The “I Will” of Healing

Matthew viii. 2, 3 (Mark i. 41; Luke v. 13)

“And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

Our earthly friends do not like our putting them on very difficult tasks; they are not willing that we should throw heavy responsibility upon them. But herein is Jesus the friend that sticketh closer than a brother,” the friend of publicans and sinners,” different from all other friends and superior to them; He is willing to undertake the most difficult tasks for us; He does not shrink from any amount of responsibility. The darker our sky, the more luminously does His friendship shine; so that the believer may well triumph in his Lord, and cry, This is my beloved, and this is my friend, 0 daughters of Jerusalem.” Cant. V. 16. If any doubt the Saviour’s willingness to undertake a heavy responsibility, or a difficult task, on behalf of a poor sinner, let him hear that one great invitation which embraces every form of misery, and every one bending beneath its load, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest Matt. xi. 28^ there is no task too hard for the One who is able to save the world.

Many were the difficult tasks upon which the Lord Jesus Christ was put during His sojourn amongst men; the blind were brought to Him, to receive their sight; the dumb to be made to speak; and the deaf to hear; all manner of sicknesses were proposed to Him for cure; He refused not one; with a rich, free, powerful hand He cured them all. Do not all these mighty deeds unite in common testimony, and say, Poor, laden, stricken sinner, Jesus Christ, who did all these wonderful works, is the Saviour for thee

And here we have Christ allowing Himself to be put on a most difficult task, even the cure of a leper; the task was beyond all human power; the man Christ Jesus was the only One who could accomplish it; and so we find Him throwing open His sympathies to this poor afflicted creature, and that with the certainty that He did not raise any hope, which bye and bye He would be constrained to disappoint. Oh! blessed thought, Jesus never raises any false hope, Jesus never disappoints.

Now, let us think for a while over this wonderful cure of the leper; let us dwell upon his if thou wilt,” and upon the Lord Jesus Christ’s will,” and may the Holy Spirit enable us to gather up some blessed teachings for ourselves.

Our Lord had been preaching and healing, through Galilee, and was now returning to Capernaum. Strength had flowed from His word, and healing from His touch, in His progress from place to place, and His steps had left prints of light wherever they fell, whether on the road way, the hamlet, or the town; for in every place men sought Him, and healing by Him and found all that they desired. And now that Jesus is returning, mercy must mark His incoming even as it did His outgoing; and so this poor leper is found in His path, his measure of faith no doubt imperfect, but the love of Jesus, beyond all measure, perfect; and according to the perfection that is in Christ, the man finds his cure.

It may be,’’ as Kitto says, that the lepers had heard of Christ; that they had seen Him afar off; that they had talked to each other of His great doings, in their isolated communities; and as they recounted the wonders of mercy He had wrought, that they shook their sad heads, and remarked one to another, that He had not yet cured a leper; and asked, who since the days of Elisha had ever heard of a leper being cured? But there was one poor man who suffered a ray of hope to enter into his heart, and being entered, he nourished it, until it grew into faith. The more he thought upon the miraculous cures of which he had heard, the more ho felt that in the prophet of Galilee dwelt a power such as the world had not before known, and which it were idle to limit to leprosy. Yes! He could cure him, hntzvould He do so.^ Would he deign even to look upon an object so loathsome and so vile? Would He not rather, as scores of famous teachers and learned doctors had done, warn him from His path as a pollution? The poor leper may be forghen this doubt; for his affliction had not allowed him to enter the cities in which Jesus taught, or to mix in the crowds that saw His miracles. He had not, therefore, been able to witness the divine compassion that so often beamed from the Saviour’s eyes or to hear the tender gentleness of those tones in which He spoke to the cast down and the miserable. Well then, J esus could doubtless heal him; and it remained to be seen if He were willing. He could at least try. He lost nothing, nothing, alas! but hope, if he were repelled: he gained much if he were accepted. This concluded, there remained yet the difficulty of getting access to His presence. He could not go into any town to seek Him; nor could he, to approach Him, enter the crowds by which He was usually in public surrounded. There was but one course, and this was, to wait upon the road leading to Capernaum, when the return of Jesus was expected, and to accost Him, as He went by with His disciples. He went, ho waited, and doubt not that his unleprous heart beat in audible throbs, when he at length beheld the near approach of One who might deliver him from the horrible bondage in which he had lain so long. He advanced towards our Lord as He came nigh, and laying his head low in the dust before Him, he cried, Lord, if Thou wilt. Thou canst make me clean.’ Oh! the agonizing suspense of the moment that followed! But it was not protracted. A replying voice, that went at once to his heart, and filled it with rapture, said, ‘ I will;’ and our Saviour, moved with deep compassion, put forth His hand and touched him — him, whom no unleprous hand had touched for years; and the same voice, which never left the memory more, said to him, Be thou clean!’ At that word a change passed over him, he felt new blood tingle through his veins, he felt the fiush of healthy life in all his tainted members; he knew that the leprosy had passed from him. and he stood up cleansed enfranchised restored to his family and friends and to all the blessings of social life.’’ “*

