Mind, I am not whitewashing him or mitigating his crime.  I am trying to get at the forces that conspired to make him what he was, and among these I have no doubt at all that his master’s complaisant permission of compromise was a very potent force.  Of course he was wrong, of course there is no logical connection between what the master allowed in the Syrian general and the great lie Gehazi told.  And yet there was a sort of ghastly logic in this poor wretch’s procedure.  There are many commandments.  But duty is one thing, and if you weaken a man’s sense of duty by breaking one commandment yourself, you must not be surprised if you find him breaking another commandment later on.  Gehazi was cured of the leprosy of Naaman.  The prophet’s angry word was not countersigned on high, and one hopes that he also shook off by God’s assisting grace the ill-effects of Elisha’s complacency.  For the greater danger lay in that.  And does it not still lie there?

Our young people, our children, our servants that minister to our comfort, our assistants and clerks that multiply our personal activities and help to build up our fortunes, is there no danger to their spiritual life in being exposed as they are to the spiritual influences which we give off every hour?  They see the cavalcades of wealth, they gaze at the ingots of gold and the great white silver bars; they look with longing eyes at the silks with colours that come and go like the iris on the dove’s neck.  The luxuries of meat and drink appeal to them.  The temptation to live for these things assaults them.

And what help does Gehazi get from Elisha to-day?  What help do young men in offices and shops get from masters and heads of departments?  What help do servants in London homes get from the daily examples of mistresses?  What are the inferences drawn in the kitchen from things heard and seen in the dining or drawing-room? and what in the nursery?  Does a young man who sees to the very core of your business say to himself, “The master’s profession of religion is hypocrisy—­all religion is hypocrisy?” Then may God help him, for he is smitten with the leprosy of Elisha; and may God help you, for it is a sorry business to evangelise Asiatics and send your own servants forth from your presence lepers white as snow.

Let every master and mistress pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart:  try me, and know my thoughts:  and see if there is any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

HAZAEL

BY REV.  J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.

“But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?”—­2 KINGS viii. 13.