The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1894-11-21
THE LEPRoSY OF SIN.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Tells How It May
be Healed.
A Lesson Drawn from the Story of the
Naughty Naaman and the Prophet
EllSha-God Sends Affections That
We May Not Become Enrap-
tured of This World.

The subject of Rev. DR.. Talmage's
sermon through the press last Sunday
was "The Sick General" the text Sc
lected being Second Kings, v. 1, "He
Was Leper."
Here we have warrior sick; not with
pleurisies or rheumatism or consump-
tions, but with a disease worse than all
these put together. A red mark has
come out on the forehead, precursor of
complete disagreement and dissolution.
have something awful to tell you.
Gen. Naaman, the commander-in-chief
of all the Syrian forces, has the lep-
rosy! 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 con-
ditions 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 sympa-
thetic, and they cry out: "Is it possible
that our great hero, who slew Ahab, and
around whom we came with such vocif-
GRAFTON when he returned from victori-
GUS battle-canit be possible that our
grand and glorious Naaman has the
leprosyP Yes. Everybody has some
thing he wishes he had not. David,
an Absaiom to disgrace him; Paul, a
thorn to sting him; Job, carbuncles to
plague him; Samson, Delilah to shear
him; Ahab, Naboth to deny him:
George Washington, childlessness to
affiict him; John Wesley, a termagant
wife to poster him; Leah, weak eyes;
Pope, a crooked back; Byron, club
foot: John Milton, blind eyes, Charles
Lamb, an insane sister; and you, and
you, and you, and you, and you, some
thing which you never bargained for,
and would like to get rid of. The rea-
son 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 soci-
ETY.. 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 annoyancos, and
sorrows, and bereavements of all sorts
to push us on, and push us up toward
ripper fruits and brighter society, and
more radiant prosperi ties. God is
only whipping us ahead. The rea-
son that Edward Payson and Robert
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 to you a brighter one.
If He sting your foot with gout, your
brain with neuralgia, your tongue with
inextinguishable thirst, it is only be-
cause He is preparing to substitute a
better body than you ever dreamed of,
when the mortal shall put on immor-
tality. 1t is to push you on, and to
push you up toward something grander
and better, that God sends upon you,
as he did upon General Naaman, some
thing you do not want. Seated in his
Syrian mansion-all the wall glittering
with shields which he had captured in
battle; the corridors crowded with ad-
miring visitors who just wanted to see
him once; music and mirth, and BAN
quoting filing all the mansion, from
tessellated floor to pictured ceiling
Naaman would have forgotten that
there was anything better, and would
have been glad to stay there ten thou
sand years. But o, how the shields
dim. and how the visitors fly the hall,
and now the music drops dead from the
string, and how the gates of the man
sion slam shut with sepulchral bang,
as you read the closing words of the
eulogium: "He was leper! He was a
leper!"
There was one person more sympa-
thetic with Gen. Naaman than any
other person. Naaman's wife walks
the floor, wringing her hands and try
ing to think what she can do to allevi.
ate her husbands suffering. All rene
dies have failed. The surgeon general
and the doctors of the royal staff, have
met, and they have shaken their heads,
as much as to say: mo cure; no cure"
] think that the off1ce-seekers had all
folded up their recommendation and
gone home. Pro baby most of the en-
ployes ofthe establishment had dropped
their work and were thinking of look
ing for some other situation. What
shall now become of poor Naaman's
wife? She must have sympathy some
where. In her despair she goes to a
little Hebrew captive, servant girl in
her house, to whom she tells the whole
story; as sometimes, when overborne
by the sorrows of the world, and find
ing no sympathy anywhere else, you
have gone out and found in the sympa-
thy of some humble domestic-Rose or
Dinah, or Bridget-a help which the
world could not give you.
What a scene it was; one of the
grandest women in all Syria in cabinet
council with waiting maid over the
declining health Of the mighty general
81 know something, says the little cap
tive maid; II know something" as>she
bounds to her bare feet. 'In the land
from which was stolen there is a GER
tain prophet known by the name of
Elisha, who can cure almost anything,
and / shouldn't wonder if he could cure
my master. Send for him right away"