My dear friends, God is not confined to any one messenger. We are
told that He can raise up children out of stones. Some one has said
that there are three classes of people, the "wills," the "won'ts,"
and the "can'ts"; the first accomplish everything, the second oppose
everything, and the third fail in everything. If God calls you,
consider it a great honor. Consider it a great privilege to have
partnership with Him in anything. Do it cheerfully, gladly. Do it
with all your heart, and He will bless you. Don't let false modesty
or insincerity, self-interest, or any personal consideration turn
you aside from the path of duty and sacrifice. If we listen for
God's voice, we shall hear the call; and if He calls and sends us,
there will be no such thing as failure, but success all along the
line. Moses had glorious success because he went forward and did
what God called him to do.
NAAMAN THE SYRIAN
I wish to call your attention to one who was a great man in his own
country, and very honorable; one whom the king delighted to honor.
He stood high in position; he was captain of the host of the King of
Syria; but he was a leper, and that threw a blight over his whole
life. As Bishop Hall quaintly puts it, "The meanest slave in Syria
would not have changed skins with him."
Now you cannot have a better type of a sinner than Naaman was. I
don't care who or what he is, or what position he holds--all men
alike have sinned, and all have to bear the same burden of death.
"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." All men must
stand in judgment before God. What a gloom that throws over our
whole life!
"_But he was a leper_." There was
NO PHYSICIAN
who could help him in Syria. None of the eminent doctors in Damascus
could do him any good. If he was to get rid of the leprosy, the
power must come from on high. It must be some one unknown to Naaman,
for he did not know God.
But I will tell you what they had in Syria--they had one of God's
children there, and she was a little girl, a simple captive maid,
who waited on Mrs. Naaman. Naaman knew nothing about this little
Israelite, though she was one of his household.
I can imagine that one day, as she was waiting on the general's
wife, she noticed her weeping. Her heart was breaking because of the
dark cloud that rested over her home. So she told her mistress that
there was a prophet in her country that could cure her master of his
leprosy. "Would to God," she said, "my lord were with the prophet in
Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy."
There's faith for you!
She boasted of God that He would do more for this heathen than He
had done for any in Israel; and
GOD HONORED HER FAITH.
"What do you say? A prophet in Israel that can cure leprosy?"
"Yes."
"Why, did you ever know any one that was cured?"
"No."
"Well, then, what makes you think there is a prophet that can cure
leprosy?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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