ilure of
still another attempted cure, she exclaims with childlike confidence
and earnestness, "Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in
Samaria! then would he recover him of his leprosy." And thus her
natural interest in the troubles of other people, her cheerful and
spirited acceptance of her position, and the sense that taught her to
make the most of it, brought her this great opportunity of doing an
important service. No one can lay the blame of his uselessness and
lack of good influence on his lack of opportunity, if he is in
contact with men at all, for wherever there are human beings there
are sorrows to be sympathised with, wants to be relieved, characters
to be fashioned.

And while this Jewish maid was utilising her captivity, her parents,
if alive, would be eating their hearts out with anxiety and anguish,
imagining for their daughter the worst of destinies. Instead of the
horrors which usually follow such a captivity, she is cared for in a
comfortable home. Little did the parents, think that there was any
work to be done in Syria, which none could so well do as their little
girl. The Lord had need of her, and knew that when the parents heard
all they would not resent that their daughter had been thus employed.
None of us see much further into the ways of Providence than those
parents saw. Now, as then, those who are bound up in one another are
separated, in order that ends even more important than the growth and
gratification of natural affections may be attained.

Significant, also, is the dismay of Joram, King of Israel, when he
received the letter bidding him find healing for Naaman. So little
did he believe in Elisha's power that he concluded the King of Syria
sought to pick a quarrel with him by asking him for a favour he knew
he could not grant. But while the king is helplessly tearing his
clothes in a passion of despair, Elisha sends him a message which, at
least for the present, gives him some calmness: "Why hast thou rent
thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is
a prophet in Israel." Elisha is ashamed that the King of Israel
should have exhibited such weakness before a foreign potentate. He
feels that the honour of Israel's God is implicated, and boldly takes
upon himself the responsibility of the cure. Bold it certainly was,
and tells of a confident faith that God will be faithful to His
servants. The king had no such faith. There was a power resident in
Isr