^ m^ „:" ^. :: ^^^^ 
 
 
 LIBRARY 1 
 
 
 OF THE 
 
 
 Theological Seminary, '| 
 
 SJielf, 
 
 PRINCETON, N. 
 
 Sectior 
 
 J : 
 
 1 '■ 
 
 Book, 
 
 No..,. 
 
 6' 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
THE 
 
 FAMILY OF BETHANY: 
 
 OR, 
 
 MEDITATIONS 
 
 ON THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER OF THE GOSPEL 
 ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 
 
 BY L. BONNET, 
 
 lATB ONE OF THE CHAPLAINS OP THE FRENCH CHURCH IN LONDON. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. 
 WITH AN 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, 
 BY THE REV. HUGH WHITE, 
 
 ADVENT," &C. 
 
 PO0RTH AMERICAN, FROM THE EiaUTU LONDON EDITION. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 ROBERT CARTER, 58 CANAL STREET 
 PITTSBURG :— THOMAS CARTER 
 
 1844 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introductory Essay 5 
 
 MEDITATION I. 
 Lazarus, Mary, and Martha 53 
 
 MEDITATION II. 
 
 Lazarus sick. — The Glory of God . • . .69 
 
 MEDITATION III. 
 TheLoveof Jesus, and the Trial of Faith ... 86 
 
 MEDITATION IV. 
 
 The Heroism of Jesus.— The Twelve Hours of the Day . 103 
 
 MEDITATION V. 
 Our Friend Lazarus sleepeth . . . . .124 
 
rr CONTENTS. 
 
 MEDITATION VI. 
 
 PAGE 
 The Pear of Death.— Distaste for Life . ' . . .139 
 
 MEDITATION VII. 
 The Four Days of Trial.— The First Consolations . 156 
 
 MEDITATION VIII. 
 Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life . . 175 
 
 MEDITATION IX. 
 Jesus wept 193 
 
 MEDITATION X. 
 Lazarus, Come forth 216 
 
 MEDITATION XI. 
 Conclusion 237 
 
THSOLOGin- 
 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 The more attentively we examine the constitu- 
 tion of the Gospel-scheme of salvation, the more 
 fully will we be convinced, that it is the ultimate 
 design of that scheme, to re-enthrone in the heart 
 of man that principle, which reigned there before 
 the fall in full supremacy, and in which his highest 
 glory and happiness consisted — the love of God. 
 
 As long as this principle maintained its rightful 
 sovereignty over man's heart, subordinating to its 
 sanctifying sway all the inferior affections and 
 appetites of man's nature, and rendering his whole 
 life one continued thank-offering to the God of all 
 his blessings ; man stood forth, in all liis primeval 
 dignity and blessedness, only " a little lower than 
 the angels," the vicegerent and representative of 
 the majesty of the Most High on earth ! The 
 image of the Deity was reflected, with beautiful 
 distinctness, in the unsullied mirror of his sinless 
 soul, and the paradise around him was but an 
 emblem — fair, indeed, yet faint — of the far love- 
 lier paradise within ! 
 
 !• 
 
6 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 But no sooner had that fatal act of disobedience 
 to the Divine command, " which brought sin into 
 the world, and all our woe," dethroned the love 
 of God from the heart of man, — than in one mo- 
 ment all his glory departed from him — all his 
 happiness passed away as a dream; the image 
 of God was effaced from his soul, and that of 
 Satan stamped in its stead ; and the earth, cursed 
 for his sake, sending forth thorns and thistles 
 from its blighted soil, became but too appro- 
 priate an emblem of the far drearier desert of 
 man's soul, where, under the blighting curse of 
 an angry God, all the sweet flowers of celestial 
 growth, which bloomed so brightly in the morning 
 of man's innocence, withered away, and there 
 suddenly sprung up the thorns and thistles of 
 anguish, remorse, and despair. 
 
 This being the case, it is manifest that, if the 
 Gospel-scheme be designed to restore man to the 
 happiness from which, by sin, he has fallen, it 
 must be its design, for the accomplishment of this 
 object, to restore to its rightful ascendancy over 
 man's affections that principle, in which the very 
 essence of man's primeval happiness was concen- 
 trated. And is not this palpably the professed 
 design of the Gospel-scheme ? Is not the great 
 object which it has in view emphatically this — 
 that the love of God may be shed abroad in the 
 heart of man by the Holy Ghost ? And does it 
 not employ, for this purpose, means most glori- 
 ously adapted for its accomplishment ; even such 
 a stupendous revelation of God's love to man, as, 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 7 
 
 when cordially believed through the influence of 
 the Holy Spirit, must overpower the sullen enmity, 
 and melt down the icy coldness of man's heart 
 towards God, into the softened tenderness of peni- 
 tential sorrow — the warm glow of grateful love ? 
 
 What a beautiful compendium of the Gospel- 
 scheme has the beloved disciple comprised in the 
 compass of a single verse : " Herein is love ! not 
 that we loved God, but that He loved us, and 
 sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins." 
 There is something amazingly impressive in these 
 words ; they unfold to our view unutterable things 
 of the love of God ; they seem to tell us, that all 
 God's love is concentrated in this manifestation ; 
 that here all its scattered rays converge into a 
 focus of such surpassing brightness, as altogether 
 eclipses every other exhibition of the love of God. 
 Herein is love ! It is as if St. John had said — 
 Doubt as you may the love of God, when you look 
 elsewhere for proofs, yet here^ at least, you must 
 feel that you cannot, dare not, indulge a doubt, 
 for you cannot look to the cross, and not be com- 
 pelled to confess — Herein is love ! Nor is there 
 that conceivable ground of distrust of God's love, 
 which the incredulity of man's alienated heart 
 could suggest, which is not anticipated and an- 
 swered in this precious verse. 
 
 Are we ready to plead, that ingratitude to the 
 God of all our blessings so stares us in the face, 
 that we feel it would be unwarrantable presump- 
 tion to cherish the hope, that we can be the ob- 
 jects oiHis love, whose goodness we have requited 
 
8 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 with such ungrateful contempt and rebellion, as 
 compel us to despise and loathe ourselves. This 
 apparently most reasonable fear is silenced by the 
 assurance, " Herein is love — not that we loved 
 God." The want of our love to Him, that cursed 
 consequence of the fall, which stamps on our apos- 
 tate spirits the very brand of hell, is stated as being 
 no bar to this display of God's love. Not that we 
 loved God, hut that He loved us ! Yes ! with all 
 our ingratitude full before His view, though of its 
 enormous extent and baseness He alone could 
 form any adequate estimate — still He loved us ! 
 with a love of compassion, of which we can give 
 no other explanation than this — that with regard 
 to His love, partaking so fully as it does of the un- 
 fathomable mysteriousness of His nature, " His 
 thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His ways as 
 our ways." 
 
 Again, are we ready to indulge the apprehen- 
 sion, which the consciousness of our unworthiness 
 might well seem to warrant, that, though the com- 
 passion of our offended God might dispose Him to 
 grant us some trifling boon, some gift of little 
 worth, still we dare not look for any great or pre- 
 cious tokens of His love. Oh ! how is this appre- 
 hension not merely answered, but overpowered 
 into rapturous wonder, by tiie amazing declara- 
 tion, " He so loved us that He gave His Son, His 
 own, His only. His well-beloved Son ! His co- 
 eternal and co-equal Son ! One with Himself 
 from everlasting — gave Him — the greatest gift 
 of His love even in His power to bestow. Oh ! is 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 9 
 
 not tlie appeal unanswerable ! What could He 
 have clone, to convince us of His love, more than 
 He has done ? What could He have given, 
 dearer or more precious to Him, than His own, 
 His only Son? Can we now wonder at the 
 Apostle's exclamation, " Herein is love !" 
 
 But we have not yet arrived at the full de- 
 velopment of the love of God which this verse dis- 
 plays ! There are depths in it yet to be fathomed : 
 there are heights in it yet to be scaled ; and still, 
 and throughout eternity, there will remain in the 
 love of God to man, which this verse reveals, 
 heights, which will be for ever unscaleable by 
 created intellects — depths, which can never be 
 fathomed by finite minds. 
 
 Tiiough the fears, arising from the conscious- 
 ness of our ingratitude to God, might be thus 
 silenced by the consideration of His infinite be- 
 nignity and compassion, there is another aspect 
 of the Divine character, which might well over- 
 whelm us with the most overpowering alarm, and 
 exclude the hope that God would ever lift up the 
 light of his countenance upon us in love ! We 
 might be ready, when we contemplate the blessed 
 God as the Being, who loveth righteousness and 
 hateth iniquity, to an infinite extent, and view 
 ourselves as vile, polluted sinners, to exclaim, " It 
 is impossible that a holy God could love such un- 
 holy creatures as we must confess ou«elves to be ! 
 His holiness must constrain Him to hold us in per- 
 fect abhorrence, as utterly loathsome in the eyes 
 of His infinite purity ! Oh ! the depths of Divine 
 
10 INTRODUCTORY ESSAT. 
 
 love ! What tongue of men or angels could speak 
 aright of that most mysterious love of God, which 
 here bursts on our view ! ' He loved us, and gave 
 His own Son, as a propitiation for our sins!'" 
 Yes ! our sinfulness, the very object which we 
 might so justly have feared would have shut us 
 out for ever from the smallest manifestation of the 
 love of God, is the very object, from which He 
 takes occasion, while displaying, in the strongest 
 possible manner, His holy abhorrence of sin, to 
 exhibit towards sinners the greatest possible proof 
 of His love, even in His power to bestow ! 
 
 It is because we have sinned against Him, and 
 were, as sinners, exposed to a righteous sentence 
 of eternal condemnation, and must, therefore, un- 
 less an adequate atonement should be offered, to 
 make the exercise of mercy compatible with the 
 claims of justice, have perished everlastingly ; it 
 is for this very reason, that loving us with an un- 
 bounded love, and seeing that no creature, how- 
 ever highly exalted, could offer a sufficient satis- 
 faction to His offended justice on our behalf, 
 therefore He gave His own co-eternal and co- 
 equal Son, as a propitiation for our sins ! 
 
 It is manifest that this at once silences every 
 objection derived from our sinfulness, and magni- 
 fies the love of God to the utmost conceivable 
 extent ; for here, so far is our sinfulness from be- 
 ing represeil^ed as an insuperable barrier to the 
 manifestation of God's love, that it is actually ex- 
 hibited as having elicited the greatest possible 
 exhibition of that love ; since, if we had not sin- 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 11 
 
 ned, we could not have required a propitiation ; 
 and we may with reverence assert, that even the 
 Everlasting Father himself could not give a 
 greater proof of His love, than^o give His own 
 Son to be a propitiation for our sins. More espe- 
 cially, when we remember, that, in order to offer 
 up such a propitiation, as would perfectly satisfy 
 the demands of the insulted justice of Jehovah, 
 the well-beloved Son of God must descend from 
 the throne of His glory in heaven to the death of 
 the cross on earth. 
 
 What possible plea then is left, which the most 
 perverted ingenuity of man's incredulity can in- 
 vent, for doubting the love of God 1 Since, in 
 confutation of the plea, we might have urged 
 with most apparent reasonableness, even the fact, 
 that ^^'p are sinners, and as such, unworthy of His 
 love ; Scripture assures us, that " herein God com- 
 mendeth his love towards us," (sets it off by this 
 most endearing consideration, which unspeakably 
 enhances its value.) "that wiiile we were yet sin- 
 ners. He gave His own Son to die for our sins." 
 Is it (for this would seem the only conceivable 
 objection unanswered) — is it the greatness of our 
 sins ? No ! for since He gave His own Son— the 
 beloved of His bosom — the partner of His throne 
 — One with Himself from everlasting ; since He 
 gave Him as a propitiation for our sins, it mani- 
 festly is not humility, but unbelief, offering the 
 deepest insult to the Son of His love, to imagine 
 that there could be any sins, no matter of how 
 aggravated a character, or how deep a dye, for 
 
12 LNTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 which that sacrifice must not be an infinitely suffi- 
 cient expiation ! Yea, one which puts such infi- 
 nite honour on the justice whose claims it satisfies, 
 and the law who^e penalties it pays, that the par- 
 don, purchased at such a price, not merely com- 
 ports with, but even pours a brighter flood of 
 glory round the character and government of 
 God. 
 
 Are then our trembling hearts ready to exclaim 
 — " Oh ! may we indeed be permitted, with an 
 appropriating trust, to believe and confide in the 
 love of God, thus wondrously displayed?" How 
 delightfully encouraging, in answer to such an 
 enquiry, the assurance, which the Scriptures so 
 fully warrant, that not merely are we permitted, 
 but even commanded thus to believe in the love 
 of God, as manifested towards ourselves ! Yea, 
 that to doubt that love is a suggestion of Satan, 
 and in the highest degree sinful, and displeasing 
 to God, because, now that God has declared His 
 love towards us, by giving His own Son, as a pro- 
 pitiation for our sins, to doubt it, after such a man- 
 ifestation, is virtually to tell God, Xhdit nothing He 
 could do, would be sufficient to convince us of 
 His love ! And how could we off*er him a greater 
 afi'ront than this 1 Or how could He give ns a 
 stronger warrant to confide in His love, than to 
 command us to do so, and to tell us, that it is in 
 the highest degree sinful in His sight, to doubt oi 
 to distrust His love ? 
 
 Thus every conceivable objection, which con- 
 scious guilt could urge, is fully answered; and 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 13 
 
 every obstacle to the entrance of God's love into 
 the heart of man entirely removed. I have dwelt 
 the more largely on this point, because, as I be- 
 fore observed, the ultimate design of the Gospel- 
 scheme, (intended as it is for the restoration of 
 man to the glory and happiness which he lost b> 
 the fall,) is the re-enthronement of the love of God 
 in the heart of man, in the rightful sovereignty of 
 which blessed principle over all the affections and 
 appetites of his nature, we perceived the very es- 
 sence of his happiness and his glory to consist; 
 and we also saw that, for the accomplishment of 
 this purpose, the means employed were such a 
 stupendous exhibition of the love of God, as, when 
 cordially believed, cannot fail to win back to God 
 the alienated heart of man. 
 
 It seemed, therefore, important to show, that 
 the manifestation of Divine love, which the Gos- 
 pel-scheme unfolds, is admirably adapted to the 
 end it is designed to accomplish : because it ex- 
 hibits that love as clothed in a shape, (the gift of 
 God's own Son, as a propitiation for our sins,) 
 which makes it the basest ingratitude to doubt 
 God's love ; for, could we offer a deeper affront 
 to God than to tell Him, that even the gift of his 
 own Son, for such a purpose, has failed to convince 
 us of His love ? While, at the same time, as this 
 gift, bestowed for such a purpose, presupposes our 
 sinfulness, (which alone furnishes occasion for its 
 exercise,) it provides unanswerable arguments for 
 silencing every objection, which the consciousness 
 of guilt could urge ; and as it comes through a 
 2 
 
14 INTRODUCTOIIY ESSAY. 
 
 channel, which glorifies the Divine character in 
 the pardon of our sins, making our salvation, ef- 
 fectuated through such a sacrifice as was offered 
 on the cross, a means of promoting the glory of 
 God, it sweetly satisfies us that God, in perfect 
 consistency with His holiness, can look on us with 
 love ; and thus it supplies the most abundant en- 
 trance to the love of God, to come and take up its 
 abode in the human heart, and dwell and reign 
 there, opening a paradise, yea, a heaven, in that 
 heart for ever. 
 
 The unspeakable importance of thus believing 
 God's love is obvious from this — that, as soon as 
 a cordial belief that, through the propitiation of- 
 fered up on our behalf by His beloved Son, God 
 is reconciled to us, and forgives us all our iniqui- 
 ties, and regards us with complacency, as the 
 children of His love ; as soon as a cordial belief 
 of this glorious truth is shed abroad in our hearts 
 by the Holy Ghost, gratitude to the God of our 
 salvation immediately is implanted there, and be- 
 comes thenceforth the very soul of our souls ; the 
 seminal principle of all acceptable obedience ; the 
 germ from which grow all the fruits of righteous- 
 ness, and true holiness; the fountain from which 
 all gracious affections and dispositions, all renewed 
 tastes and tempers, flow. From this Divine foun- 
 tain, thus opened in our hearts, flows an inextin- 
 guishable abhorrence of sin — for when God is sin- 
 cerely loved, we must hate sin — the abominable 
 thing which He hates, and which is the very con- 
 centration of enmity against Himself, rebellion 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 15 
 
 against His authority, ingratitude for His loving- 
 kindness, and hatred of all He holds dear. Sin — 
 whose unutterable hatefiilness is so awfully written 
 in the agony and bloody sweat, the cross and pas- 
 sion of God's well-beloved Son ! Surely if there 
 be any one truth revealed in Scripture, with such 
 clearness that he who runs may read, it is, that 
 the love of God and the love of sin cannot dwell 
 together in the same breast. Oh! no! it is for 
 the very purpose of dethroning the love, and de- 
 stroying the dominion of sin — and of enthroning 
 the love and establishing the empire of holiness in 
 the believer's heart, that God, the Holy Ghost, 
 takes up His abode there, as the Sanctifier and 
 Comforter, and by His Divine presence and influ- 
 ences, consecrating his body as a temple of the 
 living God, and renewing his soul, in the Divine 
 image, in righteousness and true holiness, makes 
 the heir of glory meet for the holy service, and the 
 holy heaven of a holy God. 
 
 The love of God, when it is enthroned in our 
 hearts, will also produce the most unhesitating 
 obedience to His commandments, and the most 
 unmurmuring resignation to His will : for how can 
 we hesitate to obey any of His commandments, 
 or acquiesce in any of His appointments, when we 
 regard them all alike as the expressions of an in- 
 finitely wise and tender Father's love, who cannot 
 be mistaken as to the best means of advancing our 
 real welfare, for He is infinite in wisdom — who 
 cannot be frustrated in any of His plans, for He is 
 infinite in power — who cannot, without a horrible 
 
16 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 libel on His character, be supposed to take plea- 
 sure in inflicting on us unnecessary pain, for, (in- 
 dependently of His infinite benevolence, which al- 
 together precludes the insulting supposition,) He 
 so loved us, as to give His own Son to the death 
 of the cross, to save us from eternal sufferings ; 
 and who cannot, Avithout the most monstrous in- 
 gratitude and affront to that Son, be suspected of 
 withholding from us any real blessing in His 
 power to bestow, seeing He withheld not even 
 Him — but delivered Him up as a propitiation for 
 our sins! — how then shall He not (oh! blessed 
 impossibility), " how shall He not with him also 
 freely give us all things ?" 
 
 Nor should another precious fruit of this celes- 
 tial plant be omitted ; even that, when the love 
 of God in Christ reigns supreme in the heart,* 
 there is always kindled in the soul, by the Holy 
 Spirit, a heavenly flame of fervent zeal for God's 
 honour, which prompts the grateful believer to 
 consecrate all the powers of his mind, and mem- 
 bers of his body, as instruments of righteousness, 
 for the advancement of the glory of God I Then 
 are the words — " Hallowed be thy name — Thy 
 kingdom come — Thy will be done on earth, as it 
 is in heaven" — so often, while he was a stranger 
 to the love of God, repeated with the most in- 
 sulting mockery of the Most High, then are those 
 words the honest language of his heart, whose 
 supreme solicitude is now centred on the advance- 
 ment of his Heavenly Father's glory, " to which 
 every other wish and anxiety of his soul are sub- 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 17 
 
 ordinate, and every plan and purpose of his life 
 arranged in grateful subserviency to this end." 
 
 To contribute, to the utmost extent of his 
 influence and resources, towards the accomplish- 
 ment of this object, becomes the dearest desire of 
 his renewed heart; to this all his time, all his 
 talents, are gladly and gratefully devoted. He 
 feels it to be indeed his bounden duty to do so ; 
 but he feels also that it is something even nobler 
 and sweeter than this — that it is his most exalted 
 privilege — the source of the highest honour and 
 happiness that can be conferred upon him, to be 
 permitted to be, in any, even the humblest mea- 
 sure, instrumental in advancing the glory of liis 
 God. * 
 
 In this sentiment of holy zeal for God's glory, 
 are combined whatever is most ennobling and 
 attractive in loyalty to the most munificent of 
 sovereigns, and love to the tenderest of fathers, 
 and gratitude to the most generous of benefac- 
 tors. Every gift, whether of natural or acquired 
 endowment, which the bounty of God has bes- 
 towed — every channel of influence or source of 
 enjoyment which the providence of God has 
 opened — all, all are prized by one who loves God 
 in Christ, exactly in the proportion in which they 
 can be made to administer to the advancement 
 of His glory. 
 
 This sentiment invests the humblest Chris- 
 tian's character with a dignity, immeasurably 
 higher than belongs to the mightiest monarch of 
 the earth in whose heart the love of God is not 
 2* 
 
18 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 enthroned. It links him as a fellow-labourer 
 with the most exalted of created beings, for the 
 attainment of the noblest of ends — for it associ- 
 ates him with cherubim, and seraphim, and all 
 the host of heaven, in labours of grateful zeal for 
 the advancement of that end, to which they in- 
 variably devote their immortal energies — the 
 glory of God. 
 
 Does not, then, the love of God, when reign- 
 ing in rightful supremacy over the Christian's 
 heart, fling round him a grandeur that is not of 
 the earth, but bears the very impress of heaven ? 
 
 Its possessor may be a Lazarus at some rich 
 man's gate, the object of the mingled scorn and 
 compassion of the Hvealthy worldlings, who, as 
 they roll past him in their chariots of state, look 
 down on him with contempt, as a creature of an 
 inferior grade in existence to themselves ; yet 
 does he rank as much above them in the estima- 
 tion of Jehovah, as the heavens are higher than 
 the earth. 
 
 Nor does this enthronement of God in the 
 heart of man minister less to his own enjoyment, 
 than to his zeal for God's glory ; or conduce less 
 to his happiness than to his holiness, so far as 
 we can draw a distinction between holiness and 
 happiness, which are, in fact, but two different 
 names for one and the same thing ; for, by an 
 immutable constitution of a holy God, immutable, 
 because His glory would be sullied by a change 
 in such an appointment, He has made it equally 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 19 
 
 impossible, to be happy without being holy, or to 
 be holy without being happy ! 
 
 The consciousness of possessing the friendship 
 of the greatest and best of beings — of Him whose 
 loving-kindness is better than the life, and whose 
 smile gives to angels all their joy, and heaven all 
 its glory — the conviction that we have concentra- 
 ted our supreme affections on the one only Object, 
 infinitely worthy of them, and capable of satisfy- 
 ing their most exalted and enlarged desires — the 
 feehng that we are linked, in a bond of holy bro- 
 therhood, with all the pure and glorious intel- 
 ligences throughout the universe, who live in 
 the light of God's countenance, and rejoice to do 
 His will — the perception that the Holy Spirit has 
 already traced in our souls the lineaments of the 
 Divine image, modelled after the Saviour's, how- 
 ever faint as yet may be the resemblance — and 
 the assurance that that image shall yet be per- 
 fectly stamped on our glorified spirits, without 
 spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, in the smallest 
 degree to disfigure the beauty of perfect holiness 
 — the knowledge that all our faculties are conse- 
 crated to the service of the best of masters, and 
 the advancement of the noblest of ends, and the 
 assurance that our safety and happiness, for time 
 and for eternity, are as secure in the hands of a 
 covenant-keeping God, as His infinite wisdom, 
 power, and love can make them — therefore as 
 secure as our hearts could possibly desire — and all 
 the pure pleasures which flow through the sacred 
 chamiels of prayer, and the Holy Scriptures, and 
 
20 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 the services of the Sabbath, especially the Sacra- 
 mental Commemoration of the Redeemer's dying 
 love, that sweetest foretaste to the believer of the 
 blessedness of sitting down, with all the members 
 of his mystical body, at the Marriage Supper of 
 the Lamb — all this for present possession ; and 
 then for future prospects, the promises of that God 
 who cannot lie, that, throughout the endless ages 
 of eternity, we shall be rejoicing in His presence 
 with joy unspeakable and full of glory — uniting 
 with angels and archangels, and all the company 
 of heaven, in the songs and services of the celes- 
 tial sanctuary, joining with all that we have loved 
 in Christ, and with all the ranks of the redeemed, 
 in ascribing everlasting praise to Him that sitteth 
 upon the throne, and to the Lamb — even the 
 Lamb that was slain for us: if these be the bles- 
 sed fruits of the love of God, planted in our hearts 
 by the Holy Ghost, oh ! may not that principle 
 indeed be said to open in our hearts a little 
 heaven? 
 
