St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1905-01-28
CEHAzI ANCIENT" CRAFTER.'
Story of the Bible That Has an Ap-
plication in the Present
Century.

The Bible lesson studies in the Sun
day schools OF the world one Sunday
recently was the story OF the heal
ing of Naaman. the leper. Incident
ally it leads up to brief, but pointed,
story Of graft which has very mod
ern application, says the Chicago Daily
NeWs.
Naaman, who was the commander
of the armies of Syria, was afflicted
with the leprosy. little Hebrew
maid, a slave in his household, told
of the wonderful power OF Elisha, the
prophet of the Lord in Israel, and sug-
gested that Naaman go to Elisha for
healing. Naaman did SO, and was
healed. Being man of great wealth,
and, as he was naturally delighted over
his recovery, he offered Elisha a great
sum of money and other costly gifts,
which, of course, Elisha refused to ac-
cept
Now, Elisha had servant named
GehaZi. Up to this time Gehazi, 50
far as the record shows, had always
been an honest, trustworthy sort of
man. But here astemptation to graft
was presented which he did not resist
What would be the harm. he argued
in getting some Of that money from
Naaman for himself? Naaman was
rich and wanted to pay Elisha for
curing him of leprosy, but as Elisha
would not accept it, what wrong was
there in his taking some of the money
himself, thought GehaZi. To be sure,
he had no Just claim on the money,
but nc one would be demanded by his
taking it, so why shouldn't he?
And Gehazi gave way to his greed
As soon as Naaman had departed &c.
hazi deemed the lie necessary to work
that two young men had just arrived
at Elisha's house, and were needy, and
he asked Naaman for gifts for them
Naaman responded by giving him
double what he asked
OF course. the story of the two
needy young men was false, but Ge-
hazi deemed he lie necessary to work
his graft. The CRATER will always
lie. 3
Upon his return Elisha asked him
about his absence Another lie was
necessary. He denied that he had been
away from the house. Elisha. of course
knew what he had done He accused
him of the graft and pronounced the.
curse of leprosy upon him. "and imme-
diately," says the divine record che be-
came as white as snow with the loath-
some disease.
How many modern Gehazis there are!
How many people are ever ready to work
any little graft that comes in their way
How many public servants there are
who take advantage of their positions
just as did Gehazi to make money to
which they are not 1egitimately entitled.
Many OF them argue the first time they
do it that no one will be harmed there
by, just as Gehazi did. Then it is easy
to do something little worse. step at
time. until the public servant becomes
common boodler It is not always that
punishment comes So swiftly and with
such force as it did TO Gehazi. but it is
almost certain to overtake the CRATER
liz ooA1C SHAPE lie SJdLS VI
Kansas has its Gehazis to-day. There
are men who nave commanded the re-
spect of their fellows and who have
been given positions of trust. just as &C.
hazi was. They have seen opportunities
to make money out of their positions
and they have argued that it would harm
no one-overlooking the injury they
might be doing to the public-and their
greed has urged them on to graft. In
some instances the publicity given their
acts .metes out punishment to them.
Others may not be punished except by
their own consciences and the fear of be-
ing caught. and they may go on in their
career under penalty as great as that
which was pronounced upon Gehazi
overtakes them, but it is almost sure to
come.