wife, * Dost thou still retain thy integrity? Curse God, and die."

Alas! we know full as well as these false comforters that the path, trod by the children of God through the desert, is hard and thorny; and that apparently overcome by the weight of his burden he often sighs for deliverance, that his life may be a continual succession of struggles and grievances. It often appears as if his cry could not reach to his God, through the thick atmosphere which limits his view, and excludes every ray of hope from his afflicted bosom. When we hear him say with a voice faint with mourning, "+As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God!"—"My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" When we hear this plaintive voice, it pierces to the very bottom of our hearts, and touches every chord of our sympathy and love.

But oh, poor sufferer! have you no consolation in your affliction? Are you totally unacquainted" with "twith the rod and who hath appointed it?" Are the ways of God hidden from you? Do his promises say nothing to your soul? Where is faith? Where is your your hope? Has God ceased to be Love? Can you not see that he will save you as şa brand plucked out of the fire?" that he desires your heart, and because you do not give it him undividedly, his power bursts the

* Job ii. 9. + Psalm xlii. 1, 2..

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Micah vi. 9. § Zech. iii. 2.

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chains that enslaved that heart to which he has so many claims, and that the trials you lament so deeply are so many proofs of his divine love? Oh! may your faith pierce through the dark cloud that envelopes you, and with an eagle's eye you will then joyfully discern the Saviour who gave his life for you, and whose arms of infinite mercy are ever open to receive you.

See the example given us by the family of Bethany. How do Martha and Mary behave in their affliction? Firstro doubt they attended their much loved sufferer with all the assiduity which their kind feelings would require. They did not, like some egotistical people, fly from a bed of sickness, or a house of mourning, and turn their backs on the unfortunate. We delight in picturing to ourselves Martha seeking with her wonted activity every possible means of mitigating her brother's sufferings, taking no rest day or night, till she had left nothing untried that could give him a móment's relief; but we delight still more in fancying Mary seated close to his pillow, watching attentively his very looks, proving in a thousand ways how tenderly she felt for him, seizing with the quickness of true affection, the right moment of saying some little word of consolation, which came directly from her heart and penetrated deeply into his. We delight in in thus picturing this family to our imagination.

But to the Christian it would appear that as yet none but human means had been employed, and could

Martha and Mary rest satisfied with these? St. John does not even name their attentions to their brother, we could not doubt that the sisters, whom Jesus loved, would omit any act of kindness and charity, but he seems to take pleasure in telling us what follows:"Therefore his sisters sent unto him saying, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick." His sisters sent unto him! What amazing confidence! Do you thus act, ye disciples of Christ? Do you not first make known your complaints to your relations, neighbours, and friends, without one word of communion with Jesus? Are you not seen running to and fro, anxiously looking for help, but totally forgetful of the source of all abundant grace, and "* of every good and perfect gift." When you are weeping for sorrow, do you not forget him who said, "+ I, even I, am he that comforteth you." Do you not, when one you love is sick depend upon the skill and remedies of the Physician, or on your own cares, forgetting him who strikes the blow and heals it-in whose hands are life and death-who can send you down to the grave, and raise you up again, who is called the Prince of Life! Why are you therefore surprised when illness brings mourning into your families to feel yourself overwhelmed with hopeless sorrows and misery, which nothing seems to alleviate. Jesus is the only friend who could bring you peace, and you have forgotten him, you have not invited him. May it not be said

* James i. 17. ↑ Isaiah li. 12.

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of you as of the ancient people of God-" *My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." "+Oh! the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, O Lord! art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not."

Far differently did the sisters of Lazarus act; they sent to Jesus and what do they ask of him? scarcely a prayer, they believed in the love that Jesus bore them," and the power given him in Heaven and on earth," they knew that the plaintive cry of sorrow never reached his merciful ear unheeded-they knew that he gives a helping hand to all that come unto him; their hearts were satisfied. Lord! behold he whom thou lovest is sick. O! what faith! what perfect trust! what an affecting appeal! O! my dear brethren, if you thus come to Jesus, feeling that he is your Saviour, and knowing that by faith in his word nothing can deprive you of his everlasting love, you will depend on him in your trials as did Martha and Mary; you will feel assured that "He that spared not his own son, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" At the idea of that eternal happiness which

Jer. ii. 13. † Jer. xiv, 89. Matt. xxviii, 18. § Rom. viii. 32.

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he has purchased for you, and offers you freely, you will feel ashamed to distrust his faithfulness and love. Therefore, in all your trials of body and mind, you only need this short and simple appeal, "Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick." Lay open your heart before Jesus, make known to him your wants-this is all his mercy requires. Say to him, when you or those dear to you, are in sorrow, "Lord, he whom thou lovest is in the agonies of death; or he whom thou lovest is troubled by doubts; or he whom thou lovest is trembling at his weakness, at the coldness of his love, at his deadness in thy service, or at the sin which does so easily beset him; if you do not thus prove your love to your brethren, and at every fresh sorrow lead him to Jesus, as it were by the hand, be assured you do not love him at all, or that you love him amiss.

"This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby."

What a mysterious answer! We expected that as soon as he received the message sent him by Martha and Mary, that Jesus would have arose and said to his Disciples, as he did at a later period, "Let us go into Judea again"-Let us go to Bethany to the relief of Lazarus; but no: Jesus replied in words so difficult of comprehension, that Theologians, of all ages, have differed about their meaning-they were