 Nor should it be forgotten, that from the love 
 of God thus shed abroad in the heart by the Holy 
 Ghost, flows that principle of christian philanthro- 
 py, and brotherly love, which constrains the be- 
 liever to labour to the uttermost to be like the God 
 he loves, in diffusing happines, temporal and 
 eternal, as far as his influence extends. The 
 grateful child of God feels the full force of that 
 beautiful exclamation of the Apostle, " Beloved ! 
 if God so loved us, we ought also to love one 
 another!" Having contemplated, with adoring 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 21 
 
 gratitude, the stupendous love, displayed in his 
 redemption, he is inflamed with an unquenchable 
 desire to drink every day more deeply into the 
 spirit of that love, which shines forth, with such 
 surpassing glory, round Calvary's cross, to become 
 more closely conformed to the character of Him, 
 who was the incarnate manifestation of Divine 
 love, to walk more faithfully in the footsteps of 
 Him, who went about doing good, and thus by 
 the exhibitions of a temper, modelled after the 
 loving Saviour's and implanted by that Spirit, who 
 descended on Jesus in the form of a dove ; by 
 every work and labour of love, which gratitude to 
 a Saviour-God wiU promote, and by the zealous 
 and liberal support of every society, and insti- 
 tution, which are established and calculated to 
 advance at once the happiness of man, and the 
 gloiy of God, to become instrumental in soothing 
 human suffering, and augmenting human happi- 
 ness, and through the medium of a character, living 
 in an element of divine love, pervading all its 
 inward feelings, and outward movements, to be 
 made a benefactor and a blessing to mankind. 
 
 If tlie truth of these observations be admitted, 
 it is manifest that no style of work can be more 
 directly calculated to promote at once the glory 
 of God, and the happiness of man, than that 
 which exhibits, in the most attractive form, the 
 love of God to man, and thus prepares the way 
 for the enthronement in the human heart of that 
 love of man to God, which we have seen to be at 
 once the seminal principle of all true holiness, 
 
22 INTRODUCTORy ESSAY. 
 
 and the only spring of satisfying and abiding hap- 
 piness : and it is this which invests with such a 
 pecuhar charm, and stamps with such a pecuhar 
 value, the work to which we have prefixed 'these 
 prefatory observations. 
 
 It bears the unequivocal marks of being writ- 
 ten by one, who had felt, in the inmost recesses 
 of his heart, the full power of that brief but most 
 beautiful delineation of the Divine character, 
 drawn by the hands of the Apostle of love, when 
 he says, " God is love !" And it would appear 
 impossible to read it with a devout spirit, without 
 feeling attracted in love and adoration towards 
 this blessed Being, who is thus exhibited as bear- 
 ing a nature and a name, so afFectingly calculated 
 to win for Him the warmest love and confidence 
 of the human heart. 
 
 This delightful conviction and exhibition of the 
 glorious truth, that " God is love," pervades the 
 whole volume, running, like a golden thread, 
 through the entire texture of the work. The 
 stamp of heavenly love is exhibited in every fea- 
 ture of the stupendous scheme of our salvation. 
 We are constantly reminded that love is the foun- 
 tain from which it flows, and that the medium by 
 which it is accomplished is the incarnation of Di- 
 vine love. Love is shown to be the essential 
 spirit of the Saviour's character — love, the ani- 
 mating motive which impelled Him to undertake 
 the work of man's redemption — love, the sustaining 
 principle which upheld Him, amidst all the strug- 
 
 es and sorrows of that arduous work — love, both 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 23 
 
 the soul and substance of the religion He de- 
 scended from on high to establish upon earth — 
 and love, the very element and atmosphere of 
 that heaven, to which He will conduct all His 
 faithful followers, when they have finished their 
 painful pilgrimage in this vale of tears. 
 
 To a believer's heart there is something dehght- 
 fuUy infectious in continually breathing such an 
 atmosphere as pervades this work. It is not pos- 
 sible to do so, without catching something of its 
 contagious influence, and thus having the temper 
 and character imbued with that spirit of love, 
 which most of all assimilates the human nature 
 to the divine. 
 
 The history which the author has selected for 
 the exemplification of the glorious truth, which 
 thus invests the character of God, and of the reli- 
 gion which has emanated from Him, with such 
 divine attractiveness, is one admirably adapted 
 for this purpose — the history of that family of 
 Bethany, of whom, in one short sentence, we are 
 told enough to assure us, that there was not then 
 on the face of the earth a more honoured or a 
 happier family; for St. John tells us, "that Jesus 
 loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." Vol- 
 umes could not do more than this single verse has 
 done to convince us, that in the abode of this fam- 
 ily, (if no where else on earth,) a type or minia- 
 ture of heaven was to be founds — a counterpart 
 both of the character and happiness of heaven's 
 inhabitants ; for could Jesus thus love any, who had 
 not imbibed the spirit of His own character, (that 
 
24 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 is, the spirit of heaven,) so as to make them con- 
 genial companions, hosom friends for the Saviour 
 of mankind ; and what could be said of the hap- 
 piness of the highest of the host of heaven more 
 than this — that Jesus loves them ! Is not this the 
 source, the concentration, the climax of all their 
 
 Into the bosom of this highly-favoured family 
 we are introduced by the interesting work before 
 us, guided by the exquisitely attractive narrative 
 recorded in the 1 1th chapter of St. John's Gos- 
 pel; and truly we are made to feel, while reading 
 it, that when Jesus came to visit that humble 
 abode of those He loved, He brought heaven with 
 Him into the hearts of its inmates, for He brought 
 thither the presence of Him, in whose presence 
 consists the fulness of heaven's joy. 
 
 The characters of the two sisters are delineated 
 with great power of discrimination. The few 
 touches which the Apostle has given are beauti- 
 fully filled up into a more finished portraiture of 
 their peculiar features ; and strikingly is the con- 
 trast drawn between the ardent, impassioned, 
 precipitate Martha, and the calm, gentle, tender 
 Mary; the love of the former rushing like a tor- 
 rent, strong, indeed, but impetuous and troubled 
 in its course ; the love of the latter flowing like a 
 deep river, in silent strength, pure, peaceful, and 
 profound ; or, as the contrast is described with 
 singular felicity in this work, in two short senten- 
 ces, " Martha is the St. Peter, Mary the St. John 
 of her sex." Could any thing more happily illus- 
 
INTEODUCTORY ESSAY. 25 
 
 trate the difference of the two sisters — the one all 
 ardent zeal, the other all seraphic love 1 
 
 But with whatever of force or beauty the 
 subordinate personages may be delineated, the 
 figure of the Saviour himself always appears as 
 the principal object in the foreground of the pic- 
 ture, arrayed in all the mingled majesty and ten- 
 derness which formed the distinguished character, 
 istics of the Divine Philanthropist ! Every 
 feature wears the expression, every word breathes 
 the spirit, every action bears the impress of in- 
 carnate love ! This encompasses Him as a 
 celestial atmosphere ; this encircles Him as a 
 celestial halo, throwing round all He says and 
 does a grace and a glory which are indeed divine ! 
 You cannot follow Him, step by step, through 
 the various scenes of this peculiarly interesting 
 narrative, from the moment when the sisters of 
 Lazarus sent to Him that touching message, 
 " Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick," till the mo- 
 ment when, in the majesty of omnipotence, He 
 cried, "Lazarus! come forth!" without feeling, 
 with a force which supersedes the necessity of 
 laboured demonstration in its proof, that you are 
 following the footsteps of Deity — that Jesus was 
 • God manifest in the flesh," and that " God is 
 love." The more closely you watch the develop- 
 ment of His character, as exhibited in those 
 movements or observations, which disclosed what 
 is passing within His breast, the more fully are 
 you convinced that you are contemplating the 
 character, that you are listening to the voice, of 
 3 
 
26 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, 
 
 the incarnate God. And it is perhaps the pecu- 
 liar charm, of this volume, that the author, in 
 commenting on the character of the Saviour, as 
 developed in this narrative, appears to have- 
 deeply imbibed the spirit of the beloved disciple ; 
 so that, while reading the reflections brought 
 before us in this work, we feel, as it were, permit- 
 ted to look down into the depths of the Redeem- 
 er's heart, and catch a glimpse of the ineffable 
 love to His people which perpetually glows there, 
 and prompts every movement of His providential 
 arrangements on their behalf And thus the 
 most afflictive of His chastening dispensations 
 are seen to emanate as directly from that love, 
 and to bear its stamp as deeply impressed on 
 them, as those apparently kinder appointments, 
 by which, when compatible with their eternal 
 welfare, He delights to crown His people's earthly 
 hopes with the largest measure of purified earthly 
 enjoyment. Now we know of nothing more 
 powerfully calculated to produce and maintain, 
 in the afflicted Christian's soul, that spirit of 
 cheerful and thankful resignation, which brings at 
 once such glory to his God, and such peace to his 
 own heart, than the fully realized and abidingly 
 cherished conviction, that all the dealings of his 
 Saviour-God with him, however they may differ 
 as to their external aspect, are all alike the 
 emanations and expressions of His infinite love ! 
 that the dispensations which that love appoints 
 may be continually changing, like the alternations 
 of light and shade, as His infinite wisdom may 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 27 
 
 see to be most conducive, by their change, to His 
 people's spiritual welfare, but still the love itself 
 changeth not ; for with it is " no variableness, 
 neither shadow of turning ;" but it endureth from 
 everlasting to everlasting; like Himself, "the 
 same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." 
 
 Oh yes! it is indeed a blessed frame for a 
 believer's mind, (and assureclly it ought to be its 
 abiding frame.) when he is enabled to repose in 
 his Redeemer's love, with a confidingness which 
 no trials can shake, and to acquiesce in His ap- 
 pointments, with a satisfaction which no afflictions 
 can disturb ; and when, whatever that Redeem- 
 er's appointments as to his earthly circumstances 
 may be, whether He is pleased to prosper or to 
 defeat his best concerted plans, to realize or 
 disappoint his most fondly cherished hopes, to 
 give or to take away what most he desires or 
 loves, he is able, with equal gratitude of heart, to 
 bless "the name of the Lord!" And is it not 
 strange, (and oh what a melancholy proof, how 
 imperfectly his nature is, as yet renewed,) that 
 after having once been privileged to read, with a 
 believing heart, the records of that love, as con- 
 tained in the scenes exhibited in Gethsemane's 
 garden, and on Calvary's cross, he should ever 
 feel the smallest difficulty in reposing in the* Re- 
 deemer's love, with such confidingness, and in 
 His appointments with such resignation. It is 
 true, we are so habituated to associate with the 
 very name of love the idea of doing all within 
 our power to avert the sufferings, gratify the 
 
28 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 wishes, and thus promote the happiness of the 
 beloved object, that we find it at times hard to 
 beHeve — yea, it is confessedly a noble triumph of 
 faith, with unwavering confidence, to feel assured^ 
 that when the hand of a Saviour-God is stretched 
 forth to cross all our favourite plans — even those 
 that were arranged most faithfully, as we fancied, 
 for the advancement of His glory, and to blight 
 all our dearest hopes — even those which we 
 cherished in the sweetest spirit of submission to 
 His will — it is love, the very tenderest, fondest 
 love, which directs its very movement. And yet, 
 did we but reason and feel as, if Christians in 
 more than name, we ought to do, we would find 
 it much harder to believe, that any thing but such 
 love could direct a single movement of the Sa- 
 viour's hand, in any of His appointments, how- 
 ever afflictive, on behalf of his own beloved peo- 
 ple ; of those so inconceivably dear to Him, 
 that He did not deem even the sacrifice of His 
 own life, the pouring out of his own blood, amidst 
 all the ignominy and agony of the death of the 
 cross, too costly a price at which to purchase their 
 eternal happiness — too vast a sacrifice, by which 
 to testify the boundlessness of His love. 
 
 We do not deny that the dispensations which 
 He appoints may often, to our short-sighted facul- 
 ties, appear very mysterious ; that His footsteps 
 are often in the sea, and His paths in the deep 
 waters, where His design cannot be traced : but 
 oh! might we not expect that the same confiding- 
 ness which is reposed in well-tried earthly affec- 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 29 
 
 tion, should be reposed in His ; that its tender- 
 ness might be trusted, even when its plans could 
 not be traced ; and that any suspicious doubts 
 which the apparent severity of his dealings might 
 awaken, would be at once put to flight by the re- 
 membrance of what passed in the garden of Geth- 
 semane, and all painful perplexity changed into 
 cheerful acquiescence, by His own assurance to 
 Peter — " What I do, thou knowest not now, but 
 thou shalt know hereafter." Yes ! I cannot but 
 feel persuaded, that if believers were more in the 
 habit of devoutly dwelling on the contemplation 
 of the infinite love and infinite wisdom of their 
 Saviour-God, they would be able to exhibit, under 
 the pressure of heavy trials, a spirit more suitable 
 to the exalted privileges which they possess, and 
 more calculated to honour Him in the eyes of the 
 children of the world. 
 
 The language, not merely of their lips, but of 
 their heart and life, amidst the most painful or 
 perplexing dispensations, by which He might see 
 fit to try their faith and patience, would in spirit 
 be habitually this — When I look at the cross, and 
 remember who it is that is there offering up Him- 
 self, amidst the lingering tortures of its agonizing 
 death, as a sacrifice for my sins, and to secure my 
 salvation, I dare not doubt His love — I feel it 
 would be the basest ingratitude to wound it by 
 one dishonouring doubt, written, as it is, in His 
 tears, and agonies, and blood. Oh ! then, what a 
 heart must mine be, if I can refuse to trust in it 
 with the most unsuspecting confidingness, aye, 
 3* 
 
30 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 though it should appoint for me trials, beyond all 
 which ever yet were appointed for any child of 
 man ! True, this is a most perplexing dispensa- 
 tion. I cannot fully fathom its deep design. It 
 so crushes my spirit — it so wounds my heart in 
 the very tenderest point — it so dries up the source 
 of all my earthly happiness, and gives such a 
 wilderness aspect to the world. But oh ! utibe- 
 lieving, ungrateful heart, though thou canst not 
 trace, art thou unwilHng to trust a Saviour's love? 
 May I not feel assured, that this is precisely the 
 trial which is best suited to my spiritual condition, 
 since it is the one which Infinite Wisdom has 
 chosen ; and is that a wisdom which can by possi' 
 bility be mistaken ? Is the child to dictate to the 
 parent, what discipline to adopt in training him 
 up for future usefulness % Is the patient to pre- 
 scribe to the physician, what remedies to employ 
 for the accomplishment of his recovery? And 
 shall I dictate to the only wise God, my Saviour, 
 what course of corrective discipline He ought to 
 adopt, in training me up for my purchased inheri- 
 tance of glory? Shall I prescribe to the Heavenly 
 Physician, what remedies He ought to employ, to 
 accomplish my spiritual cure ? And if His dis- 
 cipline be stricter, or His remedies more painful 
 than is palatable to flesh and blood, oh ! shall I 
 therefore question His love, or quarrel with His 
 appointments ? 
 
 But is the dispensation indeed so mysterious, 
 that I cannot trace, amidst its dark perplexity, the 
 footsteps of a faithful covenant-keeping God ? Is 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 31 
 
 the gloom, that overshadows my path, so deep, so 
 dense, that no cheering rays of divine hght break 
 through and brighten it with even the passing 
 gleam of a Saviour's smile ? Is the storm of afflic- 
 tion so loud, and so uninterrupted, that I never hear, 
 amidst the pauses of the blast, a voice that softly 
 whispers. '' God is love ?" Oh ! surely I cannot say 
 this. Yea, must I not thankfully acknowledge, that 
 even already I have had abundant cause to con- 
 fess, " It is good for me that I have been afflicted ;" 
 and to cherish an humble confidence, that all the 
 blessings, which I have derived from sanctified 
 sorrows, have been but the first-fruits of a rich 
 harvest of eternal glory? 
 
 And oh ! how precious have those first-fruits 
 been ! What ineffably sweet communion with 
 my Saviour-God have I enjoyed, since He allured 
 me into the wilderness, and there spake comfort- 
 ably to me ! What increased experience of the 
 tenderness of His sympathy, the preciousness of 
 His consolations ! Oh ! should I have been well 
 satisfied to have passed through even deeper 
 v/aters of affliction than I have encountered, if I 
 could only thus have learned, as this trial has 
 taught me, how a Saviour-God can and will sup- 
 port His people in their day of trouble ? And 
 what fountains of consolation, sweeter than I ever 
 before tasted, or even in imagination conceived, 
 have prayer and the Scriptures proved, since this 
 afflictive dispensation drove me to seek in them 
 refreshment for my fainting soul ? Moreoverj as 
 earth has been darkened, has not heaven looked 
 
32 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 brighter to my view ? Has not the buffeting of 
 the storm endeared to me the prospect of the 
 haven where I would be ; and the wearisomeness 
 "of the journey made sweeter still the thoughts of 
 my heavenly home ? Have not my affections, 
 desires, and hopes, oftener soared up, with heaven- 
 ward flight, since the chains of earthly attractions, 
 which bound them down to the dust, have been 
 broken by the hand of affliction ? And shall not 
 I bless the stroke, which thus emancipated my 
 earth-enthralled spirit, and gave it liberty to mount 
 up, as on eagle's wings, to its native skies? 
 
 Has not the furnace of affliction also proved to 
 my soul a purifying furnace, by which the sullying 
 defilements of inward corruption, which lurked 
 unsuspected in the recesses of my heart, were dis- 
 covered and purged away in its refining fires ? 
 So that if, by divine grace I am enabled in any, 
 even the faintest degree, to reflect mj adorable 
 Redeemer's image, I am mainly indebted to the 
 refining process, which has been thus carried on 
 by the Holy Spirit in my soul. And could I wish 
 that the fire had been less hot, if thereby less of the 
 defilement of sin would have been purged away, 
 and less of the image of the Saviour reflected in 
 my soul ? And have I not had opportunities of 
 glorifying Him who died for me, placed within 
 my reach by this agonizing trial, immeasurably 
 more precious, than the most unclouded prosperity 
 could ever have supplied ? Oh ! if I may but in- 
 dulge the delightful hope, that some careless sin- 
 ner has been converted, or some sorrowing saint 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 33 
 
 comforted, by what they have seen of a Saviour's 
 faithfulness and love, as exhibited in the strength 
 and consolation He has so graciously imparted to 
 me, in my time of trial, should I not thank God 
 for the dispensation, which, even by the desola- 
 tion of my dearest earthly hopes, has enabled 
 me to promote the glory of that beloved Saviour- 
 God, to whom I am exclusively indebted for the 
 hope, full of immortality — the hope of eternal 
 happiness in heaven? 
 
 Surely, even these considerations are sufficient 
 to constrain me to cry out to my covenant-God, 
 " I know that in very faithfulness Thou has af- 
 flicted me ;" or, if any shadows of obscurity still 
 hang over His dispensations, may I not cheerfully 
 wait for the revelations of that brighter world, 
 where, in His light, I shall see light poured, in 
 full splendour, on the entire of the path, by which 
 He led me through the wilderness to his own pre- 
 sence in glory ! Then will I fully understand the 
 loving-kindness of the Lord, in all His dealings 
 with me here below. Then will I clearly see, 
 (what it is now at once my privilege and duty cheer- 
 fully to believe,) that not a passing cloud has ever 
 darkened my path — not a single thorn ever pierced 
 my feet, but was appointed by a Saviour's hand, 
 ill the very tenderness and faithfulness of His love. 
 Then, (when the light of heaven is flashed on the 
 scenes of earth,) will I see stamped on this very 
 dispensation, in celestial characters, the divine in- 
 scription, " God is love." Then will I perceive 
 how necessary a link it formed, in that chain of 
 
34 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 providential arrangements, by which He was 
 graciously drawing up my heart from the creature 
 to Himself, from earth to heaven, and thus mak- 
 ing me meet for the everlasting enjoyment of 
 Himself; and the very trial, which now calls forth 
 my bitterest tears of anguish, will then call forth 
 my sweetest songs of gratitude and joy. 
 
 Reflections such as these, so full of happy com- 
 fort^ are suggested in the work to which these ob- 
 servations are prefixed, in a most attractive man- 
 ner, additionally recommended, if such recom- 
 mendation be required, by the charms of a 
 chastely beautiful style, and that powerfully 
 persuasive species of eloquence, which, obviously 
 coming from the heart, makes its way irresistibly 
 to the heart. It is this which is calculated to 
 make this volume so peculiarly acceptable to those 
 mourners in Zion, whose pathway through this 
 world's wilderness is overshadowed with the 
 gloom of earthly affliction. It exhibits in such 
 glowing colours the divine attractions of the re- 
 ligion of the Gospel, the unchangeableness and 
 unboundedness of the Redeemer's love to His peo- 
 ple, and the endearing tenderness of His character, 
 as to force on the afflicted Christian the delightful 
 conviction, that all his sorrows are but so many 
 proofs of the faithfulness of that love, which led the 
 Son of God to endure for his sake all the sufferings 
 of His afflicted life, and agonizing death ; that 
 there is a need-be for them all : and that the gra- 
 cious design and glorious result of all his appointed 
 trials is to promote his own conformity to the Divine 
 
INTRdDUCTORY ESSAY. 35 
 
 image, and the glory of the God of his salvation. 
 And this conviction must powerfully tend to pro- 
 duce the most cheerful willingness to commit to a 
 Saviour's disposal the arrangement of all the 
 events of this life, and to receive from a Saviour's 
 hands, without one rebellious murmur, and drink 
 without one repining tear, yea, even with a thank- 
 ful smile, the bitterest cup of trial He may be 
 pleased to prepare and present to the object of 
 His everlasting love. 
 
 There is another most important lesson enforc- 
 ed in this interesting work, which stamps on it 
 peculiar value, in a professing age like the present 
 — a lesson, which we cannot but fear many a 
 high-toned professor of our day has yet to learn — 
 even that the clearest views of evangelical truth, 
 if they are unproductive of cordial and supreme 
 love to a Saviour-God, are utterly unavailing to 
 the everlasting salvation of the soul. 
 
 In unfolding the characters of the members of 
 the family of Bethany, as developed in the touch- 
 ing narrative of the Apostle, the reflections intro- 
 duced by the author of thi^ work are admirably 
 calculated to deepen the impression which it ap- 
 pears to be always the design of St, John to make 
 on the mind of his reader, that the very essence 
 of a believer's happiness consists in loving the 
 Saviour, even as God alone deserves to be loved, 
 with the whole heart, and \oul, and mind, and 
 strength. 
 
 When introduced into the bosom of this happy 
 family, we are made to feel that it is a happy 
 
36 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 family, because the love of Jesus is enthroned in 
 the heart of each of its members. This hallowed 
 affection was indeed modified in its exhibition, by 
 the different constitutional temperament of the 
 individuals who composed the highly-favoured cir- 
 cle : but whether it displayed itself in the impe- 
 tuous eagerness of Martha, hastening with over- 
 anxious solicitude, to prepare the choicest viands 
 she could procure, to mark her esteem and affec- 
 tion for her Divine Guest, or in the calm and 
 devout demeanour of Mary, sitting in humble 
 docility at her Divine Master's feet; it was alike 
 love, the purest, deepest, most grateful love to 
 Jesus, which reigned in the bosom, and prompted 
 the movements of them both. And while, from 
 the gentle rebuke addressed to the one, and tho 
 affectionate commendation bestowed on the other, 
 we are impressively taught, that the most grati- 
 fying proof which we can give of our love to 
 Jesus, is to sit at Flis feet in the lowly attitude of 
 humble disciples, listening with devout attention 
 to the gracious words which proceed out of His 
 mouth ; still we cannot for a moment doubt, that 
 He, who knew the heart, as only its Creator could 
 have known it, regarded with mingled compla- 
 cency and compassion the struggle of feelings in. 
 the ardent and anxious Martha's breast, viewing, 
 with condescending approbation, the motive from 
 which her over-cumbered care in preparing for 
 His entertainment flowed ; while, in the faithful- 
 ness of divine love. He rebuked the mixture of 
 infirmity wliich was exhibited in her mode of 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 37 
 
 displaying her reverence and afTection for Him- 
 self. 
 