This description sufficiently graphic, may give us a correct account of exactly how this leper came into the immediate presence of the Lord; enough for us that he is now there; our teaching is to be from what subsequently happens.

The leper, having thrown himself into a position of lowliest reverence, worshipping Jesus, addresses Him at once upon the subject of his misery; his address was short; none of the three evangelists, by whom the narrative is given, tells us of his having said anything more than the one sentence which we are considering now, Lord, if Thou wilt. Thou canst make me clean.“” We are glad that the leper”s petition is so concentrated; perhaps it would not have so much teaching for us if it had been more diffused.

The whole onus is here thrown on Jesus; the man says, I am miserable, I am ready, and Thou art able;“” one thing only was wanting, and about that the leper was not altogether sure — it was Jesus” will; and so he challenged that; this was a happy word — it secured the cure. Let us examine, in something of order, what this leper did, when he thus threw himself upon the will of Jesus.

In the first place, he deeply touched the sympathies of Christ. Saint Mark, with one of those little touches peculiar to himself, tells us, that Jesus was moved with compassion there was a spring in the Saviour“s mind which the word of supplication touched; a fountain, the * Kitto’s “Life and Death of our Lord,” p. 262. waters of which it unsealed; a fire which it caused to glow; the leper threw himself upon the innermost tenderness of Christ’s nature; and the whole being of our Lord answered to the touch. There was no question of poioer to be solved or proved; the method of the appeal left no room for argument; the leper’s words, as they passed into the depths of Christ’s loving nature, which alone was invoked, cut a passage for themselves, through which the healing waters could flow; the response was instant — “if Thou wilt” — will.”

And bear in mind, dear reader, that Jesus still has sympathies; He is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever;” in Him there is “no variableness or shadow of turning we also must appeal to the sympathies of our Lord. In Hebrew iv. 15, we are told, that we have not a high-priest which can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities oh! no, such a hard and stern high-priest would be of little use to us, who are in circumstances to need sympathy continually. For, setting apart for a moment such deep need as this of the leper — fundamental need, touching even life itself — is not our daily life full of little needs, of needs which have more to do with sympathy than anything else? Have we not, insensibly it may be, still continuously, to fall back upon the sympathies of those who are around us? Are we not dependent for our comfort rather upon their will than their power — upon the tenderness of sympathetic feeling rather than the display of great resources and strength.^ Sympathy is the heart’s load-stone, silent, mysterious, all-powerful, attracting to it all forms of misery, and imparting to it its very self; and such is the sympathy in the heart of Jesus.

And do not be afraid dear reader to make a claim upon these sympathies of J esus because you think that your present case is not one of such deep importance as the leper’s. Life is made up of little things, and if Jesus can not sympathize with us in little things, then, instead of living ever close to Him, and ever in communion with Him, we must spend the greatest part of our life away from Him. Jesus looks at things, not in their abstract, but in their relative importance, in the precise relationship which they bear to His people. A little scratch, at which a surgeon would laugh, may be productive of great suffering to persons of some constitutions; J esus, the great Physician will take the constitution into account, and give His sympathies, not according to appearances, but according to our need; He seeth not as man seeth He is “of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, and shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears Isa. xi. 3. Was not Jesus touched with sympathy at that wedding feast, at Cana of Galilee, when His mother said to Him, they have no wine Yes, He was; then He felt how the bridegroom would be put to shame at such scant provision, on this, the day when every one brought forth his best; then He felt how the pleasure of this, one of life’s brightest and most joyous days, would be marred, if threadbare poverty were thus rudely and unexpectedly to intrude; there was no absolute need for J esus to shew His power; no harm, so far as we can see, would have ensued from there being too little wine; but Christ’s sympathy was touched; far was it from Him to wish to see a cloud float across the horizon of this short passing day of earthly bliss; He was at that festive board a sympathetic guest; and so He turned their water into wine; such wine as man had never drunk before.

