general and prevailing rule. I believe, said a good man, that if the meekest and most patient of all the angels in heaven had the government of the world committed to him for four-andtwenty hours, he would burn it to ashes before the day was over! But let us examine the circumstances of this case more minutely. Three particulars demand notice.

I. The conduct of the nine ungrateful Jews.

II. The conduct of one devout Samaritan; and

III. Our own character and conduct as illustrated by one or other of these classes.

I. THE CONDUCT OF THE NINE UNGRATEFUL JEWS.

And in their case you observe something to pity-something to commend-something to admire-and something to deplore. Observe their common distress; this you must pity: their common prayer; this you must commend: their common cure; this you must admire: their common ingratitude; this you cannot fail to censure and deplore.

1. Their common distress. This you must pity. They were lepers.

The leprosy is happily little known in Europe, and scarcely known at all, in its severer forms, in our own country. It was much more common a century or two ago, when it was reckoned that there were not fewer than 18,000 or 19,000 lepers in different parts of the continent. They were called Lazars, and occupied houses and hospitals peculiar to themselves, called Lazarettos. The disease, however, is still common in the East, whence it originally sprang, the Israelites having brought it with them from Egypt. It is an infectious malady, of slow and imperceptible progress, beginning very insidiously and gently, for the most part with one little spot that causes no trouble, but increasing with time, and gradually passing into a disease, attended with the most formidable symptoms, such as mortification and separation of the whole limbs; and when arrived at a certain stage, altogether incurable. They who were afflicted with it were cut off from society, and compelled to live alone, often in the wilderness, and separated from human habitation, as we see these poor men did. From this seclusion we find that not

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even kings were exempt: see 2 Kings xv. 5: And the Lord smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death; and dwelt in a several (or separate) house: and Jotham, the king's son, was over the house, judging the people of the Lord.-It is mentioned, much to the honour of the Moravian brethren, that when one of the hospitals or Lazarettos was about to be given up, the government being able to find none that would undertake the painful and distressing charge, two Moravians, a man and his wife, engaged in the office, and were made eminently useful in relieving the sufferings of the unhappy outcasts.

This was a disease, therefore, peculiarly painful and distressing it was hereditary, descending from father to son, often to the third and fourth generation. The Jews considered it was a direct infliction from the hands of God, and were apt to view the victims of it as peculiarly subject to his displeasure, Miriam, Gehazi, and Uzziah having been smitten with it as a distinct punishment for sin. It was one for which the law of Moses provided no specific cure; the prescriptions of the Levitical law being principally designed to prevent its spreading among the people, and rather to mitigate its severity, than to remove it altogether. See Leviticus xiii., xiv.

But some may ask, might not Moses, as an inspired legislator, have made known the best 'means of curing this dreadful disorder, and have enjoined, in his laws, the use of those means for ever? Certainly he might have done so, had God revealed it to him: but such is not the ordinary method of God's procedure, for he leaves men to find out by their own industry the proper remedy for their own diseases. The Bible was not intended to be a system of medicine and surgery, any more than to reveal a system of astronomy or mathematics, and it is no more an impeachment of God's goodness that he does not make known, by immediate revelation, a cure for leprosy, than that in a world created by him, he should suffer this, and similar maladies, to exist at all. I will only observe, howthat the Mosaic laws and institutions respecting meats, and the distinction between clean and unclean food, which are often

ever,

scoffed at by unbelievers, for their precision and minuteness, may have been partly designed to prevent this and other cutaneous diseases, and would be highly beneficial even now, in those countries.

Having seen their common distress, let us notice,

2. Their common prayer."They lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." This you cannot fail to commend. Mark here the contrast between the law and the gospel all that the law could do, "in that it was weak through the flesh," was to teach the Leper to cry "Unclean! unclean!" But the gospel has put another cry into his mouth: "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" The law only shows us disease; the gospel reveals our help in Christ.

