Twenty-ninth Sunday.
ELISHA'S MIRACLES.
FIRST READING.
"Wash and be clean."—2 Kings 5:13.
THERE was a poor little girl who was stolen away from her own home in Israel by Syrian soldiers, and carried far from her mother and friends, to be a slave. It must have been very sad and lonely; but God lets nothing happen but for good, and so this poor little captive maid did great good. Her master was named Naaman. He was the captain of the army—brave and strong; but he fell ill of a disease that no doctor could cure, and which would go on getting worse till he would die of it.
The little maid was sorry for him; and though she was all alone in a heathen land, she had not forgotten about God and His prophets, and she told her mistress that at home, in Israel, there was a prophet who could cure her master by God's power.
So Naaman set out in his chariot, and came to the prophet's door. He thought the prophet would come out, and strike his hand over the place, and cure him directly—all the more because he was such a great man. But, instead of that, the prophet sent out word to him that he was to wash seven times in the River Jordan, and he would be well.