The lesson before us is humbling, heart-searching, and deeply instructive. The best of us are far too like the nine lepers. We are more ready to pray than to praise, and more disposed to ask God for what we have not, than to thank Him for what we have. Murmurings, and complainings^ and discontent abound on every side of us. Few indeed are to be found who are not continually hiding their mercies under a bushel, and setting their wants and trials on a hill. These things ought not so to be. But all who know the church and the world must confess that they are true. The wide-spread thanklessness of Christians is the disgrace of our day. It is a plain proof of our little humility.
Let us pray daily for a thankful spirit. It is the spirit which God loves and delights to honour. David and St. Paul were eminentiy thankful men. — It is the spirit which has marked all the brightest saints in every age of the church. M'Cheyne, and Bickersteth, and Haldane Stewart, were always fall of praise. — It is the spirit which is the very atmosphere of heaven. Angels and "just men made perfect" are always blessing God. — It is the spirit which is the source of happiness on earth. If we would be careful for nothing, we must make our requests known to God not only with prayer and supplication, but with thanksgiving. (Phil. iv. 6.)
Above all, let us pray for a deeper sense of our own sinfulness, guilt, and undeserving. This, after all, is the true secret of a thankful spirit. It is the man who daily feels his debt to graoe, and daily remembers that in reality he deserves nothing but hell, — this is the man who