 Now, in an age like the present, when, from 
 the increased spread of evangelical preaching, 
 there is such an increased knowledge and profes- 
 sion of evangelical religion, it is of paramount 
 importance to have the solemn reflection frequent- 
 ly and forcihly impressed upon the mind, that the 
 most correct apprehensions, the soundest form, 
 the loudest profession, and the warmest advo- 
 cacy of evangelical truth, in the absence of 
 warm, heartfelt, life-influencing love to a Saviour- 
 God, are, in His estimation, nothing worth. Yea, 
 that the most splendid sacrifices, the most unwea- 
 ried labours, if they are not sacrifices of thanks- 
 giving, and labours of love, are utterly valueless 
 in His sight, who says to each of His intelhgent 
 creatures, and with emphatic urgency of appeal 
 to each individual to whom He has made known 
 the revelation of His Redeeming love, " Give me 
 thine heart j" and who, if that appeal be not an- 
 swered through the Almighty power of the Holy 
 Spirit, by the unreserved surrender of the heart to 
 Him, will reject all our heartless services with 
 infinite abhorrence, and banish vis from the light 
 of His countenance into the blackness of dark- 
 ness for ever ! 
 
 Oh ! we do feel it to be of immense importance 
 to have the conviction powerfully forced upon the 
 mind, that, for the want of cordial supreme love 
 to Jesus, there is nothing that can compensate m 
 the eyes of Him, who, to win our love, laid downi 
 4 
 
S8 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 His life for us! — that, while the homage of the 
 heart is withheld, it matters not what homage the 
 understanding, the lips, or e\'en the life may pay ; 
 while, on the other hand, when the love of the 
 Saviour is really enthroned in the heart, there may 
 be much weakness of faith, and waywardness of 
 feeling — the Redeemer's image may be clouded 
 by the remaining corruption of a nature, imper- 
 fectly renewed ; and the infirmities of the natural 
 temper may, as in the case of Martha, break out 
 in the very moment of displaying the grateful love, 
 which the heart feels for the object of its supreme 
 affections ; but still, if these corruptions and infir- 
 mities are sincerely lamented and striven against, 
 in the strength of divine grace. He, who readeth 
 the heart, when He sees the love of Himself reign- 
 ing in its rightful supremacy there, will graciously 
 fling the robe of His own righteousness over every 
 failing and imperfection of His faithful followers, 
 and plead on their behalf, before the mercy-seat, 
 that touchingly tender plea, " the spirit is willing, 
 but the flesh is weak :" for His eye can pierce 
 into the innermost recesses of the soul, and dis- 
 cover the love, which, though for a season lulled 
 to sleep, when- it should have been most wakeful, 
 still lives in the heart of a sincere, though slum- 
 bering disciple. 
 
 We may be assisted in the consideration of this 
 subject by the analogy of earthly affection ; for 
 whatever differences in the mode of exhibiting real 
 affection towards an earthly and visible, or a di- 
 vine and invisible object, must necessarily exist, 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 39 
 
 we may feel satisfied that our adorable Redeemer, 
 by selecting the endearing relationships of earthly 
 affection as images of His ineffable love, has war- 
 ranted us to draw this inference from the illustra- 
 tion — that we must not offer to Him, under the 
 name of gratitude or love, what we would not 
 tiiink of offering to a fellow- worm, or what, if of- 
 fered, would be rejected with scorn. What, then, 
 is it, which alone stamps value on the external 
 demonstrations of affection, which we receive from 
 those we love ? Is it not the love towards us, 
 cherished in the inmost recesses of the heart, of 
 which these outward exhibitions are the evidence 
 and the fruit, and from which they derive all their 
 significancy, and all their charm? Could the 
 most punctual obedience to his commands com- 
 pensate to a fond father for the want of affection 
 in the child, over whom his heart yearns in all the 
 tenderness of parental love 1 Could the most un- 
 limited compliance with his wishes impart a mo- 
 mentary throb of pleasure to an attached husband's 
 heart, if he w^ere capable of looking into the heart 
 of her on whom he had lavished all his love, and 
 perceived its affections alienated from himself, 
 and fixed on another 1 Yea, would not her very 
 compliance with his wishes under such circum- 
 stances, inspire him only with indignation and dis- 
 gust? And will the Father of spirits be satisfied 
 with that heartless service, which an earthly pa- 
 rent would not accept? Will the Bridegroom of 
 the Church be content with that constrained obe- 
 dience of an alienated heart, which would be re- 
 
40 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 garded, were it offered to an earthly object, with 
 abhorrence and disdain ?- No, no. He, who, as 
 our Creator, Preserv^er, Benefactor, but, above all, 
 as our Redeemer, has entitled Himself, by claims 
 stronger than can be urged even on angels, to the 
 supreme affections of our hearts — He, who, to win 
 our love, stoojDcd from the height of His tKrone in 
 heaven, even to the degradation of the death of 
 the cross — He will never accept of any thing at 
 our hands, in testimony of our acknowledgment of 
 His claims, in lieu of our love. " If any rttan love 
 not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema," 
 is His own awful and irreversible decree ! No 
 services we can render — no sufferings we can en- 
 dure — will be looked on by Him with momentary 
 complacency, if our hearts be withheld from Him: 
 but let these be once given freely, fully, unre- 
 servedly to Him, and then there is not the feeblest 
 effort we can make, or the slightest sacrifice we 
 may submit to, in testimony of our love, which 
 He will not graciously accept. Yea, such is the 
 exuberance of His grace — which He will not 
 richly reward — for He has Himself declared, that 
 even a cup of cold , water, given in such a j^pirit, 
 shall in no wise lose its reward. 
 
 The indispensable necessity of this supreme 
 love to the Saviour, as an evidence of the vitality 
 of our faith in His blood, is powerfully enforced 
 in this valuable work ; as is also the all-important 
 conviction, that the possession of this love is as 
 indispensable for our own happiness, as it is for 
 evidencing that our professed trust in the Re- 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 41 
 
 deemer's righteousness is of the operation of the 
 Spirit of God, proved to have emanated from a 
 heavenly origin, by its bearing heavenly fruit. 
 
 I cannot, indeed, conceive it possible to read 
 this delightful volume with anything of the spirit 
 in which it appears manifestly to have been 
 written, without feeling convinced in the heart, 
 a§ well as the understanding, that he who sin- 
 cerely and supremely loves the Lord Jesus Christ 
 must be happy, be his earthly circumstances what 
 they may : that he carries the essential element 
 of true felicity within his own heart, so securely 
 guarded from external assaults, by the omnipo- 
 tent grace of the Holy Spirit, as to be altogether 
 independent of the influence of any of the vicis- 
 situdes or vexations of this mortal and miserable 
 life. On the other hand, there is a spirit breath- 
 ing throughout the whole work, which most im- 
 pressively lifts up the voice of solemn warning in 
 our ears, and tells us, that though we could speak, 
 on divine themes, with more than earthly elo- 
 quence, and so abounded in the most ardent zeal, 
 as to be willing to endure, in the cause of Christ, 
 the most dreadful death that ever martyr suffered, 
 and though we bore such a high and honourable 
 name in the religious world, as to rank in its 
 estimation but a little lower than the angels, and 
 yet did not love the Lord Jesus Christ with a 
 cordial, a supreme affection, real happiness must 
 be a stranger to our hearts, both for time and for 
 eternity. And oh ! what will it avail us to have 
 ranked thus high in the estimation of those 
 4* 
 
42 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 around, and to have enjoyed, for a few fleeting 
 years, a delusive hope of eternal happiness, i^ 
 when we stand before Him, who sitteth upon the 
 throne, we hear from His lips those tremendous 
 words — "Depart from Me! I never knew you! 
 Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire !" 
 
 Nor must I omit to mention, in bearing my 
 humble testimony to the excellence of this work, 
 that it discovers the most unequivocal marks of 
 being written by one, who had felt with power, 
 in his inmost soul, the import of that awful word 
 — Eternity ! 
 
 It flashes the light of eternity so vividly on the 
 objects of time, that their comparative nothing- 
 ness is not merely seen, but felt. One impression 
 is irresistibly forced on our minds, that every 
 consideration connected with our own welfare, is 
 the merest trifle compared with the one question 
 — Are we to be everlastingly happy or misera- 
 ble ? — Are we to spend eternity in heaven or in 
 hell ? The Christian, as he peruses the author's 
 reflections on the death and resurrection of Laz- 
 arus, finds his thoughts and aflections gradually 
 drawn away from things seen, which are tem- 
 poral, to things not seen, which are eternal. 
 The glory of the upper sanctuary seems to break 
 through the veil of mortality, which hides its full 
 splendour from his view. Voices of more than 
 mortal melody seem breathing in his ear some 
 faint strains of that celestial chorus of praise, 
 round the throne of God, in which he hopes, ere 
 long, to join with all the host of heaven ; and 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 43 
 
 thus, in the realizing anticipations of tlie glory to 
 be revealed, he learns to estimate the things of 
 time at their true value ; and to regard all the 
 events of this passing scene in their true light ; 
 as deriving all their importance from their con- 
 nexion with eternal things, their capability of 
 being made instrumental in advancing the be- 
 liever's progress in holiness, and the glory of a 
 Saviour-God. 
 
 Such seem to me to be some of the distiii- 
 guishing excellencies of this most valuable and 
 interesting work ; a work so deeply imbued with 
 the very spirit of the Gospel, (even the spirit of 
 divine love, and peace, and joy,) that it can 
 scarcely fail, (I think) of producing, even in a 
 merely nominal Christian, the salutary conviction, 
 that he who has found by experience the pre- 
 ciousness of the Saviour and of His salvation, 
 has found the secret of true happiness, the only 
 happiness deserving of the earnest desires and 
 pursuit of an immortal being; and it cannot, I 
 feel assured, be perused prayerfully by a real 
 Christian, seeking humbly to have the precious 
 truths, which it sets forth, brought with power to 
 the heart, by the Almighty energy of the Holy 
 Ghost, without deepening in his heart every sen- 
 timent of affection, confidence, and gratitude to 
 his adorable Redeemer; drawing him closer to 
 the God of his salvation in the bonds of the ever- 
 lasting covenant ; kindling every spark of devout 
 love into a brighter and a warmer flame ; dispos- 
 ing him, with more cheerful trust and submission, 
 
44 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 to lie passive in His hands, having no will but 
 His : inspiring him with more ardent aspirations 
 after the closest attainable resemblance to that 
 character, in conformity to which the very es- 
 sence of meetness for heaven consists ; and 
 subordinating every other solicitude to that one, 
 which ought ever to be the master-passion of a 
 Christian's soul — even the affectionate solicitude, 
 prompted by gratitude, to glorify his Saviour- 
 God. 
 
 Nor should it be overlooked, that the attrac- 
 tive exhibition of the Saviour's character, and 
 love to Flis people, which this work unfolds, has a 
 powerful tendency to deepen in their hearts, that 
 desire for the day of His appearing, which is exhi- 
 bited in Scripture as such a distinguishing charac- 
 teristic of those who love the Lord, and is calculat- 
 ed when invested with divine energy by the power 
 of the Holy Spirit, to exenuse such an elevating, 
 sanctifying, and gladdening influence over their 
 souls. For, in proportion as love to a Saviour- 
 God, springing from the adoring contemplation of 
 His character, and the grateful recollection of 
 His love, reigns with more supreme sovereignty 
 in a believer's heart, will his soul be kept in that 
 attitude, which will so pre-eminently conduce to 
 its progress in holiness and happiness, even habit- 
 ually looking and longing for the arrival of that 
 day, a day of such terror to all His enemies, but 
 such triumph to all his friends, when Christ, who 
 is His people's life, shall appear, and they shall 
 also appear with Him in glory. 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 45 
 
 Oh ! what blessed results would follow to the 
 Christian, from the constantly cherished, anticipa- 
 tion of that glorious day, producing the desire and 
 endeavour, in the strength of divine grace, to be 
 always in that frame of mind, and that occupa- 
 tion of time, in which a faithful servant of God 
 would wish to be found, were he to be surprised by 
 the sudden appearing of the Son of Man, coming 
 in the clouds of heaven, witli power and great 
 glory, and we know not now the day or the hour 
 when the Son of Man will come ! What a spirit 
 of unslumbering watchfulness would it promote ! 
 What a shrinking from the deliberate indulgence 
 of any thoughts, desires, or tempers, inconsistent 
 with the character of a child of God ! What a 
 stamp of hohness unto the Lord would it impress 
 on every inward principle and affection of the 
 heart, and every outward pursuit and action of 
 the life ! What a savour of sanctity would it 
 impart to the conversation of the children of God ; 
 and what a fervour of zeal to be faithful and dili- 
 gent in the consecration of all their talents to the 
 advancement of a beloved Saviour's glory ! How 
 calm would it keep them in the midst of surround- 
 ing commotions ! How cheerful in the midst of 
 the most afflictive dispensations ! How would the 
 things of time sink to their proper level of com- 
 parative insignificance, and loosen their hold on 
 the believer's heart, and the things of eternity 
 rise to their proper place in his estimation, and 
 engross, as they ought to do, his supreme soUci- 
 tude ! What an elevation, what a grandeur, al- 
 
46 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 together unearthly, would it fling round the Chris- 
 tian's character, were he to feel and to exhibit the 
 legitimate influences of the blessed hope, which 
 he is privileged to cherish, even that at the glori- 
 ous appearing of the great God, our Saviour, he 
 shall be a partaker of His glory, and shall sit 
 down with Him on His throne ! Oh ! what 
 earthly seductions could ensnare, what earthly 
 sorrows overwhelm the soul, in which such a hope 
 habitually opened vista A'iews of the glory to be 
 revealed ! Would not such a hope, through the 
 power of God, the Holy Ghost, enable its posses- 
 sor to trample on the temptations of the world, 
 the flesh, and the devil, and to purify himself, even 
 as that Saviour-God on which it is fixed is pure ! 
 If then holiness, as we have before observed, 
 be but another name for happiness ; if a meetness 
 for heaven, imparted by the Saviour's Spirit, be 
 altogether as indispensable as a title to heaven, 
 resting on the Saviour's righteousness, how valu- 
 able must be every work, which, by deepening in 
 a Christian's heart, his love to the God of his 
 salvation, proportion ably deepens that desire for 
 the day of His appearing, which tends so power- 
 fully to wean him from an undue attachment to 
 the things of time and sense, and to elevate his 
 afiections to those things that are above, where 
 Christ sitteth at the right hand of the Father, to 
 conibrm him to the image of his beloved Redeem- 
 er, and thus to advance his meetness for " the in- 
 heritance among the saints in light, incorruptible, 
 and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." 
 
INTEODUCTORY ESSAY. 47 
 
 It was this persuasion, which constrained me to 
 overcome the reluctance, which at first I felt, to 
 comply with the request of the highly esteemed 
 minister who has translated the work, that I would 
 accompany the translation with some prefatory 
 observations. It appeared to me so impossible to 
 read it with any thing of a suitable spirit without 
 an increase of love to the Saviour, accompanied 
 by all its precious fruits, that, even at the risk of 
 appearing presumptuous, I could not refuse a re- 
 quest, which afforded me an opportunity of bear- 
 ing my humble testimony in favour of a work, so 
 pre-eminently calculated to promote the Saviour's 
 glory. Not that I imagine that such a work at 
 all needed my humble recommendation, (for I 
 feel convinced its intrinsic merits must render it 
 altogether independent of any testimony, on its 
 behalf, beyond what it bears to itself.) but because 
 I felt a cordial satisfaction in expressing, through 
 this medium, my grateful acknowledgements for 
 the rich feast of enjoyment with which the perusal 
 of this work had supplied me, especially in the 
 endearing views which it unfolds of the loveliness 
 of the Saviour's character, and the graciousness 
 o^ His design, in the chastening afflictions with 
 which He visits His people. 
 
 I would observe, before I conclude, that the 
 translation, as far as I am competent to judge, 
 appears to me to be every way worthy .of such a 
 work, being executed with great fidelity, and yet 
 sufficient freedom not to allow the spirit of the 
 original to evaporate, in the process of transfusing 
 
48 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 it into an English version. From tlie peculiar 
 animation of style in which the original is written, 
 and which, it might have been feared, would be 
 altogether untransferrable, this was no easy task : 
 but the translation here given satisfactorily proves, 
 that the difficulties, however great, were not in- 
 superable. It is quite free from all the awkward- 
 ness and stiffness, which so often characterize the 
 translation, especially of French works, and wears 
 so fully the air of an original production, that you 
 feel convinced, had the author of the work him- 
 self written in English, it would have worn the 
 very garb in which it is now presented to the 
 public' 
 
 In conclusion, I would express my most fervent 
 prayer, that the Divine blessing may so abun- 
 dantly accompany this work in its progress, as to 
 make it the minister of consolation to many a 
 mourner in Zion, pouring the healing balm of di- 
 vine comfort into many a wounded heart, teach- 
 ing them more fully to understand the loving- 
 kindness of the Lord, in all the trials with which, 
 in very faithfulness, He afflicts them ; and to 
 honour Him, both in their own hearts, and in the 
 eyes of all around, with the most undoubting con- 
 fidingness, and the most cheerful submission, 
 amidst the most painful or perplexing dispensa- 
 tions He may see fit to appoint. 
 
 May it stir up every child of God, into whose 
 hands it may come, to be fervent and unwearied 
 in prayer for the promised influences of the Holy 
 Spirit, to enable them, while resting their undi- 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 49 
 
 vided hopes of acceptance on the Redeemer's in- 
 finitely meritorious, and alone justifying righteous- 
 ness, to copy more closely that Divine character, 
 whose celestial beauty is in this volume so attrac- 
 tively unveiled, and to abound more fully in every 
 work and labour of love, by which His kingdom 
 may be extended, and His glory advanced ! And 
 may it also be a preacher of glad tidings to those, 
 who are strangers to the love of Jesus, persuading 
 many a child of affliction, whom it finds ignorant 
 of the only true and effectual Comforter, and wan- 
 dering to and fro in a vain search for rest, amidst 
 the restless agitations of a world, deluged with 
 floods of sin and sorrow, to flee to the only true 
 ark of divine peace and consolation — the shelter- 
 ing ark of a Redeemers love — encouraged by 
 those most endearing words, the tenderest, per- 
 haps, that ever were uttered, even by the lips of 
 incarnate love itself^ — " Come tuito Me, all ye that 
 are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest." Oh ! if those blessed words were but wel- 
 comed, as they ought to be, by every child of sor- 
 row, to whom they are made known — if all that 
 are weary and heavy laden would but accept this 
 most gracious invitation, and come, and cast down 
 the burthen of their sins and sorrows at the foot 
 of this compassionate and Almighty Redeemer's 
 cross, and take the light yoke of His love and ser- 
 vice upon them, and thus find rest unto their souls, 
 what a glorious change would soon pass over our 
 wilderness-world! Then, indeed, might we hope 
 that the Holy Spirit (who can alone, by the om- 
 5 
 
50 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 nipotent operation of His grace, enable the sinner 
 to accept the invitation of a Saviour-God, and 
 come to Him for rest, and whose enhghtening and 
 sanctifying influences should therefore be most 
 fervently implored by all to whom that invitation 
 is addressed) would be abundantly poured forth 
 from above, and filling, by His divine presence 
 and power, every heart with the peace of God, 
 and that joy which is unspeakable and full of 
 glory, breathe all around an atmosphere of such 
 lioly love, and holy happiness, that earth would 
 be changed, by His celestial influences, into a fore- 
 tasted heaven. 
 
 Oh, then, that all, to whom these words of divine 
 compassion are addressed, would seek, in humble, 
 earnest prayer, the enlightening, constraining, 
 and sanctifying influences of that Spirit, who can 
 alone, by His Almighty power, persuade the 
 heart of the sinner thankfully to embrace this in- 
 vitation, in which the very essence of a Redeem- 
 er's love seems to be concentrated. Oh ! that 
 they would ask that Father of all mercies, (who 
 has so graciously promised to give the Holy Spirit 
 to them that ask Him,) that He would send this 
 blessed Spirit into their hearts, to overcome their 
 natural enmity against Himself, and to draw them 
 to Him who so tenderly invites them, by the 
 sweetly irresistible attraction of redeeming love, 
 to prostrate themselves in penitential sorrow, and 
 adoring gratitude, at this infinitely precious Sa- 
 viour's feet, to give up their hearts undividedly to 
 Him, that he may reign there in rightful supre- 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 51 
 
 macy, and to surrender up themselves unreservedly 
 to Him, to have their sins blotted out in His blood 
 — their souls clothed in His righteousness, and 
 sanctified by His grace — and their sorrows soothed 
 by His sympathy and His consolations. Oh! 
 were all the sons and daughters of affliction thus 
 fervent in their supplications for the influences of 
 that Spirit, whose prerogative it is to glorify Jesus^ 
 and who alone can enlighten the darkened under- 
 standing, soften the hard heart, bend the stubborn 
 will, purify the polluted soul, and constrain the 
 before careless despisers of His grace gratefully to 
 listen to the voice of a Saviour-God, beseeching 
 them to come to Him for that deliverance from 
 eternal wrath and woe — for that rest and that sal- 
 vation which He has purchased for His people 
 with His own most precious blood, — then, indeed, 
 might we hope soon to see a glorious change pass 
 over the now desolated aspect of this vale of tears ; 
 for then, in answer to the prayers of humble and 
 contrite hearts, this blessed Spirit \vould abun- 
 dantly pour down the refreshing showers of His 
 grace, by whose fertilizing influence the waste 
 and solitary places of this earth would become as 
 the garden of the Lord, and its wilderness would 
 rejoice and blossom as the rose ; joy and gladness 
 would be found therein, thanksgiving, and the 
 voice of melody. Oh ! were this glorious change 
 wrought upon earth — were a Saviour's love en- 
 throned in every heart — a Saviour's image stamped 
 on every spirit — His peace reigning in every soul 
 — and his praise thrilling on every tongue, — while 
 
52 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 all who named the name of Christ, loving each 
 other in Him, and linked together in the bonds of 
 christian fellowship, like the members of the holy 
 and happy family of Bethany, would form but one 
 great family of love. Oh ! would not earth be 
 then indeed a very type and antepast of heaven ? 
 — that glorious world of unclouded light and ever- 
 lasting love, where, in the presence of a Saviour- 
 God, there is fulness of joy, and at His right hand 
 pleasures for evermore ; where all its inhabitants 
 supremely love, and are like Him, for they see 
 Him as He is; and where, from a multitude 
 which no man could number, of all nations, and 
 kindred, and people, and tongues, casting their 
 blood-bought crowns in grateful adoration at his 
 feet, there shall be lifted up unceasingly through 
 everlasting ages, before His throne, the song of 
 praise — " Unto Him that hath loved us, and 
 washed us from our sins in His own blood, and 
 hath made us kings and priests unto God, even 
 his Father," — unto Him, with the Everlasting 
 Father, and Holy Spirit, be equal and undivided 
 adoration, and praise, and glory, and blessing for 
 ever," and ever ! Amen, and amen ! 
 
THE 
 
 FAMILY OF BETHANY, 
 
 MEDITATION I. 
 
 LAZARUS, MARY, AND MARTHA. 
 
 John xi. 1. 
 
 " Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the towu 
 of Mary and her sister Martha." 
 
 " Admirable ! The christian religion, which 
 seems only to have for its object the felicity of 
 another life, secures also our happiness in this." 
 
 This truth, which thus excited the admiration 
 of a great man,* is too little known by the people 
 of the world, and too little appreciated even by 
 those who enjoy the privilege of experiencing it. 
 
 Doubtless, creatures of a day, " strangers and 
 pilgrims," do well not to calculate upon happiness 
 in a world defiled by sin. This is not the place 
 of our rest; to seek repose here would be a mere 
 delusion. And it is not for us, the ministers of 
 Him who while He was on earth had not where 
 to lay His head, to encourage in those whom we 
 address on His part, the natural desire which we 
 
 * Montesquieu. 
 
 5* 
 
54 MEDITATION I. 
 
 all feel, to enjoy before the time, to rest before we 
 have finished the race, to reap before we have 
 sown. But it is a great error, and one into which 
 many fall, who know the Gospel only in name, to 
 imagine, that in submitting our heart unreservedly 
 to Christ, we are required to make sacrifices with- 
 out compensation, and to impose upon ourselves 
 acts of self-denial without enjoyment. The Gos- 
 pel, far from wishing to stifle our noblest feelings, 
 or to paralyze our most exalted faculties, elevates 
 and sanctifies them, by restoring them to their 
 original destination, from which they have been 
 diverted by sin. That Gospel, rightly understood, 
 is found to meet all the wants of our mind and of 
 our heart, and thus practically evinces the truth 
 of the declaration of an inspired Apostle, that 
 " Godliness hath the promise of the life which now 
 is, and of that whicli is to come." The whole life 
 of the Redeemer proves this truth. Though the 
 immediate object of His mission was, " to seek and 
 to save that which was lost," yet was there not 
 one of our temporal afflictions the sight of which 
 did not touch a chord of sympathy in His heart ; 
 not one of our bodily pains which He did not has- 
 ten to mitigate ; not one of our misfortunes or suf- 
 ferings for which He did not, in the ardour of His 
 love, find some alleviation. 
 
