The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-22
rourth Quarter. Lesson ". kins'
 V, 1-14. october 23, 1904.
rLIsHA AND NAAMAN.

Happy the government which has at its disposal a commander of skill. ex- perience and integrity. He may repay his country in a single hour the ex- pense of his support in all the piping years of peace. Three thousand years ago there was such an officer in the erl- ploy of the Syrian Empire. He was the incarnation of bonhomie, his very name signifying good fellow" He was chief prop of the throne. and very rich. But there are four words which heavily discount the situation "He was I 1eper."
 A little slave girl acts we'll her part in this stirring scene. She might have felt herseAt excused by her sex and eervitude, Sut she had carried her re- ligion with her into her new and forced environment. She was alert and intelligent. She knew her masters malady and the deadliness of 1t. Her memory was stored with all the mira- cles of mercy the prophet had been working In Samaria. She steadfastly and joyously believed her master could be included in the charmed cir- cle of Divine healing. She skillfully and st the earliest possible moment dropped the seed of hope In the heart where it would likely take quickest and deepest root. She said to her mis- tress. Would God my lord were with the prophet that is In Samaria, then he would recover him of his ieprosy."
 The king acted quickly on behalf of the commander-in-chief of his army. self-interest. if not humanity, prompted him. Naaman was not yet incapaci- tated for .soldierly duties. and for half 8 generation the king had successfully defied the whole power of the Assyrian Empire through his clear brain and kwax Tltff <1 not rise to a true conception of the prophets character or function. He seemed to think him court magician like his own, subject to the order of a king. So the letter was addressed to Jehoram rather than to Elisha. Great treasures were also carried. as If a cure could be bought by them.
 Sinking times are praying times" When Jehoram was in diversity he re- sorted to the prophet gladly. but now that he was riding the crest of the wave, he had actually read between the lines of the kings letter a prefext for q war. He was in abject horror and alarm, and gave the Oriental sign of 1t. Elisha humbled the king at the same time that he relieved his fears by his message. let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel" There was the dignity of conscious power.
 Any one who imagines that Elisha was grumpy and surly toward Naaman , misses the spirit of this incident. The leper brought his old heather ideas with him to the prophets very door. He had to be dispossessed of them. The prophet wanted not merely to cure him, but to convert him. Naaman thought Elisha would come to him like a Syrian necromancer, take a cer- emonious attitude. repeat some for mula of incantation. and wave his hand in solemn gesture. Instead of this the prophet gave a brand-new receipt for Ieprosy. All Naaman's money and show went for naught, for the meanest Syrian slave could have met the terms prescribed by the prophet. And that was the very lesson to be learned. The cure was to be without money or price. but by the power of Jehovah So the man who had come with gifts and