Be Not High-Minded, But Fear
" And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?" —II Kings 8:13 [KJV] O, the treachery of the human heart! both scripture and experience prove this melancholy truth, that it is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Who can fathom the depths of its deceits? who can understand the misery of iniquity which lies concealed in the nature of sinful man? Alas! presumptuous confidence that our nature is not so totally corrupt and abominable, too, too oft deceives and betrays even the children of God. This wretch Hazael, who had premeditated rebellion and murder in his heart, yet starts at the prediction of these crimes which as yet had no real existence. Doubtless he thought Elisha judged very hard of him; he could almost stare the prophet out of countenance; and, as though he charged him with degrading the dignity of his human nature, he demands whether he looked on him no better than an unclean beast, a