Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-08-15
THE TEN LEP.ERS.
LESSON WI, THIRD QUARTER, INTER-
NATIONAL SERIES, AUG. ~

Text of the Lesson, Luke xvii. II-Io.
Commit Verses, I5-17-Golden Text,
Luke xvii, IT. Commentary by Rev. d.
M. stenrns.
Compiled from Lesson Helper Quarterly by per
mission Of II. 8. Hoffman, publisher Philadel
phia.l
II. And it came to pass, as lie went to
Jerusalem" The time draws nigh fot
Him to be offered up, and ito Jerusalem
Is His daily thought, for lie Himself said,
1t cannot be that a prophet perish out OF
Jerusalem" Chap xiii, 33); "When the
time was come that He should be received
up He steadfastly set His face to 60 to .Te-
rusalem;' He went through the cities
and villages, teaching and iourneying to
ward Ierusalem;n Behold, we 20 up to
Jerusalem, and all things that are written
by the prophets concerning the Son Of Man
shall be accomplished" CHAP. tx, 81; xiii.
~; xviii, 81 At Jerusalem He was to
finish the work which the Father had
given him to do, and He was pressing on to
finish that work. His grand and faithful
follower, the apostle Paul, had the same
spirit when he said concerning bonds and
Affections, "Ndne of these things move me.
neither count my life dear unto myself,
80 that might finish my course with joy
(Acts Xxx, "a. We do not know just where
our work shall end, nor when it shall be
finished, SO that the only safe way is TO be
always found doing unto Him, and with
our might, what our hands find to do
IL And as He entered into u certain
village, there met Uim ten men that were
lepers, which stood afar off" Utterly
unclean dwelling alone, without the camp
Tor village, or city, how sad was the condi
ton of these poor men Uev xiii, 44~46)
Afar off from human help, and sympathy,
and friendship; living and yet dead to all
the ordinary relationships of life. Con
slider the leprosy Of Miriam, Naaman,
Gehazi Uzziah and the four men at the
gate Of Samaria (Num. xii; III Kings v,
q XIV, 81. Perhaps there is no more forci
bic representation of sin and the sinner IN
the whole Bible than that of the leper and
his leprosy Let the teacher who would
with the greatest profit, present this lesson
study carefully Lev, xiii and xiv and read
MackintOshs notes on the same
III. And they lifted up their voices and
said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on usp
They made no profession; they made no
promises; they knew they had nothing but
leprosy, and as poor unclean, cast out
lepers they could only beg for mercy, and
this they did What happy day it was
for them when Jesus came their way.
They had heard Of Him; they heard of the
healing of other lepers by His gracious pow
ers. This was their opportunity, AMI they
seize it. How wise they We're. What
contrast TO the man in our lesson who, like
many today, believed in a larger hope--a
possibility Of salvation after death-and so
after he died cried, Father Abraham, have
mercy on me-" How vain was his cry.
IA, Go shew yourselves unto the priests
And 1t came to Pass that as they went,
they were eleansed." Thus He spal1e unto
them, not disregarding nor setting aside
the law, for He came not TO destroy but to
fulfill the law, but told them to do us com
manded in the law Q4cy xiii, 2; xiv, b. They
might have reasoned and argued and have
said: Master, the priests cannot help us,
the law cannot heal u.s. we do not need to
find out whether we are lepers or not; we
know we are; it Is mercy we ask for from
Thee, who alone canst heal us. But they
did not argue, they obeyed and went; His
word was sufficient and as they went they
We're cleansed. Reasoning and arguing
would have only hindercd; obedience
brought the blessing
10. And one of them, when he saw that
he was healed, turned back and with
loud voice glorihcd Cod" As obediently
he went at the Lords command, he finds
himself new man as to his body; he is
clean, he is whole, he is no longer leper;
no longer shall he be cut oil from home
and friends; that very day he becomes
part of the world again, with its pleasures
and cmploymcnts, instead Of being an out
cast. And what is now his first thought?
Gratitude to the Lord who healed him The
goodness of God has led him to repentance
(Rom. ii. y, and with Il loud voice hcmakes
it known, His heart is fail, and with his
voice he uttcrs its abundance. He seems
to believe that Jesus is God, and he gives
God the glory. lie il neither afraid nor
ashamed to make it known with n loud
voice that God has wrought n great work
on him.
rs And fell down on his face at Ills
feet, giving Him thanks: and he was a
Samaritan Here is humility, gratitude,
reverence and worship. Here il the proper
place for every pcnitcnt sinncr--"on his
face at Jesus feet" And the proper place
for every saved sinner who is teachablc is
"at the feet of Jesus, hearing His word"
CHAP. y, 30) The fact that this man was
II Samaritan reminds us of the statement
that "lhc jews have no dealings with the
SamaIitans" tjohn iv, 81. But that, no
doubt, refers to self righteous moral, clean
Jews. When jew found himself lcpcr
he saw himself no better than Samaritan
leper; they were all in the saua sad case
with nothing TO boast of but their lvprosy
nothing To make one think himself better
than another. a deep conviction Of sin is
one of the graudcst things to take away all
pride, and makes us see that in Gods sight
all are sinners together
H. And Jesus answering said Were
there not ten clCunscd2 but where are the
nincy' Is it possible that with returning
health there came also old prcjudiccs and
Jewish pride of birth, and as they saw this
poor Samaritan clarifying God did they de
spse him MS they hcpton their way to their
prestsy 1t certainly looks that way
Is There are not found that returned
to give glory TO God, save this stranger"
lie came unto His own, and His own re
c6ivcd Him not, but as many as received
Him TO them gave lie the right or privilege
to become the sons of God John i, II, f9
Out Of all the multitudes upon whom He
conferred healing Of the body we are not
told how many or how few truly received
Him and gave glory to God, but when we
remember that only about l2O of all those
gathered in Jerusalem ut the passover
waited together for the baptism Of the
Holy Ghost acts i, l5) we are com Salled to
think that not oven one in ten OF the null
titudes He healed ever became Ills true
disciples And as we read of this strau-
ger" alone returning to glorify God are
we not reminded of the Roman centurion