24. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock : 25. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. A.D. 28. THE HOUSE ON 26. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell and great was the fall of it. Rains in 24-27. The Rain DescendeED.—“ The rains and floods and winds of an Eastern monsoon afford a striking illustration of this passage. When people in those regions speak of the strength of a house, it is not by affirming, 'It will last so many years,' but, 'It will outstand the rains it will not be injured by the floods." For several months there is not a drop of rain, and the burning sun has loosened the ground on which the edifice stands; then all at once the torrents begin to descend, the chapped earth suddenly swells, and the change injures the foundations. Only the house founded upon a rock can outstand the rains and floods of a wet monsoon."-Roberts' Oriental Illustrations. the East. WHAT TREMBLED AND WHAT STOOD.--" Mr. Moody, in his Christian convention at Northfield, said: 'We want more Christians like the Irishman who, when asked if he didn't tremble during a certain storm when he was standing out upon a rocky eminence, said, 'Yes, my legs trembled, but the rock didn't, and because my feet were on the rock I felt safe.'"-Biblical Illustrator. EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE.-When the Eddystone lighthouse was to be rebuilt, Winstanley, the noted engineer, contracted to rear a structure which should withstand the assaults of time and tempests. So confident was his faith in the showy structure of his own skill, that he offered to lodge in it with the keeper, through the autumnal gales. He was true to his word. But the first tremendous tempest which caught the flimsy light-house in the hollow of its hand, hurled both building and builder into the foaming sea. We fear that too many souls are rearing their hopes for eternity upon the sands of 28. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine : 29. For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. error; when the testing floods come, and the winds beat upon their house, it will fall, and sad will be the fall thereof."-T. L. Cuyler, D.D. SINKING OF A TOWN.-" Several squares in a town in the Pennsylvania coal regions, with all upon them, have sunk into the ground. Built over out-worked coal mines, the upper surface was supported by pillars and stays in the mine, and these at length gave way. "It is always dangerous to build on a hollow foundation--not only dangerous thus to build houses, but just as perilous to build lives and characters."-The Moravian. FLOODS IN THE EAST.-" In dry weather the wadies, or ravines," are either quite dry or only supplied with a trickling streamlet. But when the heavy rains come, not only does a deep river tear down the wady, but, as the Arabs of Sinai say, 'It is not a river, it is the sea.' Nothing can stand against these floods. Trees are uprooted, huge rocks are carried along, and the luckless party of travelers are swept utterly away. The sands are often made quicksands by the force of the water; and that which is a passable road in the dry season, would swallow up a horseman in the wet season." -Sunday-School Times. CHAPTER VIII. 1. When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. 2. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 3. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. A.D. 28. SECOND YEAR GREAT GALILEAN MINISTRY. A LEPER CLEANSED. Leprosy of the Bible. 2. A LEPER.-Distinguish between the leprosy of the Pentateuch, the white leprosy, which was many centuries before Christ, and the modern leprosy, the elephantiasis, so named because it gives the skin the rough appearance of an elephant's skin. Diseases change more or less in course of centuries. Here is a good illustration of how frequently different things go under the same name, and great controversies arise over them on this account. LEPROSY AS A TYPE OF SIN.-"Sin is a deadly leprosy which has involved our whole race in one common ruin." (1) Sin, like leprosy, is the most loathsome, polluting, deforming, unclean thing in the universe. "Leprosy is God's language, by which he describes sin as it appears in his sight." (2) Sin, like leprosy, separates from the pure and clean. The sinner is utterly unfit for heaven and the society of pure and holy beings. (3) Sin, like leprosy, is in a sense infectious by intimate contact, as when the sin of others is received into the soul, by yielding to temptation or following bad examples. Leprosy is not contagious like scarlet fever or smallpox, but it can "be communicated by the inoculation of the blood with the morbid secretions of an affected person."-Dr. G. H. Fox, in Medical Record, 1884. It flourishes especially in those who live in outward filth and moral uncleanness. Says Rev. Mr. Bishop, "Our experience here shows that there is little or no danger of infection from leprosy to persons of cleanly hab its." So there is little danger to those in a sinful world who are pure in heart and are laboring, as Christ did, for the salvation of men from sin. (4) Sin, like leprosy, is constitutional. The outward expressions and manifestations are but the effects of a disease which permeates the whole system. (5) The tendency to sin, like the tendency to leprosy, is hereditary. (6) Sin, like leprosy, is deceitful in its working. "Some, as they look on infancy, reject with horror the thought that sin exists within. But so might any one say who looked upon the beautiful babe in the arms of a leprous mother. But time brings forth the fearful malady. New-born babes of leprous parents are often as pretty and as healthy in appearance as any, but by and by its presence and workings become visible in some of the signs described in the thirteenth chapter of Leviticus."-Land and Book. (7) It is widely extended, existing in China, India, Eastern Africa, Norway, Sweden, Mexico, and the Sandwich Islands, with a few cases in England and the United States. (8) It is practically incurable by human skill, although under favorable circumstances there have been several cures, even in advanced stages, says Dr. Fox in his report to the New York Health Department (1896). And it is announced, says the Biblical World (1896), "that two eminent physicians, Kitasato of Japan and Dr. Bouffe of Paris, claim that they have discovered independently the bacillus that causes leprosy and a toxin that will destroy it." (9) In many cases leprosy, like sin, does not bring immediate pain and death. Rev. Mr. Bishop says, "It is not virulent, acute, or even painful, except in its later stages, when the vital organs are obstructed in their action. It is an anesthetic malady." THE TREATMENT OF THE SINNER FOR A CURE.-"The popular impression about leprosy and its contagious features is very erroneous. Leprosy is no more dangerous than consumption. Persons in a street car are very much more likely to contract tuberculosis from the expectoration of a consumptive than to get leprosy from the presence of a leper. Leprosy is, of course, contagious, and probably it can be contracted in accidental ways, as other diseases of the blood are; but the terror of a leper is something that is not founded in fact. Ten years How Leprosy was Cured. 5. And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, 6. And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. A.D. 28. SECOND YEAR GREAT GALILEAN MINISTRY. THE CENTURION'S SERVANT. ago a man in a very advanced stage of leprosy was treated here at one of the hospitals, and he recovered, proving that leprosy can be cured. There are other cases just as conclusive; but that man was carefully treated in the hospital, and he received all the comforts of life, whereas, if he had been locked up in a lazaretto and his food handed to him through a hole, probably he would have died. The great difficulty in curing leprosy is that as soon as a person learns that he has it he is made to be'lieve that all hope is gone. He is treated as a doomed man and made to believe that he is an object to be shunned by everybody. Naturally enough it is difficult for a person to recover under such circumstances."-Dr. George H. Fox, 1896, Report to Health Department of New York City. LIBRARY. -The vivid description of the healing of the leper in "Ben Hur." G. W. Cable's "Old Creole Days," "Jean Poquelin " has a graphic account of leprosy and its effects. Willis' poems, "The Leper." HELPLESSNESS OF SELF-SALVATION.-How helpless man is to save himself from the disease of sin may be illustrated by Æschylus' "Prometheus Bound"; by Virgil's Laocoon with his sons in the coils of the great serpent (Book II.) of which statues may be seen in most art galleries. 5. PALSY, paralysis, including not only what we term paralysis, but catalepsy, cramps, lockjaw. In my earlier years I knew a young man, and often watched with him, who was afflicted by a disease something similar to that of the centurion's servant. It was a kind of tetanus, or nervous cramps. The spasms would attack him and throw his limbs out of joint, and sometimes even his neck, so far that it required the strength of two persons, after the attack was over, to bring his head A Case of |