Connecticut western news., 1894-11-22
Damascus, better than all the waters ot

Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?''
 suppose Naaman felt very much as Americans would feel if, by way of medical prescription, some one should tell us to go and wash in the Danube or tho Rhine. We would answer, "Are not the Connecticut and the Hudson just as good?" Or as an Englishman would feel if he were told, by way of medical prescription, he must go and wash in the Mississippi or the St Law renee. He would cry out, ''Are not the Thames and the Shannon just 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 thing you must go and do It, whether you prescription. whether you like 1t or not. One thing is certain. Unless naughty Naaman does as Elisha commands him. he will die of his awful sickness. And unless you do as Christ commands you you will be seized upon by an everlast- ing wasting away. Obey and live; dis obey and die. Thrilling, overarohing, undergirding, stupendous altsrnative! A Dead Failure.
 We'll, 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 com mander. ''He turned and went away in rage So people now often get mad at religion. They yituperate against ministers, against churches. against Christian people. One would think from their irate behavior that God had been studying how to annoy and exasperate and demolish them. What has he been doing? Only trying to cure their death dealing leprosy. That is all. Yet they whip up their horses. they dig in the spurs, and they go away in rage.
 So. after all, it seems that this health excursion of General Naaman is to be dead failure. That little Hebrew cap tive might as we'll have not told him of the prophet. and this long journey might as well not have been taken. Poor, sick, dying Naamanl Are you go. ing away in 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: "It's easy. If the proph- ct had told you to walk for a mile on | sharp spikes in order to get rid of this awful disease, you would have done it. It is easy. Come, my lord, just get down | and wash in the Jordan. You take 8 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 for the sake of the army you command, and for | the sake of the nation that admires you. Come, my lord, just try this Jordanio bath. Well" he says, Ito please you Twill 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 | Hanks. General Naaman, assisted by his attendants, gets down out 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
  l 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 nosrril and eye, and his attendants look at him and say, "Why, general, how much better you l do lookp' 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 tho flood and comes up, and the shriveled flesh has got smooth again. He bows the fourth time into the flood and comes up, and the hair that had fallen out is restored in thick looks 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. Why" he says, 1T am almost we'll, but I will make complete cure" and he bows the seventh time into the flood. | and he comes up, and not so much as C fester or a scale or an eruption as big as the head of pin is to be seen on him. | Ills Wonderful Cure.
 | He steps out on the bank and says, 'fIs it possible2 And the attendants look and say, "Is it possible?' And as witt the health of an athlete he bounds bach into the chariot and drives on there goes up from all his attendants a wild
 "Huzza, huzza!" Of course they gc back to pay and thank the man of God V6f xxyff 1 to<1r
 When they left the prophets house, they went of mad. They have come bach glad. People always think better of 6 minister after they are converted thar they do before conversion. Now we are to them an intolerable nuisance because we tell them to do things that go against the grain, but some of us have a great many letters from those who tell us that once they were angry at what we preached, but afterward gladly received | the gospel at our hands. They once called us fanatics or terrorists or enc
 mics. Now they call us friends. Wonder
 Is 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 doc
 trines as that are preached But ht
 came again, and his family came again
 He is Christian, his wife Christian
 all his children Christians, the whole
 household Christians, and you shal
 dwell with them in the house of tho
 Lord forever. Our undying coadjutors
 are those who once heard the gospel ant
 "went away in a rage"
 The Truo Remedy. ~.
 Now, my hearers, you know that thi.
 General Naaman did two things in or
 der to get we'll. The first was, he go
 out of his chariot. He might have stait
 there with his swollen feet on the stuff
 ed ottoman, seated on that embroidered
 cushion, until his last gasp, he would
 never have got any relief. He had tt l sxat dcyxzra o1,t 1,R Lia x,hariot