Surely this sympathetic Saviour is the very one for us; and what are we but foolish neglecters of the mighty power which Jesus Himself has put into our hands if we fail to use this sympathy of our Lord? In giving us access to His sympathy, J esus has bared to us the very secret of His being; He has privileged us to pass beyond all outer courts into the very holy place itself. Be not afraid then, dear friend, to appeal to the sympathies of your Lord; the relationship of sympathy admits of all sorts of little things; rather be afraid of stripping yourself by unbelief of this privilege; for if you throw aside this privilege; if you view it just as a j)iece of sentimentality, and nothing else, what ground will you go upon when you come to Christ for help? Will you come upon His justice, and power, and so forth? No; you will feel the disproportion between your little wants, cand these vast attributes, and the consequence will be, that you will keep many of your necessities from Him, you will try to bear many of your trials unbefriended and alone. Heaven’s choice gift will have been left unused, and you have been left unblest.

In thus touching the great spring of Jesus’ sympathy, we must observe. The Confession and the ‘painful display of In man infirmity made by this poor leper. All this was brought before Jesus in the one word clean.”

Thou canst make me clean.” The man was in a state of living death; unclean life” was his portion. Those who wish to know what leprosy really was, can refer to the note at the end of this volume, in which they will find it with appalling minuteness; it is sufficient for us here to consider that this poor man led a burdened life a suffering life and one of conscious misery; all this was surely enough to make him an earnest suitor for the blessings which Christ could give.

Burdened life!’” We hear men sometimes say, My life is a burden to me the leper, surely, might pre-eminently have said this; morning by morning he awoke to the realization of misery, night by night he lay down without a hope; his life dragged wearily along, and there was no spring in his existence, nothing but the heavy, even crushing of his daily burden of disease. If there be any of us leading such a burdened life as this, what can we do better than come with it before Jesus, and say, If thou wilt, thoucanst” take this load off my soul? His own blessed words seem peculiarly to invite us to do this. He says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Our blessed Lord might be truly said, in many respets, to have led a burdened life Himself; how could He have borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows,” (Is. liii. 4,) without feeling the pressure of the load? Let us look at the absence of sympathy, at the perverseness even of His own disciples, at His physical sufferings. His long watchings, and all, in fact, that goes to make up the history of His life amongst men on earth; and how is it possible to think of that life, otherwise than a burdened one All who are thus suffering may come to Jesus, and make use of this if thou wilt if you have to say with Job, I am a burden to myself chap. vii. 20; or with the psalmist, Mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me:” Ps. xxxviii. 4; or with the apostle, We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened 2 Cor. v. 4; Jesus meets you all with His offer, Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden; my yoke is easy, my burden is light.’’ And let us suppose for a moment, that your chief trouble is only this sense of being burdened; that deep depression is the characteristic of your whole spiritual system; that you have no great external sores to exhibit; oh! do not think that Jesus will not enter into this form of misery. He knows what depression is; in Gethsemane He began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy,” His soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death Mark xiv. 33, 34. And when you, dear reader, plead your burden. He will remember His burden, and will do for you whatever your case requires.

The like may be said of suffering. This poor leper had something more than his dead weight of misery to contend with; he felt the corroding influence of the leprosy eat into every part of his diseased frame. All this he now brings before Jesus; it is all comprehended in the petition, Thou canst make me clean.” There are times when we lead the life of many years in a few moments; and so there are expressions, and sentences, in which we wrap up a multitude of thoughts; thus is it here; no doubt the leper concentrated into this interview the energies of many years; no doubt also he concentrated into this petition the story of many miseries; concentration on his part as the petitioner, and on Christ’s as the gran ter, are a chief characteristic of this scene. Let us follow His example in whatever sufferings come upon us; all classes and forms of suffering were brought before Jesus in His sojourn on the earth; let them be brought before Him also, now that He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God in heaven; trouble, sorrow, need, may be brought, as well as gold, franldncense, and myrrh. Oh! poor sorrowful one, do not think that your sorrows will be out of j)lace in the presence of Jesus; do not mark this one bringing Jesus his service, and this other one his money, and yet again this other one the joyous praise of his bounding heart, whilst you have nothing but your sufferings; bring them; they also are acceptable when they are brought in faith; they will give Jesus a fresh opportunity of being gracious. He who has any need has therein something to bring to Christ; it is only he who believes that he has no need in himself, and therefore no need of Jesus, that had better stay away. And mark.

