Naaman.
“THE leper story which has always interested me most is that of Naaman
the Syrian,” said Lucius, when he had put back Dr. Kitto’s large volume
in its place in the bookcase.
“O yes, yes,” interrupted little Elsie; “I know that story too, quite
well. I know that Naaman was a great man, and rich, and a famous
general besides, but he had the dreadful sickness which no doctor could
cure. I remember how Naaman came in a grand chariot with prancing
horses to the house of the good prophet Elisha, and how angry he was
when only a servant came out and told him to wash seven times in the
river Jordan.”
Elsie stopped almost out of breath from the rapidity with which she had
spoken. All the young Temples were familiar with the account of the
cure of the Syrian, which was one of their favorite Scripture stories.
“Was the leprosy of Naaman also a type of sin?” inquired Lucius.
“I believe that it was,” answered Mrs. Temple, “and I am strengthened
in this belief by Naaman’s leprosy coming upon Gehazi, as a direct
punishment for his sin.”
“Ah! that wicked Gehazi!” exclaimed Elsie; “he told a lie, a dreadful
lie! It was right that he should be punished, was it not?” The
question was asked of Dora, Elsie’s favorite sister. The child wondered
at the unwonted silence which had come over Dora, and wanted to draw
her into conversing like the rest of the party.
Dora winced at the question, and only replied by a slight movement of
her head. But little Elsie was not satisfied by this. “Why don’t you
speak?” she said bluntly. “When people are so very naughty as to tell
lies, and say that they are doing nothing when they are doing something
bad, don’t you think that they ought to be well punished for it?”
Forced to reply, for Elsie’s question had drawn every one’s attention
towards her, Dora answered, “Of course they should be punished;”
and having thus pronounced sentence upon herself, she relapsed into
silence, feeling much inclined, however, to start up and escape from
the room.
“Are you not well, my love?” asked her mother, who could not help
noticing that Dora’s manner was different from usual.
“Quite well, mamma; only a little tired,” was the evasive reply.
“Tired of doing nothing,” said Lucius.
The conversation on the subject of Naaman was then resumed by Agnes.
“When Naaman was cleansed of his leprosy, mamma, how was it that Elisha
did not tell him to go and show himself to the priest, and that we hear
nothing about a sin-offering, nor of a bird being set free?” asked the
elder twin.
“You must remember,” replied Mrs. Temple, “that Naaman was not an
Israelite but a Syrian, a Gentile, and that he was therefore not bound
to observe the ceremonial law of the Jews. I think that Naaman was a
type of the Gentile church, to which belong all Christians who are not
descended from Abraham and Isaac.”
“To which we then belong,” observed Lucius.
“Notice, my children,” continued the lady, “how we see, as if in a
series of pictures, the history of a converted soul in the story of
Naaman’s cure. First there is the man possessing all that earth can
give him, but afflicted with a deadly disease.”
“Like the people who were bitten by the fiery serpents,” interrupted
Lucius.
“Here in the leprous Naaman we behold a type or picture of a soul with
unforgiven sin staining and corrupting it,” said his mother. “Next we
find the leper at the door of the prophet. Can any one of you tell me
of what Naaman now is a type?”
“A seeking soul,” replied Agnes, after a little pause for reflection.
“Ah! but the next picture is of the leper turning away quite angry
because he was told just to wash and be clean,” cried Elsie.
“Then Naaman is a type of a proud soul, not content with God’s simple
but wonderful plan of salvation,” continued the lady. “There are some
persons now who think that they can earn heaven by doing some great
thing, who believe that because of their own goodness they can be
clean in the sight of God. Such persons, like Naaman, are offended and
hurt when they are told that all their good works cannot take away sin;
that the leper can only be saved by living faith in Him whose blood is
the fountain opened for all uncleanness.”
“But Naaman did go and dip down seven times in Jordan as he was
bidden,” cried Elsie; “and then he was made quite well, his flesh all
soft and clean, just like a little child’s.”
“This is a picture or type of a believing, forgiven soul,” said Mrs.
Temple, “the picture of one who has become a child of God, and who is
resolved, by the help of His Spirit, to lead from henceforth a new
life.”
“These types are really beginning to be quite plain to me now, mother,”
said Lucius, “and they make the Old Testament seem to me to be very
much more beautiful than it ever seemed before. I remember how puzzled
I have been by some words in one of the Epistles about the rock which
Moses smote in the desert, and from which the waters gushed out. St.
Paul wrote ‘that Rock was Christ,’ and I never could make out what he
meant, for how could the rock be the Lord? But now I understand, at
least I think that I do, that the Apostle meant ‘that smitten rock was
a TYPE of Christ,’ and so everything becomes plain.”
“Some of our Lord’s own expressions require to be explained in the same
kind of way,” observed Mrs. Temple. “When our Saviour declared that He
was the Vine, and his disciples the branches, it was as if He had said,
‘A vine is a TYPE of Me, and its branches a type of My servants. _As
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no
more can ye_ (bear the fruits of holiness), _except ye abide in Me._’”
“And when the Lord said of the bread at the last supper, _This is My
body_, His words must have meant that the bread was a TYPE of His
body,” said Amy with thoughtful reverence. She was a lowly-hearted
girl, and she felt, as we all should feel, that when so very sacred a
subject as the Lord’s sufferings or death is spoken of by us, it is as
if, through the opening in the Tabernacle Veil, we were entering into
the Holy of holies.
[Illustration]