3. Men are apt to be thankless, when they do not see their benefactor. When this miracle was wrought upon the lepers, the Worker was out of sight. He had walked towards the village, and they, avoiding the village, were pursuing their way towards Jerusalem. At that moment of awe and blessing they did not see Him. No shadowy form hovered about them to remind them that He was present in power to heal them. No word like the
' Bishop Collins, in Life by A. J. Mason, 160.
ST. LUKE XVII. 17 331
" I will, be thou clean," which had healed the leper at Capernaum two years before, now fell upon their ears ; no hand was raised in benediction; and yet, minute by minute, the foul disease was disappearing, when or how they could not exactly tell: and at last they saw that they were healed. But the Healer Himself they did not see ; as now in His Church, so then, He was out of sight, even when His action was most felt and energetic. His words still lingered on their ears, but it was not impossible, amid the distractions of a new scene, to forget their import : and thus, out of the ten men, nine did forget it.
^ A strong man says in the pride of achievement, " Never since I was a boy have I been under obligation to any human being." Nonsense ! You are under obligation to a hundred unknown, lowly workers, and under obligation, too, to the greatest of mankind. You are debtor to the policeman on his beat, the deep sea fishermen off the banks, the stoker in the furnace-room of the ocean liner, the driver on the swift express or electric car, and the man who drops the fenders between the ferry-boat and the landing-stage ! Many years ago, Eudyard Kipling administered a rebuke to the swash-bucklers of Empire who, in time of disturb- ance, fawn upon the private soldier as though he were one of the immortal gods descended from Olympus, and then, when the war-drum has ceased for a time its feverish throbbing, treat the same man as though he were the offscouring of humanity. You remember :
Makin' mock at uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, and they're starvation cheap !^
III.
The Penalty of Ingkatitude.
Ingratitude closes the door against the deeper blessings of life. We cannot be wanting in this great duty of thankfulness without being untrue to the law of our existence — without the worst results upon ourselves. For what is thankfulness such as God demands but that which is at the bottom of all human excellence — the frank acknowledgment of truth ? As prayer is a recogni- tion of our dependence upon God amid the darkness and un-
* C. F. Aked, The Courage of the Cowardy 160.
332 INGRATITUDE
certainties of the future, so thankfulness is a recognition of our indebtedness to Him for the blessings of the past. To acknowledge truth is always moral strength ; to refuse to acknowledge it is always moral weakness. Accordingly the worst excesses of heathenism are traced by St. Paul to the ingratitude of the Gentile nations for the light of nature and conscience. "When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful ; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
^ He who forgets to be thankful, may one day find himself with nothing to be thankful for.^
1. The grateful man received a greater blessing. "And he said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole." This does not mean that this man alone was ultimately cleansed out of the ten. It was not the manner of Jesus to withdraw His gifts because they were not appreciated at their true worth, any more than it is the Father's way to take back His blessings from men who misuse them; for He "maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust," and " is kind toward the unthankful and evil." But in the mind of Jesus, physical healing was the least part of His purpose in bestowing health on people. He ever thought of their souls ; and unless the bodily benefit He bestowed blossomed into some spiritual grace, He was troubled and unsatisfied. Those nine had been healed, and remained healed, but they were not "made whole " ; only he could be made whole who was lifted into the circle of Divine relationship, and acknowledged God as the Giver of health and all good things.
The secular temper takes everything as it comes, without any realization of its Divine source; the spiritual temper refers everything to its heavenly origin and author. " Where does the corn come from ? " " From the ground," says the materialist. " From the Father of lights," says the Christian. And there is a whole world of difference between these points of view. If we stop with Nature, which produces corn and wine and fruit, and whose laws become our willing servants when once we learn to understand and control them, we may possess continents, and ^ Bishop Thorold, in Life by C. H. Simpkinson, 141.
ST. LUKE XVII. 17 333
yet our souls be starved. But he who lifts his eyes above, and sees in every fact a blessing, in every possession a gift, in every incident a Divine influence, will live a life in which all lower good is still his, but crowned with a higher good that redoubles its value and makes it a spiritual treasure beyond price.^