The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1894-11-28
THE SICK GENERAL.
Rev. T. De Witt Talmase Dowells on the
Leprosy of Sin.

BROOKLYN, Nov. 1s.-Rev. Dr. Tai
mage has chose as the subject of today
sermon through the press The Sick
General" the text selected being II
Kings V, !, He was leper.
Here we have a warrior sick, not
with pleuriSies orrheumatisms or con-
SYMPTOMS, but with a disease worse
than all these put together. \ red
mark has come out on the foreheao,
precursor of complete Disagreement
and dissolution. l have something
awful to tell YOU General Naaman,
the commander in chief of all the
Syrian forces, has the leprosy. 1t is
on his hands. on his face, on his feet.
on his entire person. The leprosy.
Getout Of the way of the pestilence;
If his breath strike you, you are dead
man. The commander in chief of all
the forces ofSyria, And yet he would
be glad to exchange conditions with the
boy at his strirrup 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, is it possible that our great
hero who slew Ahab and around
whom we came with such vociferatlon
when he returned from victorious bat
tle-can it be possible that our grand
and glorious Naamen hasthe leprosy,.
Yes. Everybody has something he
wishes he had not-David. an Absalom
to disgrace him; Paul, athorn to sting
him; Job, carbuncles to plague him;
Samson Delilah oshear him; Ahab,
a Naboth to deny him; Haman,
Mordecai to irritate him; George
Washington, childlessness to affllct
him; John Wesley. termagant wife
to poster him; Leah, weak eyes: Pope,
a crooked back: Byron, club foot:
John Milton. blind eyes; Charles
Lamb, an insane sisters. and you some
thing which YOU never bargained for
and would iketo get rid Of. The rea-
son 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 socie-
.ty.
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
bereavements of ali sorts to push US
on and push US up toward ripper fruits
and brighter society and more radiant
properties. 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 God pushed them nearer up
tot. 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, yourIbrain with neuralgia,
yowtt tevas,e With an ineNtinguishable
thirst, it is only because he is prepar-
inc to substitute a better body than
YOU ever dreamed of when the mortal
shall put on immortality.
1t is to push you on and topush you
up toward something grander and bet
ter that God sends upon you, ash did
upon General Naaman something you
do not want. Seated in his Syrian
mansion, all the walls glittering with
the shields which he had captured IN
battle, the corridors crowded with
admiring visitors who just wanted 70
see him once, music and mlrth and
banqueting filing all the mansion
from tessellated floor to pictured cell
inc, Naaman would have forgotten
that there was anything better and
would have been glad to stay there
10000 wears. 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 slam shut with sepulchral
bang, as you read the closing words
of the eulogium: He was Ieper.
He was a leper"
There was one person more sympa-
thetic with Genral Naaman than any
other person. Naaman's wife walks
the floor wringing her hands and try
ING to think what she can do to ale
viate her husbands suffering. All
remedies have failed. The surgeon
~generaJeda the doctors of the royal
staf have met, and they have shaken
their heads, as much as to say, No
cure. no cure I think that the Office
seekers had all folded up their recon-
mendations and gone home. Probably
most of the employees ofthe establish
ment had dropped their work and
were thinking of looking for some
other situation What shall now be-
come of poor Naaman's wife? She
must have sympathy somewhere: In
her despair She goes to a little Hebrew
captive, a servant girl in her house,
to whom she tells the whole story, as
sometimes. when overborne by the sor-
rows of the world and finding no SYM
pathy anywhere else, you have gone
out and found in the sympathy of
some humble domestic-Rose or Dlnah
or Bridget-a help which the world
could not give you.
What scene it was One OF the
prandest women in all Syria in cabi-
net council with waiting maid over
the declining health of the mighty
general. Z know something, says
the little captive maid, I know some
thing" as she bounds to her bare feet.
In the land from which was stolen
there is certain prophet known by
the name of Elisha, who can cure al
most anything, and I shouldn't Won
der if he could cure my master. Send
for him right away. ':Oh, hushI'
you say. IF the highest medical tai
ent in all the land cannot cure that
leper, there is no need of your listen.
ing to any talk of servant girl.
But do not scof, do not sneer. The
finger of that little captive maid is
pointing in the right direction. She
might have said: This is a judgment
upon you for stealing me from my
native land. Didn't they snatch me
off in the night, breaking my fathers
and mothers hearts. and many time
I have lain and cried all night because
was so homesick. Then flushed up
in childish indignation, she might
lo,-o =SsCnnl 60, flow, T>,,, crlo II