Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/448

 II. Christ did  not  disdain  the  sight  and  presence  of this  loathsome  spectacle,  nor  did  He  defer  His  cure  to another  day,  and  although  He  might  have  cured  him  with a single  word,  in  order  to  correct  our  vicious  delicacy on similar  occasions,  He  condescended  to  touch  him. "Wherefore, stretching  out  His  hands,  He  touched  him, saying,  I  will,  be  thou  made  clean.' '  (Matt.  viii.  3.)  Ponder the  words  "  I  will,"  they  import,  it  is  both  My  wish  and desire,  for  God  "will  have  all  men  to  be  saved."  (1 Tim.  ii.  4.)  Examine,  therefore,  if  it  be  not  your  own fault  that  you  are  not  purified  from  your  spiritual  leprosy of  sin.

III. This leprosy  of  the  soul,  is  like  that  of  the  body; both defile  the  subject  in  which  they  exist  and  make  it odious,  the  latter  in  the  sight  of  man,  the  former  in  the sight of  God. The leprosy  of  the  soul,  however,  is  more detestable in  the  same  proportion  as  it  is  more  dangerous, and disposes  its  subjects  not  to  temporal  but  to  eternal death. Hence the  virtuous  St.  Louis  with  good  reason said, that  he  would  rather  incur  the  leprosy  of  the  body, than the  leprosy  of  the  soul,  by  sin,  and  severely  reprehended one  of  his  nobles  for  making  a  contrary  choice.

I. After  having  cured  the  leper,  "  Jesus  said  to  him, see  thou  tell  no  man." (Matt. viii.  4.)  Christ  knew  that he would  publish  his  miraculous  cure,  from  a  feeling  of gratitude,  and  there  was  no  danger  of  vain-glory  in Christ;  why  then  did  He  forbid  him  to  divulge  his  cure? He did  it  for  our  instruction,  and  to  teach  us  to  avoid vain-glory, as  one  of  our  most  dangerous  enemies. " Vain-glory