CHAPTER XXVII.

WEAKNESS OF CHARACTER.

TuEReE is a beautiful story in the fifth
chapter of the second Book of Kings, about
a famous person named Naaman. He was
captain of the army of the king of Syria, and
was. a great and mighty man.

But he was afflicted with a loathsome
disease, called leprosy; which is common in
the eastern countries. Now the Syrians
had gone to war, and had brought away from
the land of Israel a young maiden as a cap-
tive, and she waited on Naaman’s wile. The
story in the Bible goes on as follows :

“ And she said unto her mistress, Would
to God my lord were with the prophet that iS
in Samaria, for he would cure him of his
leprosy. And one went in and told his lord,
saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is
of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria