115. The Leper’s Prayer.

The Leper’s Prayer. The Leper’s Prayer as recorded.—Matthew 8:2. The Lord’s Answer.—Matthew 8:3. Our Savior had just finished his blessed sermon on the mount, and returning is met by one borne down with sickness and distress. An outcast and lonely, he is separated from those he loves, for he is the poor victim of a loathsome and incurable disease. Human means in this hour of agony are unavailing, and he knows no arm but one is sufficient to succor him; shunned as he is by the world, avoided even by the crowd who eagerly follow the Savior, he fears not to pour out his complaint in an ear he believes is open to the cry of the sorrowing; and was not this faith? Pure, simple, trusting faith, it burned brightly in that leper’s heart, “The bulb enshrouds the lily, and within The most unsightly form may folded Lie the white wing of an angel.” As this leper came to Jesus to be healed of his malady, so every soul must come. “Degraded, weak, and blind of sin, and darkened by the leprous scales”—just as you are, in all your uncleanness and pollution; if you are in sorrow, come; if you are despised and rejected of men, come; if you feel your own vileness, come in simple faith as the leper came; the Spirit and the Bride say come, and The angels watch are keeping, In their holy homes of light, Above poor sinners weeping—

There is joy at such a sight. To you they’re loudly calling, Saying, Come! to one and all.

While round the Savior falling Ye are listening to the call, Come all the sick and suffering To the great physician there;

Come kneel in simple, humble faith, And breathe the “leper’s prayer.”