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THE KING’S BUSINESS
abasement, before the Lord; and he did the right thing—“besought Him.”: But his faith was not perfect: he believed in the Lord’s power to cleanse, but doubted His willing ness to. But our Lord is- just as willing as He is able. Jesus could have healed him by a word, but in wondrous love He not only spoke the healing word, “He put forth His hand and touched him.” Touch ing the leper made Jesus ceremonially un clean but it made the leper clean (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21). If we would heal the .moral leprosy that shuts the leper out from the society of the clean, we must come as near the drunkard and the rum-seller and the harlot as Jesus did to this leper, and stretch out the hand of love and touch them. “I will : he thou clean,” said Jesus. They are the words of a fanatic, a charlatan or of God (cf. Gen. 1:3 ; Ps. 33:9; Mark 4:39; 5:41; Heb. 1:3). Which they were the re mainder of the verse shows, “Immediately the leprosy departed from him.” Thursday, October 28. Luke 5 :15-17. Jesus had been doing wondrous things. By word and deed He had been showing Himself to be God manifest in the flesh, but now we see Him as a man, utterly de pendent upon God, needing the help of the Father; and so withdrawing from the crowds that followed Him, and sorely need ed Him, to get alone with God to obtain the help He alone could give. Some of us think we are so busy doing good and that there is so much to do that we cannot take time for prayer. But none of us are as busy as our Lord was, none of us have as important things to do, none of us are as indispensable to others, and yet Jesus took time, long time, for prayer, “He withdrew Himself into the wilderness and prayed.” So our Lord went on from strength to strength, from great works to greater works, but we, because we do not follow His example but permit work to crowd out prayer, soon peter out. Three or four years ago I heard one who was on the crest of the wave of popularity say publicly that he had so much work to do that he had little time
for secret prayer, that even at night he was so tired when he retired he had only time for a sentence of prayer. The man is never heard of now. Friday, October 29. Luke 5:18-20. These men wished to bring this man in “and lay him before Jesus” 'because they knew that no one else could help him, and they believed Jesus could and would. It took much persistence and scheming and toil to get the man into Jesus’ presence, but they never gave up until the man was at Jesus’ feet. Less earnest men would have waited for “a more favorable opportunity,” but they had no guarantee that they would ever have another opportunity, and they took no chances. It is well they did not. They knew Jesus could be reached now, if they were earnest enough to overcome the difficulties, and it might be now or never. Nothing else will make men so earnest in overcoming the difficulties that lie between them and Him as a sense of their utter need of Him, and faith that He can and will help. Their faith was a faith that could be seen. True faith always can be seen, it material izes in works (Jas. 2:18). Nothing is more needed today than a faith that has legs, and hands and feet. It was because of their faith that JesUs did, and they got what they sought and more than they sought. Jesus forgave the man’s sins before He healed his palsy. The need of forgiveness was a sorer and deeper need than the need of healing; so Jesus attended to that first. Furthermore, sin must be gotten rid of be fore sickness could. If we would remove misery wejnust first remove sin. Saturday, October 30. Luke 5 :21-26. The scribes and Pharisees were there to something to criticize (vs. 17; cf. John 5:16) and they found it. They made a very serious and very common charge against Jesus, blasphemy (John 10:33; Mark 14: 64). Their reasoning was unanswerable up to a certain point. No one but God can
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