The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 68

duty to benefit Naaman'e eoul as well as his body, and the first thing he must do is to humble him, Naaman'e leprosy was an enemy to hie happiness. But be had a far worse enemy in hie own heart. That was pride. How bard it was to expel it ,ve shall see, Elisha did not go himself to speak to Naaman, but sent a messenger. That was bad enough for Naa.man's pride. And this was the message that he sent: "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean." That was worse. How keenly Naaman felt it we see in his action and his words. He turned away from the place in a rage, perhaps swearing at his servants to get out of his way, 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 bis hand over the place, and recover the leper.n His leprosy had not humbled his pride. Here be was-come all the way from Syria just for the one purpose of getting cured; and yet he turns away from the only person who could cure him, because he does not pay him sufficient court, and does not flatter his vanity. How unreason- able was Naaman's'pride I How uweasonable . is pride in any one! An<l yet it is a common failing. There are very few of us without a little of it. Bishop Hooker says, "Pride is a vice which cleaveth so fast unto the hearts of men, that if we were to strip ourselves of all faults, one by one, we should undoubtedly find it the very last and hardest to put off." What have any of us to be proud of 1 Has the sinner any reason to be proud? He is walking on the broad way that leadeth to destruction. Not-a journey, not a prospect, to be proud of, certainly! Has the saint any reason to be proud? Surely not. It is by the grace of God he is what he is. "Not of works, lost any man should boast." No true child of God has ever had a proud heart. Look at the humility of tbe Apostle Paul. Early in his Epistles he speaks of himself a~ " the least of the apostles ; " later on he calls himself "less than the least of all saints;" while the latest description he gives of himself is "the chief of sinners." Such was Paul's estimate of his own character, the more he looked at it in the light of God's holy Law, and in the light of the cross of Jesus. The longer he lived, the more humble he became. "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." Away, then, with pride! Away with pride of riches I away with pride of rank! away with pride of learning I away with pride of beauty in the face that is made of clay I away with pride from every Christian heart I away with pride from the house of God! away with pride from all departments of Christian work! away with pride towards our fellow-men I Let us follow in the footsteps of him who was meek and lowly in heart. II. NAAMAN's CURE. Observe the simplicity of the cure. "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean." It was tbe very simplicity of the cure that was the stumbling-block to Naaman. So it is with the sinner still. The simplicity of the gospel offer prevents many a one from accept- ing it. The servants of Naaman expressed this weakness of the human heart when they said, "My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?" 'l'he simple thing, strange though it may seem, is often the hardest to do. The great thing, the thing which costs most labour, in which there is most room for our own effort, is the thing which many find it easiest to do. This is one of the reasons why the heathen religions, and the Roman Catholic religion, have eo strong a hold upon the human heart. Their religion is justificatiou by works. They afford large scope for human exertions, for penances, for pilgrimages. There is scope for good works in Protestantism too, in true Christianity. "Be careful to maintain good works," says the apostle. "\Ve are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." But good works are the result, and not the cause, of our justification. We can never by any pilgrimages, by any penances, by any Castings, work out a salva- tion, a righteousness, for ourselves. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly througl1 Jesus Christ our Saviour." Was it not a foolish thing for Nnaman, a poor, miserable leper, with his life a burLlen to him, to bo questioning the method of his cure? Is it not a foolish thing for any sinner, with death at every moment staring him in the face, and a dark and hopeless eternity yawning before him, to question God's plan of salvation? A man who is seized with a dangerous illness does not ~11end a whole day in discussing what 106 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. (OR, V, 1-27,