they regarded leprosy as a visitation from God, and considered it incurable by human art. Sin is incurable by mere human methods. Rules for the regulation of human conduct; pledges or vows of abstinence from particular temptation& ; parental, magis- terial, social vigilance; penalties inflicted by ourself or by others for disobedience ;- these are well enough in their way. They are sometimes desirable, sometimes necessary; but they do not cure. Nothing human will cure the soul's disorder; only the.Almighty Hand can minister to the "mind diseased." When Jesus Christ would prove to John that he was indeed the "One that should come," and that there was no need to" look for another," he added to the recital of his benefactions, " the lepers are cleansed " (Matt. xi. 5). It was a true mark of the Messiah. The coming Saviour was he who had power to cure the incurable, to tuuch the foulest of the foul with the finger of the Divine mercy and sovereign power, and to make even him whole and pure. To that Divine Physician the man fullest of the leprosy of sin may go and say, "Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean" (Luke v. 12).-C. Ver. 5.-The chosen type of sin-its social aspect. We have seen (vide previous Homily) how true a picture is leprosy of sin in its individual aspect; we now regard the subject in its more social aspect. What this terrible disease was to a man as a member of the Hebrew commonwealth, that is sin to a man as a member of society to-day. I. ITS LOATHSOMENEBB. It is quite po~sible that the leprosy from which the Israelites suffered was a contagious disorder. It is also possible that the dread of contagion, though there was no actual danger (as in cholera), may have had its influence in the 5matter. But there is no convincing evidence that it was contagious. There are indications that it was not (action of the priests, etc.); and the exclusion of the leper from the camp is fully accounted for in another way. The loathsomeness of the disease is a sufficient explanation. Whoever has seen any one suffering acutely from a kindreci malady will perfectly understand and appreciate this legislation on that ground alone. It is difficult, if not impossible, to recover altogether from the mental effect of so shocking and so repulsive a spectacle. The vision haunts the memory for years. In this aspect leprosy is a striking picture of sin; for that is a thing odious and abominable in the last degree-loathsome to the Holy One of Israel, hateful to all holy souls. In its viler forms it is a thing which we-even with our imperfect purity-cannot "look upon" (Hab. i. 13); how much more horrible and hateful must it be in his sight whose thoughts of holiness as well as of mercy are as much higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth (Isa. Iv. 9) ! II. ITs DIFFUSIVENESS. Though not, probably, contagious, leprosy was diffusive and communicable from _parent to child. It was ono of the crucial tests in lhe case that it spread over the skin (vers. 7, 8), that it "spread much abroad" (vers. 22, 27). .As this typical disease spread from one part of the body to another, from one limb and organ to another, until it sometimes covered the entire frame, so siu, of which it was the divinely chosen type, is a thing that spreads. It is an emphatically diffusive, a communicable thing. It spreads: 1. From faculty to faculty of the same human spirit; one sin leads on to another, as theft to violence, or drunkenness to falsehood, or impurity to deception. 2. From parent to child. 3. From man to man, through the whole "body rlitic." It spreads much abroad through any and every body, civil or ecclesiastica , into which it enters. III. 1TB SEPARATING EFFECT. "He shall dwell alone: without the camp shall his habitation be" (ver. 46). Leprosy separated between husband and wife, parent and children, friend and friend; it sundered one human life from that of the commonwealth, and was a source of sad and, so far as the preciousness of life was concerned, a fatal loneliness. Sin is the separating power. 1. It comes between man and God (Isa. lix. 2). It places him outside the gates of tho spiritual kingdom; it deprives a man of all fellowship with the heavenly Father; it leads him out into a" for country" of aliena- tion, of dread, of dissimilarity. 2. It comes between man anJ. man. It is the endless and bitter source of estrangement, animosity, war; it makes lonely the life tbat should be full of sweet and elevating fellowship. IV. ITS PITIFULNESS. Who could see the poor leper, with rent clothes, with bare 208 THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [OB. XW. 1-48,
head, with cove,red lip, passing through the camp, crying, "Unclean unclean I" on his way to a dreary and, it might be, life-long solitude and not be affe~ted with a tender pity? He might be " unclean," but he was miserable, he WBS lost• the light of his life had gone out. Sin is not more condemnable than it is pitiable.' Blame the erring, reproach the faulty, re:ino?-strate ~ith the foolish and the mischievous (1 'l'im. v. 20), but pity those whoru sm 18 shutting out from all that is best below and will exclude fr?m all that is bright and blessed above. _Re~en:,ber the.'.' great lov~ (of pity) where- with he loved us, oven when we were dead m sins (Eph. n. 4, 5), and pity with a pro- found compassion and help with an uplifting hand those who are still down in the mire of sin, still far from the kingdom of God.-C.