The conscious misery of this poor leper. That was another great characteristic of his life. By no possibility could that afflicted man shake off the consciousness of his wretchedness; it was stereotyped upon his flesh; it pervaded the very marrow of his bones, it was ingrained in him, so as to be a very part and parcel of himself; no doubt the one absorbing thought of his whole being was this, I am a leper.” Surely, it is exactly with such persons that the Saviour has to do; when He sees a poor creature coniing to Him, and saying, Behold, I am vile Job xi. 4; acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me Ps. li. 3; The crown is fallen from our head, woe unto us, that we have sinned Lam. v. 16; then He sees one for whom He can do something; He sees a conscious emptiness, which is, in point of fact, a capacity for receiving what He has to give. So far, then, from being downcast at a consciousness of our misery, and above all SO far from trying to get rid of it by diverting our attention to other things, let us rather be incited by it to come into the presence of Jesus; our consciousness of misery will appeal to His consciousness, to His memory, His sympathy, all, all that can work in our behalf. This was on the leper’s part,

A ‘painful display of human infirmity, Ho doubt he felt it very much himself; he was not accustomed to come near people; the company which he had for a long time been obliged to keep was that of his fellow lepers; and now he had to make a full display of his disease before the Lord; if he came to Christ at all, he must come with his leprosy; and this he did.

Dear reader, let us bear in mind that we must ever come with our sins or sorrows; and if we do not choose to bring them with us, we must stay away; for we can never get rid of them ourselves. How many mistakes have been made on this point, not only by those who are trying to make themselves a little better, and somewhat acceptable before they come to Christ for the first time, but also by God’s own dear j)eople when they have fallen into sin. Their sin is now fresh, and clear, and sharp, and well-defined before their mind’s eye; and instead of bringing it at once to God, they wait until they have, as they think, repented enough; or gained some victory in the very point in which they have been overcome. And when this is the case, men are not bringing before the Lord their guilt, but rather the palliations of their guilt; not the deep demerit of their offences, but the merit of their repentance for them, or their efforts against them. All this is a grand mistake; let us do our best with sin in any form, we cannot make it look otherwise than what it really is, i, e., exceeding sinful f we had much better bring it all as it is; we cannot hide from it, or diminish it, by any effort that we make. The Lord’s dealings with all these efforts at hiding are very marked. Hear hov, sharjjly He speaks in Isaiah xxviii. 14, &c., Therefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, we have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: therefore thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste. J udgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the

Waters shall overflow the hiding place for the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.” “Mine eyes,” says the Lord, in Jeremiah xvi. 17, “are upon all their ways, they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from Mine eyes.” Incalculable evil has been done by our attemjDting to modify our guilt, to clothe our nakedness, to make less pitiable our appearance before God; and this evil is often suffered by the Lord’s people. Insensibly the wicked One puts repentance and moral efforts in the place of plain, quick, and unadorned confession, and the consequence is bad; henceforth let our experience be that of the Psalmist, I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Psalm xxxii. 5. This is the way to blessing, to being enabled to say with him, Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble, Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.’” The worst display which we can make of our misery, Lills far short of all that J esus already knows about it; we gain nothing, we lose much, by every effort to extenuate or conceal. Now may we pass over.

The bringing into immediate conjunction the darkness of the ‘present distress and the brightness luhich would folloio if Jesus only willed to put forth His power and heal. Deep dark shadows and bright glorious lights are brought here into a proximity which no painter would venture on, whatever might be his skill. Thou canst make me (and look what I am) clean.” (Oh! think what I might be made!) This contrast the leper brought before the mind of Jesus, when he presented himself with his leprosy, and asked for a cure; but the contrast was no doubt still more powerfully presented before Him by the omniscience of His own mind. There, before Him, lay the leprous creature in the dust; let Him but speak the word, and he would rise from it no longer with a scaly skin, but with skin like that of a little child; no longer an outcast from his fellow men, but one whom every one might embrace; no longer the bondsman of disease, but the freedman of health; if the Son did but set him free, he should be “free indeed.” And thus let each distressed one bring his case before the Saviour, saying, See what I am, see what Thou mayest make me.” Oh! Jesus knows the power of contrast well; He only knows the intense depth of the shadows of darkness; He only the exceeding brightness of heavenly light; and if we are constrained to say to Him, I am in darkness, oh! give me light,’’ He knows the depth of the meaning of those words, far better than we do ourselves; He will act in the power of the contrast as it is presented to His own mind. How wonder-working, how transforming is that power! Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor eflPeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. vi. 9 — 11. There is a contrast; and we have another painted for us by our Lord himself, in Luke xv. When He shows us the prodigal, who a little while ago was amid the swine, now clothed in the best robe, with a ring on his finger, and shoes on his feet, no longer filling his belly with the husks which the swine did eat, but feasting upon the fatted calf, which had been killed in honor of his return.

