September 14

"If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean."—Mark 1:40.

THE leper of those far-off days in Galilee might be forgiven for wondering whether Christ would really be willing to forgive him. It was probably the first time that such a suppliant had drawn near to Jesus. It was a new thing in Israel that any Rabbi should hold kindly fellowship with these poor and unclean men. Outside the camp and the congregation they had their home. By compulsion of society they were separatists and solitaries. Yes, it might well be a question whether Christ would have anything to do with a sufferer so uninviting and so loathsome.

But as for me, I ought never to say, If Thou wilt. There should not be a vestige of doubt or hesitation on my part. I have the history of nineteen centuries behind me. I have the experience of a great multitude which cannot be numbered, to bid me be of good courage. East or west, yesterday or to-day, when did Christ ever refuse a leper in his pitiful case, in his despair of all other succour and salvation? For pardon, for holiness, for comfort, for power, let me come boldly to His throne and to Himself. Heaven and earth will pass away, He will contradict His own nature, He will belie His name, before He deals untenderly with me. He wills; He can make me clean.

"Grace, grace, free grace," cries Samuel Rutherford, "the merits of Christ for nothing, white and large and fair Saviour-mercy—which is another sort of thing than creature-mercy or law-mercy—have been, and must be, the rock that we drowned souls must swim to." And I need not fear that this Rock will spurn my approach and disappoint my hope.