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 the Lady of Shunem.  How jealous he is of his master’s honour!  How dear he was to Elisha’s soul, “my heart! my other self!” And yet, he did this thing.  He lied, he cheated, he obtained goods by false pretences, he lowered the prophet in Naaman’s sight; and after all his years of noble service, his master smote him with his curse, and he went out of his presence a leper!

But was Naaman’s the only leprosy that infected Gehazi?  Had Elisha any share in his fall?  After all, it is a sorry business to heal a stranger and send forth one’s own friend in this fashion.

Nothing can exonerate Gehazi.  His lie remains a lie, say what you will.  But our business is not to apportion blame, but to try to find out how such things came to be, in order to guard against them in our own homes.  If a servant leaves your employ poorer in character than when she came to you, if a youth leaves your business harder, colder, weaker in will, further from God than when you received him from home, it is a clear case for inquiry.  It is our duty to see that young people are not exposed to moral infection in our homes.

In the matter of physical infection, two facts are familiar to us all.  The first is, that mischief enters the system by means of a germ; and the second is, that the action of the germ depends very much on the condition of health in which it finds a man.  If the man is healthy, he is often proof against the arrow that fleeth by day, and the pestilence that walketh in darkness.  But if the body is already enfeebled, the germs find half their work done for them beforehand.