Is it not comforting to think that this powerful contrast is presented before the mind of Jesus, that it is brought before His benevolence; that He thinks, I know what this man is, I know what I can make him to be Oh! it is well for us that Christ knows so much more about us than we know about ourselves; let us bear this in mind, whatever be our plague, when we come before Him, and say like the leper of old, If Thou wilt. Thou canst make me clean.”

There is one more thought suggested to our minds by the leper’s words If Thou wilt,” and it is this: —

A Idnd of obligation was here throion upon Jesus to be gracious. The method of the leper’s appeal might have no weight with us but it had with Jesus and perhaps a little thought will explain the reason why.

The obligation flowed (1.) out of Christ’ s very mission. It was part of the mission of the Lord to heal the sick not merely as a physician would do without any ulterior object, but amongst other reasons, as an evidence of His good will to man — as a type in which was wrapped up the pledge of a higher healing — the healing of that deadly leprosy of sin, of which the disease now in question was pre-eminently the type. Christ must not allow it to be said of Him, that He sent any one away who came to him in faith and need. He filled the hungry with good things; it was only those who were rich in their own eyes, that He sent empty away. Shall not we also in all our need make use of the known mission of our Lord? Shall not Ave say to Him, Oh, Thou blessed One, didst Thou not come to seek, and to save that which was lost? Didst Thou not come to bind up the broken-hearted? Didst Thou not manifest Thyself to attract all misery to Thyself? Thy mission was to the weak, the Aveaiy, and the heavy laden, and such am I. Fulfill, 0 my Saviour, Thy mission to me!” And Jesus will do this; He will see in thee, poor afflicted one, a fit object for His work; when thou challengest Him with a holy faith and boldness, to fulfill His mission in thee, and in thy needs. He will not — He cannot send thee empty away; for thee Christ hath an “I will — and His I will” is this: Be thou clean.”

But we are not limited to the obligation which Christ has graciously caused to hang as a natural consequent upon His mission; we may throw ourselves also (2.) upon that lohicli ‘proceeds from His very nature. The Lord of life and glory loves to put many toils close to men’s hands wherewith they may bind Him and hold Him fast.

We know what is the nature of our Lord; all that He ever said and did goes to show that He is full of compassion and love; he has revealed that nature to us in order that we may use it; and so any poor affiicted one may come in his need, and say, 1 know Thee, who Thou art,” yea, 1 know Thee, what Thou art; Thou art kind in Thyself; 0 be kind to me.” If you touch a harpstring it will vibrate and give forth its own peculiar tone; if you touch the nature of your Lord, it also will give forth its own peculiar voice; it is from an inner depth there will come forth the sound you want to hear, — Christ’s great I will,” the gift of what you need.

Yet once more, (3.) the Lord by His previous acts has furnished us ‘with grounds both for argument and encouragement. We make much of precedents in life; we base calculations upon them in mercantile transactions; we raise arguments upon them in courts of law; and many of our own reasonings are insensibly based upon them; and why should we leave them unused in our spiritual life? Oh! there is great power in the fact, that Jesus did so-and-so; He never acted upon the caprice of the moment; there was a reason for everything He did; the principles out of which His actions flowed in former years, are the same now; like effects will flow out of like causes: let us use what Jesus did, as well as what Jesus said. You may use His acts, thus, in prayer.

Oh Thou who didst still the wildness of the tempest and walk upon the troubled sea walk upon the troubled waters of my soul and calm the agitation there. Oh Thou who didst feed the famishing multitude look upon this my low estate of hunger (either of body or of soul)andfeedme even as Thou didst feed them and let me have enough and to spare. Oh Thou who didst restore the withered hand, mark the paralysis that there is over me, infuse fresh life into me; bid this withered part be whole V’ Thus might we follow our Lord though all the doings of His life, pleading well-established precedents in all our times of need; and He will never, by denying us, practically repudiate what he has formerly done; He will shew Himself to be the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever; and perhaps speak to us and say, Knowest thou so well what I have done? then thou shalt know also what I can do.’’’ Then will follow the great will the herald of the blessed words; the pledge that we shall receive what we require.

Thou canst.”

