if the cure should be effected. It could not then have been very pleasing to a man thus prepared to expect the utmost homage, that he should receive, instead of immediate and servile attendance, the dignified and almost haughty message of the prophet, sent through the king, and not communicated direct to himself,-" Let him come to me." The pride of this great man, this able general, this great chief, this mighty conqueror, must have suffered a rude shock, when he was thus unceremoniously required by the prophet to come to him. However, Naaman bent himself to the occasion, and perhaps to what he might consider as the caprice of the prophet; and he went with his chariot and his horses, and all his proud array, and stood at the door of Elisha's humble mansion. It must have cost him some effort to have done this. But when Elisha would not condescend to invite him into the house, or even to come out and speak to him, but merely 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," he could no longer restrain his wrath. Behold," he exclaimed, “I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean?" He had in his own mind thought, that the prophet of God would take

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this or that course; yet that this course was not taken, would not alone, it seems to me, have led to his wrath, and his angry rejection of the prophet's instructions. His pride was wounded at the unceremonious way in which he was treated; and he also looked at the means which were pointed out, as unsuited to the effect; not considering that God alone could produce the effect; and that his reasons for producing it through those means are matters for His judgment, and not for ours. He remembered that he had finer rivers in his own country than those of Israel; and he could not understand why a river of Israel should be of any use to him. He was therefore going away in a rage; but fortunately for him, his servants took a more dispassionate view of the matter, and respectfully put to him the following sensible question:-" If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then when he saith unto thee, Wash, and be clean?" Naaman's rage having subsided, he saw the reasonableness of the remark he saw that he had come to consult the man of God, and yet that he had, instead of submitting to his judgment, set up his own against it, which, if he intended to depend on, he might as well have spared himself the trouble of coming to him at all. Heathen though he was, and though for a moment blinded with pride and passion, yet he felt the wisdom of the advice given him by his servants, and became sensible that he was ignorant

and presumptuous, when he acted as though he were superior in knowledge and judgment to the man whose counsel and assistance he came to receive. He felt that he had been guilty of pride and stubbornness, and he therefore changed his mind ; he humbled himself, and believed the word of God's servant, and went and did what Elisha had directed him to do. His faith made him clean; and he became more and more conscious of his fault, in setting up his own judgment in a matter in which he was not competent to decide, and he hastened back to the prophet to acknowledge his error, and to express his gratitude for the mercy he had experienced.

May his example open the eyes of others, who, though Christians, and with greater means of knowledge than fell to Naaman's lot, are guilty of the same fault. How many persons, and those generally the most weak and ignorant, who have never given themselves the trouble to study and examine the subject, and who probably are least qualified to do so; how many such persons are apt to question the necessity of those means which God's word has pointed out for our salvation and edifying! Such people ask, What good can such an ordinance do me? I do not see why it should be appointed. I can do very well without it; if I shall not be saved without it, I shall not be saved with it. These observations and conclusions are put forth with great confidence, generally by people who have

studied and thought least, and are also least qualified to form a true judgment upon the subject. For those who think deeply, and are well informed, will be the last persons to oppose, or treat with levity, ordinances established by God, or commended by the authority of His Church.

Let us follow up these considerations by citing two or three cases in the practice of Christians of the present day, in which Naaman's error is apt to prevail.

Its first and most obvious application is to the rite of Baptism. Though this rite was solemnly enjoined by Jesus himself, and has been religiously observed by the Church from His time to the present, yet there have been persons who, instead of obeying, have raised controversies upon its uses, and other subjects connected with it. When God says, "Wash and be clean," man refuses, and seeks some plan of his own, resorts to the Abana and Pharpar of his own presumption. He must have the reason as well as the command. Faith he holds to be an undue submission. But can any thing be more audacious and foolish than to refuse, when God says only "wash and be clean,"-be baptized with water and the Spirit? Ought we not rather to rejoice that no greater thing is required of us?

But this is not a common case. I will pass on to that in which we are now more immediately concerned; namely, Confirmation. We can prove (as in a former discourse I showed) from God's own

word, that the ceremonial of laying on of hands is founded upon a custom of most remote antiquity; that it was employed by the Apostles themselves on various solemn occasions, and particularly in the case of those who had been baptized in Samaria, for a purpose similar to that for which we now employ it in Confirmation. We can show, that the practice may be traced in the Church from the earliest ages of the Christian religion; we can show the reasonable and suitable character of it. Yet there are persons who, without having either learning or opportunity to search into the question, think themselves sufficiently wise to decry the ordinance, simply because they say they do not see why they should be benefited by it. There are, indeed (as I trust on a former occasion has been proved), a great many, and good, reasons for its appointment, and many useful purposes to which it answers, and which, if these objectors see them not, are hid from them only by their own ignorance, or want of thought. But even if there were no such reasons, and advantages, which they might discover by proper attention, still that would never justify their contempt of these ordinances, which are appointed for our edification. Are not the silly questions, "Why cannot I be saved without this? how will the Bishop's hands profit me?" just as presumptuous and weak as Naaman's question, "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean?"