The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1894-11-30
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Brooklyn preacher Presents a
Cure for tine Leprosy OF Sin.
Tho Lesson OF the Proud King Naaman, .
Leper, and the Captive Hebrew
Child Christianity Among
Children.

NOV l.. DC wv ldltudkC udQC bClCC
ton Of the following sermon for dis
'semination through the press this
week. Its subject is: 1.-THE Sick Gen.
,eral," based upon the text:
He was leper.-H Kings. VII.
Here we have warrior sick; moi
with pleurisies or rheumatisms or con.
sumptions, but disease worse than
all these put together. A red mark
has come out on the forehead, precursor
of complete Disagreement. I have
something awful to tell you. Gen.
Naaman, 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!
Get out of the way of the pestilence!
If his breath strike you, you are dead
man. The commander-in-chief of all
the forces of Syria! And yet he
would be glad to exchange conditions
with the boy at his stirrup, 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: sit is impossible
that our great hero, who slew Ahab,
and around whom we came with such
vociferation when he returned from
victorious battle-can it be possible
that our grand and glorious Naaman
has the leprosy?" Yes. Everybody
has something he wishes he has not.
David, an Absalom to disgrace him;
Paul, thorn to sting him; Job, car
buncles to plague him; Samson,
a Deli1ah to shear him; Ahab, a
Naboth to deny him; Hannah,
a Mordecai to irritate him;
George Washington, childnessness to
affiict him; John Wesley, termagant
wife to poster him; Leah, weak eyes;
Pope, crooked back; Byron, a club
foot; John Milton, blind eyes; Charles |
Lamb, an insane sister; and you, and |
you. and you, and you, something |
which you never bargained for, and |
would like to get rid of. The reason
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 So
ciety. 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
sorrows, and bereavements of all
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 Rob-
ert Hall had more rapturous views of
Heaven than other people had was be-
cause, through their aches and pains,
God pushed them nearer up to it. If
God dashes out one of your pictures, it
is only to show you brighter one. If
He sting your foot with govt, your
brain with neuralgia, your tongue with
an inextinguishable thirst, it is only
because He is preparing to substitute
q better body than you ever dreamed
Of, when the mortal shall put on i'm
1t is to push you on, and to
push you up toward something gran6er
and better, that God sends upon you,
as He did upon Gen. Naaman, some
thing you do not want. Seated in his
Syrian mansion-all the walls glitter
ing with the shields which he had
captured in battle; the corridors,
with admiring visitors, who
Just wanted to see him once; music and
mirth, and banqueting filling all the
from tessellated floor to
pictured ceiling Naaman would have
forgotten that there was anything bet
ter, and would have been glad to stay
there ten thousand years. But o, how
The shields dim, and how the visitors 6
iy the hall, and how the music drops
lead from the string, and how the
gates of the mansion slam shut with {
sepulchral bang, as you read the clos
ng words of the eulogium: He was a q
eper! He was leperp
There was one person more sympa-
thetic with Gen. Naaman than any
other person. Naaman's wife walks I
the floor, wringing her hands, and try 9
ng to think what she can do to al
eyiate her husbands suffering. ALI c
remedies have failed. The surgeon c
general and the doctors of the royal l
'taff have met, and they have shaken S
heir heads, as much as to say: mo S
cure; no cure" think that the of r
have all folded up their c
and gone home. C
most of the employees of the C
had dopped their work e
ind were thinking of looking for some
,ther situation. What shall now be- a
.ome of poor Naaman's wife? She must v
iave sympathy somewhere. In her b
despair she goes to a little Hebrew cap v
i've, servant-girl in her house, to b
whom she tells the whole story; as v
when overborne by the sor- Il
'ows Of the world, and finding no SYM a
,athy anywhere else, you have gone a