Let US mark, secondly, in these verses, how help meets men in the path of obedience. We are told that when the lepers cried to our Lord, He only replied, " Go show your- selves to the priests." He did not touch them and command their disease to depart. He prescribed no medicine, no washing, no use of outward material means. Yet healing power accompanied the words which He spoke. Belief met the afflicted company as soon as they obeyed His command. '^ It came to pass that as they went they were cleansed."
A fact like this is doubtless intended to teach us know- ledge. It shows us the wisdom of simple, childlike obedience to every word which comes from the mouth of Christ. It does not become us to stand still, and reason, and doubt, when our Master's commands are plain and nnmistakeable. If the lepers had acted in this way they would never have been healed. We must read the Scriptures diligently. We must try to pray. We must attend on the public means of*grace. All these are duties which Christ requires at our hands, and to which, if we love life, we must attend, without asking vain and captious questions. It is just in the path of unhesitating obedience that Christ will meet and bless us. ''If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine." (John vii. 17.)
Let us mark, lastly, in these verses, what a rare thing is ihankfaJness. We are told that of all the ten lepers ^whom. Christ healed, there was only one who turned back and gave Him thanks. The words that fell from our Ixnrd's lips upon this occasion are very solemn : " Were there not ten cleansed P But where are the nine P