ntries the houses were not built as ours are, with a yard
back of them. There is a square yard in the centre, and the house is
built round the four sides of this square. This open space is
generally used as a garden. It has a fountain playing in it, and a
covering of cloth or mats spread over it to keep off the sun. It was
in one of these open courts that Jesus was preaching on this
occasion. A great crowd had gathered round him, so that the friends
of the palsied man could not get near him with the bed on which the
sufferer lay. Then they concluded to carry him up to the top of the
house, and lower him down inside. This would not be easy to do with
us. But the eastern houses are not so high as ours. And then they
have flat roofs, and a flight of steps leading from the ground, on
the outside, to the top of the house. This made it very easy to get
up. When they were on the roof they removed the covering from the
inner court, and let down the bed, with the sick man on it, directly
in front of our Saviour. When he saw him he pitied him, and said,
"Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." The people were
surprised at this. The Pharisees said among themselves "This man
blasphemeth." Jesus knew their thoughts and told them it was as easy
for him to heal the souls of men, as it was to heal their bodies. And
then, to show them that he had power on earth to forgive sins, he
said to the sick man--"Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine
house. And he arose, and went to his house," Matt, ix: 1-8. Certainly
the object Jesus had in view, in performing this miracle, was to
prove that he had power to forgive sins; or to pardon.

And when he healed the leper it was to teach us the same great truth.
This disease was not only like all other diseases, the result of sin;
but, unlike most other diseases, it was a type, or figure of sin. It
affected the body as sin affects the soul. And then, leprosy was a
disease which none but God could cure; just as sin is an offence
which none but God our Saviour can pardon. And so Jesus performed the
miracle of healing the palsied man and the lepers in order to teach
his disciples the great lesson that he "had power on earth to forgive
sins."

And he has the same power still. Here are some illustrations of the
way in which he exercises this power now.

"No Pardon but From Jesus," There was a heathen man in India once,
who felt that he was a sinner, and longed to obtain pardon. The
priest