The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1894-11-28

| the muddy Jordan, the montonous
Jordan! / wouldn't be seen washing
in such river as that. Why, we wa
tered our horses in a better river than
that on our way here-the beautiful
river, the jasper paved river of Phar-
| par. Besides that we have IN oul
country another Damascene river,
Abana, with foliaged bank and tor,
rent ever swift and ever clear, under
the fickering shadows of sycamore
and oleander. Are not Abana and
Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better
than all the waters of Isreal?"
suppose Naaman felt very much
as Americans would feel if, by way OF
medical prescription, some one should
tell us to 90 and wash in the Danube
or the Rhine. We would answer,
| Are not the Connecticut and the
Hudson Just as good?" Or as an En-
glishman wonld feel if he were told
BY way of medical prescription he
must 90 and wash in the Mississippi
or the St Lawrence. He would cry
out. Are not the Thames and the
Shannon lust as well?" The fact was
that naughty Naaman needed to learn
what every Englishman and every
American needs to learn-that when
God tells you to do a thing you must
90 and do it, whether you understand
the reason or not. Take the prescrip-
ton, whether you hkeit or not: One
thing is certain. Unless haughty
Naaman does as Elisha eommaHds
him he viii die Of his, awful sickness.
And unless you do as Christ COM
mands you you will be seized upon by
an everlasting wasting away. Obey
and live; disobey and die. Thrilling,
overarcaing, undergirding, stupen-
dous alternative.
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
wHlssof the wheels and the flying of
the dust show the indignation of the
great commander. He turned and
went3away in arage,n So people now
often get mad at religion. They vitu-
perateI against ministers, against
churches, against Christian people
One would think from their irate be,
hav;er that God had been Studying
how tpsannoy and exasperate and de-
molisa them. What has he been do
ing. Only trying to cure their death
dealing feprosy. That is all. Yet
they whip up their horses, they dig
in the spurs, and they go away IN a
rage.
So, afterall, itseems that this health
excursion of General Naaman rs to be
dead failure. That little Hebrew
captive might as well have not told
him of the prophet, and this long
Journey might as well not have been
taken. Poor, sick, dying Naaman!
Are going away in high dudgeon
and worse than when you cameo AS
his chariot halts moment his ser
vantfcIamber up in it and coax him
to doEas Elisha said. They say It's
easy. If the prophet had told you to
walk for mile on sharp spikes in or
der to get rid of this awful disease,
you would have done it. 1t is easy.
Come, my lord, just get down and
wash in the Jordan. You take bath
every day anyhow, andin this climate
is so hot that it will do you good.
Do it on our account, and for the sake
of the army you command, and for
the sake of the nation that admires
Won Come nv lord. lust try this
Jordanic bath. well" he says,
Ito please you I will do as you say. "
The retinue drive to the brinkaof the
Jordan. The horses paw and sssigh
to get into the strear>. themselves to
cool their hot hanks. General Ma
man, assisted by his attenG nGsSfptS, gsfs
down OH Of his chariot and painfully
comes to the brink Of the river and
steps in until the water comes to the
ankle and goes on deeper until the
water comes to the girdle, and now,
standing so far down in the stream
Just little inclination Of the head
will thoroughly immerse him. He
bows once into the flood and comes
up and shakes the water out OF nos
tril and eye, and his attendants look
at him and say, "Why, general, how
much better you look" And he bows
a second time into the flood and comes
up. and the wild stare is gone out of
his eye. He bows the third time into
the flood and comes up, and the shrlv-
eled flesh has got smooth again. He
bows the fourth time into thefood and
comes up, and the hair that had fal-
len out is restored in thick locks again
all over the brow. He bows the fifth
time into the flood and comes up, and
the hoarseness has gone out Of his
throat. He bows the sixth time and
comes up, and all the soreness and
anguish have gone out of the limbs.
''Whv,n he says, Il am almost well,
but viii make a complete cure, and
he bows the seventh time into the
flood, and he comes up, and not so
much as a tester, or a scale, or an
eruption as big as the head of a pin
is to be seen on him.
He steps out on the banks and says,
rs it possible?" And the attendants
look and say, rs it possible:n And
as, with the health of an athlete, he
bounds back into the chariot and
drives on there goes up from all his
attendants wild ''Huzza. Huzza," !"
Of course they 60 back to pay and
thank the man Of God for his counsel
so fraught with wisdom. When they
left the prophets house, they went
off mad They have come back glad.
People always think better of min
lister after they are converted than
they do before conversion. Now we
are to them an intolerable nuisance
because we tell them to do things that
60 against the grain, but some of us
have great many letters from those
who tell us that once they were angry
at what we preached, but afterward
gladly received the gospel atour hands.
They once called us fanatics or terror
lists or enemies, Now they call us
friends. Yonder is a man who SAID
he would never come into the church
again. He said that two years ago.
He said, My family shall never come
here again if such doctrines as that
are preached" But he came again,
and his family came again. He is a
Christian, his wife a Christian, all his
children Christians the whole house