Connecticut western news., 1894-11-22
THE CUREOF NAAMAN
REV. DR. TAlMAGE BREACHES UPON
 1.-THE SICK GENERAL"

NGv. Cn. tN1MA0C FHGACf7Eo OFON i 1.-THE SICK GENERAL"
 This Life Is but the vestibule of . Grand
 Templo-What General Naaman Was
 Willing to Do to Be Cured-The True
 Remedy.
 BROOKLYN, Nov. 1S-Rev. Dr. Tal- mage has chosen as the subject of to- days sermon through the press ''The Sick General" the text selected being II Kings v. 1, "He was a leper.
 Here we have warrior sick, not with pleurisies or rheumatisms or con- sumptions but with disease worse than all these put together. A red mark has come ont on the forehead, precursor of complete disfgurement and dissolu- ton. have something awful to tell you. General Naaman, the commander in chief of all the Syrian forces, has the leprosyl It is on his hands, on his face, on his feet, on his entire person. The leprosy! Get out of the way of the pes tilencei If his breath strike you, you are dead man. The commander in chief of all the forces of Syria! And yet he would be glad to exchange conditions with the boy at his stirrup or the hos tier that blankets his charger. The news goes like wildfire all through the realm, and the people are sympathetic, and they cry out, "Is it possible that our great hero, who slew Ahab and around whom we came with such vociferation when he returned from victorious bat tle-can 1t be possible that our grand and glorious Naaman has the leprosyf"
 All Are Afflicted.
 Yes. Everybody has something he wishes he had -not-David, an Absalom to disgrace him; Paul, thorn to sting him; Job, carbunoles to plague him; Samson, Delilah to shear him; Ahab, 8 Naboth to deny him; Haman, Nor decai to irritate him; George Washing ton, childlessness to af1iot him; John Wesley. termagant wife to poster him; Leah. weak eyes; Pope, a crooked back; Byron, a club foot; John Milton, blind eyes; Charles Lamb, an insane sister, and you and you and you something which you never bargained for and would like to get rid of. The reason of this Is that God does 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 society. We are only in the vestibule of a grand temple. God does not want us to stay on the doorstep, and therefore he sends aches and annoyances and sorrows and be- reavements of all sorts to push us on and push us up toward riper fruits and brighter society and more radiant pros perities. 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 palms, God pushed them nearer up to it. If God dashes out one of your pictures, it is only to show to you a brighter one If he sting your foot with gout, your brain with neuralgia, your tongue with an inextinguishable thirst, it is only be- cause he is preparing to substitute bet ter body than you ever dreamed of, when the mortal shall put on immortality.
 It is to push you on and to push you up toward something grander and better that God sends upon you, as he did upon General Naaman, something you do not want. Seated in his Syrian man. sion, all the walls glittering with the shields which he had captured in bat tie, the corridors crowded with admir- ing visitors who just wanted to see him once, music and mirth and banqueting filling all tho mansion from tessellated floor to pictured ceiling, Naaman would have forgotten that there was anything better and would have been glad to stay there 10, 900 years. But. oh. how the shields dim, and how the visit ors fly the hall, and how 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 eulogiumi "He was leperl He was leperP'
 Must Have Sympathy.
 There was one person more sympa- thetic 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 remedies 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 oure.' think that the office seekers had all folded up their recommendations 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 wife? She must have sympathy somewhere. In her despair she goes to little Hebrew captive, a servant girl in her house, to whom she tells the whole story, as sometimes, when overborne by the sorrows of the wosld and finding no sympathy any, in the sympathy of some humble domes- tic-Rose or Dinah or Bridget-a help which the world could not give you.
 What a scene it was-one of the grandest women in all Syria in cabinet council with 8 waiting maid over the declining health of the mighty general ''I know something" says the little captive maid, 1T know something" as the bounds to her bare feet. "In the land from which I was stolen there is certain prophet known by the name of Elisha, who can cure almost any thing. and 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 to any talk of 8 servant girl. But do not scoff, do not meer. The finger of that little captive maid is pointing in the right direction. She might have said: "This is a judg- ment upon you for stealing me from my native land. Didn't they snatch me oil in the night, breaking my fathers and mothers hearts, and many time I have lain and cried all night because was so homesick?' Then, flushing uI into childish indignation, she might A.ro .os1. ano~5 foc- @ho,~, T,x, r,I,