It is calculated to make us humble, in our estimate of ourselves, as forming a small part in the mighty. "What is man that Thou art so mindful of him, and the Son of man that Thou so regardest him."

And these two things-high reverence for the Holy God, coupled with a sense of our own unworthiness, humbleness of heart, help to make accepted worship. Such worship as that which God's servants rendered Him of old, which Abraham, which Moses, and David offered. For all these holy men of God were profoundly humble, and profoundly reverent. They never approached God with vulgar familiarity. They stood before Him with holy fear, they spake of themselves as dust and ashes, they hid their face with their robe, they counted it a bold thing even to address words to God at all, and these were felt, and were considered, thought of carefully before spoken, "and they were heard in that they feared." Their worship was accepted, because it was the worship of sincerity and truth, because the worshippers knew, and recognized their own insignificance, and the greatness and majesty of God. Let us brethren worship Him thus.

When we come to present ourselves before God, whether at home with our families, or in the stillness and silence of our chambers, or here, when we meet together in God's house for common prayer, let us remember the amazing difference and distance

between ourselves and the object of our worship. Let us never forget that God is a holy God, a great God--a God who seeth the heart: and that we are His creatures, and poor and miserable and stained with spots of sin, not worthy so much as to lift up our hands in His presence. And let the recollection make us very humble, very reverent, in our acts of worship. Let it bring us on our knees before the throne. Let it bow down our heart. Let it banish and drive away pride and self-conceit, and any undue opinion of our own worth, and fill us with a sense of God's might, God's goodness, God's perfection, God's claim upon us for acknowledgment.

"O come, let us worship, and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker."

SERMON XX.

NAAMAN, OR BAPTISM

2 KINGS V. 13.

"And his servants came near and spake unto 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?"

Also 2 KINGS V. I.

"But he was a leper."

We have read again to-day the story of Naaman's cleansing, which our Church brings before us in the first lesson for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. There is much in it for our learning, and much particularly in the words that I have chosen for my text, the remonstrance of Naaman's servants with their master, when he went away angry from Elisha's messenger. It is to the teaching of that remonstrance that I would chiefly confine my remarks this morning.

But let me repeat the outlines of Naaman's history. He was, as we are told in the first verse of the fifth chapter, "Captain of the host of the king of Syria, a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper." But he was a leper! how much do these few words tell us. All Naaman's advantages, the honor he had with his master, his greatness, his renown as a successful general, his personal bravery -what did it profit him while he was a leper? That disease was the scourge of Eastern people—the great typical disease that admitted of no ordinary healing— everything that could be done had been done in Naaman's case, everything in vain. At last a ray of hope dawned! Succour came from the suggestion of a little Jewish slave, taken captive in war, out of the land of Israel, who waited on Naaman's wife; the little maid had a kind heart, and it touched her to see the affliction of her master: and she said to her mistress, "would God my lord were with the Prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy.". Her words are told to the king of Syria, who instantly sent a letter to the king of Israel, with costly presents, desiring his influence with the Prophet on behalf of Naaman. The king of Israel was greatly troubled at the letter, he rent his clothes, and said, "Am I God, to kill and to

make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me."

But when Elisha heard it he saw in the request an opening for the glory of Israel's God. He went to the king, and said, "wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and know that there is a prophet in Israel." Accordingly Naaman came with his chariot and horses and retinue of attendants, and stood at the door of Elisha. He expected to be received according to his rank, instead of which Elisha only sent a message to him, and bade him "go and wash in Jordan seven times and he should be clean.'

Naaman was highly offended and went away. "Behold!" he said, "I thought he would even come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper." But not even to see the Prophet-not to receive any medicine or charm at his hand-to be told to go and bathe in the little river Jordan... No! if washing were all that was needed, he could do that, and far more effectually, in the bright streams of his own Damascus. "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, may I not wash in them and be clean? And he went away in a rage." And his