s wife, but as a free human
soul, and servant of God. No tyranny could extort this service. No
wealth could pay for this golden secret. Sometimes a character appears
but once in the course of a great drama. The man or woman, comes on
the stage to deliver one message, and then disappears. But that one
brief word has its place in the playwright's scheme, and its effect on
the action of the piece. This child was sent to Syria to utter one
speech, to speak one name, and because she spoke her little speech,
kindly and clearly, things went better with ever so many people.

"A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," but let there be more than
money in the wage, and more than labour in the service. Let no one, in
being a servant, cease to be a free human soul. Do you serve in Syria?
Is your lot cast among those that know not the Prophet? Well, but
_you_ are from the land of Israel; speak your speech, tell out the
Prophet's name. Be more than servant, more than clerk, more than a
"hand," an apprentice, a journeyman; be a soul, an influence, a link
with higher things, a reminder of God, a minister of Christ.

Naaman, too, was happy in _his_ servants. He was a Bismarckian,
peppery man. Accustomed to command, he expected miracles to be done to
order, and prophets to toe the line. And because he did not like
Elisha's manner nor his prescription, he was on the point of returning
to Syria in a rage. But he had servants that knew him through and
through. They knew what note to sound, and they saved him from
himself. The expedition had been suggested by a servant who generously
paid good for evil. It was saved from defeat by servants who did for
kindness what no contract could have specified and no wage could cover.
They also were souls who knew at times that man was created for
spiritual service.

But Elisha, too, though doubtless poor, had his servant, and an
efficient, tactful servant he was.

A very good book might be written on "poor men's servants." For they
have had of the very best. The whole world knows Boswell, and with all
his faults it loves him still, for he was loyal to a royal soul. Well,
most great men have had their Boswells. When all is known it will be
found that the men of the five talents have owed much of their success
and more of their happiness to the fidelity and love of men of the one
talent.

How well Gehazi served Elisha! How nobly the servant comes out in that
exquisite story of t