uld have tried to do it. Or if he had
said, "Give ten thousand pieces of gold for the medicine I shall offer
thee, and thou shalt be cleansed," no doubt he would have done it. But
to tell him merely to dip in the river Jordan seven times, why, it
seemed absurd on the face of it. Well, this servant suggested to him
that he had better go down to the Jordan and try the remedy, as it was
a very simple one.

I can fancy Naaman, still reluctant to believe in it, saying, "Why, if
there is such cleansing power in the waters of Jordan, would not every
leper in Israel go down and dip in them, and be healed?" "Well, but
you know," urges the servant, "now that you have come a hundred and
fifty miles, don't you think you had better do what he tells you; for
after all you can but try it; and he sends word distinctly, my lord,
that your flesh shall come again as that of a little child." And so
Naaman accepts this word in season. His anger is cooling down; he has
got over the first flush of his indignation, and he says, "Well, I
think I might as well try it." That was the starting-point of his
faith, although still he thought it a foolish thing, and could not
bring himself to believe that the result would be what the prophet had
said.

How many men have told me right to my face they did not believe a man
could be saved by simply obeying God. Faith, they thought, was not
enough, they must do something. They will have it that there must be a
little asking, and reasoning, and striving, and wrestling with God,
before they can get the blessing.

FOOLISH QUESTIONS.

I recollect once praying with a man for his conversion, and just when
I thought conviction had been brought home to him, he turned round and
said, "Who do you think Melchisedek was, Mr. Moody?" And then I have
had others who, when I have been praying with them that their sins
might be taken away, would turn round and ask me, "Do you believe in
infant baptism, Mr. Moody?" My friends, you need not trouble
yourselves about those questions, but, if you wish to be saved, just
do as the Bible tells you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved (Acts xvii. 31).

The salvation of God requires from the sinner an

UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.

Well, at last Naaman's will was conquered, and subdued, and broken;
and he had faith, and he surrendered. I recollect when General Grant
was besieging a town which was the stronghold of the Southern
Confederacy, some of the off