from Martha and Mary-they had lately trodden a dark path and were full of sorrow, vainly expecting help and quite disheartened at the conduct of their heavenly friend he goes to them and speaks of faith, comfort, and eternal life. The Evangelist returns to Bethany, and tells us of all that had passed there, since the message his master had received from thence. "Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick." We will follow Jesus to Bethany, and while considering the afflictions of the sisters, and how different were the consolations of the Jews from those of Jesus, may we learn to look for peace and happiness where only they can be found.

"Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already." We suppose that Lazarus died the very day his sisters sent to Jesus, and as Jesus abode two days more in Perea, about a day's journey from Bethany, he did not arrive there. till the fourth day after the death of Lazarus-according to the custom of the Jews in those days he was buried immediately.

He fell asleep in the faith of his forefathers-he closed his eyes on this life of misery with the steadfast hope of awaking in realms of everlasting bliss. Like Simeon, he might say when he left all he held dear on earth, "* Lord! now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." He had entered the har

St. Luke, ii. 29.

bour where he had cast the anchor of his hopes, but his dear sisters were left behind to baffle with the waves and storms of life. St. John does not describ their conflicts or their sorrows, but our hearts can tell us what grief and mourning they must have endured for those four days-their brother, their friend, their companion and earthly support had been taken from them all their love could not rescue him from the cold embrace of death: they had watched his last look, heard his last farewell, all they had left of him was a remembrance, a bitter regret-his place was vacant, his mortal remains were already removed and become the prey of corruption. O! ye wretched fruits of sin which brought such ruin into the Paradise of God! The silence of death, broken only by their sighs, reigns in that dwelling so lately filled by the kind feelings of brotherly love. All is changed, domestic joys are fled, and nothing left but tears and "*The voice said, Cry. And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.

sorrow.

Brothers and sisters, parents, and friends, and all you that are surrounded with tender objects of affection, mind, that though you are permitted to love them, yet you should beware that you do not rest your hopes of happiness on their fragile lives. Love them as

* Isaiah xl. 6.

creatures of eternity, not of earth-love them for God's sake more than for your own. Listen to the

advice of the great Disciple of love preserved to us in the sacred pages-he, after a long experience of life, after having grown old in the exercise of the love he constantly recommended, traced these words with an aged and enfeebled hand, "* Little children, keep yourselves from idols."

However, these four tedious day's passed away without our Lord's appearing in Bethany. Jesus, who alone could bring comfort to these distracted sistersJesus, whose assistance they unceasingly imploredJesus, who never turned a deaf ear to the complaints of the sorrowful, came not. Where will be their faith? What will be their hope? One word from our Saviour could remove their sorrow-they acknowledged his power, and yet he only sends them an obscure answer, which was quite unintelligible to them : "This sickness is not unto death, but unto the glory of God." Yet their brother had already been four days in the grave, and his remains were fast falling to decay.

My dear brothers, if any of you be naturally incredulous and soon cast down, do you not find yourselves filled with distrust and weakness in such moments of trial? Learn then from Martha and Mary to know the hidden ways of the Lord-learn from Abraham

1 St. John v. 21.

*

and all the children of God, who gained the victory through much warfare "+to hope for that we see not." Should your minds be distrustful, your souls a barren desert, your faith not victorious, and your hopes not directed to a better country-should the word of the Lord not speak to your souls, nor prayer be to you like a spring of living waters, could you see no remedies for your sorrows, but that your ey es were fixed on darkness and on bottomless pits. O! do not shudder at all this: for thence an immovable faith may spring up in your hearts, and the bonds of your union with the Almighty become so strong, that they never can be broken again. Jesus is there-he approaches—it was his mighty hand which placed you in this abyss, and when you have learned there to think nothing of yourselves, your strength or your merits, but to put your whole trust in him, then his powerful arm will support you, and remove you to the sublime realms of faith: you will there bless him for your sufferings, and acknowledge all that they have taught you. The sisters of Lazarus will shew us how to praise and magnify the Lord, after having just shewn us how to humble ourselves under his hand.

Martha and Mary had not been left without the consolations which this world affords. "Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, fifteen furlongs off, which was about a mile and a half, and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother." It was the custom of the Jews, when one

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of a family was dead, that the friends all assembled to mourn with the afflicted relatives. It might have been a good custom had it been done in the spirit of him, who saith, "II, even I, am he that comforteth you." But every thing that proceeds from man, even lamentations and mournings degenerate into mere lifeless ceremony; I was going to say, into hypocrisy. The Jews assembled round the family of the deceased, instead of seeking in reminiscences and prayer that spirit which is called "the Comforter," filled the air with dismal cries and loud wailings. If the departed were much loved and regretted by his family, then their lamentations assumed the appearance of violent frenzy; they tore their hair, rent their clothes, put on sackcloth, covered themselves with ashes, uttering, at the same time, piercing cries, which increased in loudness when they saw the relations of the dead giving vent to their grief. In some cases women were engaged to increase the gloom of these funeral meetings, to weep and mourn over the dead, and, at the conclusion, men were hired to accompany these mournful ceremonies with musical instruments. St. Mathew mentions them when he relates the restoring to life of Jairus's daughter. *And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, he said unto them, give place.”—-Certainly, in our days, it is not the custom thus to comfort the afflicted, but how many false comforters are there, to whom the Lord would say, either with indignation or compassion-" Give place." What