Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1894-11-30
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
The Eminent Brooklyn Divino'S Sune
day Sermon.
Subject: "The Sick General"

Dleurisies or rheumatisms or cOnsumptione.
but with disease worse than all these put
together. red lnark has come ont on the
forehead, precursor OF complete disflure-
ment and dissolution. I have something
awful TO Tell YOU. General Naqman. the
commander in chief Of all the Syrian forces,
has the leprosvl IT is on his hands. on his
face, on his feet. on his entire person. The
teprosv! Get ont of the way of the pesti-
lence. IF his breath strike YOU. YOU are .
read man. The commander In chief o all
The forcCs Of Syria And vet he would be-
rlad 70 exchange conditions With the hoy at
his stirrup or the hostler that blankets his
charger. The news goes like widAre all
through the realm, and the people are sym.
pathetic and they cry ont, "Is il possible
that our great hero. who slew Ahab and
around whom we came with such vocifera~
ton when he returned from victorious BAT.
tle-can It be possible that our Grand and
glorious Naan an has the leprosy?"
Yes. Everybody has something he wishes
he had not-David. an Absalom TO disgrace
him Paul, n thorn 70 sting him JoN, car
huncles to plague him Samson, Delilah
iG shear him Ahab. a Nahoth to deny him /,
Haman, Mordecal 10 irrtate him. George
Washington, childlessness TO aff1ict him |;
John Wesley, ternagant wife to poster
him, Leah, weak eyes; Pope. crooked
back; Byron. club foot; John Milton.
blind eyes; Charles Lamb, an insane sister.
and you and you ard you something which
you never bargalned fer and would like to
get rid OIL. The reason Of this Is that God
does not want this world 10 be too bright.
Otherwise we would always want to stay and
eat these fruits and lie on these lounges and
shake hands in the pleasant society. We
are only in the vestbule Of a grand temple.
God does not want rs to stand on the door
step, and therefore He sends cches and annoys
ances and sorrows and hereavenents Of all
sorts to push us on AMI push us up toward
ripper fruits and brighter society anil more
radiant properties, Col is only whipping
US ahead. The reason that Edward Payson
and Robert Hall had morerapturous views Of
heaven than other people had was because,
through their aches and pains. God pushed
then nearer up TO If. II God dashes ont ono
of your pictures, il Is only to show TO you p
brighter one. II He sting your foot with
govt, your brain with neurale ia, your tongue
with an inFxtingushabl6 thirst, ii is only be-
cause He is preparing TO subst tute better
body than you ever dreamed Of, when the
mortal shall put on Immortality.
1t Is TO push YOU on and 10 push sou up
toward something grander AMI better that
God sends upon you, as He did upon Cen
Seated In his Syrian mansion. all the walls
glittering with the shields which he bad cap
iured in battle, the corridors crowded with
admiring visitors who just wanted TO see
him once, music and m'rth and harquetinS
filing all the mansion from tesselated floor
TO pictured ceiling, Naamah would have for
gotten that there was anything better an
would have been glad TO stay there 10000
years. But. oh, how the shields dim, and
how the visitors fly the hall. and how the
music drops dead from the string, and how
the gates OF the mansion siam shut with
sepulchral bang as you read the closing
words of the enlogum "He was a leper
He was leper"
There was ons person more sympathetic
with General Naaman than any other per-
son. Mammals wife walks the floor. wiring
ing her hands and trying TO think what she
can do TO alleyiate her husbands suffering.
All remedies have failed. The surgeon gen.
eral and the doctors OF the royal staff have
met and they have shaken their heads. as
much rs TO say. "No cure, no cure" 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 AMI were thinking
Of looking for some other situation. What
shall now become of poor N2aman's wife?
She must have sympathy somewhere. In
her despair she goes to a little Hebrew cap
tive, n servant girl in her house, 10 whom
she tells the whole story, as sometimes,
when overborne by the sorrows of the world
and finding no sympathy anywhere else, YOU
have gone out and found in the sympathy
al some humble domcstic-ROse or Dinah or
Brldget-a help which the world could not
give you.
What a scene it was-on9 Of the gran1est
women in all Syria in cabinet council with
waiting maid over the declining health Of
the mighty general! 81 know something"
SAYS the little captive maid, 81 know some.
thing" as she bounds TO her bare feet. "ln
the land from lich 1 was stolen there is a
certain prophet known by the nama of
Elisha, who can cure almost anything, and
l shouldn't wonder if he could cure my
master. Send for him right away" ooh,
hush |" 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
o. a servant girl" But do not scoff, do not
sheer. The finger OF that little captive mail
is pointing in the right direction. She might
have said "1hs is Il judgment upon you
for stealing me from my native Ian. Didn't
they snatch me off in the night, breaking my
fathers and mothers hearts, AMI many Il
time have lain and criel all night because
[ was so bomesickW Then, flushing up
into childish Indignation, she might have
said: "Good Tor them. I'm glad Naamah' 3
got the leprosv. wish all the Syrians had
The leprosy." No. Forgetting her personal
sorrows, she sympathzes with the suffering
OF her master and commends him to the
famous Hebrew prophet.
And how often it is that the finger Of
childhood has pointed grown persons in the
n Hlric ion o
is il since YOU got rid of the leprosy of SIM
You say, ''Let me see. 1t must he five years
now" Five years. Who was it that pointed
YOU to the Divine Physician? Goa, you
say. sit was my littlo Annie or Fred or
Charley that clamered up on my knees and
looked into my face and asked me why
didn't become a Christian, and, all the
time stroking my cheek, so | could
not get angry, insisted upon knowing why
I didn't have family prayers" There are
gran }parents who have been brought to
Christ by their little grandchildren. There
are hundreds of Christian mothers VINO hat
their attention first called to Jesus by their
little children. How did you get rid OF the
leprcsy OF sin? How did you find your way
10 the Divine Physician? "Oh," you say,
my child, my idying child, with wan
aid wasted finger, pointed that way
| Oh. l never shall forget" you say, "tha1
SC ne at the cradle and the crib that awful
night. 1t was hard, hard, very hard, but i
that little one on its dying bed had no
pointed me to Christ 1 don't think l evel
would have got rid OF my leprosy." Go into
the Sabbath-school any Sunday, and you vii
find hundreds OF little fingers pointing in the
same direct on, toward Jesus Christ and TO-
ward heaven.
Years ago the astronomers calculated thai
there must be q world hanging at a certain
point in the heavens, and large prizo was
| offered for some one who could discover that
world. The telescopes from the great OBJ
~ hpf cyir RI