 Shall we, then, the ministers of His word, while 
 we desire to declare the whole counsel of God, 
 pass over in silence, in our private or public min- 
 istrations, this part of our Master's Divine mis- 
 sion ? No, we cannot, we must not do it. My 
 
LAZARUS, MARY, AND MARTHA. 55 
 
 beloved Lrethren, it is our duty to exhibit to you 
 His whole "Work, His whole life. And if in speak- 
 ing to you of Jesus Christ, who, ought to be our 
 principal theme, and as it were the text of all our 
 instructions, we are called upon most frequently 
 to represent Him to yoit as coming down frona 
 heaven to heal the moral malady which preys 
 upon our soul, as dying for our sins and rising 
 again for our justification, shall we on that ac- 
 count neglect to bring before you that touching 
 part of His life on earth which was employed in 
 alleviating our temporal miseries, and in consoling 
 all the afflicted who applied to Him for relief? 
 No, we repeat it once more, we cannot, we must 
 not do it. Besides, my brethren, to show you 
 Christ the Comforter, is to show you Christ the 
 Saviour ; for He comforts only by saving ; He 
 saves from the bitter consequences of sin only by 
 destroying the cause of them — sin. 
 
 We know not, in the whole Gospel history, a 
 passage more affecting, more instructive, or more 
 calculated to exhibit all the love and tenderness 
 of Jesus for the miserable beings whom He came 
 to save, than that which contains an account of 
 the life, death, and resurrection of one of His dis- 
 ciples, as we find it recorded in the chapter from 
 which our text is taken. 
 
 You that have a heart capable of feehng all 
 that is grand, and noble, and divine, in a love like 
 that of Jesus; you who have been taught in the 
 school of affliction, or are still groaning under some 
 heavy trial ; you wfll be glad to come and medi- 
 
56 MEDITATION I. 
 
 tate with me over the tomb of Lazarus, the friend 
 of Jesus. You will rejoice even in that gloomy 
 abode of death, when Jesus is there to diffuse light 
 and life. You will look without pain upon the 
 afflictions of the family of Bethany, when Jesus is 
 there to comfort. You will rejoice even amid the 
 miseries of our earthly life, when Jesus is present 
 to supply for them a remedy. Sometimes, per- 
 haps, after having wept with Mary and Martha 
 over the tomb of some well-beloved brother, your 
 tears, like theirs, will be turned into this song of 
 triumph: " O death, where is thy sting; O grave, 
 where is thy victory! !" Through the course of 
 your life, you will find, perhaps, too many occa- 
 sions to apply to yourselves the lessons which the 
 two afflicted sisters here receive. Which of you 
 has been exempt from the calamities, the suffer- 
 ings, and the sorrows, inseparable 4i'om our earthly 
 pilgrimage ; or which of you, at least, can calcu- 
 late on being long exempted from them? Alas! 
 to address the afflicted is to address all mankind ! 
 It is therefore for your own sakes that we wish to 
 make you acquainted with Jesus Christ, the only 
 real Comforter. 
 
 My beloved brethren, we entreat you, first of 
 all, to unite with us in supplicating a blessing 
 from above upon the meditations which we are 
 going to commence this day, that what we speak 
 may not be the miserable words of a sinful mor- 
 tal, but the words of eternal life, accompanied by 
 the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. 
 
 He that speaks in the passage we are about to 
 
LAZARUS, MARY, AND MARTHA. 
 
 57 
 
 consider is St. John ; St. John, the disciple whom 
 Jesus loved ; St. John, who, at the last supper, 
 leaned upon the breast of his Master, or, rather, 
 his Friend, and who seems to have drawn thence, 
 in such copious draughts, the love of his redeem- 
 ing Gody St. John, who, at the foot of the cross, 
 received the most precious of bequests, that of the 
 mother of the djang Jesus. That disciple seems 
 to have considered the whole Gospel as comprised 
 in one word — love. It is from this love that he 
 derives everything ; to this love he refers every- 
 thing. " He that loveth not, knoweth not God, 
 for God is love. God is love, and he that loveth 
 abideth in Him. Behold, what manner of love 
 the Father hath bestowed upon u.s, that we should 
 be called the sons of God! God so loved the 
 world that He gave his only-begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth m Him, should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life ! !" Such is the lan- 
 guage of this disciple, such the constant thought 
 of his heart. Jesus, Jesus alone, is more than the 
 whole imiverse to him ; Jesus is the soul of his 
 soul. And hence we shall see that this disciple, 
 who lived in the most intimate union with his 
 Saviour, and who in consequence always under- 
 stood so well His sentiments, is ever struck with 
 . what is most tender and most deeply touching in 
 the words and actions of Jesus. Every page of 
 his writings affords a demonstration of this. In 
 the very history which we propose to make the 
 subject of our meditations, we see the invincible 
 
58 MEDITATION I. 
 
 desire which he felt to lead us to the tomb of 
 Lazarus, and to show us the Saviour mingling 
 His tears of compassion with the tears of Martha 
 and Mary, and restoring peace and joy to those 
 hearts, torn with anguish. Far this purpose he 
 interrupts the course of his narrative, and intro- 
 duces this affecting episode, before he presents to 
 us the last sufferings of his beloved Master. And 
 what an introduction to the sufferings of Jesus is 
 this history, which so beautifully exemplifies His 
 love for those whom He came to save ? St. John 
 relates the resurrection of Lazarus as an eye-wit- 
 ness ; yea more, he relates it as one who, with all 
 the strength of a feeling and loving heart, sympa- 
 thized in the afflictions of a family with which he 
 was acquainted, and which he loved because they 
 loved his Master. Therefore it is that we find 
 him entering into the minutest details, in which 
 we cannot but follow him M'ith interest. He in- 
 troduces us, without preliminary, into the peaceful 
 abode of Bethany : " A certain man was sick, 
 named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary 
 and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which, 
 anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped 
 His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus 
 was sick." 
 
 Bethany was a little village pleasantly situated 
 on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives, and 
 about two miles distant from Jerusalem. There 
 Jesus had friends whose hearts as well as their 
 house were ever open to receive Him : there He 
 frequently repaired to spend the night with His 
 
LAZARUS, MARY, AND MARTHA. 59 
 
 disciples : there He was wont to forget, amid the 
 communications of friendship and confidence, the 
 fatigue of His journeys, and the' grief which was 
 continually excited in His breast, by the ingrati- 
 tude and impenitence of those whom He came 
 to save. 
 
 It was a feast for Lazarus and his two sisters 
 whenever Jesus honoured their humble dwelling 
 with His presence. They belonged in heart to 
 that small number of true Israelites, who expected, 
 in the Messiah, " the consolation of Israel." What 
 must have been their joy, when they were given 
 to recognize and love, in Jesus, that Saviour after 
 whom their soul longed " as the hart panteth for 
 the water-brooks!" What must have been their 
 delight, when they saw that Jesus loved them ; 
 that He often came into the bosom of their happy 
 abode, to speak to them of the kingdom of peace 
 and love ! 
 
 O my beloved brethren ! you who know by 
 your own experience the sweetness of that bro- 
 therly love which the Saviour allows His children 
 to taste on earth as a refreshment ; — you who 
 have learned from the Gospel to feel and to love ; 
 — you will understand something of the happiness 
 which Lazarus and his two sisters must have ex- 
 perienced in their peaceful and affectionate con- 
 versations with Jesus, who loved them, opened" 
 His heart to them, and had admitted them into 
 the sweet bonds of a holy friendshiix If you now 
 derive so much happiness from the society of those 
 whom you love in the Lord, what must have been 
 
60 MEDITATION I. 
 
 the ineffable feeling of peace and of blessedness 
 which Jesus ever left in the abode of Bethany, 
 and in the hearts of those who dwelt there ? We 
 see, also, that Lazarus and his sisters loved Jesus 
 above all things. They felt themselves honoured 
 by His affection, notwithstanding the reproach of 
 the Nazarene, and the persecutions which the 
 hatred of the rulers of the people had already 
 raised against Jesus, and all those who professed 
 themselves His disciples. And when the multi- 
 tude, excited by the scribes and pharisees, " took 
 up stones to stone Him," Lazarus and his sisters 
 were happy to afford an asylum to Him who, 
 though He had created worlds, had not tchere to 
 lay His head. We have reason to believe that 
 Jesus frequently retired to Bethany up to the last 
 moment of His sufferings, to that moment when 
 He laid down His life a ransom for sinners. O 
 my Saviour ! would that I could thus testify my 
 love to Thee ! My dear brethren, are your houses 
 a refuge for the Saviour's name, blasphemed in 
 the world? Do you confess Him with love and 
 without fear, in the midst of an unbelieving gene-, 
 ration? Is His name known, pronounced with 
 reverence, and invoked in your families? Are 
 your houses Bethariies, when Jerusalem — the 
 world — prepares to crucify, as far as in it lies, 
 " the Lord of glory ?" Do they who are still 
 strangers to the love of Christ find in your abodes 
 "an altar of witness" erected to His glory? 
 Breathes there in your dwellings the peace of 
 the Saviour's presence ? Is the light of His truth 
 
LAZARUSj MARY, AND MARTHA. 61 
 
 seen to shine there ? O, if it be so, my beloved 
 friends, you shall find Jesus, in the day of trial, 
 what Martha and Mary found Him in the hour 
 of affliction. 
 
 What a sweet union must have existed between 
 Lazarus and his two sisters, notwithstanding the 
 difference of their characters ! The love of Jesus 
 was the solid bond which united them ; and where 
 there is that bond there is happiness. Doubtless 
 they lived retired from a world which has ever 
 been at enmity with God. Jesus and His disci- 
 ples, and a few faithful Israelites, were perhaps 
 the only friends who came from time to time to 
 interrupt, agreeably, the silence and the solitude 
 of Bethany. Jesus, St. John tells us, loved Laza- 
 rus. He found in him one of those, so rare in the 
 world, who, when they have received and under- 
 stood His word, are able to open their hearts to 
 the noble and pure impressions of a holy affec- 
 tion. That friend of Jesus, even in his obscure, 
 retreat, was greater in the eyes of the Saviour, 
 than the heroes of the world whose names are 
 emblazoned in the annals of time. Lazarus must 
 still have been in the vigour of life, if at least we 
 give credit to tradition, which informs us that he 
 lived tliiity years after his resurrection. It may 
 then be asked, how it happened that Jesus did 
 not call him to follow Him in the ministry of the 
 apostleship ; how He left His fiiend in his solitary 
 retreat at Bethany, while He called Peter to for- 
 sake his fishing-boat and nets, and Matthew the 
 receipt of custom, that they might become mes- 
 6 
 
6J2 MEDITATION I. 
 
 sengers of the Gospel of peace ? There were 
 doubtless, good reasons for this conduct of the 
 Saviour : He knows the situation which is best 
 suited to each of those whom He loves, and He 
 calls them to it His wisdom and goodness 
 were not questioned by Lazarus : whether or not 
 he understood the grounds of his Master's deal- 
 ings with him, he submitted to them cheerfully. 
 *• What does it matter," thought he, " in what 
 manner He calls me to bear witness to His love ? 
 Should He require of me no other service than 
 that of offering Him from time to time an hum- 
 ble hospitality, I submit. Yea, should He even 
 call me to honour Him in no other way than by 
 suffering, to glorify Him in no other way than on 
 a bed of pain, I know that He does not on that 
 account love me less than those who perhaps 
 may be employed to bear testimony to His name 
 and to His truth before governors and kings." 
 Are these your sentiments, you who are called to 
 works of charity and devotedness unseen of men? 
 Were you called to give but a cup of cold M^ater 
 in His name, to share your bread with some mise- 
 rable object whom He presents before you, or to 
 say a few words of consolation to an afflicted soul 
 unknown to the world, would you deem yourselves 
 as highly honoured by Him as those whose name 
 the world publishes in letters' of g6ld, and whom 
 it proclaims as the benefactors of mankind? Or 
 if the Lord should call you to serve Him by " the 
 work of patience," in some great affliction, or upon 
 a bed of pain, would you deem yourselves as 
 
LAZARUS, 
 
 highly honoured as those whom He summons to 
 proclaim His Name and His Gospel from the 
 pulpit and before brilliant assemblies ? Ah ! re- 
 member that God looks to the heart ; He regards 
 not that which man regards. How many ser- 
 vants of Christ, unknown by the world, pass un- 
 perceived through the desert of life, and shall be 
 manifested only when He who searches the heart 
 shall place on their heads, in the presence of men 
 and angels, an incorruptible crown of glory ! 
 
 Martha, who was probably the elder of the two 
 sisters of Lazarus, had, if we may judge from 
 some circumstances related in the Gospel, a cha- 
 racter entirely different from that of her brother 
 and sister. She was the St. Peter of her sex. In 
 her, thought, feeling, and action, were all blended 
 in one and the same rapid movement. Every 
 time an opportunity occurs of testifying her affec- 
 tion to Jesus, we find her active, restl^s, and anx- 
 ious, seeking every possible means of receiving in 
 a suitable manner a guest so worthy of her vene- 
 ration and love. As soon as Jesus arrives, all 
 must be on the alert in th« house ; every thing 
 must be put into requisition for His reception. 
 She could not understand how any one could for 
 a moment neglect serving Him, to sit at His feet, 
 to listen to His instruction, and make Him speak, 
 and thus weary Him before He was rested and 
 refreshed, and before there had been offered to 
 Him a repast of the best things which the house 
 afforded. Still she was far from understanding 
 the thoughts and desires of Jesus : but she was 
 
64 MEDITATION I. 
 
 sincere and upright in her manner of testifying 
 her attachment to Him. Hence St. John associ- 
 ates her with the other members of the family 
 whom Jesus loved ; and our Lord himself deems 
 it sufficient to give her an affectionate rebuke, 
 saying to her with meekness, " Martha, Martha, 
 thou art careful and troubled about many things : 
 but one thing is needful ; and Mary hath chosen 
 that good part, which shall not be taken away 
 from her." Luke x. 41, 42. 
 
 Mary, however, felt and acted quite differently. 
 She was the St. John of her sex. All her lively 
 feelings were engraven deeply in the very ground 
 of her tender soul. She felt that her Saviour 
 alone could satisfy the boundless wants of her af- 
 fectionate heart. When she saw and heard Him, 
 she lost sight of every thing else ; the world dis- 
 appeared from her view. It was her happiness 
 to sit at Hi^eet, and to treasure up with avidity 
 in her heart every word that proceeded from His 
 divine lips. The Saviour's visits to Bethany were 
 always too distant and too short to meet her wish- 
 es ; the hours of His presence passed away too 
 rapidly. Mary could not bear to lose one moment 
 of them. Like Martha, she would have wished 
 to offer Him all that was most precious to her, all 
 that she possessed ; but she knew that Jesus came 
 to give rather than to receive, and that He who 
 had despised " all the kingdoms of this world, and 
 the glory of them," demanded but one thing of His 
 disciples — their heart. She deemed herself inca- 
 pable of offering Him any thing which was wor- 
 
LAZARUS, MARY, AND MARTHA. 65 
 
 thy of Him — or even of testifying by words her 
 deep veneration and love. Her attentive look, a 
 few tears which escaped from her eyes while she 
 listened to Flim who " spake as never man spake," 
 were the only expressions which she gave of what 
 she felt. Oh ! how precious to her were those 
 hours, when she listened to her Saviour speakmg 
 to her of the great salvation which He had come 
 to accomplish for His redeemed, of the pardon of 
 their heavenly Father, their reconciliation to Him, 
 the peace which He gives them, His love, and of 
 that better country where there shall be no more 
 sorrow, because there shall be no more sin ! 
 
 However, it would be wrong to suppose that 
 Mary made all her spiritual life, all her love for the 
 Saviour, all her religion, consist in idle contempla- 
 tion, in a barren quietism. In one of the last visits 
 which Jesus made to Bethany, " six days before 
 the passover," M'rites St. John, that is, a few days 
 before the Saviour's death, there was a supper at 
 the house of Lazarus, who had been raised from 
 the dead, at which Jesus was present with His 
 disciples. 
 
 Martha, according to her custom, was occu- 
 pied in serving Jesus, whilst Mary, always full 
 of the thoughts of her Saviour, took a box of 
 ointment, very costly, and anointed His feet, 
 and wiped them with her hair. She was blamed 
 for so doing by Judas, who pretended that he 
 would have preferred giving the price of it to the 
 poor. But Jesus said, "Let her alone: against 
 the day of my burying hath she kept this. For 
 6* 
 
66 MEDITATION L 
 
 the poor always ye have with j^ou, but me ye 
 have not always." Was not this saying, with 
 sufficient plainness, that she whose heart was so 
 penetrated wdth the love of her Saviour, would 
 find in that love the source of all good works ? 
 Ah ! this is the principle of all christian life, of 
 every good work, of all sanctification, — ^love 
 springing from a renewed heart, love for Him 
 who so loved us as to save us, love without which 
 all religion is a mere name, a barren tree which 
 can bear no fruit, a steril soil which can produce 
 nothing. " He who loveth not hath not known 
 God." It is in vain, then, that we pretend to be 
 Christ's disciples because we bear His name, 
 because we do some good, because we take even 
 an active interest in the advancement of His 
 kingdom, or because, like Martha, we are " cum- 
 bered about many things," if we have not in our 
 hearts that love which leads us to seek commu- 
 nion with God in prayer, and makes us, like 
 Mary, love His Word ; that love which changes 
 our heart, and makes us new creatures: that 
 love which alone eradicates selfishness, and makes 
 us renounce ourselves : that love which never 
 faileth, which shall subsist when all things else 
 shall have passed away ; which shall be the ele- 
 ment of eternal felicity. If we have not that 
 love, in vain shall we " speak with the tongues 
 of men and angels," in vain shall we have " the 
 gift of prophecy," in vain shall we " know all 
 mysteries," in vain shall we "bestow all our 
 goods to feed the poor," in vain shall we " give 
 
LAZARUS, MARY, AND MARTHA. 67 
 
 our bodies to be burned." Without love (it is 
 the Word of God that declares it) all this will 
 profit us nothing : we shall be as " sounding brass 
 and as a tinkling cymbal." All this will stand us 
 in no stead in the great day of Christ, when 
 every thing shall come to an end but love. 
 
 Oh ! my beloved friends, whatever be our 
 name or our profession, let us take occasion, from 
 the example of Mary, to ask ourselves seriously, 
 before God, of what kind is our religion — what is 
 it that constitutes the life of our souls, the subject 
 of our hopes, the motive of our actions 1 If we 
 love the Saviour, if we have a faith in Him which 
 works by love, if our heart be given up to Him, 
 all is well. If we feel but a cold indifference 
 towards Him, all is ill, eternally ill. 
 
 Such was the happy family of Bethany. All 
 the members of that family were loved by Jesus. 
 All loved Him, and consequently all loved each 
 other. The love of Jesus is a sweet bond of 
 affection. In that close union all is necessarily 
 common, pleasures and pains, joys and griefs, 
 hopes and fears. That family, perhaps for a long 
 time, had lived peaceably in the happy feeling of 
 the love of Jesus. But, alas ! they lived in a 
 world of misery ; they had, therefore, to expect 
 suffering. A dark cloud suddenly arises to ob- 
 scure their horizon, and portends a dreadful storm. 
 But the members of that family had already sub- 
 mitted their hearts to the love of Jesus ; they 
 will therefore be able to " bear one another's 
 burdens;" they will also'* know, that it is in the 
 
68 MEMTATION I. 
 
 hour of trial that the Lord multiplies the pledges 
 of His love and of His grace. What will they 
 have to fear ? Jesus is their friend ! 
 
 Fathers and mothers of familiesj brothers and 
 sisters, you whom God has united on earth by the 
 most powerful ties, you whom He has called to 
 perform in company your earthly pilgrimage, do 
 you find nothing in the humble abode of Bethany 
 which demands your imitation, and is worthy of 
 your ambition ? Do you know by experience 
 that christian affection, which in the hand of God 
 so powerfully contributes to sweeten all that i» 
 most bitter in life 1 Is it in Jesus that you love 
 one another? Is the love of Jesus the sacred 
 and indissoluble bond which unites your souls for 
 eternity ? Does His peace reign in your families 
 as it did in the family of Bethany ? If it be so, 
 we doubt not that you will find pleasure and 
 edification in tracing with us the mournful experi- 
 ences, as well as the consolations and joys, of 
 Lazarus and his sisters. You will learn from 
 them how the friends of Jesus conduct themselves 
 in the hour of trial. May you also learn from 
 them to give Him your heart \ 
 
MEDITATION II. 
 
 ijlzarus sick.— the glory of god. 
 
 John xi. 3, 4. 
 
 "Therefore his sisters sent unto Him, saying, Lord, behold, he 
 "Whom Thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that. He said. This 
 sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son 
 of God might be glorified thereby." 
 
 The present state of mankind would be an in- 
 comprehensible enigma, had not revelation given 
 us an explanation of it in those few words, " By one 
 man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; 
 and so death passed upon all men, for that all have 
 sinned." Such is the history of the fallen race of 
 Adam. Here we have the solution of that inex- 
 plicable problem, wliich meets us in all ages, and 
 in all climes. If I open the annals of those ages, 
 which have been swallowed up in the past, what 
 do I see ? An uninterrupted succession of beings, 
 who appear for a moment upon this stage, which 
 we call life, announce their birth by cries of grief, 
 and terminate their career by agonies and death. 
 There is the cradle bedewed with tears, and soon 
 after the tomb — mournful abode of dissolution! 
 And between these two acts of grief, what fills up 
 
70 MEDITATION II. 
 
 the srenes of this melancholy drama ? Alas ! to 
 know it we need not go and consult the pages of 
 man's, history, we have only to look around us, to 
 see and to hear. Scarcely a few rays of light, es- 
 caping as it were by chance, spread here and 
 there a pale brightness over the sombre picture 
 which is unfolded to our view. Every where our 
 eyes are arrested by the sight of suffering creatures, 
 the prey of a thousand miseries, a thousand 
 agonies, a thousand griefs. Every echo repeats 
 the lamentation of afflicted man, the cry of pain 
 extorted from him by a universal malady which 
 consumes him. Volumes would not suffice to enu- 
 merate the names and the symptoms of all tho 
 diseases which seem to conspire to throw bitter- 
 ness on days so short — which appear to contend 
 for the dreadful privilege of dragging man to the 
 grave, and of mingling him with the dust of the 
 tomb. And as if all these miseries were not 
 enough, man seems to have imposed upon himself 
 the task of multiplying their number by his wick- 
 edness, his cruelty, and his crimes. In vain would 
 we turn our eyes from this melancholy spectacle, 
 and persuade ourselves that it does not exist ; in 
 vain would we, advocates of an absurd optimism, 
 wish to see light where there is darkness ; sweet 
 where there is bitterness; good where there is 
 evil. In vain would we, armed with a Stoical in- 
 sensibility, desire to raise a rampart between us 
 and the misery which surrounds us. We become the 
 prey of it ourselves, and though, perhaps, we have 
 refused to acknowledge that " all flesh is as grass, 
 
LAZARUS SICK. 71 
 
 and all the glory of man as the flower of grass," 
 which springs up, is cut down, and withers in a 
 day, we fall ourselves, and, alas ! our fall is the 
 only argument which convinces us of the vanity 
 of our being. Well would it be for us, if we were 
 ready humbly to acknowledge the evil, to study the 
 cause of it, and to apply to it a speedy remedy! 
 But oh ! infatuation ! We walk upon graves, and 
 we forget Death, Judgment, and Eternity ! We 
 scarcely can take a few steps in the streets of this 
 vast city, without meeting some of those gloomy 
 processions which accompany our fellow-men to 
 their last home ; and we forget that soon our so- 
 ciety, however brilliant, or however dear to us, 
 shall be converted into a similar procession for 
 ourselves. 
 
 But no, some one of our companions in misery 
 will say, No, I do not practise such a delusion 
 upon myself; I feel too deeply the afflictions of 
 this miserable life — I am overwhelmed by them ; 
 but what must I do '? 
 
 My brother, come, let us enter an afflicted 
 chri-stian family. Perhaps you will find there an 
 answer to your question : perhaps (oh ! may the 
 Lord grant it), perhaps having complained of the 
 evil, you will rejoice to have found the source of 
 the remedy. It is to the sick bed of a suffering 
 fellow-creature that I am going to lead you. 
 Approach without fear, and may you receive in- 
 struction. 
 
