Christ to Capernaum takes his way:

There a Centurion comes to pray,
If on the Lord he may prevail
To come, and his sick servant heal.

THE CENTURION'S SERVANT.

The servant with the palsy lay confin'd;
For thee, thy faith has won, thy suit is sign'd,
Thy servant lives. O'er joy'd he went, and found
The sick restor'd to health, the paralytic sound.

WHEN Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him, and saying, Lord my servant is at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented." (Matt. viii. 5, 6.) The man who now applied to Jesus was an officer of the Roman army, and it is very evident his faith in Christ was great, or he would not have come upon the errand he did.

It is also very probable that he was one of those who had read the writings of Moses, and was no stranger to the prophecies concerning the Messiah. It also appears that he had such low and humble notions of himself, although by virtue of his

commission, he gave orders to his men, he evinced the becoming feelings that actuated his mind, by looking upon his house as very unfit for the reception of so glorious a person as Jesus Christ.

The blessed Saviour kindly listened to his application, and replied, "I will come and heal him." It was very condescending in the officer to show so much concern for his servant; but how much more so in Christ to be willing to go and see him; and it appears from this, that it is our duty to pray to our God and Saviour for others as well as for ourselves.

When we approach the throne of grace, we should remember all who are in trouble, or in sickness; and who can tell but our prayers may prevail for them? Jesus told the centurion he would come and heal his servant. O what a physician is Christ!

and it is our mercy to know, that as he healed the diseases of the body when he was on earth, so now he is exalted to heaven he heals the diseases of the soul, of those who are afflicted by sin, and who feel their disease and apply by prayer to him.

The centurion was surprised at the kindness of the Saviour, and owned that he was not worthy to receive so great a guest under his roof; all he intreated was that Christ would act by this disorder as he did by the soldiers placed under his command; he said to one of them, Come, and he came; to another, Go, and he went; and if Jesus would in like manner bid this disease to depart it would certainly leave his afflicted. servant. This was a instance of faith so great, that Jesus himself said, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel: "__ no, not among the Jews, the professing

people of God, who, while they passed for pious characters, had only the appearance of faith, and not the reality. Jesus bid the centurion go his way, for his servant was healed; and so he found it.

May we be the happy subjects of faith in Christ, believing that none but He can heal our souls, and pardon our sins; then at the last great day we shall be allowed to "sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven," as our Blessed Saviour was pleased to assure his hearers should be the portion of the faithful, while those who had only a form of godliness, without its reality, should be for ever shut out of his kingdom.