Whatever measure of ignorance or even unbelief, there might have been in this poor leper with regard to Christ’s loilly there seems to have been none with reference to Christ’s power. There was a great difference between the “canst” of this leper, and that of the father whose son was afflicted with the fierce and dumb spirit. When he described his need to Jesus, he said, “but if Thou canst do anything have compassion on us, and help us,” (Mark ix. 22,) and mark the answer which J esus gave him: He did by him just as He did by the leper — took him exactly where He found him; the man said, if Thou canst do anything;” Jesus answered, “if thou canst believe’’ — the poor leper said Thou canst f and Jesus said Be thou clean.”

There was in this leper a recognition of the existence of secret springs of power in Jesus; without that, all would have been of no avail; there was here a strong substratum of faith, whatever shiftings and inequalities there may have been upon the surface.

Is not this precisely the case with many in the present day? They believe in the power of Jesus, though they are uncertain about His will; but perhaps they do not believe in His power in altogether the same way as the leper before us now. He doubtless must have believed in its secret springs; he knew how his blood and very being were interpenetrated with disease; he knew that Jesus could send through them a healing power which would altogether reverse his curse. It is thus that all who come to Christ for healing should believe in His power: you must believe that His power is unlike all others — that it has secret and irresistible methods of operation — that it has ways of doing everything that is to be done. The leper recognised the power that was exactly suited to his case: so, dear reader, let it be with you; see a power, not only which can do a great many other great things, but, what is far more to the purpose, which can do what you require.

And we must not fail to observe that there is deep importance in the repetition of the word Thou” — if

Thou’’ li Thou’’ canst. Leprosy was curable by divine interposition alone; the skill of the physician, the healing influences of the most precious herbs, could not remove even a single one of its hideous scabs, or purify a single drop of its tainted blood — there lived no physician on earth to whom the leper might have applied and said Thou’’ — thoucanst do something for me. It may have been that there was a peculiar emphasis in the unhappy man’s expression of that word Thou that all his faith his hope the terrible energy of his whole beings now moved to its very depths, threw their mighty strength into this single word, and Jesus felt the whole weight of the man’s need and hope thrown upon Himself alone. Here was a recognition of His ability to put forth divine power; the man’s need demanded this and nothing less. And is it not thus, dear reader, that the poor sinner is brought before his Lord? is he not taught the great truth, that none can do anything for him, but Jesus Christ alone? his eye is turned upon an individual, and that individual — Jesus.

Oh! it is a matter of the utmost importance that there should be One to whom the sinner can say, “Thou” — an individual upon whom he can fix his eye, and centre all his hope. Such a one is Christ; and as such. He desires to present Himself to our view. An example of this we find in the raising of Lazarus: (John xi.) our blessed Lord associates His disciples with Himself in the journey into Judaea: Then, after that, saith He to His disciples, let ^ls go into Judeea again verse 7; they were His companions and friends, and had a common sympathy with Him in the bereavement at Bethany — a common sympathy!” so far as any, who were mere men, could have community of sympathy ’ with Him. There is much grace dropping from the lips of Jesus in the use of this word us but when the invitation of sympathy is to be exchanged for the declaration of power, the us” is changed to I and the Lord of life and glory stands upon the scene supreme majestiCj and alone! It is were the words He spake as He moved upon the face of the waters: (Matt. xiv. 27.)

I’ go that I may awake him out of sleep,” are His words as He announces His intention of raising Lazarus from the dead.

It is true there were disciples accompanying Jesus; they were around Him and followed Him but they were nothing; the eye of faith must fix upon the central figure alone by whom anything could be done. As it was on this occasion of the raising of Lazarus so also is it now; the leper fixes all his attention on Jesus. A divine power was as much needed for healing the leprosy as for raising the dead; and just as Martha said But I know that even now whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee verse 22. So the leper says, a jp wilt, Thou canst make me clean.”

We cannot overstate the importance of a man’s looking at Christ personally for all he needs. Jesus says,

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give yon rest His complaint against the Jews was, “And ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.” This Thou ’ of the leper is a distinctive Thou / if it was to be the Thou” of faith, it must of necessity be so, and in marking it thus, the leper found his cure.

May it be given to all who read this book, to look away from every one surrounding Jesus to Jesus Himself. How apt are men to allow themselves to be diverted by what one might call the surroundings of the Lord Jesus Christ; how much looking is there to ministers, preaching, and so forth; when one distinctive glance at Christ would be worth it all. Oh! never weary of saying, Thou — He has what you want, dear reader; tell Him you know He has it; tell Him you want it from Him, and He will give it. Press the Lord J esus hard with His personality; say not only, the thing can be done,” but Thou canst do it yea, more than that, Thou only canst do it,” and whatever be thy plague thou shalt certainly be made whole.