 In a preceding meditation we have become 
 acquainted with the family of Bethany, who lived 
 
72 MEDITATION II. 
 
 in peace, happy in the distinguished affection with 
 yrhich Jesus honoured them. We now proceed 
 to follow our Evangelist. Lazarus is seized with 
 a dangerous malady : this is all that St. John tells 
 us. Gifted with an affectionate and compassion- 
 ate heart, he judges it necessary to say no more; 
 he thinks we shall he able to picture to ourselves 
 this family, united as they were in the strictest 
 bonds, struck with such a painful blow ; he feels 
 assured that we shall participate in the anxiety of 
 Martha ; in the grief of Mary. 
 
 Lazarus is sick; he suffers. What! he who is 
 a beloved disciple of Jesus; he whom Jesus calls 
 His friend; he who loves the Lord is not, then, 
 more exempt than other men from the miseries 
 of life, from pain, and from sickness. 
 
 There are, perhaps, two classes of persons who 
 will make such reflections as these, and will find 
 here a " stone of stumbling" for their faith. The 
 one, like those selfish disciples, who followed Je- 
 sus not because they believed in Him, nor because 
 they loved Him, but because He had increased 
 the loaves ; who seek in the C4ospel nothing but 
 earthly advantages and consolations, a temporal 
 remedy for inevitable evils, food for their sensi- 
 bility, a selfish enjoyment in the attractions which 
 the religion of Jesus offers them. Such persons 
 would consent to live for the world and for their 
 passions, so long as they found themselves happy 
 in that kind of life, and they regard what they call 
 the " consolations of religion," merely as a der- 
 nier resort in case of misfortune, or as those insu- 
 
LAZARUS SICK. 73 
 
 ranees against fire which a man purchases before- 
 hand, and to which he scarcely ever gives a pass- 
 ing thought, except when his house is burned. 
 Any sacrifice which crucifies the flesh is too much 
 for them. All those trials by which God would 
 disengage them from the world, and sanctify them 
 for His kingdom, are excluded from their calcula- 
 tions and from their religion,, and consequently do 
 not find their hearts submissive. Infatuated mor- 
 tals ! what do you expect from following Jesus? 
 Do you imagine that coming to Him in this way, 
 as a last resource, without giving Him your heart, 
 you shall be delivered from your earthly miseries 
 as by a miracle? Do you imagine that He will 
 multiply your bread, and that He will render )^ou 
 inaccessible to poverty, sickness, pain, and death? 
 Ah ! be not deceived : you see Lazarus, the friend 
 of Jesus, sick and suflering. From his bed of pain, 
 learn to understand better the nature of the Gos- 
 pel, and what you ought to look for in it. If you 
 have not been taught to love Jesus as a Saviour, 
 you will find Him as a comforter. You will feel 
 your yoke hard, and your burden heavy. When 
 in the day of trial, you open your Bible so long 
 neglected, and read in it such words as these — 
 " Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come af- 
 ter Me, cannot be My disciple ;" " he that loveth 
 father and mother more than Me, is not worthy 
 of Me ; and he that loveth son or daughter more 
 than Me, is not worthy of Me ;" will you be com- 
 forted? will you feel satisfied ? will you have ob- 
 tained that wliich you sought for in the Gospel ? 
 7 
 
74 MEDITATION H. 
 
 And yet you will find nothing else there until you 
 have learned to love Jesus, until you have surren- 
 dered your heart to Him, until the love of Jesus 
 has rendered His yoke easy and His burden light, 
 until you have ceased to follow Him from a worldly 
 selfishness, and for the loaves and fishes. We be- 
 lieve that this selfish kind of piety, without devo- 
 tedness to the Saviour, is not found exclusively in 
 the people of the world, who are only religious to 
 suit their own convenience ; but we are persuaded 
 that such " roots of bitterness" put forth their fibres 
 in a great many Christians also, who, perhaps 
 without suspecting it, seek in the Gospel only their 
 own satisfaction, and would abandon their God 
 and Saviour the moment they could hope to be 
 happy without Him, without His grace, without 
 the attractions of His doctrine, and the consolation 
 of His word j shall we, then, be surprised at the 
 little progress which they make in real love, in 
 devotedness to Christ and to His cause, and in 
 holiness, " without which no man shall see the 
 Lord?" 
 
 Other persons are in danger of falling into a- 
 different error, from seeing the friends of Jesus 
 subjected to the sufferings and afflictions of life. 
 Like Asaph,* they are offended at this. How 
 does it happen, say they in their troubled heart, 
 that God exposes his child to all these trials, while 
 such a man of the world, who lives in forgetfulness 
 of God, and as if he had no immortal soul to be 
 saved, enjoys what men call happiness? " I was 
 
 * Psalm Ixxiii. 
 
LAZARUS SICK. 75 
 
 envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity 
 of the wicked. They are not in trouble as other 
 men ; neither are they plagued like other men. 
 Therefore His people return hither ; the waters 
 of a full cup are wrung out to them ; and they say, 
 How doth God know? and is there knowledge in 
 the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly 
 who prosper in the world : they increase in riches. 
 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and 
 washed my hands in innocency. For all the day 
 long have I been plagued, and chastened every 
 morning." Happy yet, if they come not, like the 
 wife of Job, to say to the child of God in his suf- 
 ferings, " Dost thou still retain thine integrity ? 
 Curse God, and die." 
 
 Alas ! we know, as well as these miserable 
 comforters, that the path by which the child of 
 God travels across the desert is rough and thorny : 
 we know that often, pressed down with a heavy 
 burden, he appears to sigh in vain for dehverance ; 
 that to him life is frequently a continual period 
 of conflicts and of pain : oftentimes it seems to 
 him as if his complaint could not reach the ears 
 of his God, a dense atmosphere and gloomy clouds 
 bound his view, and allow not a ray of cheering 
 hope to penetrate to his afflicted heart. And 
 when we hear him cry with a voice enfeebled 
 through grief, " Out of the depths have I called 
 unto thee, O Lord ! As the hart panteth for the 
 water brooks, even so panteth my soul after Thee, 
 
 God ! My soul thirsteth for God. When shall 
 
 1 come and appear before God?" When we 
 
76 MEDITATION H. 
 
 hear tlils plaintive voice, which so often in life 
 strikes upon our ears, it reaches the bottom of our 
 heart, and makes all its chords vibrate mournfully. 
 
 But, O poor mortal ! suffering creature ! can 
 you, then, see nothing- bright and consoling in 
 affliction? Are you, then, altogether ignorant of 
 the "rod, and Him that appointed it?" Are the 
 designs of God hidden from you? Do the pro- 
 mises of God say nothing to your soul ? What is 
 become of your faith ? Where is your hope ? Is 
 God no more love ? Do you not see that His ob- 
 ject is to save you as a " brand plucked out of the 
 burning?" that He demands your heart, and that 
 it is because you are unwilling to give it up en- 
 tirely to Him, that He breaks with heavy blows 
 the chains which keep back from Him a heart on 
 which He has so many claims, and that it is the 
 strokes of His love that reverberate so mournfully, 
 even to the depths of your afflicted soul. Oh ! let 
 a glance of faith pierce, like the eagle's eye, the 
 thick cloud which envelops your heart, and be- 
 yond it you will discover with joy Him who has 
 so loved you as to save you — Him who still 
 stretches out to you the arms of His infinite mercy. 
 
 This is precisely the example which the family 
 of Bethany affords us on this occasion. How do 
 Mary and Martha act in their affliction ? Doubt- 
 less they begin by expending upon a beloved suf- 
 fering brother all the cares which a tender affec- 
 tion is ingenious to invent. They have nothing 
 in common with those unfeeling persons, who, in- 
 sensible to the sufferings of others, withdraw from 
 
LAZARUS SICK. 77 
 
 the bed of pain, or from the house of mourning, 
 and have never been moved by the lamentations 
 of the afflicted. No, we love to represent to our- 
 selves Martha, seeking with all her usual anxiety 
 and activity, how she may offer some relief to a 
 brother whom she loves : resting neither day nor 
 night until she Jias tried every thing and put every 
 thing in requisition in his behalf We love still 
 more perhaps to represent to ourselves Mary 
 seated beside her brother's bed, watching to an- 
 ticipate his least desires, finding in her deeply 
 sensible and compassionate heart a thousand 
 means of proving to him that he does not suffer 
 alone, and that she participates in all his pains, 
 seizing with the delicate tact of true love, the mo- 
 ment for suggesting to him a \vord of consolation 
 which reaches the heart, because it comes from 
 the heart. It is thus we love to represent to our- 
 selves this family. 
 
 But it is not merely human means that the 
 Christian has of being useful to those Avhom he 
 loves, in their sufferings. Martha and Mary do 
 not rest in these. St. John does not even men- 
 tion the anxiety with which they attend upon 
 their sick brother : he does not think it possible to 
 suppose that those two sisters, whom Jesus loved, 
 could have acted towards their brother otherwise 
 than under the influence of the most ardent affec- 
 tion. But he tells us, he seems to take pleasure 
 in telling us, " his sisters sent unto Him," i. e. 
 unto Jesus, " saying, Lord, behold, he whom Thou 
 
 lovest is sick." What conduct ! What a prayer ! 
 7# 
 
78 MEDITATION U. 
 
 " His sisters sent unto Him." Disciples of Christ, 
 is it thus you act in the hour of trial? Do we 
 not rather find you telling of your afflictionsj and 
 complaining of them to your neighbours, your re- 
 latives, or your friends, before you have said a 
 single M^ord of them to Jesus ? Do we not see 
 you going from place to place, and anxiously seek- 
 ing for help while you forget the Source of eveiy 
 good and every perfect gift ? 
 
 Do we not see you afflicting yourselves, weep- 
 ing bitterly, and forgetting Him who hath said, 
 " I, even I, am He that comforteth you ?" Do 
 we not see you, when one of those Avhom you love 
 is sick, expecting every thing from the talents of 
 a physician, from the remedies which he pre- 
 scribes, and from your own care, while in your 
 trouble you forget Him, who woundeth and heal- 
 eth, who killeth and maketh alive, w^ho bringeth 
 down to the grave, andraiseth up again, and who 
 is called the Prince of Life ? Ah ! why then 
 should you be astonished if, when sickness and 
 death have brought grief and mourning into your 
 families, you have found only bitterness without 
 alleviation, a frightful void which nothing could 
 fill up, and anguish which nothing could sooth ? 
 Jesus was the only friend who could then have 
 spoken a word of consolation and of peace to 
 your soul ; but Jesus you have forgotten, Him you 
 have neglected to call to your assistance. Oh ! 
 might it not then have been said of you with 
 truth, as it was of the ancient people of God, 
 " My people have committed two evils; they have 
 
LAZARUS SICK. 79 
 
 forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and 
 hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can 
 hold no water," (Jer. ii. 13.) "O the Hope of 
 Israel, the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble, 
 why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land, 
 and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to 
 tarry for the 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." (Jer. xiv. 
 8, 9.) Far otherwise do the sisters of Lazarus 
 act ; they send to Jesus ; and what do they ask 
 of Him 1 It is scarcely a prayer that escapes 
 from their afflicted heart. They believe in the 
 love of Jesus, and in that Almighty power which 
 is given unto Him in heaven and in earth: they 
 know that the cry of the afflicted has never reach- 
 ed His compassionate heart in vain : they know 
 that He has stretched out a helping hand to all 
 the unhappy beings that have ever come to Him 
 for relief: this is enough for them : " Lord," say 
 they, "he whom Thou lovest is sick." What 
 confidence ! What faith ! What a touching 
 prayer ! O my beloved friends, if you thus know 
 the Lord Jesus ; if you have found in Him the 
 powerful Saviour of your souls ; if you know that 
 you belong to Him, that He loves you ; if, through 
 faith in His word, you know that nothing can 
 separate you from His everlasting love, you will 
 go to Him in your trials, with the confidence of 
 Martha and Mary. He who is your Saviour will 
 also be your Comforter: you will be assured that 
 
80 MEDITATION n. 
 
 " He who has given you His Son will also with 
 Him freely give you all things ;" and when you 
 think of the eternity of bliss which He has pur- 
 chased for you, and given you freely, you will be 
 ashamed of being cast down, and of distrusting 
 His faithfulness and love, during the short mo- 
 ments which still separate you from that eternity. 
 Then in all your trials, whether temporal or spirit- 
 ual, you will need for yourselves, or those whom 
 you love, nothing more than that word, so simple, 
 so touching, so sublime, " Lord, he whom Thou 
 lovest is sick." Open thus your soul to Jesus ; lay 
 before Him with simplicity your miseries. This 
 is sufficient to touch His heart with compassion. 
 Say to Him in all your wants, in all your suffer- 
 ings, or in the trials of those whom you love, 
 "Lord, he whom Thou lovest" endures the ago- 
 nies of death; "he whom Thou lovest" is ex- 
 posed to temptations or to doubts ; " he whom 
 Thou lovest mourns over his weakness ; the cold- 
 ness of his love for Thee, his remissness in Thy 
 service, the sin which still dwells in him ; " he 
 whom Thou lovest is sick." Ah ! if it be not 
 thus that you love your brethren ; if it be not to 
 present them to Jesus, to lead them to Him, as it 
 were by the hand, to tell Him in the case of every 
 new infirmity which you discover in them, or of 
 every new affliction which you see them suffer; 
 "Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick;" if it be 
 not thus that you love your brethren, be assured 
 that you do not love them at all, or that you do 
 not love them as you ought. 
 
THE GLORY OF GOD. 81 
 
 Jesus said. " This sickness is not unto death, 
 but for the glory of God, that the Son of God 
 mie^ht be glorified thereby." 
 
 What an answer ! what a mysterious ansM^er ! 
 It might have been expected that Jesus, as soon 
 as He had heard the message of Martha and 
 Mary, would have arisen, and said to His disci- 
 ples, as He did at a later period, " Let us go into 
 Judea again ; let us go to Bethany ; let us go and 
 assist our friend Lazarus." Not so ; Jesus gives 
 an answer not easy to be understood — an answer 
 which theologians of all ages have explained ac- 
 cording to their own peculiar views — an answer 
 as much calculated to exercise the faith of the 
 sisters of Lazarus, as the sagacity of commenta- 
 tors. What ! they have said, " this sickness is not 
 unto death!" but did not Lazarus die of it? 
 Could Jesus have been deceived; and if not, what 
 does He mean? " This sickness is not unto death, 
 but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may 
 be glorijEied thereby ;" and yet Lazarus dies and 
 goes down to the grave ! Is it then from the tomb 
 that the Son of God intends to draw His glory 
 and His praise ? What a trial for the faith of the 
 sisters of Lazarus ! Will they not fall into doubt, 
 mistrust, unbelief? The s6quel of the history will 
 clear up all obscurity for us, as it did for Martha 
 and Mary ; meanwhile, O my soul, receive in- 
 struction ; learn to adore the dispensations of thy 
 God, even when they are still enveloped in a veil 
 of obscurity ! The Lord's " thoughts are not as 
 our thoughts, nor His ways as our ways ; for as 
 
82 MEDITATION n. 
 
 the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His 
 ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts 
 than our thoughts." Martha and Mary speak to 
 Jesus only of their brother's sickness; Jesus, an- 
 swering as the Prince of hfe, who has dominion 
 over death and the grave, speaks only of the glory 
 of God, and of the glory of the Son of God. 
 What a lesson for us, my beloved brethren ! In 
 our narrow and limited views, we see but the pre- 
 sent moment : Christ, in His dispensations towards 
 us, sees our eternal destinies. We see but the 
 wants which press upon us, the deliverance for 
 which we sigh and weep : Christ sees an eternal 
 destination, which He would make us reach by 
 ways unknown to ourselves. We see but our 
 earthly and mortal body : Christ sees our immor- 
 tal soul. We see but time : Christ sees eternity; 
 and above all things, and in all things, " the glory 
 of God." Whoever we are, whatever be our 
 condition, or our rank in the world, there is but 
 one destination for which we, and the whole of 
 the immense creation can have been called into 
 existence : " the glory of God, the glory of the son 
 of God." 
 
 Oh ! if we could but comprehend this important 
 truth, if it could but fill our hearts, possess our 
 whole soul, soon would we find that mean and 
 narrow selfishness, — which causes us to refer every 
 thing to ourselves, makes us our own idol, and is 
 the source of all our miseries, — disappearing from 
 our view. Soon would we feel that we ought to 
 consecrate ourselves with all that we have, as a 
 
THE GLORY OF GOD. 83 
 
 living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, to the glory 
 of God, and to the glory of the Son of God. Soon 
 would we overturn those idols which we have set 
 up upon the throne of our selfishness, and offer 
 them as a sacrifice to the glory of God. Soon 
 would we trample under our foot that hideous 
 monster, our pride, to give all glory to Him who 
 hath created and saved us. Soon would we tear 
 from ourselves, and from every thing human, even 
 the last floweret of that crown which our pride 
 has usurped, and place it entire upon the Divine 
 head of the Son of God. In fine, soon Avould we 
 resume our place in the eternal order of creation. 
 And what does it matter in what way it may 
 please the Lord to make us reach this noble end? 
 Lazarus is laid upon a bed of pain ; it is there he 
 must subserve the glory of God, while St. John 
 and St. Paul shall proclaim the same gloiy, by 
 preaching the offence of the cross of Christ. 
 Lazarus dies; he descends into the tomb: and 
 this death, this tomb, shall proclaim the glory of 
 the Son of God, as loudly as all the "worlds of the 
 vast universe, when they issued from His creating 
 hand. Oh ! let us learn to know God ! Let us 
 remember that He could not have assigned any 
 other end to our existence than His own glory ; 
 and that for us to glorify Him is to accomplish and 
 to adore His sovereign will, which is always good 
 and perfect. Let us remember, in fine, that we 
 may accomplish and adore that will upon a pallet, 
 in the midst of sufferings and sacrifices, just as 
 efiectually as in the most splendid career. Alas ! 
 
84 MEDITATION II. 
 
 we are so blind, we are so accustomed to judge 
 by appearances, that too generally the words 
 happiness and misery in our mouths express nothing 
 but a deplorable folly. If an angel of God, pos- 
 sessing all knowledge, could look down from 
 heaven upon the obscure life of some child of 
 Adam, whom his fellow-men call miserable, that 
 inhabitant of heaven would perhaps seize his im- 
 mortal harp, and chaunt the happiness of him 
 whose condition appears to us so deserving of 
 pity ; whilst that angel, if he were not in that 
 abode where there are no more tears, would weep 
 bitterly over the misery of some other mortal, 
 whose destiny is an object of envy to his fellow- 
 men. The one is going to attain, through suffer- 
 ing, the end of his being, the glory of God ; the 
 other, in the midst of prosperity, lives in forget- 
 fuhiess of the end of life, the glory of God. 
 
 What a solemn thought! that at the end of 
 time, every thing that has been created shall be 
 summoned to proclaim, before the whole universe, 
 the glory of God, either by chaunting,with all the 
 pure intelHgenoes of heaven, the hymn of His 
 eternal love, or by rendering, Avith all the repro- 
 bate of the abyss of woe, the fearful testimony 
 that God is just when He condemns. O Lord ! I 
 prostrate myself before Thee in the dust ; I hasten, 
 while there is yet time, to lay at Thy feet my re- 
 bellious will, crying. Glory to Thee ! And the 
 prayer of my soul is, that all the thoughts, all the 
 affections of my heart, as well as all the actions 
 
THE GLORY OF GOD. 85 
 
 of my life, may repeat before all, Glory to Thee ! 
 and that the last accents of my expiring voice 
 may still send up to the foot of Thine eternal 
 throne, this cry of adoration and of love, Glory to 
 Thee ! Glory to Thee ! ! I 
 
MEDITATION III. 
 
 THE LOVE OF JESUS, AND THE TRIAL OF 
 FAITH. 
 
 John xi. 5, 6. 
 
 " Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus ; when He 
 had heard, therefore, tliat he was sick, He abode two days still in 
 the same place where He was." 
 
 " Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick." Such 
 was the touching prayer of Martha and Mary, 
 when their brother was seized with a painful sick- 
 ness. " This sickness is not unto death," an- 
 swered Jesus, " but for the glory of God, that the 
 Son of God may be glorified thereby." Upon 
 this answer the sisters of Lazarus hope and wait 
 Our historian now conducts us beyond Jordan, 
 into the society of Jesus and his disciples, where 
 we shall follow Him, and hear Him, until we are 
 led back to Bethany, to the tomb of Lazarus. 
 
 St. John continues his narrative, informing us 
 that his Master, (always so ready to respond to 
 the cry of the afflicted,) contrary to all expecta- 
 tion, remains still two days in the place where He 
 was, although he had heard of the sickness of him 
 whom He calls " His friend." But this beloved 
 
THE LOVE OP JESUS. 87 
 
 disciple of the Redeemer is aw^are of the natural 
 propensity of our poor heart to judge with rash- 
 ness and precipitation of the ways of the Lord. 
 He knows how easily we doubt the love of the 
 Saviour, notwithstanding the numerous proofs of 
 it which He has given us. He know show easily 
 we belieA^e ourselves to be forgotten, rejected, for- 
 saken by Him. He knows how little we are dis- 
 posed to persevere in prayer and in confidence, 
 when we do not find our prayers immediately an- 
 swered, and answered in the way in which we ex- 
 pect. He knows all our ingratitude, and there- 
 fore it is, that before he tells us that Jesus abode 
 still two days in the place where he was, before 
 he acquaints us Avith this mysterious conduct of 
 the Saviour, which might discourage beings na- 
 turally so unbelieving : his affectionate heart con- 
 strains him to justify his Master's love ; he wishes 
 to take away from us every pretext for a rash judg- 
 ment ; he wishes to make us glance into the very 
 heart of Jesus; and therefore he unveils to us its 
 generous affections ; " Jesus^^ says he, " loved 
 Martha, and her sister^ end LazarusP What ex- 
 quisite delicacy ! what love ! what a profound 
 knowledge of our passions, our infirmities, our 
 frailty, do we discover in this disciple ! Before 
 he shows us the actions of his Master, he wishes 
 always to make us penetrate into His motives ; he 
 wishes to make us know the heart of Jesus as he 
 knew it himself, persuaded that we shall find in 
 that knowledge a thousand reasons to love Him, 
 and to admire His dealings with us, however 
 
88 MEDITATION IH. 
 
 mysterious and however painful they may appear 
 to us at first. Who will have the rashness to ac- 
 cuse the Friend of Lazarus of negligence towards 
 the family of Bethany in their afiliction, though 
 He delays to bring them the assistance of His 
 omnipotence for two days, since the beloved dis- 
 ciple has taken care to tell us beforehand, " Jesus 
 loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus ?" 
 
 O, my beloved brother, disciple of Clmst, thou 
 who groanest under thy sufferings ; though thou 
 hast not a St. John always at hand to remind thee 
 that Jesus loves thee, wilt thou doubt His love, 
 when in His inscrutable wisdom He answers not 
 thy prayers immediately ? No ; thou wilt remem- 
 ber that His love is always the same ; and that it 
 is manifested in afflictions as well as in prosperity ; 
 thou wilt hope, thou wilt wait ! And why should 
 we not draw from hence the same lesson with re- 
 gard to our christian friends on earth ? It often 
 happens that we do not understand their manner 
 of acting towards us ; we think that they neglect 
 us ; that they do not answer our affection ; that 
 they do not sufficiently sympathize with us in our 
 trials. Ah ! let us beware of judging harshly of 
 their love, or we shall repent of it bitterly ; let us 
 rather open our soul to that confidence which is 
 the element of all true friendship ; let us believe 
 that they love us, and let*us wait. 
 
 " Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Laza- 
 rus." There is in this declaration a world of hap- 
 piness. To be loved by Jesus ! all that the world 
 calls happiness fades before such a thought. I 
 
THE LOVE OF JESUS. 89 
 
 see the foolish votary of ambition exult with joy, 
 "when he is told that he is loved by some great one 
 of the earth whose favour he sought after ; it seems 
 to him as if every thing had changed its aspect, as 
 if a new sun of happiness had arisen upon his life, 
 and had come to shine upon the day of such feU- 
 city. Alas ! a caprice of him in whom he has re- 
 posed his delusive hope, is sufficient to plunge him 
 into the darkness of despondency ; a moment is 
 enough to change the joy of his heart into bitter- 
 ness and weeping. 
 
