to make the bed, and to
remove the medicine phials from the
shelf, and to throw open the shutters,
so that the fresh air might rush into
the long-closed room. Good-by, Naa-
man! There is only one cheerful face
looking at him, and that is the face
of the little Hebrew captive, who is sure
he will get well, and who is so glad she
helped him. AS the chariot winds out
and the escort of mounted courtiers,
and the mules, laden with sacks of
gold and silver, and embroidered suits
of apparel, went through the gates of
Damascus and out on the long way,
the hills of Naphtali and Ephriam look
down on the procession, and the ret
inue goes right past the battlefields
where Naaman, in the days of his
health, used to rally his troops for
fearful onset, and then the procession
stops and reclines awhile in the groves
of olive and oleander; and Gen. Naaman
is sick-so very, very sick!
How the countrymen CAPPED as the
procession passed! They had seen
Naaman go pass like a whirlwind in
days gone by, and had stood aghast at
the clank of his war equipments; but
now they commiserate him. They say:
poor man, he will never get home
alive; poor man.
Gen. Naaman wakes up from a rest
less sleep in the chariot, and says to
the charioteer: Glow long before we
shall reach the Prophet Elisha?" The
charioteer says to waysider: 'HOw
far is it to Elisha's house!" He says:
Two miles. Two miles?" Then they
whip up the lathered and fagged-out
horses. The whole procession bright
ems up at the prospect of speedy arriv-
al. They drive up to the door of
the prophet. The characters shout
Whoa to the horses, and tramping
hOofs and grinding wheels cease shal1-
ing the earth. Come out, Elisha, come
out; you have company; the grandest
company that ever came to your house
has come to it now. No stir inside
Elisha's house. The fact was, the
Lord has informed Elisha that the
sick captain was coming, and just
how to treat him. Indeed, when you
are sick, and the Lord wants you TO
get well, He always tells the doctor
how to treat you; and the reason we
have so many bungling doctors is be-
cause they depend upon their own
strength and instructions, and not on
the Lord God, and that always makes
malpractice. Come out, Elisha, and
tend to your business. Gen. Naaman
and his retinue waited, and waited, and
waited. The fact was, Naaman had
two diseases-pride and leprOsy; the
one was as hard to get rid of as the
other. Elisha sits quietly in his house,
and does not go out. After while,
when he thinks he has humbled this
proud man, he says to a servant:
go out and tell Gen. Naaman
to battle seven times in the River Jor-
dan, out yonder five miles, and he will
get entirely we'll" The message comes
out. WHAT says the commander-in-
chief of the Syrian forces, his eye kind
ling with animation which it had not
shown for weeks, and his swollen foot
stamping on the bottom of the chariot
regardless of pain. What! Isn't ne
coming out to see me? Why thought
certainly he would come and utter some
cabalistic words over me, or make some
enigmatical passes over my wounds.
Why, l don't think he knows who /
am. Isn't he coming out? Why.
when the Shunamite woman came to
him, he rushed out and cried: is it
well with thee? is it well with thy hus-
band? is it well with thy child? and
will he treat a poor unknown woman
like that, and let me, titled person
age, sit here in my chariot and wait,
and wait? l won't endure it any
longer. Charioteer, drive on! Wash in
the Jordan! la! Ha! The Shiny
Jordan-the muddy JOrdan-the
seen washing in such a river as
that. Why, we watered our horses
in a better river than that on
our way here-the beautiful river, the
iasper-paved River of Pharpar. Be
sides that, we have in our country an
other Damascene river, ALBANIA, with
foliaged bank, the torrent ever swift
shadows of sycamore and oleander.
Are not ALBANIA and Pharpar, rivers of
Damascus better than all the waters
of Israel?''
So, after all, it seems that this health
excursion of Gen. Naaman is to be a
dead failure. That little Hebrew cap
tive might as well have not told him of
the prophet. and this long journey
might as we'll not have been taken.