Bible CharactersTalmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt)
Religion
Bible Characters
Talmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt)
Bible -- Biography
Well, we left Glasgow, and got away up to the north of Scotland--in
Inverness--and the employer sent his stubborn friend up there on
business, thinking he might be induced to go into the meetings. One night
we were singing “On the Banks of That Beautiful River,” and he happened
to be passing. He wondered where the sweet sounds were coming from. He
came into the meeting, and I happened to be preaching that evening on the
very text: “I Thought.”
The stubborn man from Glasgow listened attentively, and soon did not know
exactly where he was. He was convicted--he was converted--and he became a
Christian. Verily, a man must yield his own way to the way of the Lord.
Now, you can see all along that Naaman’s thoughts were altogether
different from those of God. He was going to get the grace of God by
showing favors--just as many men now believe they can buy their way into
the kingdom of God. But we can not purchase the favor of Heaven with
money. If you get a seat in Heaven, you must accept salvation as a gift.
Naaman had another thought. He believed he could get what he wanted by
taking letters to the king--not to the prophet. The little maid told him
of the prophet, yet he was going to pass the prophet by. He was too proud
to go to the prophet. But pride, if you will allow me the expression, got
a knock on the head on this important occasion.
It was a terrible thing for him to think of obeying by going down to the
Jordan and dipping seven times. He had got better rivers in Damascus,
in his own wisdom, and he queries: “Can’t I wash there, and be clean?”
Naaman was angry, but when he got over it he listened to his servants.
I would rather see people get angry than see them go to sleep. I would
rather see a man get as angry as possible at any utterance of mine than
to see I had sent him to sleep. When a man is asleep there is no chance
of reaching him, but if he is angry we may get at him. It is a good thing
for a man to get angry sometimes, for when he cools off he generally
listens to reason.
So Naaman’s servant came to him and said: “Suppose Elisha had bid thee do
some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it?”
Probably, had Elisha told Naaman to take cod liver oil for ten years, he
would have willingly done it. If he had told Naaman he wanted as much
money as the leper brought along, that would have been all right. But the
idea of literally doing nothing--just to go down into Jordan and wash
himself! It was so far below his calculations that he thought he was
being imposed upon by some charlatan.
But Naaman’s sensible servant said to him: “If the prophet had bid thee
do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? Hadn’t you just
better go down and wash in Jordan?”
Possibly, Naaman answered: “If I go down into Jordan and am not cured,
what will my enemies say of me when I get back to Damascus?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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