 I see another infatuated person expecting hap- 
 piness from some beloved one whom he has made 
 an idol. He is told that his love is returned. Im- 
 mediately he sees all his dreams of felicity real- 
 ized: he feels his heart bound with joy. Jacob 
 did not see with greater happiness the approach- 
 ing end of the fourteen years of bondage to which 
 he had submitted for his beloved Rachel. Alas ! 
 the inconstancy of the human heart, or the insta- 
 bility of life, dashes his idol to pieces, annihilates 
 his hopes, and fills his heart with bitter grief A 
 tomb to bedew with his tears is, perhaps, all that 
 remains to him of his fond dreams of happiness ; 
 I call you to witness, is not this the history of your 
 own hearts? Is not this what you have an op- 
 portunity of observing every day in the most bril- 
 liant circles of this vast metropolis, and what is 
 seen as frequently under a more humble exterior, 
 in the lowly abode of the artizan, and in the rus- 
 tic cottage of the peasant? 
 
 But, O Jesus ! O my Saviour ! how different is 
 8* 
 
90 MEDITATION HL 
 
 the lot of those whom Thou lovest ! Thou art 
 always the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 
 Thou art always mighty to bless, to fill the heart 
 of those whom Thou lovest with peace, joy, and 
 happiness. And not only art Thou the mighty 
 God, the Saviour; but Thy love is salvation! 
 Thou hast come to procure for thy beloved onesj 
 not a few passing moments of a happiness ever 
 mingled with bitterness, but the eternity of a feli- 
 city which poor mortals cannot conceive ! The 
 love wherewith Thou lovest me is like Thyself, 
 eternal; and the same love shall constitute, in 
 eternity, the element of my happiness ! 
 
 O happy family of Bethany! happy Martha! 
 happy Mary ! happy Lazarus ! you are loved by 
 Jesus; what more do you require to make you 
 blessed ! To you what are these trials, this sick- 
 ness, this death, this sorrow, to which you are go- 
 ing to be exposed ? — you are loved by Jesus I 
 
 Wretched mortals that we are ! we often love 
 that which we scarcely know ; we cannot read the 
 heart, we see but the outside. Often when we 
 have reposed our confidence in some being wh<^ 
 we deemed worthy of it, all our hopes are frus- 
 trated, our expectations disappointed: often, too, 
 when we receive from those who are dear to U8 
 testimonies of their affection, a secret feeling of 
 our unworthiness compels us to say within our- 
 selves — Alas! if they knew me better I But Je- 
 sus, He of whom we are told that He loved Mar- 
 tha and Mary, is He who " searcheth the hearts 
 and the reins." What a testimony for them! 
 
THE LOVE OF JESUS. 91 
 
 What a privilege, the happiness of being loved by 
 Him who reads in the depths of the heatt its most 
 secret thoughts, inclinations, and dispositions. 
 Ah ! though it was not required of Lazarus and 
 his sisters that they should merit His love, for 
 alas ! on such terms Jesus would not have found 
 among the whole race of Adam a single being 
 whom He could have loved ; it was at least re- 
 quired of them that their heart should be really 
 open to His love ; it"vvas required that they should 
 love communion with Him ; that they should love 
 His word ; that they should love His love. 
 
 Doubtless, my beloved brethren, you would all 
 wish to be partakers of the happiness of this blessed 
 family of Bethany. Doubtless, there is not one 
 among you that would not wish that it could be 
 said of him, that he is loved by Jesus ; that Jesus 
 is his friend ; that, like all the members of that 
 family, he is the particular object of His affection. 
 Well, this happiness is not beyond your reach. 
 There is a sense in which it can be said of you, 
 that you are already the objects of the love of Je- 
 sus. Was it not love, that induced Him to leave 
 the abode of glory and felicity, and come to share 
 in your miseries, and to deliver you from them? 
 Was it not love, that achieved the work of redemp- 
 tion, the glad tidings of which He has caused to 
 be proclaimed in your ears? Is it not because 
 He loves you, that we are here to invite you, on 
 His part, to believe in His love, in order that you 
 may participate in the eternal blessings of which 
 that love is the source ? 
 
92 MEDITATION IH. 
 
 But you say, This is not enough ; we know 
 that " God so loved the world that He gave His 
 only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
 Him might not perish, but have everlasting life." 
 But Jesus loved the family of Bethany in a spe- 
 cial manner ; He calls Lazarus " His friend." 
 St. John tells us, as speaking of the most exalted 
 privilege, " Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, 
 and Lazarus." They were then His bosom 
 friends ; their names remain on the pages of the 
 book of life as eternal monuments of the special 
 affection of Jesus. 
 
 All this is true, my dear brethren, but we 
 repeat it again, that this happiness is not inacces- 
 sible to you. Jesus is the same to love you that 
 he was eighteen hundred years ago. And what 
 had Lazarus and his sisters done to become the 
 friends of Jesus ? We have said that their hearts 
 through grace were opened to His love, to His 
 word, to communion with Him. This is all that 
 Jesus required of them ; this is all he asks from 
 you. They were not distinguished for their 
 splendid actions, nor for a life which they could 
 have looked upon as meritorious. They had not, 
 like Paul, filled the world with the sound of the 
 Gospel of Christ ; they had not, like John, been 
 banished for the cause of God's word ; they had 
 not, like Stephen, given a splendid testimony to 
 the truth at the peril of their lives. They had 
 done nothing of the kind ; they were not even 
 called to it, and yet Jesus loved them. Martha 
 confessed Jesus by faith, " Lord, I believe that 
 
THE LOVE OF JESUS. 93 
 
 Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should 
 come into the world." " Mary sat at the feet of 
 Jesus, and heard His word." Lazarus glorified 
 Him by his submission on a bed of suffering; and 
 it was in this humble condition that Jesus loved 
 them, O my beloved brethren, you who wish to 
 find, in your heart, or in your life, some proofs 
 that you are loved by Jesus, as Lazarus and his 
 sisters were, seek not these proofs in great and 
 lofty things. Come to Jesus; ask Him to love 
 you ; descend into the depths of your heart, 
 abased and humbled before Him, and there He 
 will speak to you, by His Spirit of peace, of re- 
 conciliation, and of love. Be not distressed be- 
 cause the scantiness of your means allows you 
 not to perform your part in a great and splendid 
 sphere of activity in His service. Mourn not 
 because your weakness, your infirmities, or other 
 causes, keep you in such an humble condition 
 that you cannot conceive how Jesus should con- 
 descend to love you. Ah ! never forget that His 
 love is free ; it is not deserved ; He gives it. 
 Rather ask yourselves whether you really wish 
 to attain the assurance that you are loved by 
 Him? Ask yourselves, "Have I opened my 
 heart to the love of Jesus? Do His promises 
 speak to my soul? Is He a Saviour to me? 
 Have / found pardon and peace in Him ? Does 
 my soul feel a want of His presence which no 
 man, no angel of God, none but Jesus, Jesus 
 alone can satisfy ? Do I love His word ? Is it 
 my happines to sit at His feet, like Mary, and to 
 
94 MEDITATION III 
 
 hear Him speak of my heavenly country? Does 
 my soul thirst after the living God? Does it 
 experience continually fresh desires to approach 
 the Lord by prayer, as a child ever finds a new 
 pleasure in throvidng itself into the arms of a 
 tenderly beloved parent ? And in my trials, my 
 sicknesses, my anxieties, is it to Him that I cry im- 
 mediately for deliverance ? Am I able to recog- 
 nize His gracious hand in all my sorrows and 
 afflictions? Is my heart submissive? Is my 
 head bowed down in silent adoration when His 
 hand lies heavy upon me ? Where do I, at such 
 times, seek for consolation? Is it in His word, in 
 His promises, in the assurance of His eternal 
 love ; or in worldly thoughts, and vain hopes ? 
 What is it that spreads some degree of serenity 
 over the darkest and saddest hours of my life ? 
 Am I well assured that the difficult and painful 
 path which he makes me tread is that most con- 
 ducive to my eternal happiness ? and that ' all 
 things work together for good to them that love 
 God ?' " And should you find in your heart but 
 the sincere desire to answer these questions in a 
 satisfactory manner, believe that Jesus loves you, 
 and rejoice in His love ! 
 
 But be not deceived ; if it be in the world, in 
 the creature, in the satisfying of your own wiD,, 
 your desires, your passions, that you look for hap- 
 piness, you can have no part in the sweet privi- 
 leges of the family of Bethany. " Ye adulterers 
 and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship 
 of the world is enmity against God? Whosoever, 
 
THE LOVE OP JESUS. 95 
 
 therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the 
 enemy of God." " If any man love the world, 
 the love of the Father is not in him." What ! 
 you wish, you say, it could be said of you, that 
 Jesus loved you, while your heart, which ought to 
 feel that love, belongs to a world which crucified 
 the Lord ! Your heart cleaves to those sins which 
 nailed Jesus to the cross ! Your heart has never 
 opened to the love of the Saviour ; and the thought 
 of Jesus is the last that presents itself to your 
 mind ! And his name is neither in your hearts, 
 nor upon your lips, nor in your families, nor in 
 your assemblies, nor in your drawing-rooms ! Is 
 it thus you would treat a creature for whom you 
 had the least affection ? Ah ! you must first re- 
 nounce yourselves and all the vanities which cap- 
 tivate your hearts, and return to the love of your 
 redeeming God, before you can taste the happi- 
 ness of being loved by Jesus, the happinesiS df the 
 family of Bethany. 
 
 If you possess the love of Jesus, all is well, 
 eternally well, even though you should be over- 
 whelmed with all the miseries of this mortal life ; 
 but if you are without that love, all is ill, eternally 
 ill, even though you should be loaded with all that 
 men have the folly to call happiness. 
 
 " Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Laza- 
 rus." Such is the language which escaped from 
 the heart of St. John, language which ought to 
 anticipate in the minds of his readers, all doubt, 
 all unbelief, every murmur in reference to the 
 conduct of Jesus, who, the Evangelist tell us. 
 
96 MEDITATION III. , 
 
 " abode two days still in the same place where 
 He was," after He had heard that Lazarus was 
 sick. 
 
 But why this delay? Why does not Jesus fly 
 as usual to the assistance of an afflicted family 
 whom He loves 1 Why does He not pronounce 
 a word of His power, and Lazarus shall be heal- 
 ed ? What ! Jesus loves Lazarus, and yet He 
 leaves him a prey to suffering ! Jesus loves Mar- 
 tha and Mary, and yet He leaves them a prey to 
 anguish! The disease makes frightful advances; 
 Lazarus feels the sources of life drying up witliin 
 his breast ; his sisters with grief behold the veil 
 of death spreading over his eyes ; the tears of all 
 flow in abundance at the thought of the approach- 
 ing separation — and Jesus, their Divine Friend, 
 who never remained insensible to any of our hu- 
 man miseries, Jesus arrives not ! Two entire 
 days pass away — Lazarus dies — and Jesus is not 
 there ! Can this be a proof of His love 1 Is it 
 true that He loves Martha, and IMary, and Laza- 
 rus? 
 
 Thus reasons the man who understands not the 
 " ways of the Lord," who sees in grief nothing 
 but grief, in trials nothing but the trial, and who 
 appreciates deliverance only in proportion to the 
 promptitude with which it is vouchsafed. But 
 Jesus, who in all things aims at " the glory of 
 God," and the eternal salvation of souls, does not 
 sanction in His disciples this cowardly fear of suf- 
 fering. He wishes to teach them to love His will 
 more than their own enjoyment, to desire the 
 
THE TRIAL OF FAITH. 97 
 
 feeling of His love more than their own deliv* 
 erance, even in His most painful dispensations. 
 Can I not appeal to your own experience, my 
 dear brethren, whom the Lord hath caused to 
 pass through the furnace of affliction ? H.ave not 
 your trials taught you this great truth? What 
 has been the first cry which has escaped from 
 your heart at such moments ? What have you 
 felt when the Lord has not answered that cry? 
 when He has allowed your grief and your distress 
 to go on augmenting ;»when He has allowed you 
 to spend long nights in painful sleeplessness ; or 
 when He has called you to watch over the bed of 
 some beloved relative w4iom disease was wasting 
 away ? Tell it for our instruction, and that we 
 may profit by your experience ; have you not 
 thought that the Lord would remain for ever deaf 
 to your supplications and to your sighs? Have 
 you not doubted the efficacy of prayer? Were 
 not the promises of God without power to your 
 heart V Say, also, have you not been constrained 
 to acknowlodge that it Avas so, because you had 
 not yet been really humbled under the hand of 
 God ; because you had not bowed your head in 
 submission to His will ; because you sighed only 
 to be delivered from the evils that weighed upon 
 your soul ; because that after you had prayed. 
 " O God, if it be possible, let this cup pass from 
 me," you had not courage to add, with sincerity, 
 " Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done ?" 
 " O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that 
 the prophets have spoken !" When shall we learn 
 9 
 
98 MEDITATION HI. '^ 
 
 that the Lord's " ways are not our ways, nor His 
 thoughts our thoughts?" When shall we learn to 
 subdue, by the assistance of His grace, the vehe- 
 ment desires of our impatient spirit, to silence the 
 insinuations of our unbelieving hearts, to bend our 
 rebellious will ? Shall we always be governed by 
 the selfish interest of the moment, arid never be 
 able to rise to the contemplation of the plans of a 
 merciful God who willeth our everlasting salva- 
 tion ? Let us " speak to the earth, and it shall 
 teach us." The powerful tree that is to strike its 
 deep roots into a fertile soil, and bear fruit M^hich 
 shall ripen to perfection, requires that the winds 
 and the storms should contribute to its growth ; it 
 is only the ephemeral plant that grows without 
 impediment ; its flower blossoms in the morning ; 
 it displays for a moment its delicate freshness and 
 its opening beauty ; it adorns a day of spring and 
 embalms it with its delicious perfume ; — alas ! the 
 first ray of the sun destroys its freshness, the first 
 blast of wind makes its beauty fade ; it withers ; 
 it falls, and the place thereof knoweth it no more ! 
 But the tree which shall hereafter recompense 
 the care of the planter, rises slowly and with diffi- 
 culty, above the ground which it shall one day 
 overshadow ; it requires years to stretch out its 
 deep roots and its fruitful branches; the storms 
 harden and strengthen it ; it reaches its toAvering 
 height ; it braves the tempest, and disappoints not 
 the traveller who comes to repose beneath its 
 shade and to refresh himself with its fruits. It is 
 the same in the kingdom of grace as in that of 
 
THE TRIAL OF FAITH. 99 
 
 nature. The soul that shall " dwell in the house 
 of the Lord for ever, to behold the beauty of the 
 Lord, and to inquire in His holy temple," must be 
 prepared for this by combats and trials. This is 
 the method of training which the Lord has inva- 
 riable used with all those of His children whom 
 He has proposed to exalt to eminent stations, and 
 to employ for the instruction and enlightening of 
 ages. 
 
 He has made them all tread the gloomy paths 
 of affliction ; He has cast them into the furnace, 
 that their faith might come forth purified from the 
 defilements of pride and of sin, Abraham, the 
 father of the faithful, proceeds from trial to trial, 
 from contest to contest ; he travels a dark road as 
 unknown to him as Mount Moriah, where he was 
 to sacrifice the object of his dearest afiections; ho 
 has to hope against hope. On the contrary, the 
 Lord appears to render His ways more easy to the 
 less privileged objects of His love. A centurion 
 of Capernaum, who perhaps scarcely knows the 
 God whom the heathen reject, comes to Jesus to 
 ask Him to heal a beloved servant : immediately 
 he receives from Him the answer, " I will come 
 and heal him ;" and "his servant is healed in the 
 ^elf-same hour." Two poor blind men hear that 
 He, who was known to all Israel by His acts of 
 mercy, passes by ; with a loud voice they suppli- 
 cate IVom Him a look of compassion ; He stops, 
 speak a word of favour, and the blind men re- 
 ceive their sight But the woman of Canaan, a 
 heroine of faith, whose only daughter is at the point 
 
100 MEDITATION HI. 
 
 of death, comes to Jesus ; with tears she implores 
 comfort and assistance from Him — she receives a 
 harsh reply — a refusal of all favour ! But by this 
 means she is led to exhibit to all Israel and to all 
 future ages a most splendid example of victorious 
 faith. The great Apostle Paul himself three 
 times prays to be delivered from some painful 
 trial, and he receives for an answer these words — 
 " My grace is sufficient for thee ;" " My strength 
 shall be made perfect in thy weakness." Thus 
 the Lord leads His children ; He seems insensible 
 to their cries of grief; darkness thickens around 
 them ; the night becomes more deep ; but it is 
 only to render more bright the dawn of the day 
 of consolation. Often it is when the heart, over- 
 powered, ceases to send up to heaven those sighs 
 which it deems useless ; when the last ray of hope 
 has expired amid the gloom of distress ; when all 
 assistance appears impossible, and all human con- 
 solation has vanished, that Jesus Christ presents 
 Himself to his child and changes his darkness into 
 light, — ^his tears into songs of thanksgiving. 
 
 It is not till Lazarus has sunk into the cold em- 
 braces of death ; till he has gone down into the 
 grave ; and his sisters, in tears, and clothed in the 
 garb of mourning, imagine that they have now no 
 other comfort in this world, but to go and weep 
 over the tomb of a beloved brother, that Jesus 
 appears at Bethany, and with the authority of a 
 master, issues His commands to death and the 
 grave, and draws glory to God from the dust of 
 the tomb. O the wisdom, the power, the love of 
 
THE TRIAL OF FAITH. 101 
 
 ray God ! when shall we learn to know them, to 
 adore them, to submit ourselves in a religious 
 silence to all that they do for our eternal happi- 
 ness ? The divines of this world, ignorant of the 
 ways of God with His children, whose sanctifica- 
 tion and salvation He so graciously designs, have 
 devised a thousand hypotheses for explaining the 
 conduct of Jesus in leaving His friend for two days, 
 in a state of suffering, without assistance. One 
 tells us that He was detained by some indispen- 
 sable engagement ; another, that He did not think 
 Lazarus in danger ; a third — Fools ! will you then 
 always lose sight of the glory of God, and the sal- 
 vation of immortal souls ? Will you think only 
 of earth, of sickness, of pain, of death, and never 
 of the eternal happiness of beings whom Jesus 
 forms for heaven, in the school of affliction and of 
 His Spirit 1 Let us raise our thoughts higher, if 
 we would comprehend the ways of God and His 
 counsels towards us. " He willeth not the death 
 of a sinner," but his conversion and life. He 
 willeth not that His children, whom He hath 
 already converted, should remain entangled in the 
 servile chains of the world and of corruption. He 
 breaks those chains ; and if the blows which he 
 strikes ring mournfully in our heart, let us learn 
 to "bear the rod, and Him that appointed it." 
 My God ! what wilt Thou have me to do ? What 
 sacrifice shall I make ? What idol shall I offer 
 upon the altar of Thine eternal love 1 Since 
 Thou hast saved me, since Thou hast loved me, 
 9* 
 
102 MEDITATION in. 
 
 show me by what path Thou wouldest have me 
 to reach Thy heavenly Zion, the assembly of the 
 first-born — the place where all those who have a 
 heart to love Thee shall meet, and where nothing 
 that defileth shall ever enter 1 
 
MEDITATION IV. 
 
 THE HEROISM OF JESUS.— THE TWELVE 
 HOURS OF THE DAY. 
 
 John xi. 7 — 10. 
 
 " Then after that saith He to His disciples, Let us go into Judea 
 again. His disciples say unto Him. Master, the Jews of late sought 
 to stone Thee ; and goest Thou thither again 1 Jesus answered, 
 Are tl^ere uot twelve hours in the day 7 If any man walk in the 
 day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. 
 But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no 
 light in him." 
 
 The two virtues which appear to us to consti- 
 tute what is called heroism, are, courage and de- 
 votedness. The names which we see emblazoned 
 on the page of history, surrounded with pompous 
 eulogiums, are the names of those men, who, for- 
 getting themselves and their personal interests, 
 have had the courage to devote themselves to 
 sufferings and death, for the salvation of their 
 country, the happiness of some being that was 
 dear to them, or for some other praiseworthy cause. 
 We admire this courage, this devotedness ; we 
 delight to peruse the magnanimous examples of a 
 sublime heroism. But, alas ! as a great man of 
 our day has very well said, " Even heroism, the 
 
104 MEDITATION IV. 
 
 greatest and purest of virtues, heroism itself, wlierx 
 closely inspected, is found to have its blemishes."* 
 And what would the celebrated author, whom we 
 have quoted, have said, had he judged of heroism 
 by the light of God's eternal truth ? What would 
 he have said, had he analyzed by the lamp of the 
 Divine Word, all the elements of pride, vanity, 
 and selfishness, which are ever mingled with the 
 sublimest displays of a conduct heroic in the eyes 
 of men ? Oh, what would become of the most 
 brilliant performances of many whose names are 
 re-echoed from age to age, whose memory ap- 
 pears in the past, surrounded with a halo of glory, 
 were they weighed in the balance of eternal jus- 
 tice ? Would we not see that mysterious hand 
 which arrested the king of Babylon in the midst 
 of his vanities, writing upon their most splendid 
 exploits the fearful Tekel of the prophet, " Thou 
 art weighed in the balance, and found wanting ?" 
 Thou knowest, my God, and it is not for us to de- 
 clare it. 
 
 But let us bless God, my beloved brethren, that 
 He has given us to know another kind of courage 
 and devotedness celebrated not by men, who often 
 call good evil, and evil good ; but by the angels 
 of God, upon golden harps of eternal praise ! The 
 Redeemer of the world, in the devotedness which 
 led Him to leave the heavens, and come down to 
 share our miseries and deliver us from them, is 
 exhibited to us in His whole life, but especially in 
 that particular part of it which is recorded in the 
 
 • Victor Cousin. " Introduction to the History of Philosophy." 
 
THE HEROISM OF JESUS. 105 
 
 text, as the perfect niodel of a divine heroism, ap- 
 proved of by God ; and He cries to us all, " I 
 have left you an example, that ye might follow 
 My steps." 
 
 Come, then, disciples of Christ ; come, also, 
 men of the world, you who are capable of appre- 
 ciating what is beautiful, and grand, and sublime, 
 and noble ; come, and let us study our model, and 
 may we be enabled, not to confine ourselves 
 merely to a vain and unprofitable admiration, but 
 to arise without delay, and enter with a coura- 
 geous step upon the career in which our Divine 
 Captain leads us ! The devotedness of Jesus, and 
 the considerations which it ought to suggest to us, 
 are the lesson we would draw from the words 
 which form the subject of our meditation. 
 
 Lord ! take away from us that sluggish apathy 
 which renders us indifferent to what ought to kin- 
 dle our enthusiasm ! Eradicate from our hearts, 
 by the power of Thy Spirit, that selfishness which 
 benumbs our energies, and hinders us from com- 
 ing out of ourselves to rise up to the contemplation 
 of this divine exhibition which Thou hast placed 
 before the eyes of a sinful world, and which is cal- 
 culated to excite the admiration of angels, and be- 
 come the theme of our praises throughout eternity ! 
 
 Jesus was beyond Jordan, whither He had been 
 obliged to fly from the hatred and persecution of 
 the rulers of the people. He remained there two 
 days after Martha and her sister had informed 
 Him of the anxieties in which they were involved 
 on account of their brother ; two days of suffering 
 
106 MEDITATION IV. 
 
 to Lazarus ; two days of painful expectation to his 
 sisters; but also, we cannot doubt, two days of 
 works of benevolence and charity, on the part of 
 Him who went about doing good, and whose meat 
 it was to do the will of Him that sent Him, and 
 to finish His work : yes, while sickness and death 
 introduced mourning and tears into the abode of 
 Bethany, the beneficent hand of Jesus brought 
 into some other afflicted family consolation and 
 relief, and into some other troubled and suffering 
 soul pardon and peace. But if those whom He 
 loves most are often the last to whom Jesus brings 
 assistance, they are not forgotten in His heart. 
 No, He guards them by His almighty power, " as 
 the apple of His eye," -' as the eagle stirreth up 
 her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth 
 abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on 
 her wings." Jesus is beyond Jordan, exiled by 
 the persecutions of those whom He came to save ; 
 but from thence He beholds all that takes place 
 at Bethany ; He counts the groans of Lazarus, 
 and the tears of his sisters ; He has seen Him 
 whom He loved become the prey of death; Fie 
 has beheld the grief of the two sisters who so often 
 received Him under their humble roof He sees 
 that the trial is sufficiently great, too great per- 
 haps for their faith ; and as He willeth not that 
 they should be " tempted above what they are 
 able to bear," His compassionate heart urges Him 
 to come to their assistance : " Let us go again," 
 saith He to His disciples, " into Judea." 
 
