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to themselves, and to their country, as the "better." Our 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 Gol 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 hence→ forth 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 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. "Shall 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

this new conviction he felt as Paul did when he said, "What things were dear to me, those I counted loss," &c.

VIII. THE FORCE OF ASSOCIATES. Naaman had been in the habit of worshipping "in the house of Rimmon" with his master the king. This probably he had done for years with other officers of the state. The influence of this he now felt counteracting the new conviction of duty. He felt that whilst it would be wrong for him to go there any more, yet he could not but go. "In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing." Loyalty and gratitude towards the king contributed much to prevent him renouncing all connection with the house of Rimmon. How often do our associations prevent us from the full carrying out of our convictions! It ought not to be so. "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me."

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It is somewhat remarkable that the prophet Elisha, instead of exhorting Naaman to avoid every appearance of idolatry, said to him, "Go in peace." The prophet no doubt had faith in the power of Naaman's conviction to guard him from any moral mischief.

Gehazi is the illus

IX. THE FORCE OF SORDID AVARICE. tration of this in his conduct as described in verses 20 to 22. In his case we have avarice, First, eager in its pursuits. "But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman, this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought; but, as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him. So Gehazi followed after Naaman." He saw, as he thought, a fine opportunity for his greed, and he eagerly seized it. "I will run after him." Avarice is one of the most hungry passions of the soul. It is never satisfied. Had the avaricious

man, like the fabled Briareus, a hundred hands, he would employ them all in ministering to himself. Dryden calls it→ "A cursed hunger of pernicious gold."

It is that passion that makes all men like Gehazi" run." Men are everywhere out of breath in their race for wealth. Second: This avarice is in one, associated with the most generous of men. He was the servant of Elisha, who, when Naaman offered some acknowledgment of his gratitude to him," exclaimed, in the most solemn way, "As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none." One would have

thought that association with a generous soul like this would have consumed every base sentiment from Gehazi's heart. But when it once roots itself in the soul, it is the most inveterate of lusts. The history of modern enterprises shows us numerous examples of men who from early life have been in association with ministers, churches, religious institutions, and in some cases have themselves been deacons, chairmen of religious societies, and whose avarice has so grown in spite of all those influences as to make them swindlers on a gigantic scale. Thirdly: This avarice sought its end by means of falsehood. When Gehazi came up to Naaman, he said, "My master hath sent me, saying, Behold even now there be come to me from Mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets; give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver and two changes of garments." This was a flagrant falsehood. Avarice is always false. Its trades are full of tricks; its shops, of sophistries. All its enterprises employ the tongue of falsehood, and the hand of deceit.

X. THE FORCE OF RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE. There is justice on this earth as well as remedial goodness, and Heaven often makes man the organ as well as the subject of both. Elisha, who had the remedial power, had also the retributive. Here we see retributive justice in

"And Elisha said unto

First: Detecting the wrongdoer. him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy ser

vant went no whither. And he said unto him, Went not my heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee?" Justice has the eyes of Argus; has more than the eyes of Argus-it sees in the dark. It penetrates through all fallacies. "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro, beholding the evil and the good."

Secondly: Reproving the wrongdoer. "Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and man-servants, and maidservants?" An old expositor has quaintly put it, "Couldest thou find no better way of getting money than by belying thy master, and laying a stumbling-block before a young convert?" His avarice was a thing bad in itself, and bad also in seizing an opportunity which should have been. employed for other and higher ends.

Thirdly: It punishes the wrongdoer. "The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow." He had money of the leper, but he had his disease too. In getting what he considered a blessing, he got a curse as well! Wealth avariciously gotten never fails to bring a curse in some form or other. If it does not bring leprosy to the body, it brings what is infinitely worse, the most deadly leprosy into the soul, and often entails injuries on posterity!

SUBJECT: The Sounds and Sights of Life.

"And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me."-Acts xxii. 9. "And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man."-Acts ix. 7.

H

Analysis of Homily the Seven Hundred and Fiftieth.

ERE is a record of the supernatural in the life of Paul and his travelling companions when approaching Damascus. The fact that these supernatural phenomena were at "mid-day," and that the apostle's fellow travellers were

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