Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-09-11
TALMAGE
SERMON
s.
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. DID,.
Pastor Of Jefferson Park Presby-
terrain Church, Chicago

'But he was a leper."
The best blood in all Europe flows
into the army. The keenest of brains
are covered by the soldiers cap. The
peasantry are overtaxed and brow
beaten and flung under the iron heel
of oppression in order that the gilt
laced officer, who is the scion Of an
aristocratic family, may have soft
couch upon which to sleep and clean
limbcd thoroughbred upon which to
cavort while he salutes the reviewing
officer during dress parade. Every
civilian is at the beck and call Of the
mlitary--from the innkeepers daugh-
ter, flirting with the sergeant or the
young corporal, up to the princess
smiling at the favorite staff officer of
her father, the king. The German
shopkeeper will turn his back upon
you in an instant If the clank of the
sword Is heard and the glitter of the
shoulder strap is seen In the doorway.
On account of this foolish adora ton by
a cringing populace the foreign officer
or private soldier has grown arrogant
and conceited and snobbsh and super
cilious and petulant and spoiled.
The Syrian nation was a military ma
ton, with all that the word implies,
and Captain Naaman was the COM
mander in chief of all its armies, the
headquarters of which were to be
found in the Damascus capital. But
Naaman welded higher influence
han that which belongs even to the
greatest soldier of military kingdom.
The phrase used by the inspired his
tor-ian, "a great man with his master,
and honorable" implies that he held
a position more powerful in the king
dom than the head Of the privy council.
the prime minister or the secretary of
state or secretary of the treasury, and
he may have held, through the prestige
of his military successes, some or all
of these offices in his own person, as
great pashas often do in oriental lands.
He occupied practically the same posi-
ton in the Damascus capital that the
Duke of Wellington occupied after the
battle Of Waterloo. The Duke of Wei
lngton by the overthrow of the Ma
poleonc dynasty, not only became the
prime minister of England, but for
awhile the most influential statesman
in all Europe. Naaman had in Damas-
Gus an influence similar to that Of Ju-
Illus Caesar when he returned to Rome
from his foreign victories or which Ma
poleon held in the French nation when
he was first consul as well as the COM
mander of the French leCions. Naa-
man was as mighty in influence as was
the French cardinal who used to over
awe his king in the council chamber,
when he would stamp up and down
the room, crying: 1T shall be done! l
say it shall be done. | am RiChelieu
who says it, and it shall be done" And
when the great French statesman
would thus speak the frightened king
dared not answer a word
The symbol of Sin.
But after | have shown you Naaman's
fame and power in the Syrian nation;
after | have figuratively piled stone
upon stone and height upon height and
mountain upon mountain In setting
forth this pyramid of human greatness,
the whole structure tumbles into ruins
when / speak the words of my text l
bring the mightiest human influence of
the east down to the lowest depths of
earthly misery. | bring Naaman down
from his high pedestal until even the
poor beggar in the street might have
cause to pity him. l bring him down
until not one physically well man in
all the world, no matter how low he
might be in the social scale, would ex-
change places with him. Naaman was
n prince. Naaman was mighty mil
itary potentate, statesman, ruler.
He was practically greater than king,
"but he was a leper."
The disease of leprosy has often been
Biblically used as the symbol of sin.
1t is a most impressing and appalling
symbol. We in America cannot realize
all that is implied by comparing any
mans spiritual condition to this hOrri-
BILE disease. In the far east have seen
with loathing some of the awful raw
ages Of this disease. ! would describe
in symbol some of the horrors of sin by
telling what my own eyes have seen
and what my own ears have heard
among those poor creatures physically
doomed.
Leprosy, humanity speaking, Is an In
durable disease Scientists ever since
history began have been studying the
onward march of this fatal destroyer
Although most prevalent In the east
II is confined to no climate and Is pc
cuiar to no age, race or condition
Nearly 1000 years before Christ was
born in Bethlehem we read that Mir
lam, who led the Hebrew maidens il
the triumphant dance when Pharaoh'i
host was submerged in the Red sea
was afflicted with leprosy because sh'
became sipfully jealous. Miriam wa'
Jealous because her brother Moses
eighty years Of age, fell in love ant
wanted to take a wife. Clear back II
1916 Holbein, the artist, painted pic
ture of Elizabeth distributing bread t.
the unclean lepers of Augsburg. Lep
ers among the icebergs Of the north
lepers basking in the torrid heats abou
the equator lepers in Europe, lepers II
Asia, lepers In Africa, lepers In Amer
lea, lepers in the islands of the seas
But though leprosy has been found b.
the scientists everywhere, yet one fac
Is universally recognized about the dis
ease-it Is incurable. A man WHO ha
the leprous poison in his system ha
no hope from medicine. He mus
grow worse and worse until he come
IN tho praye II ia a @ incura hle aa thf