LITTLE THINGS BY Charles Robert Morrison

crime is suggested, exclaims: "But what is your servant--a dog, that he
should do this gross thing?"
Then it seemed more probable, when the prophet added: "The Lord has
showed me that you shall be king over Syria." With that vision before
his mind, Hazael went out from before the prophet a changed man. The
evil nature within grew rapidly, and before another sunset he was a
murderer, and sat in royal state on the throne of his former master.
For forty-five years he ruled, and though leagued against him were both
Judah and Israel, his triumphs were complete. He would have marched
against Jerusalem itself, and destroyed it, but was bribed to retire
without accomplishing his plan. All the towns and cities east of Jordan
were wrested from Israel, their inhabitants treated in a most ferocious
manner--all in accord with the vision seen by the prophet, at a time
when all in his life seemed so fair and promised so well for goodness.
What an example have we here of the possibility of evil from that
which was, from all appearance, good! All that was needed to make the
man a monster was the prospect of success of some ambitious scheme,
and lo! the work is done. That which at first thought shocked the man
into a vigorous resentment, soon became a secret passion, until
crystallized into hardened crime.
The hand that caresses may carry in its veins the blood of a murderer.
In every man's nature there is this awful possibility of evil, which
makes Divine grace and power an absolute necessity among men. The
playful spirit manifested in the tiger's lair, when the family of young
and old are undisturbed, gives no intimation of the dormant
fierceness that may be aroused in a moment of time. Let the tiger of
human hate and vengeance be unloosed--and who shall chain him
again?
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