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They had probably heard of his power and goodness in similar cases, towards others of his countrymen. The knowledge, therefore, of what Jesus had done in other cases might have prompted their application to him in the present instance. Their appeal was characterized by an energy and a fervidness proportioned to their sense of the nature of the misery they were enduring. It is always a gratifying circumstance when we are brought, by whatever means, to the footstool of a Saviour's mercy: and those afflictions will be numbered among our best blessings which bring us into contact with the Redeemer, and bring, if I may so speak, the sinner and the Saviour together. There are numbers in our world who would never have approached Christ at all, if it had not been for the influence of severe and overwhelming sorrow. At the same time we must judge of our religious character, not by the earnestness of our prayers and tears in affliction, for extremity of distress will send the profanest man to God; but by the tenour of our conduct after it. Here these nine were deficient.

3. Their common cure.-"It came to pass, as they went, they were cleansed." This you must admire.

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The universality of their cure was a remarkable circumstance. Not one exempt; not one refused; not one whose case was too desperate, although the disease was confessedly beyond the power of medical skill and science; and it was generally regarded by the Jews as the exclusive prerogative of God

to accomplish its cure. Thus, when the king of Syria wrote to the king of Israel that he should recover Naaman of his leprosy, the king rent his clothes, with this remarkable exclamation, Am I GOD to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? shewing that to recover from this disease was considered tantamount to life from the dead, and was a work which God only could perform. But Christ proved himself to be from God, not only by recovering many from the leprosy, but by authorizing his disciples to do so too; and it is enumerated, accordingly, among the proofs of his Messiahship, Matt. ix. 5. The first miracle which Matthew records, was the cure of a leper. This was perhaps selected because, writing to Jews, he would begin with a work which proved the divine mission and power of Jesus; for by this very sign was Moses directed to convince the house of Israel, that God had sent him to be a deliverer. See Exodus vi. 6-8.

Here no fewer than TEN were recovered, even of those who were excluded from society as beyond hope. What an illustration does it afford of Christ's power and willingness to heal and save, and of the readiness with which he listens to every prayer presented to him. Were the whole universe of sinners to apply to him, they would find power enough in his arm to save them, and efficacy enough in his blood to cleanse and purify from all sin. Not one of these suppliants was sent empty away; not one of their prayers was left unanswered, though nine out of the ten were evidently unconverted men. What an encouragement is this to sinners to approach the mercy-seat. Brethren, the cry of misery cannot fail to reach the ear of mercy. These poor men cried, and the Lord heard them, and saved them out of all their troubles. They looked unto him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. Why should not your name be added to the long list of successful suppliants for the Saviour's mercy?

The manner of the cure was as remarkable as the cure itself. -Go show yourselves to the priests: and it came to pass that as they went they were cleansed. Here more is implied than is expressed. It was equivalent to saying, "I

Those to whom he

grant your request, you are healed." spoke, knowing that by the law of Moses their showing themselves to the priests was a consequence of their being healed, well understood his meaning; and the conciseness of the speech is as strong as it is beautiful. Our Lord ordered them to show themselves to the priests, not that they might either accomplish or perfect the cure, but that they might be the authorized and appointed witnesses of it. He thus showed his full and solemn respect to the laws and institutions of Moses, which remained up to the period of his death in full force, and he would have these men reverence and observe them too. His sending them to the priests would be at once a proof of his keeping the law of Moses, and of his having wrought a true and undoubted miracle.

It is in active obe

As they went they were cleansed. dience to the divine command that we are to look for the divine blessing. It is in the use of prescribed means that we may expect the promised cure. Thus Abraham's servant said, Being in the way, the Lord met me. Thus, at the pool of Bethesda, where he had remained many long and anxious years, the paralytic found cure. Thus the Ethiopian nobleman, who had been up to the Temple to worship, found the blessing on his way home. Acts viii.; Prov. viii. 34.

4. Their common ingratitude.—This you cannot but censure and deplore. Only one of all the ten returned to give God thanks. The cure which healed the leprosy of all their bodies, only affected the heart of one.

Ingratitude towards men is a vice often condemned: ingratitude towards God is a sin rarely repented of. The greatest benefactor is least of all thought of; and the very frequency of his gifts renders the giver forgotten, as the sun itself is almost lost sight of amidst the splendour and variety of his beams. Ingratitude is, of all the vices, that which we are the first to condemn in others, and the first to pardon or apologize for in ourselves. We write injuries in marble, and benefits in dust. It is as common a thing for gratitude to be forgetful, as for hope to be mindful. Thus these nine Jews,