when they had received the cure, turned their back upon the Physician. Jesus himself seems to have felt the ingratitude of the nine, as deeply as he felt the thankfulness of the one. Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

That which renders the case more instructive is, that they were neither benefitted by their long affliction, nor impressed with their miraculous cure. For years they had endured one of the heaviest of calamities, and now they were distinguished by what they themselves deemed the most signal of mercies; but neither the one nor the other, neither the disease nor the cure, seems to have produced any beneficial change upon their minds. They who are not humbled by their afflictions, will rarely be found thankful for their mercies. The unconverted seem equally to be proof against the judgments they endure, and the blessings they enjoy. God himself joins the unthankful with the unholy.

II. THE CONDUCT OF THE DEVOUT SAMARITAN.

"And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell on his face at his feet, giving him thanks; and he was a Samaritan.”

Here were exemplified gratitude, humility, devotion, love. This Samaritan was so impressed with grace received, that he could not rest till he had found his way to his benefactor's feet, and poured forth the tribute of thankfulness and adoration. The moment he felt the new tide of life and health circulating through his veins, and saw the leprous covering desert his emaciated frame, he felt himself the subject of new emotions. He separated himself from his companions; he even delayed, with a holy temerity, going to the priest, knowing that Jesus was on his journey, and that he might never again have an opportunity of blessing his benefactor, while the temple doors always stood open, and he could afterwards show himself to the priest. The moment, therefore, he saw that he was healed, he turned back and glorified God.

We consider this as a genuine illustration of the conduct of an individual properly affected with the love of Christ; and we remark concerning it that,

1. It is a marked exception to a general and prevailing

rule. He was the only one out of nine that felt this pure and elevated emotion.

ness.

So the real disciples of Christ, whose hearts and lives illustrate the reality of that grateful and confiding love they bear to him, seem to stand, compared with the majority of the world, almost alone. Unto you therefore that believe he is precious, but to them that are disobedient he is a stone of stumbling. To the Jew he is a stumbling-block, and to the Greek foolishWho would not covet to form one of this honoured minority? Better be saved with the few in the ark, than perish with the multitude in the waters. A heavy anathema rests upon those who love not the Son of God. If any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema. But immortal blessings are prepared for those who own him in a sinful world. They shall be mine, saith the Lord, in the day when I make up my jewels.

2. This principle of grateful love to Christ is often found where you might perhaps least expect it.

He was a SAMARITAN; they were JEWS. His religious pretensions would have been mocked and disowned of them, but a moment before. But here, as in many other cases, the last is first, the first is last. You often find that those who are most favourably situated, planted in a fruitful soil, sharing the dews of heaven, and the smiles of the Sun of Righteousness, appear like the barren fig-tree in the well-watered garden of the Lord; while others, who seem without culture, without opportunities, and without a hope, show, under the influences of converting grace, the signs of life and the promise of fruit, and being taken out of the wilderness, and planted in the house of the Lord, flourish in the courts of our God, and bring forth fruit to old age. The children of religious parents, the subjects of many prayers, forsake the guide of their youth, and the covenant of their God, while those from a distance are brought nigh, and the sons of strangers are raised up to be children of Abraham. Many shall come from the east and west, and sit down with Abraham, but the children of the kingdom are cast out, as the result of final impenitence and unbelief.

3. Where love to Christ really exists in the bosom, the proofs and indications of it will be visible." He fell on his face at his feet, giving him thanks."

It may, with great truth, be affirmed that, though there is often the appearance of godliness without the reality, there can scarcely be the reality without the appearance. All powerful emotions seek their appropriate expressions. We cannot easily be silent respecting the physician, who has recovered us from disease; the deliverer, who, at the peril of his life, has saved us from shipwreck; or the generous benefactor, who has kept us from a dungeon: much less respecting the Saviour who has delivered us from the wrath to come. We cannot but speak, said the apostles, the things we have seen and heard :” had they put such a force on their nature through the day, they would have uttered them in their dreams! Love will express itself. Mary breaks the alabaster-box. Peter draws his sword in defence of Jesus. Joseph brings precious spices to embalm him. 4. It is noticed and approved by Christ himself.

