power than any earthly
potentate. Gold can't do everything.

Away goes Naaman down to Samaria with his kingly introduction. What
a stir it must have made when the commander of the Syrian army drove
up! He has brought with him a lot of gold and silver. That is man's
idea again; he is going to pay for a great doctor, and he took about
five hundred thousand dollars to pay for the doctor's bill. There
are a good many men who would willingly pay that sum if with it they
could buy the favor of God, and get rid of the curse of sin. Yes, if
money could do it,

HOW MANY WOULD BUY SALVATION!

But, thank God, it is not in the market for sale. You must buy it at
God's price, and that is "without money and without price." Naaman
found that out.

My dear friends, did you ever ask yourselves which is the worse--the
leprosy of sin, or the leprosy of the body? For my own part, I would
a thousand times sooner have the leprosy of the body eating into my
eyes, and feet, and arms! I would rather be loathsome in the sight
of my fellow-men than die with the leprosy of sin in my soul, and be
banished from God forever! The leprosy of the body is bad, but the
leprosy of sin is a thousand times worse. It has cast angels out of
heaven. It has ruined the best and strongest men that ever lived in
the world. Oh, how it has pulled men down! The leprosy of the body
could not do that.

There is one thing about Naaman that I like specially, and that is
his earnestness of purpose. He was

THOROUGHLY IN EARNEST.

He was quite willing to go one hundred and fifty miles, and to take
the advice of this little maid. A good many people say:

"Oh, I don't like such and such a minister; I should like to know
where he comes from, and what he has done, and whether any bishop
has laid his hands on his head."

My dear friends, never mind the minister; it is the message you
want. If some one were to send me a telegraph message, and the news
were important, I shouldn't stop to ask about the messenger who
brought it. I should want to read the news. I should look at the
message, and not at the boy who brought it.

And so it is with God's message. The good news is everything, the
minister nothing. The Syrians looked down with contempt on the
Israelites, and yet this great man was willing to take the good news
at the hands of this little maiden, and listened to the words that
fell from her lips. If I got lost in New York, I should be willing
to ask anybo