"And Jesus answering, said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And He said unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole."

Hitherto, the tale has contained a picture of human feelings and conduct. Here we see how God regards them. Were there not ten cleansed? Observe the tone of sorrowful surprise (if I may so term it) in which our Lord seems to remark the difference between the solitary voice of gratitude, and the former chorus of prayer. Where are the nine? Has a miraculous cure been effectual only to prove their thanklessness? Have they not one word of thanks, one thought of gratitude in their happiness, who in their distress could cry so loud, could call me Master, and beseech my mercy? But for thee, poor Samaritan stranger, I have comfort and blessing. Thou hast faith; for gratitude for blessing, such as thine, is faith. Go thy way. As thy heart is whole with God, God hath accepted thee.

But here observe one very important point. All the lepers were cleansed alike; one of them only had faith, and Christ says to him that his faith had made him whole. How, we are disposed to ask, can this be? Christ cleansed them all, without inquiring, apparently without knowing, whether they had faith or no; and then, when one of them returned, and shewed his faith by his gratitude, He

said unto him," Thy faith hath made thee whole." I cannot tell how the question is to be answered; certainly it is not a satisfactory answer to it to suppose, as is sometimes done, that all the ten lepers had faith to be healed, and that nine of them had this faith without any grace of gratitude; besides, that our Lord's words seem expressly to mean that the Samaritan alone had faith. It is better not to attempt to explain away, and, perhaps, it is impossible for us to understand clearly how God's free grace gives, and yet faith in some manner wins blessing; and how, in other cases, privilege may be bestowed, and yet be void and profitless without faith. Yet, though we cannot understand this, we can understand how remarkably like to this is our condition, as Christians, in this world.

For we all were, in one sense, as lepers in the sight of God, alienated, that is, and separated by the foul taint of sin from God, and God's children. By His kind and merciful direction, we were bidden to go and shew ourselves to the priests; our parents took us to the holy font of baptism, and from the hand of God's priests we received the outward admission of water into Christ's Church, which is the earnest of inward blessing. But, though so baptized, so blessed, so cleansed, it still remains with us to choose our part with the nine Jews, or with the one Samaritan,-to be negligent or thankful, to be worldly or holy, to be proud and careless, or

humble, and full of prayer. And, if we persevere in prayer, and humble well-doing, striving to please God by charity and piety, Christ will surely say to us, as He did to this poor Samaritan, "Your faith hath made you whole." We shall not then need to ask, how it can be that our faith can save or make us whole from sin, at the same time that our salvation is purchased by the death of Christ, and our sanctification is the work of the Holy Ghost. We shall be content to know that "he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not," whether he be baptized or not, "shall be condemned."

But whatever interpretation may be put upon the actual words of this narrative, the general lesson to be derived from it is obvious and striking. We are cleansed from sin by God's grace: are we then, as the nine, careless and thankless in our state of privilege and hope; or, as the Samaritan, full of anxious gratitude and love to God for what He hath done for us?

Alas! it is easy to talk of gratitude, and to warm our feelings up to a momentary excitement of thankfulness. But do our lives shew that we are grateful? That is the only testimony, worth any regard, of the reality of our dispositions. Feelings are sudden, and precarious; words are fictitious, and easily borrowed; deeds, habitual deeds alone, our visible lives alone may be relied upon, to prove whether we are turning back to glorify God, whether

our faith is saving us, as it cleansed this poor Samaritan. We read of these nine lepers, and are apt to take it for granted that they were much more careless and indifferent, than we should have been, if we had been so cured; like the Jews of our Lord's time, who flattered themselves that if they had lived in the time of their fathers they would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. We always put ourselves in the situation of the good characters, in all the narratives we read of; but might not Christ say of us, might He not say of far too many Christians, Where are the nine? Where are almost all of those who shared in the holy sacrament of baptism, who live in the midst of the means of grace, who even pride themselves on the possession of Christian privileges? Where are those hundreds and thousands, who every year have been washed with the water of regeneration, cleansed by God's mercy, placed within the hope of Heaven, the state of salvation? Alas! how many are busy with their gain, how many with their pleasure; how many are indifferent, and how many thankless!

Most men's lives are less holy than their convictions. This arises, to speak generally, from the strength of desire, and the weakness of religious principle; but there is no single cause which produces this effect more commonly than the fear of singularity. A man, by a fearless profession of earnestness in religion, however modestly and cau

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tiously made, puts himself into an invidious position. His conduct is narrowly watched; the slightest failing, or whatever may be interpreted as a failing, seized upon with avidity, by those who have an interest in believing that they are as good as their neighbours. Besides, a man by so doing commits himself to a strict and holy life more completely than most people are disposed to do. These causes, united, operate most powerfully in checking that simple avowal of Christian principle, and strict carrying out of it in life, which all in their inward hearts know to be right. It is a far easier thing to be among the nine, to follow a multitude, especially when they go in the road of our own inclinations, than in the strength of conscience and holy resolution to walk in the opposite direction alone.

It is a great thing that we should come to perceive the danger of compromising the strictness of our duty by compliance with the ordinary sentiments and behaviour of other people, because we may thereby be set upon a closer watch over ourselves, and more anxious prayer for strength; and in the use of these means, as we all well know, is our only real hope of ultimate victory. Nor can I add any further general directions to those which the smallest acquaintance with Christian religion readily furnishes to all. But I would suggest to you one consideration. The instances in which we are tempted to forego our Christian duty