We are informed, that "one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel." Hereby Naaman became acquainted with the information she had given, and the desire she had expressed; nor was he displeased. He did not despise it, as coming from one so insignificant and obscure. He received it with meekness, and immediately communicated the intelligence to the king, who felt closely interested in the concern. Observe, becoming behaviour in servants conciliates the esteem, and gains the confidence, of their superiors. Had this "little maid" been like too many in a similar station, deceitful, slothful, and impertinent, her remark about a Samaritan prophet would not have been heeded: it would have given offence, and she perhaps had been reproved for her forwardness but her past conduct had established her character: therefore, what she said was regarded with respect, and her counsel was instantly followed.

In the next verses we are informed that Benhadad, king of Syria, wrote a letter to Jehoram, king of Israel, which he sent, with certain presents, by Naaman himself. It was intended and expected by the king of Syria that the king of Israel should introduce Naaman to Elisha the prophet; supposing that as his captive" maid" knew of the prophet, the king must certainly know him, and have much influence over him; but in this he was mistaken. It is often found that poor and obscure individuals are better acquainted with the servants of the Lord than persons in high and public stations. The king of Israel misunderstood the letter; and, construing it into blasphemy against God, and an affront to himself,

was greatly affected: "He rent his clothes, and said,

rosy

Am I a God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his lep? Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. Elisha, hearing of this, sent to the king, saying; "Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." It was the language of faith, and of zeal for the Lord of hosts. He would not have the leper disappointed of a cure, that he might be convinced Jehovah was not like the gods of the heathen; and that his prophets were able to effect, in his name, what the mightiest monarchs might attempt in vain.

"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 unto thee, and thou shalt be clean." This message was plain, and easy to be understood. But why did not Elisha go to the door, and prescribe the cure with his own lips? Probably, lest he should feed the pride of this afflicted man. The prophet knew how to stoop to the meanest person when it was proper, but Naaman was a proud man, and had waited on him thus, as doing him honour, and conferring a favour; Elisha therefore would intimate, that he valued not such honour, that he sought not such favour: yet, for the glory of the God of Israel, his leprosy should be cleansed by attending to the directions proposed.

We are concerned to notice the temper in which the message of the prophet was received. Naaman had presumed on a cure, and had formed in his mind an idea of the manner in which it would be effected; but the message sent altogether disappointed and

displeased him.

away, and said,

"Naaman was wroth, and went 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. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage." What a striking instance of the folly of pride! This man, perishing under disease, will not be cured unless with ceremony he scorns to be healed unless he be humoured. He wanted to be recovered as a man of consequence, entitled to high regard; not as a poor pensioner, who is glad to receive his alms by whomsoever sent. His whole spirit and language discover an affecting combination of pride, ignorance, and unbelief. He considered not that Jehovah was to effect the cure, and certainly by means of his own appointment, not in a way of man's devising." He turned, and went away in a rage." Proud men are the worst enemies to themselves; and "they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy."

"My

The servants of Naaman, perceiving the heat of his temper, and knowing what would be the result of despising the prophet's advice, agreed to speak to their master, and to endeavour to prevail on him to comply with the direction given. And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said: " father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash and be clean." We have here a fine instance of modest, graceful, considerate reproof. They address their master in the most affectionate way, with a kind of filial respect-" My father!" They reason with him

in the most calm and cogent manner.

Had the

prophet prescribed nauseous medicines, a tedious regimen, or some painful operations; had he required some burthensome religious observances, or demanded a large sum of money as the price of the cure, they knew that he would have readily complied: "how much rather then when he saith, Wash and be clean. This remonstrance was a word in season," and attended with desirable success. It is well for persons of rank to have faithful servants near them; and for men of warm and hasty temper to have at hand a prudent friend. This was providentially the case with Naaman; otherwise his passion would have been dearly paid for, his rage might have ended in his temporal ruin.

We proceed to notice,

II. The IMPROVEMENT of the subject.

It naturally suggests a variety of useful observations immediately connected with evangelical truth.

1. The souls of men are afflicted with the leprosy of sin.-The case of this Syrian leper justly represents the moral and spiritual condition of mankind at large. And it applies to you. His disease was that of the body; yours is that of the soul: his was offensive to men; yours is particularly offensive to God: his corrupted the whole mass of blood, and tended to mortification and death; yours contaminates the mind, disorders all its powers, and preys upon the vital energies of the heart: your disease, in short, is spiritual death itself, and inevitably terminates in the utter extinction of happiness and hope. We readily feel the maladies which afflict the body: it were well if there was the same sensibility in regard to this distemper of the soul. The fact, however, is just the reverse. Men, as trans

gressors, lie under the curse of a broken law, but they consider it not they are exposed to the righteous recompence of Almighty wrath, but they suspect no danger: they are burthened with a heavy load of uncancelled guilt, but they feel not its pressure: they are defiled in every mental faculty with allowed sin, but it gives them no serious concern: they are taken captive by Satan at his will, but they fancy music in the very chains which inthrall them. Awful, indeed, is the condition of man, fallen from God, and labouring under the leprosy of the soul! Happy they that know it, that are acquainted in any degree with the plague of their own heart, and are apprized of its fatal tendency! But the most affecting consideration is this insensibility which attends it. Men are dangerously diseased, but they think themselves well; they are dying, but they dream that they live. How instructive is the language of the prophet! "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither molified with ointment *." Strange that this afflicted object should ever imagine, "I have not sinned," and should say to himself, "I have need of nothing!"-But,

2. God has provided a method of cure.

Observe the remedy which Elisha recommended to Naaman; "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again unto thee, and thou shalt be clean." There was admirable simplicity in this remedy; and hence his servants availed themselves of the circumstance to urge his compliance.

* Isai. i. 5, 6,