(Continued from page 317.-Dec., 1905.)

We will now consider what is the proper procedure to pursue when priestly discernment finds a case to be a plain, manifest case of leprosy. We read, "The priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean." We have already seen that the word of God determines for us what leprosy is. There should be no hesitation in declaring a person to be what the word of God says he is. No considerations of any kind, whether personal or not, should deter us from accepting as the truth the unequivocal judgment of Scripture. We need to remember always that the judgment of a case is not ours. The word of God judges it for us. We are responsible to acknowledge the judgment which the word of God gives. It is not our judgment that makes a leper unclean. We declare him to be unclean because the word of God tell us he is so. It is thus a very simple matter. It is just a question of obedience to what the word of God declares. It does not matter whether it is leprosy in a person, in a garment, or in a house; the case being determined by the word of God, we are to submit to its judgment.

But this is not the whole matter. When according to the word of God a case of leprosy in a person is plainly manifest, there must be no hiding or covering over the fact. The leper's "clothes shall be rent, and his head bare " is the express command of the Lord. The marks or signs of his uncleanness must be put upon him. He must not be unclean to the elders and fathers merely, but to all. He must not be unclean to a few-just the prominent and leading brethren, but everybody must be shown that he is under the condemnation of the word of God. Divine holiness will vindicate its claims, and challenge any one to show just ground for questioning its requirements. God demands that His people stand openly with Him in His abhorrence of sin.

Submission to God in putting upon the leper the marks of his uncleanness will result in his own proclamation of his defiled condition. Publicly manifested as a man who is living in wilful disobedience to the word of God, in antagonism to the holy will of God, he is a witness of his uncleanness.

Again, we read, the leper "shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be." The camp of the Lord must not shelter an unclean person. " Put away from among yourselves that wicked person " is the commandment of the apostle. It is not only that he is to be refused his place at the table of the Lord, but he is to be denied all Christian fellowship, and this as long as the plague of leprosy 'is upon him-as long as he continues in his denied condition. How much sorrow and trouble has resulted from forgetfulness of this plain requirement to "put away from among" ourselves! How often Christian intercourse has been maintained with one who has been publicly branded as unclean! How thus such an one has been comforted and encouraged in his course of evil! What a solemn thing to thus interfere with the discipline of the word of God!

In the case of leprosy in a garment we find there were two distinct forms of procedure. In the one case the whole garment was burned in the fire; in the other, the part in which the leprosy was, was rent out of the garment. In the first case it is clear that what is set forth is that the whole condition of things in which we move, or live, is evil:the foundations on which our practical lives are built are not according to God-are unholy. They must be given up. The destruction, the burning, of the entire garment tells us this plainly.

In the case where only a part of the garment was affected it was first washed and then watched. The washing with water typifies the subjection of our circumstances, the conditions in which we move, to the word of God. If after doing this the evil remains, unchanged in its manifestation, then the garment is to be destroyed. Whatever the appearance of the external parts, however satisfactory they seem to be, the evil is seated in what underlies, in what is fundamental. Hence the whole condition is unholy, and must be abandoned. But if, on the other hand, the submission of our circumstances to the test of the word of God proves that the evil is not in the underlying foundations on which our practical lives rest, then that part of our external circumstances, in which the evil is, must be given up-that part of our external life that is not according to God. How all this tells, us of God's concern about our ways! Holiness surely becomes those who are in relationship with a holy God.

We must look now at the procedure in the case of leprosy in a house. First, in connection with the application to a believer's home. Let us notice that the instructions concerning leprosy in a house were given in anticipation of Israel's dwelling in the land of Canaan. In their possessing that land we have a type of the believer's entering, by the power of the Spirit through the word of God, upon his heavenly inheritance. One may ask, Is it possible that leprosy should be connected with this? When I read, "When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possessions," I answer it is possible. Is it not true that a believer ought to establish his dwelling-place on Christian ground? Should it not be a Christian home? A home where heavenly things shall be enjoyed? Surely this must be admitted. But, alas! how many such homes have become leprous! How much activity of inward evil there has been in connection with heavenly things! Have not the things of Christ, the things where He is, been often prostituted to worldly and fleshly ends? Plainly, leprosy in a believer's home is quite possible.

But how shall it be treated? First, the owner of the house shall "tell the priest." If we see indications that there is something wrong in our homes-if we feel that somehow God is not getting His true place; if it seem to us that the things of Christ are not used in holiness, let us submit our homes to the scrutinizing eye of God, testing them by the revealed mind of God given us in His written Word.

The next point is that while this examination is going on, there must be proper effort to protect all who dwell there. There should be no hasty publication of the evil, no unnecessary occupation with it. It should not be allowed to become a matter of public gossip. At this stage it is simply a question of what the trouble really is. This is to be discovered by priestly exercise. "Emptying the house " speaks of godly care and concern lest there be unnecessary defilement through hasty and unnecessary occupation with the evil. But if after patient examination and careful watching it becomes evident that serious evil is there, then proper effort must be made to correct the condition of things. Taking "away the stones " tells us of removing what seems to be the source of the evil."Scraping within " of clearing away the results of the presence of evil. " New stones," "other mortar "and "plaster, "plainly point to effort to reestablish the home according to the holy claims of God as declared in His written Word If now after all this effort to save the house the evil again breaks out and it become thus evident that the evil is not in some special part, but in the very constitution of the house, then the house must be destroyed. No home must be owned as a Christian home that is not at least established on Christian ground and maintained according to the truth of Christianity.
Another matter must also be mentioned. We read, "Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even." While a professed Christian home is under suspicion, and is being examined, and watched, there should be no expressed fellowship with it. To enjoy its hospitality would be to pursue a course or way that would expose us to the condemnation of the word of God. It would be contracting defilement which we could only remove by submitting ourselves, to its claims upon us, and this would involve confession of having acted contrary to those claims. Only so could we "wash our clothes."

To " go into the house " even was to "be unclean until even." I take it that this applied to the priest who examined the house as well as to any one else. The very occupation with evil, however necessary, is defiling. It has effects on the mind which remain and do not pass away except we return to what is our normal state-occupation with Christ and His Word. How solemnly all this speaks to us. It is true, it is not leprosy that is contracted by the one who has been obliged to have to do with it, yet the having to do with it temporarily defiles, and there is need of special application of what God has written to one's self, of an examination of one's ways and circumstances in the light of the truth of God. C. Crain

(To be continued.)