No; for mention was made by the captive girl of no one who could effect the cure but "the prophet that is in Samaria." Or was it because he thought that Israel's monarch would discover the prophet and influence him on behalf of the afflicted officer? No; for in his royal letter he says, "Behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to thee that thone mayest recover him of his leprosy." Why, then? Simply because of caste-feeling. He forsooth was too great to know a prophet-too great to correspond with any one but a king. What was a prophet, though radiating with divine intelligence and nerved with divine energy, compared even to à soulless man if a crown encircle his brow?

First Caste-feeling sinks the real in the adventitious. The man who is ruled by it so exaggerates externalisms as to lose sight of those elements of moral character which constitute the dignity and determine the destiny of man. He lives in bubbles.

Secondly. Caste-feeling curtails the region of human sympathies. He who is controlled by this feeling, has the circle of his sympathies limited not only to the outward of man, but to the outward of those only in his own sphere. All outlying his grade and class are nothing to him. Castefeeling, thirdly, antagonises the Gospel. Christ came to destroy that middle wall of partition that divides men into classes. The Gospel overtops all adventitious distinctions, and directs its doctrines, and offers its provisions to man as

man.

"And it came to pass

V. THE FORCE OF GUILTY SUSPICION. when the King of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I a God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore, consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me?" The construction that the monarch put upon the message of his royal brother, was, instead of being true and liberal, the most false and ungenerous. He ascribed evil motives where there were none, and saw malig

nant intentions where there was nothing but a good-natured purpose. All this springs from that suspicion which is a prevalent and disastrous evil in the social life of this world. Where this suspicion exists, one of the two, if not the two following things, are always found. First, a knowledge of the depravity of society. The suspicious man has frequently learnt, either from observation, testimony, or experience, or all these, that there is such an amount of falsehood, and dishonesty in society, as will lead one man to take an undue advantage of another. However, whether he has learnt this or not, it is a lamentable fact, patent to all observant eyes. Secondly, the existence of evil in himself. The suspicious man knows that he is selfish, false, dishonest, unchaste, and he believes that all men are the same. If he were not evil, he would not be suspicious of others, even though he knew that all about him were bad. An innocent being, I trow, would move amongst a corrupt age without any suspicion whatever. Being destitute of all bad motives himself, he would not be able to understand the corrupt motives of others. On the other hand, were society ever so holy, a bad man would still be suspecting all. An unchaste, selfish, fraudulent man, would suspect the purity, the benevolence, and the integrity of angels, if he lived amongst them. The greatest rogues are always the most suspicious; the most lustful husbands are always the most jealous of their wives, and the reverse. Well has our great dramatist said, "Suspicion haunts the guilty soul." A miserable thing, truly, is this suspicion. Heaven deliver us from suspicious people! Suspicion is the poison of all true friendship; it is that which makes kings tyrants—merchants, exactors-masters, rigorous, and the base-natured of both sexes, diseased with a jealousy that shatters connubial confidence, and quenches all the lights of connubial life.

f VI. THE FORCE OF REMEDIAL GOODNESS. Though the king could not cure, there was a remedial power in Israel equal to this emergency. That power, infinite goodness delegated to Elisha. God makes man the organ of his restorative powers.

cure.

...

It was so now with Elisha. It was pre-eminently so with Christ. It was so also with the apostles. The redemptive treasure is in "earthly vessels." The passage suggests several points concerning this remedial power. First: It transcends natural power. "When Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, . he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him now come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." The monarch felt his utter insufficiency to effect the Natural science knew nothing of means to heal the leper. Supernatural revelation reveals the remedy through Elisha. Herein is an illustration of Christianity. No natural science can cure the leprosy of sin; it tried for ages but failed. Second: It offends human pride. "So Naaman came with his horses, and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thec, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away and said, behold I thought he will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper." Naaman came in all the pomp of wealth and station to the prophet's door, expecting no doubt, that Elisha would hurry out to do him honour. But a true man is never moved by glitter. He did not even go out to meet the illustrious visitor, but sent a messenger to bid him go to the Jordan and there wash. But both the unbending independency of the prophet, and the simple method he prescribed so galled the proud heart of the Syrian warrior, that "he was wroth, and went away and said, Behold I thought he would surely come out to me," &c. Herein is an illustration of Christianity. It strikes at the root of pride, and requires us to become as little children.

Third: It clashes with popular prejudice. "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean?" It is common for men to regard that which belongs

Our

to themselves, and to their country, as the "better." children, our family, our sect, our class, our nation, "better." This man's prejudice said "Abana and Pharpar;" the prophet said "Jordan," and this offended him. "And he went *away in a rage." Herein again is an illustration of Christianity. Human prejudices prescribe this river, and that river for cleansing, but the gospel says "Jordan."

Fourth It works by simple means. "And his servant came near and said to him, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, wash, and be clean? The means, to Naaman, seemed to be too simple to answer the end he sought. Had there been some severe regimen, or some painful operation, or some costly expenditure, he would have accepted it more readily, but "to wash," seemed too simple. The means of spiritual recovery are very simple. But men desire them otherwise. Hence ceremonies, pilgrimages, penances, fastings, and the like. "Believe, and thou shalt be saved," says God; man wants to do something

more.

Fifth: It demands individual effort. "Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan according to the saying of the man of God." Naaman had to go down himself to the river, and to dip himself seven times in its waters. His restoration depended upon his individual effort. And so it is in spiritual matters. Each man must believe, repent, pray for himself. There is no substitution.

Sixth It is completely efficacious. "His flesh came again, like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." The means employed for this leper's cure fully answered the end. Every vestige of the disease was gone, and he was restored to more than the vigour of his former manhood. Herein once more. "Believe and ye shall be saved." "Such were some of you; but ye are washed ye are cleansed."

VII. THE FORCE OF A NEW CONVICTION.

"And he returned ̧

to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and

stood before him: and he said, Behold now I know that there is no Goi in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. But he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. And Naaman said, shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice but unto the Lord."

Observe-First: The subject of the new conviction. What was the subject? That the God of Israel was the only God. This new conviction reversed his old prejudices, and the religious creed of his country. It was not reasoning, it was not teaching; experience had wrought this conviction into his soul. He FELT that it was God's hand that healed him. Second: The developments of this new conviction. A conviction like this must prove influential in some way or other. Abstract ideas may lie dormant in the mind, but convictions are ever operative. What did it do in Naaman? (1.) It evoked gratitude. Standing with all his company before the prophet he avowed his gratitude. "Now therefore I pray thee take a blessing of thy servant." Just before his cure he

"Shall

had anything but kindly feelings towards the prophet. He was full of "rage." New convictions about God will generate [new feelings toward man. (2.) It annihilated an old prejudice. Just before his cure he despised Judæa. Jordan was contemptible as compared with the rivers of Damascus. But now the very ground seems holy. He asks of the prophet liberty to take away a portion of the earth. there not then I pray thee be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth?" A new conviction about God widens the soul's sympathies, raises it above all those nationalities of heart that characterise little souls. (3.) It inspired worship. "Thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering, nor sacrifice, but unto the Lord." His whole nature was so flooded with gratitude to that God who had healed him that his soul went forth in holy worship. Through the force of