Let us not leave this part of our subject without saying a word or two upon the important little word If.“” What a volume might be written upon this little word, in all its various uses in Holy Scripture! but we do not propose to consider this “If“” as we should if we were giving it its particular place in such a volume, with all its distinctive teachings; we cannot, however, altogether pass it by.

Well to come even to a state of If “is not to be despised. There are some divines who would immediately raise a hue and cry after this little word, and hunt it forthwith to death. I too would join in the chase if I were sure of being able always to run it down; but I know from personal experience, and from the experience of others, that this little ^Hf“” can outlive an entire pack of the longest-winded sermons, and if it be brought to bay, can fight as stoutly for its life, as other words of more pretensions and weight.

I certainly do not mean to defend this word If for whatever evil there is in it, let it be condemned, and if there be any good in it, by that good let us be taught. And in truth, this little word, as used here, is a mixture of good and evil; it has but two letters, and yet it embodies two of the most powerful j)rinciples in the divine life namely, belief and unbelief; and it occupies this strange position, that it may be used powerfully as an exponent of either. Let us leave the bad side for the present, and turn for a moment to the good. Who can tell what processes this man’s mind may have gone through before he arrived at this “If How he had to struggle with the knowledge of the natural incurability of his disease, and with his consciousness of its power as felt in himself, and with all his past long season of despair, the links of whose iron chain had been riveted into him long, long ago, so that now they had become embedded in his soul. To be lifted up out of this despairing state, was no mean attainment in itself; and our Lord does not despise this “If” — Oh! no — He who knew what was in man, knew what was in this little word; He knew of what it was the exponent, and so He did not crush it;

The bruised reed did He not break, and the smoking flax did He not quench.”

Let us beware of crushing those whom we perceive to be defective in faith; if we will aim a blow with a poker at a fly that perches on the forehead, we run a great risk of knocking out the brains. Coarse dealings with spiritual deficiencies are productive of incalculable ill; they were never adopted by our Lord. Let us bless God that some of our friends can even get as far as an If perhaps the reader will have to bless God if he can get thus far himself; what must now be done is to draw out the moisture of unbelief out of the ^Hf,” to reduce its power, and to kindle up the latent spark of fire, which undoubtedly is here. Some persons come into the perfection of faith, not by any sudden and irresistible impulse of the Spirit but rather by a gradual process; the Spirit working out unbelief, and working in faith; He works upon all men severally as He will.

Be encouraged, 0 thou of little faith; thy Lord will not crush thee; He will take what is good in thine If’ to bless thee, and what is evil in thine If to instruct thee. An If may be the lisping of faith — the stammering effort to make a perfect sound, but God weighs it, and if in it He finds even a grain of faith. He will not refuse a blessing to the one in whom it is found. I will.”

Having considered thus far the leper’s condition of body and mind, we are now j)repared to hear the words of our Lord, — of Him of whom it may be truly said, Never man spake like this man.” Jesus said, I will.” Let us observe the majestic brevity of this; He comes immediately to the point, — If Thou wilt;” I will.” And blessed be God this is no long complicated matter; the will of Jesus is not entangled with a number of conditions; it is just the outpouring of Himself, flowing forth even as the waters of a fountain flow, without let or hindrance, by the simple impulse of their nature. Jesus comes to the point at once; to the very point to which He has been brought by the measure of the leper’s faith it was His will that the leper challenged, and it is the will that gives the response.

Is not this subject of bringing Christ to the point a very important one? Men dare not essay this with earthly monarchs; they have, as we say, to beat about the bush for a long time; perhaps they cannot make the great man understand, perhaps he is not willing to understand; but mark the condescension of the blessed Lord; He is willing to be brought to the point by even weak faith and He does not wander from it, — it heralds the leper’s cure.

Have you tried, dear reader, to bring the matter to an issue in the great affair of the cleansing of the soul, — to get Jesus to say, then and there, I Will If you have not, oh try it now — Jesus will always come up to the measure of our prayer. Are not some destitute of present peace, because they really have never sought it? you sought a cureat some future time, and perhaps, in seeking that, you received an answer, a good hope of being saved: but have you brought the Saviour to the j)oint of saving you now? If not, try Him, — the I will” that He spake to the leper, yea, all the I wills” in this book have not exhausted Him; He has been saying ‘^1 will” to poor sinners ever since He took up his seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high: He has got another I will” for you.