 But, my beloved brethren, if you are acquainted 
 
THE HEROISM OF JESUS. 107 
 
 ■with suffering ; if God afflicts you in any way, to 
 bring you to Himself, and to make you wise unto 
 salvation ; if when you send up your prayers and 
 supplications to Him, He seems not to answer 
 them ; if He makes you wait two days, two weeks, 
 two years, be not discouraged ; learn to know the 
 ways of His love and of His grace ; learn to hope, 
 to believe, to love, for soon, soon shall this word 
 of compassion issue from His heart, '*' Let us go 
 again into Judea;" let us go again into this soul, 
 which is ready to sink down in the contest, and 
 sighs for deliverance ; let us go again into this 
 heart, which is torn by suffering and anguish. 
 
 But here an objection occurs which will lead us 
 more directly to the subject of our meditation this 
 day. Scarcely had Jesus uttered these words, 
 " Let us go again into Judea," when a voice ex- 
 claims, " Master, the Jews of late sought to stone 
 Thee ; and goest Thou thither again ?" It is un- 
 necessary to say that it is the disciples that have 
 spoken. They remember with trembling, that at 
 the last feast, the Jews took up stones to stone 
 their Master, as St. John tells us in the end of the 
 preceding chapter. It is this anxiety alone for 
 their Master and for themselves that makes them 
 speak. They lose sight of every thing else ; they 
 forget the family of Bethany in their affliction ; 
 they forget, or they have not yet comprehended, 
 the true end of the divine mission of their Master, 
 who is to die for the salvation of His people. 
 Fear and selfishness alone speeik : " Master, goest 
 Thou thither again ?" 
 
108 MEDITATION IV. 
 
 Alas ! we must not censure them too severely : 
 they expressed no more than what we ourselves 
 would have felt in their place. There exists in 
 our heart a deep-rooted cowardice and selfishness, 
 which makes everything disappear before our 
 own interests, makes us tremble at the view of 
 sacrifice and pain, as the disciples did at the 
 remembrance of the stones which the Jews took 
 up to stone their Master. A voice is lifted up in 
 our heart ; it is the echo of that of the disciples ; 
 " What ! wilt thou again perform this good work, 
 which cost thee so much self denial, and sorrow, 
 and fatigue ? Wilt thou rigourously fulfil, at the 
 expense of thy comfort, the will of God, and its 
 severe requirements? What! wilt thou follow 
 Jesus, though in doing so thou must renounce thy 
 tastes, thy pleasures, this object of thy passion, 
 the world, thyself? Wilt thou follow Jesus, hear 
 His voice alone, though thou must bear thy 
 cross daily, and travel in a way so straight, 
 so thorny, and so diilicult ? Wilt thou do the 
 will of God in all things, though thou must re- 
 nounce thine own will, which thou lovest above 
 all things 1 ' Master, goest Thou thither again ?' " 
 
 Such are the cowardly insinuations of our car- 
 nal and unbelieving hearts. What will Jesus 
 do ? Will He listen to the voice of His disciples 1 
 Will He keep away from Judea ? Ah ! could 
 Jesus ever have recoiled from the prospect of 
 sacrifices, of conflicts, of pain, of death, would 
 He have quitted the abode of glory and happi- 
 ness, to descend into the abyss of our misery? 
 
THE HEROISM OF JESUS. 109 
 
 Would His eye have ever looked forward to the 
 hill of Golgotha? In returning into Judea, He 
 did not merely go to Bethany, to accomplish, in 
 the midst of those whom He loved, a work of His 
 omnipotence and love, to call Lazarus out of the 
 sepulchre, and to restore him to his sisters, and 
 to make consolation and joy take the place of 
 grief and sorrow in their hearts. This would 
 have been a pleasing task to Him ; but in return- 
 ing into Judea, Jesus had an infinitely greater 
 and more noble object in view ; but also an anti- 
 cipation infinitely sad and painful. He had 
 before His eyes the principal end of His divine 
 mission ; He approaches the week of His suffer- 
 ings. The last passover draws near ; the victim 
 of expiation, slain before the foundation of the 
 world, the hope and expectation of ages, ap- 
 proaches the altar. Je-sus has before His eyes a 
 sinful world, which He has come to save — a 
 fallen race, which He would restore to its prime- 
 val destination. He sees eternal justice ready to 
 strike the guilty ; He wishes to satisfy it. He 
 sees a curse ready to fall Upon the violators of 
 the eternal law of order; He wishes to bear it 
 upon His guiltless head. He sees a hell ; He 
 wishes to extinguish its flames. He sees an 
 eternal happiness ; He wishes to procure it for 
 us. He sees a God of infinite love j He wishes 
 to make us the objects of that love. 
 
 Such is the object which Jesus contemplates 
 at the termination of His career ; and His ardent 
 love is impatient to accomplish it. And yet He 
 10 
 
110 MEDITATION IV. 
 
 knows that He can only attain it through igno- 
 miny and pain. When He says, "Let us go 
 again into Judea," He knows that He advances 
 towards sufferings and death. Aheady has He 
 predicted to His disciples what is about to happen 
 to Him ; already they have a fearful intimation 
 of it. Jesus does not wish to grieve nor dis- 
 courage them by telHng them more plainly of it. 
 Full of a calm and unshaken resolution, He pro- 
 ceeds alone to the end which He has in view — 
 the redemption of a sinfid world. He sees be- 
 fore Him reproach, cruel sufferings, an ignomin- 
 ious death. He sees before Him the contest 
 which is to end only with the last breath of His 
 life exhausted through grief, and with the last 
 drop of the guiltless blood which flows in His veins. 
 He sees near Him the disciple who is to betray 
 Him; He sees at a distance the crowds of an 
 enraged people, whom His love would save ; He 
 hears the cries of their hatred, " Crucify Him ! 
 Crucify Him !" He sees Calvary, which He is 
 about to tread, bearing the instrument of His 
 death and of our salvation. He sees the das- 
 tardly flight of those whom He loves. He sees 
 the dark hours of a long agony ; He sees death 
 and the grave. He still has it in His power to 
 put away from Him the bitter cup : He has it in 
 His power to retrace His steps. Galilee and 
 Samaria, whither He had often retired, because 
 His hour was not come, are still ready to receive 
 Him, and to afford Him a refuge from the fury 
 of His enemies. But no ; He hath said, with 
 
THE HEROISM OF JESUS. Ill 
 
 the calmness and courage of a hero marching to 
 ^dctory, " Let us go into Judea again ;" and He 
 returns into Judea. And when I consider that 
 the object of Jesus is to save a guilty race, to 
 save the very people who reject Him, the crimi- 
 nals who put Him to death, and that His gene- 
 rous heart, burning with a love unknown on earth, 
 is impatient to accomplish the work of their sal- 
 vation, I cast myself at the feet of this Redeem- 
 er, and exclaim, " Behold courage and devoted- 
 ness ! Behold a heroism, before which all human 
 actions that have been honoured with this name 
 fade away, appear utterly worthless, and are 
 confounded in the vile dust of this polluted 
 earth !" 
 
 O ! immortal beings, immortal sinners called to 
 glory ! if Christ be our Saviour, if we bear the 
 name of His disciples, shall we not now awake 
 from our cowardly selfishness, and follow the ex- 
 ample of our Great Head ? Shall we continually 
 find in our hearts and upon our lips, the miserable 
 objections of the disciples? Ah! shall the exam- 
 ple of such love, such devotedness as we have 
 been the objects of, allow our cold, . freezing 
 hearts to remain under the influence of their 
 shameful egotism, and of their deplorable insen- 
 sibility ? Why should we shrink back with trem- 
 bling from that combat, that trial, and those sufTer- 
 ings, to which our Divine Saviour, who has al- 
 ready gone before us in the way, call us ! Why, 
 when the will of God is known to us, when tho 
 Lord has spoken, should we be seen vacillating 
 
112 MEDITATION IV. 
 
 without courage at the prospect of some painful 
 sacrifice which we are required to make upon the 
 altar of Him whom we adore as our Redeemer? 
 Ah ! let us remember, that He who redeemed us, 
 and whose we are, claims our whole heart, with- 
 out reserve : let us remember, that if while we 
 desire to follow Him we love father or mother, 
 sister or brother, more than Him, we are not wor- 
 thy of Him. Let us remember, that His sove- 
 reign will must find our head bowed down in the 
 dust, and our submissive heart ready to exclaim, 
 *' It is the Lord ; let Him do what seemeth Him 
 good." But let us also remember, that, in tread- 
 ing that path, we are not alone ; He Avho has gone 
 before us never leaves us to our own strength, or 
 rather to our own weakness, but He guides and 
 supports us in it, and leads us on to victory. Let 
 our unshaken confidence in Him, in His love, and 
 in His power, be as an anchor to our soul, both 
 sure and steadfast ; then let the winds and storms 
 rise with fury : we may be shaken, but we can 
 never be cast down. 
 
 But if the heroic example of our Captain ap- 
 pears too much above us, if the view of that sub- 
 lime height terrifies us ; if we despair of being 
 able of ourselves to tread that sacred mountain in 
 His footsteps ; if we find ourselves ready to bring 
 forward the objection of the disciples, let us at 
 least hear the answer which Jesus condescends to 
 make, the encouragement which He deigns to 
 give them ; and let us, in dependence upon His 
 blessing, receive instruction. 
 
THE TWELVE HOURS OF THE DAY. 113 
 
 "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If 
 any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, be- 
 cause he seeth the light of this world. But if a 
 man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because 
 there is no light in him." Two important lessons 
 may be drawn for our encouragement from these 
 words, " Are there not twelve hours in the day ?" 
 (given us by God to accomplish the task assigned 
 to us,) after which " cometh the night when no 
 man can work ;" and, if a man " walk in the night 
 he stumbleth, because there is no light in him." 
 Here is the first serious lesson which the words 
 of Jesus teach us ; here the first encouragement 
 which they afford us. And from whence, in fact, 
 arise that cowardice, that selfishness, that fear of 
 sacrifices, and of sufferings, Avhich paralyze our 
 energies, and render us incapable of courage, and 
 of generous devotion ? It is from this that in pass- 
 ing through life, we forget the end of life. It is 
 that, thinking only of ourselves, and of the interests 
 of the present moment, we forget that we have an 
 important task to perform, the results of which, 
 happy or miserable, shall reach to all eternity. 
 Twelve hours in the day .... Then, "the 
 angel which I saw stand upon tlie sea and upon 
 the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven and sware 
 by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created 
 heaven and the things that therein are, and the 
 sea, and the things which are therein, that there 
 should be time no longer !" Twelve hours in the 
 day .... Then " He that shall come will come, 
 and will not tarry :" then a voice shall echo from 
 10* 
 
114 MEDITATION IV. 
 
 heaven to earth, and even to the deep abyss of 
 hell, and shall surprise the ungodly, as "travail 
 cometh upon a woman in labour" — " Give an ac- 
 count of thy stewardship !" Twelve hours in the 
 day ! Oh ! the folly of multitudes of miserable 
 beings, who, though charged with an awful respon- 
 sibility, squander away those hours, so few, and so 
 precious, in the pursuit of mere vanities ! Shall 
 not the Pagan monarch, who commanded his 
 slave to repeat to him every morning, with a loud 
 voice, " Philip, remember that thou art mortal," 
 rise up in judgment at the last day against thou- 
 sands who bear the name of a crucified Saviour, 
 and yet march towards the tomb as if there were 
 no death, no judgment, no eternity ! Forgetting 
 their high destination, they follow, during the 
 " twelve hours of the day," shadows which deceive 
 them and fly from them; a visionary dream ab- 
 sorbs their whole attention during those twelve 
 hours destined to labour ; and if they awake upon 
 a dying bed, in the presence of death, on the brink 
 of eternity, when " there is time no longer," how 
 bitter is the remembrance of the many hours of 
 youth, of riper age, of manhood, which have been 
 lost, miserably lost. 
 
 Ah ! is life, which twelve hours measure, so 
 long that we can bear to squander away our best 
 days in " sowing the wind, to reap the whirlwind ?" 
 Does time not fly past us with a sufficient rapidity 1 
 Does the hand which measures the brief moments 
 of our life on the dial-plate of time move so slowly, 
 that we must hasten its fatal progress by dissipa- 
 
THE TWELVE HOURS OF THE DAY. 115 
 
 tion and folly ? Is there so little of what is seri- 
 ous connected with the end of life, that we would 
 sport in forgetfulness with the deceitful passions 
 of the heart, or extinguish, amid the tumult of the 
 world and of sensual pleasures, the last rays of 
 the day which is awarded to u^? Oh 1 how de- 
 plorable is the lot of the deluded mortal who has 
 never stopped in the rapid career which he is 
 pursuing, to ask himself before God, " Why was I 
 born?" Soon, like the misguided traveller, who, 
 to his amazement, is arrested in his progress by 
 the shore of the boundless ocean, he shall awake, 
 alas ! too late, on the verge of eternity. He 
 shunned the light of life during the twelve hours 
 of the day, that he might travel without remorse 
 in the dark road of perdition ; he has walked in 
 the night ; he stumbleth. Great God ! into what 
 an abyss of darkness and despair is he precipi- 
 tated ! 
 
 " Lord, teach us to number our days, that we 
 may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Thus prayed 
 Moses in the wilderness ; and thus will that man 
 pray who has not forgotten that he is on his way 
 to Canaan ; that the time is short ; that the sun 
 has begun to set ; that the night is already spread- 
 ing its veil of gloom ; that eternity approaches ; 
 that the grave is opening. And shall he who thus 
 prays still continue the slave of selfishness? shall 
 he at the sight of his task, at the prospect of 
 sacrifices, entrench himself like a coward behind 
 the objection of the Apostles ? No : we trust not 
 The one consideration which Jesus offers to His 
 
116 MEDITATION IV. 
 
 disciples, the seriousness of life, the shortness of 
 time, these terrible words, death, judgment, eter- 
 nity, which ring in his ears with a voice of thun- 
 der, will banish selfishness and fear from his 
 heart, and inspire him with an energy, a courage, 
 and an activity, Aifiich will urge him to follow the 
 Captain of his salvation whom he loves. 
 
 But, is there no happiness in following Him 
 who has so beautifully associated example with 
 precept 1 His earthly life was not of long dura- 
 tion ; it was in the flower of His age that " He 
 was taken from prison and from judgment, that 
 He was cut off out of the land of the living, and 
 was stricken for the transgressions of His people." 
 But it is not by the number of years, but rather 
 by the manner in which they are employed, that 
 we should calculate the length of our life ; the 
 longest life is lost if we attain not the end of our 
 being ; and if M'^e have attained it, an hour is 
 worth an eternity. According to this computa- 
 tion, oh how long did He live who went about 
 doing good! His life was an uninterrupted chain 
 of good works, works which had for their object 
 the glory of God and the salvation of fallen man 
 whom He came to redeem. Every step in His 
 divine life is marked by some work of tender 
 charity; every hour is adorned by some act of de- 
 votedness, proving the truth of that declaration 
 which issued from the lips of Jesus Himself: " My 
 meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and 
 to finish His work." We must repeat it; the 
 glory of His Father, was the constant end of His 
 
THE TWELVE HOURS OF THE DAY. 117 
 
 life ; the happiness of the immortal souls of His 
 brethren, was the means which he adopted for its 
 attainment. 
 
 His days were spent in instructing the ignorant, 
 comforting the afflicted, healing the sick, doing 
 good to all. His nights .were employed in soli- 
 tude, and in prayer to His Father for the same 
 beings to whom He consecrated His hfe. The 
 morning found Him in the temple, preaching the 
 glad tidings of the kingdom to those who were 
 still " dwelling in darkness and in the shadow of 
 death." After a day of fatigue, the evening 
 again found Him lending His ear and opening 
 His compassionate heart to the complaint of the 
 poor and the miserable. Speak, ye thousands of 
 suffering beings who were objects of His glowing 
 charity and benevolence ! Speak ; let your voice 
 traverse the intervening ages, and let it come to 
 instruct us and make us blush for our weakness; 
 when did you see Him lose one, even one, of the 
 twelve hours of the day? When did you see 
 Him reject even one among the multitudes that 
 came unto Him ? When did you see Him send 
 away the ignorant without instruction : the afflic- 
 ted without consolation ; the soul oppressed with 
 a sense of its misery, without a word of pardon, 
 peace, and love ; the sick without healing ; the 
 needy without relief? Ah! you say, never, 
 never ! An inimitable succession of acts of the 
 noblest, purest, most tender love was exibited be- 
 fore your eyes from the hour when a divine voice 
 proclaimed to earth, " This is my beloved 80% 
 
118 MEDITATION IV. 
 
 hear Him ;" even to that when his expiring voice 
 and His triumphant love made earth ring with 
 that announcement, repeated by the celestial hosts 
 throughout the whole extent of heaven, " It is 
 finished." 
 
 O my beloved friends, when, after contemplat- 
 ing the life of our Saviour, we cast a glance at 
 our own, what a contrast do we find ! What 
 worthlessness ! what avoid! what nothingness! 
 How many hours lost! how many unprofitable 
 days ! how many good works neglected ! how often, 
 have we put off till to-morrow what might have 
 been done to-day ! How many souls which we 
 might have attempted to enlighten have remained 
 in darkness ! How many afflicted fellow-creatures 
 to whom our languishing charity has offered no 
 consolation! How many poor with whom our 
 selfishness has not allowed us to share our bread I 
 O my God ! shall not these rise up in judgment 
 against us in the day of great account? Is it for 
 such a life that Thou hast given us the twelve 
 hours of the day ? Is it for this that Thou hast 
 redeemed us? Ah, pardon! Lord, pardon! En- 
 ter not into judgment with Thy servants. We 
 could not answer Thee to one charge of a thou- 
 sand. 
 
 Meanwhile, Christ condescends to give us also 
 another lesson, in the words w^hich we are consid- 
 ering — " If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth 
 not, because he seeth the light of this world. But 
 if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because 
 there is no light in him" — words which not merely 
 
THE TWELVE HOURS OP THE DAY. 119 
 
 imply that we ought, as we have just said, faith- 
 fully to employ the twelve hours of the day for the 
 accomphshment of our task, because the night 
 Cometh when no man can work ; hut here Jesus 
 evidently spiritualizes the image which He makes 
 use of, and intends to teach us that we ought to 
 perform our task by the hght of His word and of 
 His will. The conclusion of the passage, " If a 
 man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because 
 there is no light in him," leaves no doubt as to the. 
 signification of the words. Christ Jesus Himself 
 is " the light of the world." '• I," saith He, " am 
 the hght of the world; he that followeth Me, 
 shall not walk in darkness." All out of Him, aU 
 that is in the world, all that is in our heart, is only 
 darkness and sin. Alas ! what had been our lot, 
 had not this " day-spring from on high visited 
 us ?" had not this " day star arisen in our hearts?" 
 Would we have been more happy because our 
 age is entitled the age of light? No, all that an 
 aspiring philosophy, even the most intellectual, 
 can afford us, without the light which shines in 
 the gospel of Christ, would be to our souls but as 
 the deceitful glimmerings which float over the 
 sandy desert, and only delude the misguided tra- 
 veller. Human systems are silent when I ask 
 them, " What must I do to be saved ?" When 
 my soul, penetrated with a feehng of the serious- 
 ness of life, the importance of my eternal destiny, 
 the shortness of the twelve hours of the day, turns 
 anxiously to my fellow-travellers, and asks even 
 the most enlightened among them, " Where are 
 
120 MEDITATION IV. 
 
 we ? Where are we going ? What way ought we 
 to take ?" they look amazed ; no hand is stretched 
 forth to point out tome the road ; their hght shines 
 not on the verge of the tomb ; beyond it all is 
 darkness ! I am still left wandering in the de- 
 sert ; O happiness ! a voice is lifted up : it is 
 heard in the plains of Judea : it passes over inter- 
 vening ages ; it reaches even unto me ; " I am 
 the way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh 
 unto the Father but by Me." Happy he who has 
 followed this Guide ! Happy he who has walked 
 in His light ! In vain gloomy clouds from time 
 to time obscure the rays of the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness; they disappear ; the heavens become serene, 
 and the child of Hght " stumbleth not, because he 
 seeth the light of the world." 
 
 He who has any experience of the christian life, 
 can tell what anxiety, what anguish he feels, when 
 he knows not the will of God in reference to the 
 way in which he ought to act, the road which he 
 ought to take, when many open before him, and 
 when some degree of darkness encompasses his 
 soul. Desirous to fulfil his duty, and to employ in 
 the most useful manner the twelve hours of the 
 day, he casts himself at the feet of Him who is 
 the light; he studies His word ; he prays, '' Lord, 
 what wilt Thou have me to do?" And if a ray 
 of divine light penetrates into his soul, if he is in- 
 structed on the part which he ought to choose, 
 what courage, what strength, what an energy 
 does he derive from the assurance that he is do- 
 ing the will of his God ! He is following his Mas- 
 
THE TWELVE HOURS OF THE DAT. 121 
 
 ter ; what then can stop his course or abate his 
 courage 1 What could have withheld Jesus from 
 going into Judea? He had before Him a family 
 to console, a world to save, and in that, the will 
 of His Father that sent Him. Ah ! it is this as- 
 surance that has caused martyrs to embrace the 
 stake or to mount the scaffold ! This assurance, 
 when it becomes a living principle in our soul, 
 will make us surmount all obstacles, provided it 
 be our sincere desire to fulfil the will of God, and 
 our soul acknowledge and adore His sovereignty. 
 But if you determine to walk on still in dark- 
 ness, in your own ways, in your own wisdom, and 
 independently of the supreme will of God, what 
 can 3'ou expect from your own efforts, your own 
 courage, and your best resolutions ? " If any man 
 walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is 
 no light "in him." Oh ! why are there so many 
 unhappy beings who love darkness rather than 
 light ? Why do we see them in their folly plung- 
 ing deeper into the darkness, whenever a ray of 
 light shines into their conscience ? However de- 
 plorable their folly, there is nothing in it which 
 ought to surprise us ; the Lord Himself has given 
 us in His word, an explanation of this mystery of 
 iniquity, " Their deeds are evil." They shun the 
 light of truth, as their chief enemy. Shall they 
 always be able to shun it ? No : the twelve hours 
 have passed away unprofitably ; " the light of this 
 world" has disappeared beneath the horizon ; the 
 dark valley of the shadow of death presents itself 
 to the view of the wretched being who has fled 
 11 
 
122 MEDITATION IV. 
 
 the light ; what gleam of brightness shall guide 
 his tottering footsteps ? What strength shall sup- 
 port him? And while the last spark of life is ex- 
 piring in his heaxt, undeceived, alas! too late, 
 what voice shall speak consolation and peace to 
 his soul? He has shunned the light. O God! 
 what a night envelops his soul ! The Bible calls 
 that night, " outer darkness, where there is weep- 
 ing, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth." O, un- 
 happy mortal ! if upon thy death bed there yet 
 remain to thee a breath of life, a sigh which thou 
 canst breathe into the bosom of thy God, hasten, 
 lift up thy dying voice to Jesus ; say, like the 
 thief upon the cross, " Lord, remember me, when 
 Thou comest into Thy kingdom!" Perhaps a 
 last plank of safety may be offered to thee in the 
 shipwreck of thy life ; perhaps a last ray of hea- 
 ven's hght may break into thy troubled soul, and 
 make hope revive. 
 
 And let us, immortal and accountable beings, 
 for whom the twelfth hour of the day has not yet 
 tolled, who still may " walk in the light," oh let 
 us, strong in the strength of God, having our eyes 
 fixed upon the Author and Finisher of our faith, 
 from whom come pardon and life, " and laying 
 aside every weight, and the sin which so easily 
 besets us, run the race which is set before us." 
 And that we may be enabled to imitate our Mas- 
 ter in His courage and devotedness, while looking 
 to His example let us also write upon our hearts 
 the two great lessons which He presents to our 
 consideration, as well as to that of His disciples — 
 
THE TWELVE HOURS OF THE DAY. 123 
 
 the importance of life, which He calls " the hvelve 
 hours of the clay^^ and the necessity of fulfilling our 
 duty by the light of the sovereign will of pur God. 
 And then we shall see th« strength of God made 
 perfect in our weakness ; we shall see selfishness 
 giving way to devotedness, that we may follow 
 the Lamb whithersoever He goeth : a new love 
 will take possession of our soul, and give us a 
 powerful support. In fine, we shall see the fulfil- 
 ment of this gracious promise of the Lord, " I will 
 cause thee to ride on the high places of the earth;" 
 " Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall re- 
 turn, and come with singing unto Zion, and ever- 
 lasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall 
 obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourn- 
 ing shall flee away." 
 
