The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1894-11-28

III SttSit q ii'SI eS Ciial. w In We Nd-
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 our
country another Damascene river.
Abana, with foliaged bank and tor
rent ever swift and ever clear. under
the tiickering 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 60 and wash in the Danube
or the Rhine. We would answer.
Are not the Connecticut and the
Hudson just rs good?" Or as an En-
glishman wonld feel if he were told
by way cf 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 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 a thing YOU must
60 and do it, whether you understand
the reason or not. Take the prescrip-
ton, whether you like it 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 com
mands you you will be seized upon by
an everlasting wasting away. Obey
and live: disobey and die. Thrilling,
overarcl!ing, undergirding, stupen-
dous alternative.
Well. General Naamm could not
stand the test. The charioteer gives
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 commander. He turned aud
went away in arage." SO people now
often get mad at religion. They vitu-
pelate against ministers, against
churches. against Christian people.
One would think from their irate be-
havior that God had been Studying
how to annoy and exasperate and de
molish them. What has he been do
ing. 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. afterall, itseems that this health
excursion of General Naaman is 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 you going away in high dudgeon
and worse than when you came! AS
his chariot halts a moment his ser
wants Chamber up in it and coax HIM
to do as Elisha said. They say. Its
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. and in this climate
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
Jordanic bath " We'll, he says;
Ito please YOU I will do as You say.
The retinre drive to the brink OF the
Jordan. The horses paw and neigh
TO oct into the stream. themselves to
cool their hot fanks. General Naa-
man, assisted by his attendants, gets
down cut 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 a 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
lil and eye, and his attendants look
at him and say, Why. general, how
much better you look" And he bows
a second time into theflood and comes
up, and the wild stare is gone out OF
his eve. 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 the flood and
comes up, and the hair that had tal-
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 al the soreness and
anguish have gone out of the limbs.
why" he says, Il am almost well,
but I will 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 scale, or an
eruption as big as the head OF pm
is to be seen on him.
He steps out on the banks and says,
rs it possibleo' 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 go 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 MN
ister 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
go against the grain, but some Q 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 terror
lists or enemies. Now they call us
friends. Yonder is a man who sad
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,