Observe, also, the comprehensiveness of it. We might have thought there was no necessity for Christ’s using those words, I will.” Could He not have taken up the point on which the leper was perfectly clear, viz.: His power, and healed him without any mention of his will? Did He not prove His will by working the miracle, and was not that enough? This might have been man’s plan, in whose brevity and business-like way of doing things something is frequently left undone. Brevity may be too brief; dogmatism may be too dogmatic; it is often as dangerous to say too little as too much. We think we can see good reasons for our Lord’s repeating the leper’s words, and declaring His w ill. I will, be thou clean.” Does He not here take up the very point of the suppliants doubt? Does He not apply Himself to strengthening the weak point? Does he not reveal the depths of his own loving nature? Does he not shew how His whole hearty inclination sympathy, and desire enter into the subject of the need of those who appeal to Him? We are thankful that those words have been spoken; we know now what the mind of Christ is towards a needy one: we see here an encouragement which is sufficient for us to go on, even if we had nothing else; when we are weak and trembling we can say to ourselves, He said I will.” “” This will,“” thus shown in the curing of the leper, is the same as that which brought the Saviour from heaven to earth, Psa. xl. 7 — the one Will which embraces, in its readiness to cure, all man“s lower as well as higher needs. Where the leper“s weak faith most needed a manifestation of what was in Christ, there He gave it, and the letter’s “If“” departed, doubtless to be heard no more again for ever.

Think too, dear reader, of the authoritative ‘power of this I will.“” It had a deeper meaning than assent, — it imjdied a will with power. And herein differs the will of Jesus from our mere human wills, in that He is always able to link His with power: if He say I will“” we may rest assured that it will be done. The resources of the Godhead are all in waiting upon the will of Christ. And what a prospect does this open out for us; how does it dispel all emptiness and formality; how does it assure us that there is a reality in the word of Christ — there are no mere forms with Him — His words are irresistible: might we not say of this will“” even what they did, who were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, ^AVhat a word is this!“” (Luke iv. 36.)

Be thou clean.”

Quick following upon the expression of Christ’s will, came the declaration of His power. No long interval of heart-sickening delay intervened between the declaration of mercy and the performance of it; Christ did not leave His work half done. He gave the command,

Be thou clean.” The cause of the leper’s disease was operated upon; the poisoned blood heard that word rolling its mighty sound over its sluggish tides, and festering sores, and whitened scales, and all the hideous developments of leprosy shrank before the wonderworking voice, and vanished before that healing breath. Then, dear reader, cannot we imagine how this poor man sprang up from the dust at his Deliverer’s feet; how, at the more than magic words, he felt the hideous monster, that had so long enthralled him, loose his foul hold, and depart, to return upon him no more? Oh! cannot we faintly picture to ourselves, how, under the influence of renovated life and new health, this poor fellow felt as though he could have almost flown, instead of walked, as he went, under the direction of his Saviour, to show himself to the priest? What painter could represent the gaze with which he looked at Jesus? what poet could perpetuate, in even the most flowing numbers, the music of his praise? what orator could imitate the impassioned utterance of his thanks? he who would succeed in doing this must not only be poet, orator, and painter, but a saved leper too! And now he is away to the priest; he speeds as doubtless he never sped before, but the way is also doubtless longer than ever it was before. Perhaps the leprous man has a wife to return to; who knows but that he had been stricken almost at her very side; fond memories of the past come crowding into the heart — the old soft words and sunny looks of healthy days, the sweet communion of love, ere he had to leave his home, bearing the leper’s brand upon his brow; and now he can clasp that wife to his arms once more, and feel her heart beat close to his; and they twain can be one again; and it may be that there come trooping into his mind the images of little ones who once clasped his knees, and twined their arms around his neck, sporting with him in that high holiday which children alone can make; it may be that there were brothers at home ready to grasp him by the hand, and that aged parents would totter forth upon their staves, to fall upon his neck and kiss him, their own long lost one, with flesh come up upon him again like the flesh of a little child. The Psalmist said, When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream Psalm cxxvi. 1. And now, in this substantial dream on speeds this almost breathless man to the priest. And what will he with the priest? there is no more healing needed; all that now he wants is the declaration that he is made whole. Happy leper, to have said, If thou wilt.” Happy leper, to have met with one who said, I will.”

I will,” Be thou’’ — mark Christ’s I,” giving; mark our ‘’Hhou’’ receiving; it is an epitome of the gospel; it is the one distinctive grouping of its flgures; the giver and receiver brought near together; the giver — Christ, and the receiver — man!