The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-04-25
The Sunday School Lesson.
SERIES FOR 1885, --SECOND QUARTER.
Studies in the Gospel According to Luke.



would bring the nations to a realization
of the providence Of the One Father.
Jesus spoke in what the rhetoricians
call hyperbole. He exaggerated the fact
yet not the truth. Faith CAN overcome
all obstacles in the fulfllment of it's
benefcent purposes. Faith. under law,
actually DOES transplant trees and re-
move mountains.
Then Jesus, by one Of his parallels
from common life, teaches the disciples
that faith in the soul is thing of
growth. Even where it's growth is as
rapid as that of the mustard plant, it
may seem to human impatience slow.
He had learned his own faith through
his years of preparation. How could he
at once impart full-grown faith like his
own to his undisciplined disciples?
"Who of you" he asks, "having servant
blowing in your field, or keeping your
sheep, will treat him when he comes in
at night as your equal? Do you prepare
for him his supper and wait upon him
or do you make him serve you at your
supper, thereby delaying his own meal,
however hungry he may be?' Jesus
speaks to his apostles as to his servants;
he is waiting to receive them, when they
are prepared into closer fellowship. The
time is Fastening when he will say to
them John Is: 15); No longer do I call
you servants for the servant knoaceth
not a1hat has lord doeth: but haze
called gou friends; for all things that
I haze heard from my Father 1 haze
made knoacn unto you.
He simply advises them, while they
are yet servants, to be humble. They
are to do their best, in the consciousness
that their best will fall far short Of their
ideal. Not as boastful of how faithful
they are to their owner, but as confess
ing how Improbable they are, he would
have them strive for the life Of faith.
Humble we must be, If to heaven we go:
High is the roof there. but the gate is low"
2. Ten Lepers Cleansed,-vs. IL
IA.
We take leap onward, according to
our present theory of chronology. and
find Jesus. after visit to Bethany, and
a soiourn at Ephraim, once more pur.
suing his way to Jerusalem.
On the outskirts of an unnamed village
he saw one of the common yet strange
sights of the East. Ten lepers, outcasts
from the village, living in forced and
miserable community, were standing
afar off from the travellers, the Law re-
quiring them to warn all from nearer
approach to them than one hundred
PAGES. These victims of leprosy are the
most pitiable, and in the advanced
stages of their disease the most horrible
of all the creatures the sun shines upon.
When the disease has incrusted them
with scales, and is eating off their hands
and their feet, and the atmosphere about
them is laden with their pollution, they
are objects from which all SAVE oNE-are
accustomed to flee. We recall with
gratitude unspeakable, that Jesus was
filed with instant and fathomless COM
passion toward every leper he beheld.
These ten raised their thrilling cry,
Jesus. Master, haze mercy on as. They
had been told that other lepers had been
cured by him. To no other being below
the skies could they offer their prayer
for help.
Jesus had before not hesitated to lay
his hand upon the loathsome lepers. in
exercising his healing power. But now,
-achen he saao them,-when he had con-
veyed the spiritual power Of his diyinely
lighted eyes.-he raised their faith to
energy and their hope to glad expecta-
tion by simple saying, Go shoac your-
selues unto the priests.
The priests at the temple in Jerusalem,
we recall, possessed the only legal au-
thority to pronounce the lepers cured.
For certain forms and stages of the
dreaded disease were durable; yet such
lepers as were. like these, herded to-
gether, could not expect that restoration
could, by ordinary curative agents, ever
reach them.
The lepers at once started on their
journey toward Jerusalem.
as then ,0ent they aoere cleansed.
3. The Thankful One, the
Thankless Nine,-vs. 1919.
That their thoughts were primarily Of
themselves does not prove that they
were unusually selfish in their human
nature.
But one among them, Samaritan,
was an exception to the rule. He. with
the others, felt the tide of health puri-
flying his body of his disease. In due
time he knew he was cleansed. He was
ravished with thankful Joy. He must,
before going to the priest, whether jew
ish or Samaritan. express his gratitude
to the one to whom he owed more
than life. The priest. whether at Jeru-
salem or Gerizim. could wait; Jesus was
going. In his exultant impulse he
shouted aloud his gratitude to God. He
sought out Jesus; he fell PROSTATE at
his feet, telling his thanks. and in his
very act dedicating his life to his Saw
Jour.
This horoic expression OF gratitude by
the heretical Samaritan doubtless gave