“Men drew one side to let him pass. Mothers snatched their children from before his path. To touch him――the horror-stricken Jew would sooner suffer the kiss of an envenomed serpent. No one ever thought to proffer succor to a leper; no physician ever offered him hope of health; no amulets could exorcise this dread visitation. A special token of the wrath of God, only God could cure it: only repentance of sin and the propitiation of divine wrath could afford a remedy. No hand ever bathed the leper’s burning brow, or brought the cooling draught for his parched lips. None ever spoke a word of sympathy to his oppressed heart. Society had built no hospitals for the sick, no lazarettos even for its own protection; and the leper, driven from the towns, dwelt in dismantled dwellings, or in caves and clefts of the rock, solitary, or in the wretched companionship of victims as wretched as himself. “One of these unhappy sufferers had heard of the fame of Jesus. He believed, with the hope sometimes born of desperation, in the divine power of this new prophet; and nought but divine power could give him relief. He disregarded alike the law which excluded him from the city and the horror he must face to enter it, and broke through all restraints to implore the word of healing from this inheritor of the power of Elijah. The crowd heard his cry, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ and opened in superstitious dread to give him passage through. He cast himself at the feet of Jesus with the outcry of despairing imploration, ‘Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.’ The people had looked on him only with horror. Jesus was moved with compassion. They had drawn back that they might not receive the contagion of his garments. Jesus put forth his hand to touch him. They had echoed his cry, ‘Unclean!’ Jesus said, ‘I will: be thou clean.’ And, in the instant of that speaking, the leper felt the burning fever depart, and a new fresh blood, healed at its fount, course through his veins.”[9] Jesus directed the man to go directly to the priest, in accordance with the provisions of the Mosaic law, and to obtain from him the official testimony that he was cured, and relief from the ban which was laid upon him as a leper. This he was to do immediately, before the priest could learn that it was Jesus who had healed him; otherwise the priest might refuse through prejudice to testify to the reality of the cure. A miracle so wonderful increased the excitement which had already attained almost the highest pitch. Such crowds flocked after Jesus, that he found it necessary to withdraw from the city, and seek a retreat in “desert places.” Still the multitude flocked to him from every quarter. Luke, speaking of this his retirement, says, “He withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.” It is worthy of special observation how much time Jesus spent in prayer.