"Wash and be clean."--_2 Kings 5:13._
THERE was a poor little girl who was stolen away from her own home in
Israel by Syrian soldiers, and carried far from her mother and friends,
to be a slave. It must have been very sad and lonely; but God lets
nothing happen but for good, and so this poor little captive maid did
great good. Her master was named Naaman. He was the captain of the
army--brave and strong; but he fell ill of a disease that no doctor
could cure, and which would go on getting worse till he would die of it.
The little maid was sorry for him; and though she was all alone in a
heathen land, she had not forgotten about God and His prophets, and
she told her mistress that at home, in Israel, there was a prophet who
could cure her master by God's power.
So Naaman set out in his chariot, and came to the prophet's door. He
thought the prophet would come out, and strike his hand over the place,
and cure him directly--all the more because he was such a great man.
But, instead of that, the prophet sent out word to him that he was to
wash seven times in the River Jordan, and he would be well.
This made Naaman very angry. He thought the bathing in Jordan would do
no good, and that the prophet made light of him; and he turned and went
away in a rage. Then his servants persuaded him. They 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?"
Naaman was wise enough to listen to them. He did go and wash in the
River Jordan, as the prophet bade him; and God gave the water the
power to make him quite well again. Then he came back and thanked the
prophet, and said he would never pray to any god again but to the One
true God, who had healed him.
So you see the little maid did great good to her master, both to his
body and his soul, because she was good, and remembered her God, even
when she was far away from home.