Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-11-22

Jordan--the monotonous Jordan! ]
won't be seen washing in such a riv
er as that. Why, we watered our
horses in a better river than that on
our way here-the beautiful river, the
jasper-paved river of Pharpar. Be-
sides that, we have in our country an
other Damascene river, ALBANIA, with
foliaged bank, and torrent ever swift
and ever clear, under the Pickering
shadows of sycamore and oleander.
Are not ALBANIA and Pharpar, rivers of
Damascus, better than all the waters
of Israel?'
After all, it seems that this health
excursion of General Naaman is to be a
dead failure. That little Hebrew cap
tive 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 servants Chamber
up in it and coax him to do as Elisha
said. They say: cts easy. If the
prophet 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. 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 COM
mand, and for the sake of the nation
that admires you. Come, my lord, just
try this Jordanic bath" ''Well," he
says, ''to please you l will do as you
say" The retinue drive to the brink
of the Jordan. The horses paw and
neigh to get into the stream them
selves and cool their hot tanks. General
Naaman, assisted by his attendant, 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 now
standing SO far down in the stream,
just a little inclination of the head will
thoroughly immense him. He bows
once into the flood and comes up and
shakes the water out of nostril and
eye; and his attendants look at him
and say: ''Why, general, how much
better you do 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
shriveled flesh has got smooth again.
He bows the fourth time in the flood
and comes up, and the hair that had
fallen 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,
why" he says, Il am almost we'll,
but l will make a complete cure" and
bows the seventh time into the flood
and he comes up, and not so much as a
foster, or a scale, or an eruption as big
as the head of pin is to be
seen on him. He steps out on
the bank and says: lis it pos
sible?" And the attendants look and
say: is it possible?" And as, with
the health of an athlete, he bounds
back into the chariot and drives on,
there goes up from all his attendants a
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 a minister after they are con-
verted 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 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 IA
natics, or terrorists, 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 Christian, his wife a Christian, all
his children Christians, the whole
household Christians, and you shall
dwell with them in the house of the
Lord forever. Our undying coadjutors
are those who once heard the gos-
pei, and event away in rage"
l suppose that was a great time at
Damascus when General Naaman got
back The characters did not have to
drive slowly any longer, lest they jolt
the invalid; but as the horses dashed
through the streets of Damascus, l
think the people rushed out to hail
back their chieftain. Naaman's wife
hardly recognized her husband; he
was so wonderfully changed she had
to look at him two or three times be-
fore she made out that it was her re-
stored husband. And the little captive
maid, she rushed out, clapping her
hands and shouting: Ibid he cure you?
Did he cure you?" Then music woke
up the palace, and the tapestry of the
windows was drawn away, that the
multitude outside might mingle