DEAR children, I would like to have you find the fifth chapter of 2 Kings, and read it. You will find in it something about, a leper, and something about a little maid; and if you are a little believer in Jesus, I would like to have you learn a lesson from this little maid. You will find in the second verse, that she was a little Israelite who had been taken captive by the Syrian army, and she waited on the wife of the captain of the Syrian host. This captain was a great man in Syria, “but he was a leper.”
Now I will tell you what a leper is. It is one who has a very fatal and loathsome disease, called leprosy. This is a disease which the doctors could not cure. None but God could cure it. The poor sufferer had to live away from all other people, so as not to give them the disease; and he must go with his clothes torn, and his head bare, and with a covering on his upper lip, and he must cry, “unclean, unclean,” as if to warn everybody not to come near him. See Leviticus 13:4545And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. (Leviticus 13:45). Oh! would you not pity one who had leprosy?
Now in the Bible leprosy is used as a type of sin, that terrible disease in men’s souls that none but God can cure. A sinner is like a leper; he has an incurable disease. No, it is not incurable, for God can cure it; but man cannot.
Now the Syrians did not know of any cure for leprosy. Nobody in their land could cure it; and they did not know the God of Israel. But this little captive maid, who served Naaman’s wife, knew that God had a prophet in Samaria, and that God, through this prophet, could cure her master’s leprosy. So she told her mistress, and her mistress told her husband, and the poor leprous man went and found Elisha, the prophet of God, and got his leprosy cured, and his flesh, which was so loathsome and diseased, became “like unto the flesh of a little child’’ (vs. 14.) Was not this, a wonderful cure?
Now do you know the lesson I wish you to learn from this little maid? I think, I hear some of you say, Yes, I know. Just as the little maid could not cure leprosy, but could tell of some one who could; so we cannot cure the leprosy of sin, but we can tell poor leprous sinners of One who can. We can point them to Jesus who died for sin on the cross, so that every sinner who believes may be saved. Ah! yes, we can do this, dear children, and thus glorify our blessed Lord and Master. Have you ever told some poor sinner of One who can cure sin? Will you not do like the little Israelitish maid in Syria? She told who could cure leprosy. And cannot you tell sinners of Jesus, who can save them, and make them new creatures? A. H. R.
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4: 12.
ML 11/26/1899