natural efficacy in the streams of Jordan to produce the cure. But the act of washing seven times was commanded, that when the leper should be healed, the work might be perceived to be of God alone, and not to be the effect of human skill, and also that trial might be made of Naaman's obedience. For they that will receive help from God must do as they are bidden; and show their submission, and the simplicity of their dependence upon Him, by being content to receive help in the way of God's own appointment.

But Naaman, it appears (and it had well-nigh proved his ruin), was not of this submissive, humble, temper. All he had to do was to wash and be clean. The command was easy alike both to be understood and to be obeyed. But instead of obeying it, "He was wroth," we are told, "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. 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.' How true is it, that "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall!" This mighty man in valour is so puffed up with a sense of self-importance, that though the errand upon which he comes to the prophet is no other than to ask his charity; though the cure he sues for is to deliver him from the most loathsome of all plagues; yet he will not be content, unless his suit be granted with great parade and ceremony: he would exact homage even when he comes for healing; and because his cure is not effected in the manner he expects, he falls into a furious fit of anger. Having talked himself into a heat, as passionate men are wont to do, he turns away from the prophet's door ready to declare that he will never have more to do with him or his powers to heal.

3 Prov. xvi. 18.

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But who in that case should be the loser? "They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy Proud men, who prefer the wisdom of their own ways to God's methods, are the worst enemies to themselves, and forego their own redemption. If Naaman will continue in this mind, he must be a leper to his dying day. Wash he must, yea and just seven times too, and in the despised streams of Jordan. Obey he must, the letter of his instructions to a tittle; for not all the waters of Damascus, nor all the skill of the physicians of Syria may suffice to succour him in the least. It must be in God's way, or not at all: for, behold, saith He, "I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour 5.

Haughty, however, as this Syrian chieftain was, he was not altogether destitute of sound discretion, nor devoid, as it should appear, of amiable qualities. He was a man who would hear reason, and whom, therefore, his well-wishers dared advise; and he had also the wisdom and the happiness to keep faithful and wise servants about his person. "And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, 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?" "A word spoken in due season, how good is it!" Here is a pattern, surely, of faithfulness, of benevolence, and of discretion, well worthy the imitation of thousands, who should know better than these heathen Syrians. Naaman's servants, though doubtless at proper times they knew how to keep their distance, would make bold to argue the matter a little with him when they perceived that he was likely to be so great a loser by following the dictates of his own wayward mind. They would rather, as becomes real friends, run the risk of giving him offence, than stand by, and see him throw away a blessing. Reprove him they must; but in their reproof

4 Jonah ii. 8.

5 Isa. xliii. 11.

6 Prov. xv. 23.

there are those two qualities which seldom fail to make advice acceptable to a reasonable man: there is a great deal of truth and reason in their expostulation; a great deal of modesty and affection in the manner of their address: "My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?" Certainly I should, must Naaman's heart have answered; and so the inference would be unavoidable,-I have acted very foolishly, my pride has got the better of my judgment, let me therefore alter my resolutions in good time; let me wash and be clean at once. Alas! how much good is left undone, because men are too timid and too lukewarm faithfully to expostulate with one another, as opportunities are afforded them! "He that hateth reproof is brutish';" but why are we to think so ill of our fellow-creatures, as to suppose them brutish, if we have not tried them? Depend upon it, counsel well-timed, if it be given with evident appearance of affection and good-will, and approve itself to the conscience by its honesty, is not very often given quite in vain.

8 "

Naaman is an example of the truth of this; and well was it for him that he was so, for "he that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding 3. Naaman listened calmly to the expostulation of his faithful domestics. For, when his passion had subsided, he was more a respecter of truth than a respecter of persons. He cared not who spoke, so he spake well; and therefore he went down, "and dipped himself seven times in Jordan." Thus he begins to show at last, something better than the man of valour; for better is "he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city "." And then, when he has submitted himself to seek the Lord in the way of the Lord's own devising, Jehovah mercifully overlooks his past perverseness; thus letting us know that He waiteth to be gracious, and

9

7 Prov. xii. 1.

Prov. xv. 32.

9 Prov. xvi. 32.

will show Himself to be so, as soon as ever we are ready to honour his appointments and believe his word. When Naaman had "dipped seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God, immediately his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean."

We come now to observe the effects which Naaman's cure had upon his own mind. These are to be learnt from the concluding part of the narrative. No sooner

did he see that he was healed than "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 God 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 unto other gods, but unto the Lord. 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. And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way."

I

Upon this it is obvious to observe, in the first place, the altered demeanour of Naaman towards the Lord's prophet: he now humbly calls himself his servant, “and pray thee," he says, "take a blessing," that is, a present, in testimony of my thankfulness, "of thy servant." Elisha, however, sought not his, but him. He had good hopes that a salutary impression had been made upon him. And it would be much for the honour of God, to show his new convert that the servants of the God of Israel were taught to look upon the wealth of this world with a holy contempt. This would confirm

the belief he had professed, that there was no God but in Israel; and would show him that his worshippers must be transformed by the renewing of their minds. Therefore he continued resolute in his refusal of the present to the last.

But to return to Naaman: his bodily cure appears to have been the instrument of effecting a far greater and more important cure; that is, of turning him from dumb idols to the God who made the heavens.

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"I know," he says, "that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel." This was a noble confession, and a wonderful one for a person who had been bred a heathen. Such a one would naturally be possessed with the common heathen notion, that there were 'gods many, and lords many," of whom some were superior in dignity to others. Such a one, therefore, might still have considered the Syrian idols as true gods, though Jehovah had performed a miracle which utterly surpassed their power. But he goes beyond this, his confession is not like that of the Samaritan nations, of whom it is related, that they feared the Lord, but yet continued to serve their own idols in conjunction with Him 10; but it is such an acknowledgment as He requires, who is a jealous God, and will give no part of his glory to another, and it is followed up with correspondent resolutions of obedience, "Thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord." But there are two instances of weakness and imperfection in his behaviour. In one instance he will superstitiously go beyond his duty; not only will he worship the God of Israel, but he will have clods of earth out of the prophet's country to make an altar of. He that spake so contemptuously awhile ago of the waters of Israel, now extravagantly overvalues even the earth of Israel; supposing (since God, as possibly he knew, had appointed altars of earth) that an altar of Israelitish earth would be most acceptable to Him: and not con

10 See 2 Kings xvii. 32.