with the prophet that is in Samaria ! for he would recover him of his leprosy.” Her words were told to Naaman; and Naaman told them to the king his master. Now, as I told you before, Naaman was a great favourite with the king, and when the king heard that there was a prophet in Samaria, who could recover him from the dreadful disorder under which he had so long suffered, he was very anxious that Naaman should go to Elisha. After thinking some time, the king determined to write himself to the king of Israel on the subject, and to send Naaman with the letter. And Naaman departed, taking with him a rich present for the king: and when he was come to the land of Israel, he gave his master's letter to the king. The words of the letter were these. “Behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy." And it came to pass that when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes and said, “ Am I 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."

E. Why was he so unhappy about it, mamma; could he not send for the prophet Elisha directly?

M. He had forsaken the true God, my love, himself, and never once thought of his almighty power, and of the wonderful works which He was often pleased to do by the hands of his prophets. Therefore the message of the king filled him with grief and alarm; for he thought, that he asked him to cure his servant, merely that he might quarrel with him for not granting his request. Had the king of Israel VOL. II.

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served God sincerely he would have had none of these terrors; for he would immediately have spread the case before God, and have begged him to direct him how he should act. But though he did not seek for help from above, it pleased God to show forth his great power both before him and the king of Syria also.

E. Tell me how that was, mamma ?

M. As soon as the prophet Elisha heard what trouble the king of Israel was in, he 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." This was a most welcome message to the king, who gladly sent Naaman from his palace to the humbler dwelling of the prophet. So Naaman came with his horses and his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, "Go, wash in Jordan seven times, and thou shalt be cleansed."

E. How happy he must have been, mamma, when he heard these words!

M. You will wonder very much, Edward, when I tell you, that, instead of rejoicing when he heard Elisha's message, he was exceedingly angry with the prophet, and went away from his house in a rage.

E. What was the matter, mamma?

M. Naaman, my love, was a great and proud man, and accustomed in his own country to be treated with great respect. He thought, therefore, that the prophet might at least have come out to speak to him himself, and have shown some outward honour to a person who held so high a place in the court of the

king of Syria. Whereas Elisha, as the minister and prophet of the Most High God, was far greater than Naaman, and ought rather to have been treated with all possible reverence himself.

Naaman also thought that the means taken for his cure would have been very different from what Elisha told him to do. He expected that he would have stood solemnly before him, and have called upon the name of the Lord, and that he would strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. And then, in the pride of his heart, he scorned to believe that there was any good to be expected from merely washing in the river Jordan. Why might he not as well have washed in any of the rivers of his own country, instead of taking so long a journey? “ 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.

Thus spake this haughty Syrian. Thus foolishly did he turn away from the blessing offered him by the prophet. Let us, my child, learn something from this part of his history. We are surprised at his foolish conduct in refusing to be healed, only because he could not be cured exactly in the manner which he thought best. But are we not often too much like Naaman? Are we not always too much inclined to have things our own way, instead of humbly submitting to what God commands ? supposing that nothing great can come to pass without much exertion on our part. It is hard to raise up the thoughts to God, and to believe that He can bless us in any way He chooses, and save us as well by few as by many, as well by simple as by mighty means. There are

many, for instance, among the unbelieving part of the world, who are too apt to despise the waters of Baptism, as Naaman did those of Jordan, only because God is pleased to receive us into his Church, and for Christ's sake to give us his Holy Spirit, by a rite so simple as that of pouring water upon us in his name: and that without requiring any great things of us, especially if we were baptized, as most Christians have been, in early infancy.

Still worse than this, there are even those who despise that of which the waters of baptism are only a figure even the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Persons who think it strange that God should forgive them and accept their services, not for any merit of their own, but because of what our Saviour suffered. Such unbelievers are like Naaman, too proud and wayward, simply to believe and obey what God tells them, and to rest sure, that, in so doing, they shall be cured of the disease of sin, that leprosy of the soul, which is far more loathsome, and far more dangerous, than that which afflicted the Syrian captain.

Such then was Naaman's unbelief. He looked only to the means used for his cure, not to the command of God, which can bless to us any means, however simple, however unlikely.

E. Then mamma, Naaman went back again to Syria, without being cured? What a pity!

M. No, my love; happily for him, his servants were in this case wiser than himself. They felt for their master, and were grieved to think that he should have come so far in vain, and that he should go back again to his own country as he came out of it, a leper,

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