The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1894-11-30

Y and ever clear, under the pickering
4 shadows Of sycamore and oleander,
\ Are not ALBANIA and Pharpar, rivers q
4 Damascus better than all the waters
i OF Israel?'
So, after all, it seems that this health
/, excursion Of Gen. Naaman is to be q
} 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 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: Sits easy. If the
prophet had told you to walk for q
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 Ii
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 Jordanic bath"
swell" he says, ito please you will
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 TANKS.
Gen. Naaman, assisted by his attend
ants, gets down out of the 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 little inclination
of the head will thoroughly immense
him. He bows once into the food, 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 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 food 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 his 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 his limbs
why" he says, II am almost well,
but / will make a complete cure" and
+ s,~A- 4. |
flood and he comes up, and not so
much as a tester, 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: sis it possible?"
And the attendants look and say: SIS
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 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
after they are converted than
they do before conversion. Now, we are
to them an intolerable nuisance, be-
cause 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 glad
ly 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 said he would
never come into the church again. He
said that two years ago. He said: "My I
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 Christian, all his children Chris {
tians, the whole household Christians, {
and you shall dwell with them in the I
house of the Lord forever. Our un- |
dying coadjutors are those who once F,
heard the Gospel, and went away in a i
rage" 8
suppose that was a great time at
Damascus when Gen. Naaman got G
back. The charioteers did not have to 7
lrive slowly any longer, lest they jolt i
The invalid; but as the horses dashed
through the streets of Damascus 1 '
think the people rushed out to hail q
back their chieftain. Naaman's wife s
hardly recognized her husband; C
ne was SO wonderfully changed v
'he had to look at him two or a
,hree times before she made out a
hat it was her restored husband. And a
,he little captive maid, she rushed out,
,lapping her hands and shouting: "Did e
he cure you? Did he cure you?'' Then v
music woke up the palace, and the d