read the letter, that
he rent his clothes, and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive,
that this man doth send to me to recover a man of his leprosy? but
consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me."

And, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had rent
his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, "Wherefore hast thou rent
thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a
prophet in Israel."

So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the
door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger to him,
saying, "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come
again to thee, and thou shalt be clean."

But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, "Behold, I thought, 'He
will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the
Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leper.'
Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all
the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean?" So he
turned and went away in a rage.

And his servants came near, and spoke to him, and 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?'"

{145}{146}

[Illustration]
SHUNAMMITE BOY

Photograph taken by Mrs. Frank L. Goodspeed of Springfield, Mass.,
and used by her kind permission.

This is a charming picture of a modern Shunammite boy. Just so must
have looked the son of the wealthy Shunammite of Elisha's day as he
left her in the morning to follow his father in the harvest fields.
[End illustration]

{147}

Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according
to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like the
flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned to the man
of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he
said, "Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but
in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a present from thy
servant."

But he said, "As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive
none." And he urged him to take it; but he refused.

And Naaman said, "If not, yet I pray thee let there be given to thy
servant two mules' burden of earth; for thy servant will henceforth
offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but to the
Lord. I