but would He do so? Would He deign even to look upon an object so loathsome and so vile? Would He not rather, as scores of famous teachers and learned doctors had done, warn him from his path as a pollution? The poor leper may be forgiven this doubt; for his affliction had not allowed him to enter the cities in which Jesus taught, or to mix in the crowds that saw his miracles. He had not therefore been able to witness the divine compassion that so often beamed from the Saviour's eyes, or to hear the tender gentleness of those tones in which He spoke to the cast down and the miserable.

Well, then, Jesus could doubtless heal him; and it remained to see if He were willing. He could at least try. He lost nothing-nothing, alas! but hope-if he were repelled: he gained much, if he were accepted.

This concluded, there remained yet the difficulty of gaining access to his presence. He could not go into any town to seek Him, nor could he, to approach Him, enter the crowds by which He was usually in public surrounded. There was but one course, and this was to wait upon the road leading to Capernaum, when the return of Jesus was expected, and to accost Him as He went by with his disciples. He went, he waited; and doubt not that his unleprous heart beat in audible throbs, when he at length beheld the near approach of One who might deliver him from the horrible bondage in which he had lain so long. He advanced towards our Lord as He came nigh, and laying his head low in the dust before Him, he cried, 'Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.' Oh! the agonizing suspense of the moment that followed! But it was not protracted. A replying voice, that went at once to his heart and filled it with rapture, said, 'I will;' and our Saviour, moved with deep compassion, put forth his hand and touched him-him whom no unleprous hand had touched for years; and the same voice, which never left his memory more, said to him, 'Be thou clean!' At that word a change passed over him; he felt new blood tingle through his veins; he felt the flush of healthy life in all his tainted members; he knew that his leprosy had passed from him; and he stood up cleansed,

enfranchised, restored to his family and friends, and to all the blessings of social life. Probably in the fulness of his thankfulness and joy this man would have followed Jesus from that hour; but he saw the necessity of following the directions of his Healer, that he should repair to Jerusalem, and there present himself to the priest to obtain from him that formal recognition of his freedom from leprosy, without which the law would not hold him clean. Besides this purpose of restoring the man

to his civil and religious rights, the examination by the priest, and his attestation of his being no longer a leper, served to make the priest himself a testifying witness to the reality of the miracle. No one could, after that, question that the cure had been most real and effectual. The priest, well instructed in the signs of leprosy, examined such persons carefully, and kept them apart for seven days, when, if no signs of leprosy appeared, he performed the rites of purification prescribed by the law, and declared them clean.

In another matter the restored leper found obedience more difficult. Jesus enjoined him to say nothing to any one of the way in which he had been healed. But feeling that he had not merely been cured of a disease which all men believed hopeless, but by that cure had been restored to all that made life a blessing, and his heart bursting with thankfulness to his Benefactor, the poor man could not contain himself, but went out and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter.' We can hardly find it in our hearts to blame him severely. His gratitude, and his reluctance that his Deliverer should fail of any of the honour due to Him, considerably excuse his disobedience. The result, however, was very inconvenient to Jesus; for the crowds that pressed upon all his steps became greater than ever, so that He was for the time unable to enter Capernaum openly, but remained mostly in the secluded places which the neighbourhood offered, where He addressed the manageable congregations that came, and healed the sick that were brought to Him.

Thirty-fifth Week-Fourth Day.

THE PARALYTIC ON THE HOUSE-TOP.—MARK II. 1-4;
LUKE V. 17-19.

As soon as the first excitement created by the cure of the leper had subsided, our Lord again appeared in the town of Capernaum, where, in his own house, or perhaps in that of Peter, He declared his doctrine to those who repaired to Him.

It being ascertained where He might be found, persons of consideration repaired to Capernaum, not only from other parts of Galilee, but even from Judea and Jerusalem; some, doubtless, in search of benefit to their souls, some from curiosity to see and hear One whose name was in every mouth, and others to watch whether any dangerous principles lurked in a doctrine so actively promulgated. Among these and all, prothese—and bably, belonging to the last mentioned class—were Pharisees and doctors of the law. With persons of this class sitting by, Jesus was one day addressing a dense congregation in the house, when a circumstance occurred which has been greatly misunderstood for want of an accurate apprehension of the dif ference between oriental houses and our own, and which may, therefore, render some details on this subject necessary, so far at least as may be of assistance in explaining the transaction.

Our own houses usually front the street, towards which they display all their ornamental architecture; and as our houses are double, or have one room or set of rooms behind another on each floor, together forming the thickness (or, as it is called, 'depth') of the house, there is another secondary front behind, with windows to give light to the back rooms, and looking towards a court or garden in the rear.

All this is different in the East.

There are no back rooms, and consequently no need of two fronts to a house. The front, instead of being towards the street, is turned towards an inner court, and the back is presented to the street in the shape of a lofty dead wall, of

the height of the house, and generally constructed of mud. There is, however, a latticed window high up, or a kind of projecting balcony screened with latticed work, belonging to an apartment called in Scripture the summer parlour,' and 'the chamber in the wall.' The outer gate, being of necessity towards the street, is, of course, at the back of the house. A

person does not enter by this at once into the court, but goes through a low passage; nor, when the door is open, can one see through into the court, or view any of the interior building. This is avoided by making the actual entrance into the court, not at the end of the passage, but in one of the sides near the end. Passing this, we are in the court. We do not here find merely one front of building looking into it, but two or three, as the case may be, though seldom four. The reason is, that

the easterns do not build their houses in many storeys, but lay out, side by side, the chambers which we pile up over each other; so that an eastern house, with not more accommodation than we, with our double rooms and floor above floor, can

rear upon a contracted foundation and with one narrow frontage, will, in the East, require a large area, and a frontage extended around the sides of the court. There are usually but two floors-the ground floor and an upper floor. The ground floor comprises the kitchen, store-rooms, and various domestic offices; and the family lives in the upper floor, the chambers of which look into and open into a gallery, to which there is access by one or two staircases, usually of stone. The gallery is generally broad, and is covered with a boarded roof supported by wooden pillars. This roof effectually shades the inhabited rooms from the sun.

We are speaking of the house as having only one court, as that is sufficient for our immediate purpose. But it must be noticed, that the better sort of houses have often two courts, one within another, and sometimes even three. In this case, as all but the outer court are the private parts of the house, to which no strangers or visitors have access, the transactions recorded could only have taken place in the outer court, if, which seems to us not likely, the house in which our Lord was had more courts than one.

The middle room of the principal frontage, which is commonly the one on the side of the court farthest from the entrance, lies wholly open, displaying the decorated apartment in which the master of the house receives and entertains his visitors. In this room, we suppose, the doctors of the law and other strangers, who are described as 'sitting by,' were seated, for there was no other place for sitting; while Jesus stood forth in the gallery, with his disciples and other privileged persons, and thus addressed the persons assembled in the court below.

It was then that some persons, bearing a helpless paralytic in his bed, came to the house, in the hope that Jesus would heal him. But the court, and even the inner door, being crowded, they could not get near to the place where He stood. What was to be done? Friendly zeal is inventive of expedients; and as the idea of going to the top of a house is as familiar to an oriental as that of going to any room in it,