III. CONSIDER OUR OWN CHARACTER AND CONDUCT AS CERTAINLY ILLUSTRATED BY ONE OR OTHER OF THESE PARTIES.

Do we resemble the nine Jews, or the one Samaritan? Alas! who will not say, we have not rendered again according to the benefits we have received? Do we not often resemble Gehazi, who was covetous for gifts he did not really want, rather than Naaman, who, under the influence of grateful emotion, was anxious to dedicate all he had to the service of the God of Israel? Do we not say with Judas, "Wherefore is all this waste?" rather than aim like Mary to break the alabaster-box of precious ointment over the head of Jesus, while the incense of her heart went up with it? Who of us deserves the high encomium, pronounced by our Lord himself upon that noble-minded woman, She hath done what she could? Alas! it was not much she could do. She could not stem the prejudices of the multitude, nor silence the clamours of the priests: she could not prevent the treason of Judas, nor protect her Lord from the cruelty of Herod she could not save him from the ignominy of the cross, nor pull out one thorn from the crown that should so soon

pierce his sacred temples. But what she could, she did. She embalmed his head with the costly oil against his burying, and thus paid him the highest tribute of her reverence and her love. It was not much that this poor Samaritan did-but he fell at his Master's feet, and glorified God, and gave thanks-and you know who has said, It is accepted-where there is first a willing mind-according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not.

How often has God to ask, Where are the nine? What a contrast is there between the agony of our prayers, in times of severe affliction, and the languor of our subsequent praises, when God has recovered us from suffering! How often, like Jacob, do we require to be reminded of our vow, and enjoined to erect our altar of memorial! How few, like Hannah, faithfully consecrate to the service of God the child which they have received from him, in answer to prayer! How seldom is restored health devoted to the honour of God, according to the tenour of the vows made in sickness! On the contrary, men too often rush back again into the world, with accelerated ardour, as though determined to make up for the time lost in seclusion from it! How many resemble Hezekiah, who, when he left the chamber of sickness, "rendered not again according to the benefits done unto him!" "Where are the nine ?"

Even in reference to those who hope that they have been recovered from the greater leprosy and plague of sin, how few retain through life the first and fervent emotions which prompted the warm exclamation of the renewed heart, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? How few of those who attend the ministry, and profess to have derived spiritual advantage from it, come forward before the church, and subscribe with their hands to the Lord! Look at the small number, compared with the multitudes that hear the gospel, who surround the sacramental table, to take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. Look at the weekly evening lectures, and the scanty attendants upon seasons for social prayer, and religious conference; and may we not ask, in the name of the great Master of assemblies, Where are the nine?

APPLICATION. We learn from this subject,

:

1. That we are warranted to apply to Christ under those moral maladies which are hopeless of relief from any other quarter. The poor leper knew no other source of help in the disease under which he laboured and under the more awful malady of sin, there is but one deliverer known. To him the burdened sinner may repair, and say, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Say with David, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

2. That no application made to Christ, the great Physician, by faith and prayer, can ever be made in vain. "He healed all that came unto him ;" and still declares, “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out."

3. That a life and conversation answerable to our obligations to redeeming mercy, is the best evidence of our having received the salvation of the gospel.

Lastly, That whilst we deplore the feebleness of our gratitude, and the imperfection of our songs of thankfulness, we may well rejoice in the anticipation of a world of praise-a world in which praise is no longer silent, as it is too often here.

Perhaps as the tuneful tribes are dumb through the winter season, only to fill the woods with melody in the returning spring, we, who have often been sinfully silent through the desolate period of our earthly sojourn, shall in the new and nobler spring that awaits us, pour forth our unceasing praises to the eternal author of our felicity. The arrears of gratitude, which have been long accumulating on earth, shall be paid in heaven, when our harps shall be taken from the willows, and we shall awake to the contemplation of the full amount of the obligations we have incurred. No voice will be then exempt, no harp unstrung, but every sharer of redeeming mercy will adore, with the gratitude of happiness, the author of his salvation. They sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, crying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain."