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I. THE STORY ENCOURAGES WORK ON FRONTIERS AND BORDERS. Jesus met the lepers "in the midst of" — that is, probably, along the frontier line between — "Samaria and Galilee," on His way east to the Jordan. Their common misery drew these natural enemies, the Jews and the Samaritans, together. The national prejudice of each was destroyed. Under these circumstances the border was a favourable retreat for them. The border population is always freer from prejudice and more open to influence.

II. THE STORY SHOWS THAT THERE IS A SENSE IN WHICH IMPENITENT MEN CAN PRAY. The lepers prayed. That weak, hoarse cry affecting]y expressed their sense of need — one characteristic of true prayer. Their standing afar off further expressed their sense of guilt — another characteristic of acceptable prayer. Their disease was a type of the death of sin. Their isolation expressed the exclusion of the polluted and abominable from the city of God.

III. THE STORY SHOWS THAT THERE IS A SENSE IN WHICH GOD ANSWERS THE PRAYERS OF IMPENITENT MEN.

IV. THE STORY SHOWS NOW THE FORM OF OBEDIENCE MAY EXIST WITHOUT ITS SPIRIT.

V. THE STORY SHOWS US THAT A DEGREE OF FAITH MAY EXIST WITHOUT LOVE, AND SO WITHOUT SAVING POWER. There was a weak beginning of faith in all the ten. It is shown in their setting out without a word, though as yet uncleansed, for Jerusalem. This must have required faith of a high order. If it had worked by love all would have been saved. This was one trouble with the nine, and the radical one — they did not love. Calvin describes their case, and that of many like them. "Want and hunger," he says, "create a faith which gratification kills." It is real faith, yet hath it no root.

VI. THE STORY SHOWS US THE SIN OF INGRATITUDE, AND THE PLACE WHICH GRATITUDE FILLS WITH GOD. The Samaritan was the only one who returned, and he was the only one saved. "Birth did not give the Jew a place in the kingdom of heaven; gratitude gave it to a Samaritan." Blessings are good, but not for themselves. They are to draw us to the Giver, they are tests of character. True gratitude to God involves two things, both of which were found in the leper.

1. He was humble; he fell at Jesus' feet. He remembered what he had been when Jesus found him, and the pit whence he was digged. If blessings do not make us humble, they are lost upon us.

2. Gratitude involves, also, the exaltation of God. The leper glorified God. A German, who was converted, expressed himself afterward with a beautiful spirit of humility and praise: "My wife is rejoicing," he said, "I am rejoicing, my Saviour is rejoicing." On another occasion he said, "I went this evening to kiss my little children good-night. As I was standing there my wife said to me, 'Dear husband, you love these our children very dearly, but it is not a thousandth part as much as the blessed Saviour loves us.'" What spirit should more characterize God's creatures than gratitude? What should we more certainly look for as the mark of a Christian? God blesses it. He blessed the leper; He cleansed the leprosy deeper than that in his flesh, the leprosy of sin. The nine went on their way with bodies healed, but with a more loathsome disease still upon them, the leprosy of ingratitude. We classify sins. "We may find by and by that in God's sight ingratitude is the blackest of all." There is an application of this truth to Christians which we should not miss. Gratitude gives continual access to higher and higher blessings. The ungrateful Christian loses spiritual blessings. If we value the gift above the Giver, all that we should receive in returning to Him we lose.

(G. R. Leavitt.)

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KJV: And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

WEB: It happened as he was on his way to Jerusalem, that he was passing along the borders of Samaria and Galilee.