The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-11-28

Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers Of
Damascus better than NIL the waters
of Israeli"
Well, Gen. Naaman could not stand
the test. The char;oteer gives n jerk
to the right line until the bit snaps in
the horses mouth, and the whirr of the
wheels and the flying Of the dust show
the indignation of the great COM
mander. ''He turned and went away
in rage" So people now often get
mad at religion. They vitupcraie
against ministers, against churches,
against Christian people. One would
think from their iratc behavior that
God had been studying how to
annoy, and cxaspcrate, and demolish
them What has he been doing? Only
trying to cure their death-dealing
leprosy. That is all. Yet they whip
up their horses, they dig in their spurs,
and they go away in rage.
So, after all, it seems that this health
excursion of Gen. Naaman is to be
dead failure. That little Hebrew cap
tive might as well have not told him OF
the prophet, and this long journey
might as we'll not have been taken.
Poor, sick. dying Naaman! Are yougo
ing away in high dudgcon, and worse
than when you came2 AS his chariot
halts moment, his servants Chamber
up in it and coax him to do as Elisha
said. They say: "It's 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 1t. 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 Jordanic bath"
"Well," he says, "to please you will
do as you say" Tho 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 immerse
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 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. Ho 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 oil the soreness aud
anguish have gone out Of his limbs.
"Why," he says, 81 am almost we'll,
but I will make complete cure" and
he bows the seventh time into the
flood and he comes up, and not SO
much as tester, or o scale, or m
eruption as big as the head Of q pin
is to be seen on him. Ho steps out on
the bank and says: ''Is it possible?"
And the attendants look and say: us
it possible?" And as, with the health
of an athlete, he bounds back into the
chariot and drives on, there goes up
from oil his attendants wild "iuzza'
huzza" Of course, they 20 back to
pay and thank the man Of God for his
counsel SO fraught with wisdom. When
they left tho prophets house they
went off mad they have come back
glad. People always think better of
minister 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
great many letters from those who
tell us that once they were angry at
what we prea achcd, but aftcrward glad
ly received the Gospel Mt our hands.
They once called us fanatics, or terror
lists, or enemies; now they call US friends.
Yondcr is q man who said he would
never come into the church again. He
said that two years ago. lie said: MY
family shall never come here again if
such doctrines as that arc preached"
But he came again, and his family
came again. He is a Christian, his
wife Christian, all his children Chris
tians, the whole household Christians,
and you shall dwell with them in the
house Of the Lord forever. Our uu-
dying coadjutors arc those who once
heard the Gospel, md event away in q
rage"
suppose that was great time at
Damascus when Gen. Naaman got
fssEss2Essn,The chariotecrs did not have to
drive szSwly any longer, lest they jolt
the invalid; but as the horses dashed