Cleansing

Let us mark, firstly, in this passage, how earnestly men can cry for help when they feel their need of it. We read that “as our Lord entered into a certain village there met him ten men that were lepers.” It is difficult to conceive any condition more thoroughly miserable than that of men afflicted with leprosy. They were cast out from society. They were cut off from all communion with their fellows. The men described in the passage before us appear to have been truly sensible of their wretchedness. They “stood afar off;“—but they did not stand idly doing nothing. “They lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” They felt acutely the deplorable state of their bodies. They found words to express their feelings. They cried earnestly for relief when a chance of relief appeared in sight.

We beseech Thee to receive our acknowledgments; we pray that they may become more adequate and more operative in our lives, so that to us all the service shall be an honour, and all that the Lord lays upon us shall be a joy to accept and to do. Forgive our many sins, cleanse our hearts from their manifold evils, deliver us from all our errors, lead us into the full truth. May we live by the truth that we know, and be ever growing in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour. Hear us in our prayer, and in Thy great mercy forgive and accept us, through Christ our Lord.