Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-11-24

| drive up to the door of the prophet. Th)
/ characters shout "Whoar' tothe horse :,
and tramping hoofs and grinding wheels
cease shaking the earth. Come out, Eli
! sha, como 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 had informed Elisha that the
sick captain was coming and just how
| to treat him. Indeed, when you ase
| 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 because they
depend upon their own strength ard
instructions and not on the Lord God,
and that always makes malpractice.
Come out, Elisha, and attend to your
! business.
General Naaman and his retinuo wait
ed 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
awhile when he thinks he has BUNDLED
this proud man, he says TO servant,
go out and tell General Naamau TO
bathe seven times in the river Jordan,
out yonder five miles, and he will got
entirely well. " The message comes cut.
WHAT says the commander in chief
of tho Syrian forces, his eye kindling
with an animation which it had not
shown for weeks and his swollen foat
J .fa Ao II A.
regardless of pain. What Isn't he
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, | 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 we'll with
thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is
it well with thy child?' And will he
treat poor unknown woman like that
and let me, titled parsonage, sit heie
i'll my chariot and wait and wait? |
won't endure it any longer. Charioteer,
drive oni Wash i'll the Jordanl Ha hal
The sling JOrdan-the muddy Jordan
the monotonous Jordan | wouldn' t
be seen washing i'll such river as that.
Why, we watered our horses i'll better
river than that Oh our way here-the
beautiful river, the jasper paved river Of
| Pharpar. Besides that we have i'll or
country another DamasceEe river, ( ba-
ma, with foliaged bank and torrent ever
swift and ever clear, under the flicker
| ing shadows of sycamore and oleander
Are not ALBANIA and Pharpar, rivers of
Damascus better than all the waters Of
Israeli"
l suppose Naaman felt very much as
Americans would feel if, by way CT
medical prescription, some one should
tell us to go and wash in the Danube CT
the Rhine, We would answer, 'Are
not the Connecticut and the Hudson
| just as good?' Or as an Englichman
would feel if he were told, by way Of
medical prescription, he must go aud
wash in the Mississippi or the St Law
renee. Ho would cry out, Are not the
Thames and the Shannon just as wcll?''
The fact was that naughty Naaman
needed to learn what every Englishlaan
and every American needs to learn
that when God tells you to do a thing
you must go and do it, whether you
understand tho reason on not. Take the
prescription, whether you like it OF not.
One thing is certain. Unless naughty
| Naaman does as Elisha commands him,
he will die CT his awful sickness Ard
unless you do as Christ commands you
you will be seized upon by an cverlast-
ing wasting away. Obey and live; dis
obey and die. Thrilling ovcrarching,
undergirding, stupendous alternativel
A Dead Failure.
Well, General Naaman could not
stand the test The charioteer gives a
jerk to the right line until the bit snaps
in the horses mouth, and the whir of
the wheels and the flying of the dust
show the indignation of the great con-
mander. 'Ee turned and went away in
a rage" So people now often get mad
! at religion. They vituperate against
ministers, against churches, against
Christian people. One would think from
their irate behavior that God had been
studying how to annoy and exaspcrate
and demolish them What has be been
doing? Only trying to cure their death
dealing leprosy. That is all Yet they
whip up their horses. they dig i'll the
spurs, and they go away in rage
| So. after all, it seems that this health
excursion of General Naaman is to be
q dead failure. That little Hebrew cap
tive might as well have not told him of
the prophet, and this long journey
might as well not have been taken
Poor, sick, dying Naamanl Are you so
! ing away i'll 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 proph-
ct had told you to walk for mile on
sharp spikes i'll order to get rid of this
awful disease, you would have done it
1t is easy. Come, my lord, just get down
and wash i'll the Jordan. You take
bath every day anyhow, and in this eli
mate it is so hot that it will do you
good. Do it on our account, and fer the
sake of the army you command, and for
the sake of the nation that admires you
Come, my lord, just try this Jordanic
you | will do as you say" The retinue
drive to the brink of the Jordan. The
horses paw and neigh to get into the
stream themselves and cool their hot
TANKS. General Naaman, assisted by
his attendants, gets down ont of his
chariot and painfully comes to the brink
of the river and steps in until the water
+ comes to the ankle and goes OIL deeper
until the water comes to the girdle, ard
now standing so far down in the stream
just little inclination of the head will
thoroughly immense him. He bows once
into the food and comes up and shakes
the water ont of nostril and eye, and
his attendants look at him and say,
why, general, how much better you
10 lookr' And he bows second time
nto the flood and comes up, and the
l slid stare is gone out of his eye. He