MEDITATION V. 
 
 " OUR FRIEND LAZARUS SLEEPETH." 
 
 John xi. 11. 
 
 " These things said He : and after that He saith unto them, Our 
 friend Lazarus sleepeth ; but I go, that I may awake him out of 
 sleep." 
 
 It was not a system of morality, nor of philo- 
 sophy, that Jesus came to communicate to this 
 world. It was something widely different that 
 man had need of A transgressor of the law of 
 his God, he is not only the object of the divine 
 indignation and wrath, but he has also become 
 the miserable slave of corruption and sin, and that 
 sin produces in time, as well as in eternity, the 
 bitterest fruits. In this state, while eternal misery 
 is allotted to his soul as its final portion, a gloomy 
 abode of dissolution, amid the ruins of death, is 
 assigned to his mortal body as its last dwelling- 
 place. Yes, death ; that unfathomable abyss, that 
 enigma which baffles all philosophy — death, which 
 an inspired writer calls "the king of terrors" — 
 death, preceded by agonies and sufferings, takes 
 possession of one part of this sinful being, and ad- 
 
OUR FRIEND LAZARUS SLEEPETH. 125 
 
 monishes him that that which is immortal in liim 
 must appear before the tribunal of a righteous 
 Judge. 
 
 Now the doctrine of Jesus, to which He has 
 given the title of " glad tidings," not merely pro- 
 claims pardon to him whom it addresses; not 
 merely cancels the sentence of punishment de- 
 manded by a violated law ; but even mitigates 
 and divests of their terrors the most formidable 
 and bitter consequences of sin in time. The Gos- 
 pel, in proclaiming pardon to the guilty, in break- 
 ing with power the ignominious chains of his sla- 
 very, deprives death of its sting, the tomb of its 
 darkness, the grave of its victory. The Redeemer 
 thus leads him, whom He has rescued, to the lofty 
 heights of liberty, from whence he can look down 
 in triumph on the scene of desolation and ruin, 
 where sin commits its fearful ravages, and where 
 formerly he had cried, " O wretched man that I 
 am, who shall deliver me from the body of this 
 death?" And from this lofty eminence the re- 
 deemed of Christ, triumphant and yet humbled, 
 begin this song of victory, " We are more than 
 conquerors through Him that loved us." It is 
 thus that Jesus would have us contemplate life 
 and death; and it is for this reason, that in telling 
 His disciples that he whom He calls His friend 
 had ceased to live upon this earth ; He does not 
 speak of death, or of destruction, or of the king 
 of terrors, although that friend of Jesus, like all 
 other men, had gone down into the grave. No ; 
 it is a rest which succeeds labour, a sleep which 
 11* 
 
126 MEDFTATION V. 
 
 follows fatigue ; " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth ; 
 but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." 
 
 O Jesus ! Prince of Life ! Sovereign Ruler of 
 all things! come while we meditate upon the 
 words of eternal life which Thou hast brought us 
 from heaven, come and speak also to our souls, of 
 rest, and peace, and victory ! Raise up our minds 
 above time, above this life of misery, above death, 
 above the grave ! Enable us to follow Thee to 
 those sublime heights whither Thou hast directed 
 our eternal hopes ! Break the chains that still 
 bind us to earth, to corruption, and to death, and 
 give us fully to enjoy the glorious liberty of the 
 children of God. 
 
 Jesus had silenced, by a very serious reproof, 
 the objection which His disciples had made to His 
 going into Judea. He might have answered 
 them at once, " Lazarus is dead, and I go to bring 
 relief to his afflicted sisters." But no ; He wishes 
 to prepare them for this afflicting intelhgence ; 
 He wishes even to communicate it to them in 
 terms that might sweeten all its bitterness ; " Our 
 friend Lazarus sleepelh ;" and then, as if He had 
 already said too much for the heart of His disci- 
 ples, who also loved Lazarus, He hastens to add, 
 as it were to place the remedy beside the evil, the 
 consolation beside the trial, " But I go, that I may 
 awake him out of sleep." As Jesus knew all 
 that had passed at Bethany, without receiving any 
 further intelligence ; as He had seen the whole 
 progress of the disease of Lazarus, and all the 
 affliction of his sisters, He could have healed him 
 
OUR FRIEND LAZARUS SLEEPETH. 127 
 
 of his malady ; or supposing him to have died, 
 He could have restored him to life again at a dis- 
 tance as well as at hand, by pronouncing one v^^ord 
 of that power which was given Him in heaven 
 and in earth. But let us not forget that this sick- 
 ness was " for the glory of God, and that the Son 
 of God might be glorified." Jesus rejoices for 
 His disciples' sake, that He was not there ; He 
 turns towards Judea; and there, on the verge of 
 the tomb, must all Israel, and all future genera- 
 tions, admire the power of the Redeemer of the 
 world, " But I go, that I may awake him out of 
 sleep." Happy the disciples of such a Master ! 
 Happy they who were witnesses of his power ! 
 still happier they who know, by their own experi- 
 ence, that His love is in nothing inferior to His 
 power ! 
 
 But who can sufficiently feel, or appreciate in a 
 suitable manner, the happiness of the man whom 
 Jesus calls His friend ? He who " made the 
 world," He m4io " upholdeth all things by the 
 word of His power," the I^ord of glory gives to a 
 worm of the earth, a sinner, the title oi friend t 
 A poor mortal, one of those who are called the 
 great ones of this world, though they be but dust 
 and ashes, would not deign to give that title to a 
 fellow-man, if he were in the least his inferior, 
 yet he whom angels worship gives it to Lazarus ! 
 Alas ! a miserable, sinful being, filled with a sense 
 of his own nothingness before the " God-man," he 
 would never have dared to assume such a title to 
 himself; but Jesus gave it to him ; Jesus carried His 
 
128 MEDITATION V. 
 
 condescension, or rathor His love, beyond all his 
 expectations; Jesus called him i/is/riew^. How 
 precious, how encouraging, is this name in the 
 heart and in the mouth of the Redeemer of this 
 world ! His heart, as well as His lips, pronounced 
 it; for He whose name is the " True" knows not, 
 or scorns the deceitful language of a hypocritical 
 world, which has ever the expressions of the noblest 
 sentiments upon its lips, while its selfish heart 
 remains a stranger to devotedness and love. It 
 is too well known what value the title of friend 
 has in the world ; it makes a part of the dialect of 
 fashion ; it is given to every body ; it is used as a 
 mask which is worn as long as it serves men's 
 interests, and then is thrown aside when the wind 
 of circumstances has changed its direction. Where 
 are those friends that can pardon a fault in their 
 friend ? Where are those who will acknowledge 
 a friend in adversity? This, though a trite ob- 
 servation, is one that cannot be too frequently 
 repeated, to the shame of every man who has not 
 learned friendship in the school of Christ, We 
 see around the man who is basking in prosperity, 
 and loaded with riches and honours, a crowd of those 
 pretended friends, who have always the name up- 
 on their lips. A few days have sufficed to plunge 
 this man, thus flattered while at the summit of 
 opulence and powers into the depth of misery. In- 
 stead of occupying an honourable place, instead of 
 being sought after in the society of the great, he 
 suffers perhaps in an humble dwelling, laid upon a 
 bed of pain, deprived of every thing that could 
 
OUR FRIEND LAZARUS SLEErETH. 129 
 
 sweeten the bitterness of his situation. Where, 
 now, are those false and cruel parasites, who lately 
 surrounded him and loaded him with hypocritical 
 demonstrations of their attachment? I see none 
 of them around him. He is poor; this is a suffi- 
 cient reason for their being ashamed to own him 
 as their friend ; he is unfortunate, this is his crime. 
 Oh ye, whose hearts have been lacerated by a 
 sad experience of the instability of human affec- 
 tions, and of the cruelty of your fellow-men ! ye 
 suffering and unhappy beings, whom a proud 
 world knows not and rejects, come to Jesus, He 
 will be your friend ! Expect not from men the 
 consolation and peace which you long after. He 
 who trust's in the armof flesh, rests upon a broken 
 reed. " whereon, if a man lean, it will go into his 
 hand and pierce it." What will you find in hu- 
 man affections that can fill the void of your soul, 
 answer a single sigh of your heart, dry a single 
 tear? Ah! if hitherto you have not dared to call 
 Jesus your friend, see, He Himself anticipates 
 you ; He Himself gives you that title, so dear to 
 an affectionate heart, and with that title He also 
 gives you all the privileges of a friend. Let not 
 the feeling of your unworthiness, of your sins, of 
 your frailty, terrify you," or drive you away from 
 Him ! " He came to seek and to save that which 
 was Io!5t." He was not offended at being called 
 " the friend of publicans and sinners." Neither 
 let your poverty, your nakedness, the meanness of 
 your condition, affright you. He it is " who, 
 though He was rich, yet for your sakes became 
 
130 MEDITATION V. 
 
 poor, that ye through His poverty might be 
 rich." 
 
 Unlike your worldly patrons, who call them- 
 selves friends, but whom you cannot approach 
 without trembling, amid the display of luxury, 
 magnificence, and pride, with which they are 
 surrounded, Jesus, who is willing to be your 
 powerful friend, was born in a manger; a few 
 poor fishermen, from the borders of the lake of 
 Gennesaret, composed His entire retinue : the 
 sick, whom He healed; the poor, whom He 
 relieved ; the unhappy, whom He comforted, 
 were His whole society. Unlike, too, the worldly 
 friends, who love only as long as they find it their 
 interest or their pleasure, Jesus is always the 
 same, always ready to bless. His love requires 
 nothing of you but your heart ; He only wishes 
 to give, never to receive. The more unhappy 
 and suffering, the more humble and contrite you 
 are, the more will He be pleased to call you 
 friends. In His love all is gratuitous, all is free 
 all is gift. Again I repeat it, come to Jesus 
 open your heart to Him, call Him your friend 
 He Himself invites you to do so ; He Himself 
 urges you to come and draw out of the pure and 
 inexhaustible source which He has opened in His 
 infinite love. " Ho, every one that thirsteth, 
 come ye to the waters !" " Come unto Me, aU ye 
 that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give 
 you rest, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." 
 
 " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." Jesus does 
 not say, my friend ; He does not wish to exclude 
 
OUR FRIEND LAZARUS SLEEPETH. 
 
 N 
 
 His disciples from that sacred friendship ; 
 also love Lazarus. He who is the friend of Je!( 
 is also the friend of all those whom He loves. 
 That maxim of the world, then, is false, selfish, 
 and I had almost said, insulting to the human 
 heart, " that a man can have but one real friend." 
 It shows more than any thing we could say, what 
 friendship is in the estimation of the world, and 
 what are all attachments of which the love of 
 Jesus does not form the bond. Far from us be 
 that selfishness of a narrow heart. If Jesus be 
 our friend, all those whom He loves are our real 
 friends. "See how these Christians love one 
 another," exclaimed the astonished Pagans, when, 
 they beheld the spectacle, unknown before to the 
 world, which the members of the primitive Church 
 presented to their view. Their is an invisible but 
 powerful chain, uniting in Jesus all those who 
 have in their heart a spark of love for Him. All 
 the people of Christ, from Abel to the last be- 
 liever that shall be found in this world, from 
 those new brethren who in distant heathen lands 
 surrender their hearts to Jesus, even to those re- 
 deemed ones around us whom we love, and to those 
 who, having reached perfection, offer up their 
 prayers at the foot of the throne of God, for their 
 companions in salvation, still fighting here below ; 
 all, all form one people — the friends of Jesus ; all 
 strive together, by their prayers, all walk togetlier 
 towards Zion, towards " the general assembly 
 and church of the first-born," towards the centre 
 of eternal love, which soon will reunite them all 
 
r. 
 
 132 MEDITATION 
 
 Let us hear the history of David in his trials. 
 " Now it came to pass when David had made an 
 end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jon- 
 athan was knit with the soul of David, and 
 Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Then 
 Jonathan and David made a covenant, because 
 he loved him as his own soul. And they kissed 
 one another, and Avept one with another, until 
 David exceeded. And Jonathan said to David, 
 Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both 
 of us in the name of the Lord, saying, the Lord 
 be between me and thee, and between my seed 
 and thy seed, for ever. If it please my father to 
 do thee evil, then will I show it thee, that thou 
 may est go in peace, and the Lord be with thee, 
 as he hath been with my father." (1 Sam. xviii. 
 and XX.) Let us hear the history of the primitive 
 Church. " And the multitude of them that 
 believed were of one heart and of one soul: 
 neither said any of them, that aught of the things 
 which he possessed was his own ; but they had 
 all things cdmmon.-' One of the pillars of 
 that Church, the Apostle Peter, is cast into prison 
 by Herod ; the following day he is to be brought 
 forth to suffer the punishment which the tyrant 
 has decreed ; but while Peter is kept in prison, 
 '' prayer is made without ceasing of the Church 
 unto God for him." And a messenger from the 
 Most High breaks his chains, and gives him to 
 the believing prayers of his brethren ! The 
 Apostle Paul is brought to Rome, as a prisoner, 
 for the name of Jesus. After havinjr suffered a 
 
OUR FRIEIVD LAZARUS SLEErETH. 133 
 
 shipwreck, which put his life, in jeopardy, he 
 arrives; he is is oppressed with the fatigues of so 
 painful a voyage, and with the weight of the 
 chains which he bears for Jesus his Saviour. 
 " And when the brethren heard of us," says the 
 divine historian of the Acts, " they came to meet 
 us as far as Appii Forum, and the Three Tav- 
 erns : whom when Paul saw" (though, perhaps, 
 he was not personally acquainted with one of 
 them,) " he thanked God, and took courage." 
 
 O christian traveller, thou, who, perhaps, under 
 the weight of thy trial, groanest by reason of the 
 fatigues of thine earthly pilgrimage, take courage 
 also, like St. Paul ! Thou walkest not alone in 
 that path of sorrow, thou hast been preceded by 
 thousands of the friends of Jesus who are also thy 
 friends, and who, perhaps, like thee, have sufTered^f^'^ 
 on the road, and have been purified beneath the 
 burning heat of the day, that they might be made 
 meet to see the face of Him who loved them ; and 
 thou art accompanied and followed by thousands 
 who, like thee, take up their cross daily, and follow 
 Jesus. All love thee ; thou art their friend and 
 their brother, if thou belongest by adoption, to 
 the family of God. In the moment of contest, 
 when thou imaginest that thou art alone, aban- 
 doned to thine own weakness, a multitude of thy 
 brethren around thee, or in some distant country, 
 take a part in thy sorrows, send up their prayers 
 to heaven on thy behalf, and call down consola- 
 tion and assistance for thine afflicted soul. O 
 Jesus ! what happiness it is to be Thy friend, to 
 12 
 
134 MEDITATION V. 
 
 have a part in that kingdom of peace and love 
 which Thou has come to estabhsh upon earth! 
 Thy kingdom come ! 
 
 " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." Such, to the 
 friends of Jesus, is the termination of their journey 1 
 To them it is no longer that frightful death, with 
 its gloomy retinue of agonies and fears ; it is not 
 that " king of terrors," who announces his ap- 
 proach to the unpardoned sinner, with the voice 
 of thunder echoing through the inmost recesses of 
 a conscience, awaking, alas ! too late, to remorse 
 and despair. It is not that gloomy sepulchre in 
 which all the projects, the joys, and the hopes of 
 the ungodly are swallowed up for ever. It is not 
 that dark and fearful eternity, in comparison of 
 whicji, annihilation itself, with all its horrors, 
 would be desirable. No, it is a calm sleep, suc- 
 ceeding the long and painful watchihgs of life ; it 
 is the rest which follows the fatigues of a journey, 
 The friend of Jesus sleeps ; he does not die. " She 
 is not dead," said Jesus, on entering a house where 
 the pious inmates were weeping for the departure of 
 an only daughter, " She is not dead, but sleepeth !" 
 — sweet figure, with which Jesus, after having 
 destroyed the sting, envelops the terrors of death. 
 Like the infant that reposes with confidence in its 
 mother's bosom, the friend of Jesus sleeps in the 
 arms of a tender and merciful Father, until at the 
 sound of the last trumpet, calling him to the life 
 of heaven, he awakes on the morning of that eter- 
 nal day of happiness which Jesus has procured for 
 him. 
 
OUn FRIEND LAZARUS SLEEPETH. 135 
 
 " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth !" Alas ! the 
 earthly pilgrimage of the friend of Jesus may not 
 have been less painful than that of other men. 
 Often, perhaps, he may have been on the point of 
 straying into the crooked paths of the world, or of 
 shiking under the pressure of fatigue. Often he 
 may have traversed thorny places which tore his 
 tottering feet. He may have had to clamber 
 up many a lofty mountain, to travel through many 
 a deep valley. His heaviest burden, the burden 
 of sin and corruption, may frequently have seemed 
 ready to overwhelm him, and may have filled his 
 heart with bitterness, while he pursued his soh- 
 tary way through the dry places of the wilder- 
 ness. Often, too, leaning his weary head upon 
 his hand, he may have cried, like another travel- 
 ler to the heavenly Zion, " My tears have been 
 my meat day and night. O my God ! my soul is 
 cast down within me ; deep calleth unto deep at 
 the noise of Thy waterspouts; all Thy waves 
 and Thy billows have gone over me." But at 
 the same time he has carried in his breast a hope 
 which maketh not ashamed ; he has seen before 
 him a better country of which he never lost sight 
 and which, though it had been forgotten by all the 
 World beside, would have been the sole object of 
 his wishes. 
 
 Like Israel, when a captive in Babylon, his 
 eyes were turned towards Zion. " If I forget thee, 
 O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cun- 
 ning ; if I do not remember thee, let my tongue 
 cleave to the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer not 
 
136 MEDITATION V. 
 
 Jerusalem to my chief joy." And with this hope, 
 this friend of Jesus, in travelling to the heavenly 
 Jerusalem, was not alone abandoned to his own 
 weakness. His celestial Friend, omnipotent, 
 though invisible, guided his footsteps, filled his 
 heart with fresh courage, eased him of his oppres- 
 sive burden, telling him with love, " Son, be of 
 good cheer, thy ^ins are forgiven thee !" He 
 reaches the end of his course ; his last combat is 
 the most painful, but he receives new strength ; 
 he can repeat with the Psalmist, to the praise of 
 his Almighty Redeemer, " Though I walk through 
 the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no 
 evil : for Thou art with me ; Thy rod and Thy 
 staff they comfort me." Night draws on, dark- 
 ness surrounds him, but already he perceives dis- 
 tinctly the dav/n of a new day. At laBt he reaches 
 the termination of his fatigues and labours ; he 
 falls asleep — when he awakes he shall behold 
 "the new heavens and the new earth, wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness." " And God shall wipe 
 away all tears from his eyes ; and there shall be 
 no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither 
 shall there be any more pain, for the former things 
 have passed away." 
 
 Yes, " the former things are passed away." 
 This burden of an existence, which sin has 
 poisoned with its venom ; this chain of corruption 
 and mortality, which binds our soul, and prevents 
 it from taking its flight towards its eternal desti- 
 nation, is for ever laid aside. There remains of 
 all the evils of life nothing but a sweet remem- 
 
OUR FRIEND LAZARUS SLEEPETH. 137 
 
 brance, the source of eternal gratitude for the 
 wisdom and love of God's dealings, which now, 
 for the first time, are fully understood. All the 
 rest has passed awa)^ like the painful visions of 
 the night when one awakes in the morning of a 
 beautiful day. All is for ever lost in the element 
 of God's eternal love, " in whose presence there 
 is fulness of joy." Oh ! to Him who " has over- 
 come for us," to the Lamb which was slain, and 
 which hath redeemed us out of every nation, and 
 kindred, and people, be honour, and glory, and 
 praise, for ever and ever ! Yes, Jesus, glory to 
 Thee ! glory to Thee ! because Thou hast im- 
 parted to our hearts such glorious hopes ! because 
 at Thy word the lamentations of the unhappy are 
 changed into songs of thanksgiving ! because at 
 Thy presence the terrors of the grave are changed 
 into a feeling of ineffable and eternal felicity. 
 
 My beloved friends, I would have wished to 
 terminate this meditation here. But (shall I say 
 it ?) an involuntary feeling of fear passes painfully 
 across my mind amid the pleasing thoughts which 
 have just been occupying us. I fear lest these 
 eternal realities, of which Jesus Himself speaks to 
 us in our beautiful text, may be to many of you 
 but the dream of an imagination, which loves to 
 walk in smiling fields, or, in other words, nothing 
 but religious poetry. I fear lest, though your soul 
 be not entirely insensible to the voice of the 
 Saviour, you should confine yourselves merely to 
 a barren admiration of the doctrine which He has 
 communicated to mankind. In a word, I fear, 
 12* 
 
138 MEDITATION. 
 
 lest your heart should remain unchanged, far off 
 from God, destitute of His love. Ah!' If it be so 
 with any among you, we must conclude that you 
 are not the friends of Jesus. Strangers to the life 
 of God, and to the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, 
 Jesus could not say of you, after death, " Our 
 friend sleepeth /" Your end would not be a sleep ; 
 it would be death, the destruction of this mortal 
 body, followed by what the Bible calls " the second 
 fleath." Oh ! while Jesus yet comes to you as a 
 friend and Saviour, not as a judge, hasten to be- 
 lieve in His word. His promises, His love ! To- 
 morrow, perhaps, you may no longer be able to 
 do it. " Now is the accepted time, now is the 
 day of salvation." If Jesus be your Saviour during 
 life. He will be your friend in the hour of death. 
 God grant that you may have such a friend ! God 
 grant that the dear objects of your affection, who 
 shall weep your departure, may be able to write 
 upon your tomb in the name of Jesus, and look- 
 ing forward with joy to His second and glorious 
 appearing : "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth ; but I 
 go, that I may awake him out of sleep." 
 
MEDITATION VI. 
 
 THE FEAR OF DEATH.— DISTASTE FOR LIFE. 
 
 John xi. 12 — 16. 
 
 ** Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. How- 
 belt .Tesus spake of his death : but they thought that He had spo- 
 ken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, 
 Lazarus is dead. And 1 am glad for your sakes that I was not 
 there, to the intent ye may believe ; nevertheless, let us go unto 
 him. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow- 
 disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him." 
 
 There is, in all the details of the history which 
 we have heen for some time considering, some- 
 thing touching, which it is easier to feel than to 
 express. Every word that Jesus utters awakens 
 in the soul a feeling as delicate as it is deep, which 
 delightfully moves it, and constrains us to say, 
 " Never man spake like this man." And we are 
 compelled to add, " Never historian described like 
 tho Apostle John." Jesus, driven by persecution 
 beyond Jordan, receives the sad intelligence that 
 Lazarus, whom He loves, is sick. There is some- 
 thing peculiarly distressing in hearing of the sick- 
 ness or sufferings of those whom we love, when 
 we are absent from them. Jesus also would ap- 
 
140 MEDITATICfN VI. 
 
 pear to have experienced this feehng of our hu- 
 man nature ; He hastens to silence the apprehen- 
 sions of His disciples, and of the messengers whom 
 the sisters of Lazarus had sent. " This sickness," 
 said He, " is not unto death, but for the glory of 
 God." He wishes to go back to Judea, and bring 
 to the objects of His affection, the aid of His om- 
 nipotence and love. His disciples remind Him of 
 the hatred of the Jews, and of the danger of ex- 
 posing Himself again to those who had lately 
 sought to stone Him. Jesus graciously encour- 
 ages them, by the solemn consideration of the 
 shortness of time, those " twelve hours of the day," 
 which fly past with such rapidity : we must walk 
 in the light ; " He that walketh in the night stum- 
 bleth." And the better still to persuade them that 
 He must go into Judea, He tells them that Laza- 
 rus has sunk under his painful malady : that his 
 eyes are closed to the light. But in telling them, 
 instead of using language which would recall to 
 their minds the melancholy thought of separation, 
 of death, and of the grave. He clothes this sad in- 
 telligence with the most pleasing of images, as 
 we have seen in our last meditation. " Our friend 
 Lazarus," saith He, " sleepeth." And as if He 
 feared lest the words which He had spoken should 
 have grieved the hearts of His disciples, who loved 
 Lazarus, He hastens aflectionately to add, " But 
 I go to awake him out of sleep." His disciples, 
 however, understood Him not : they imagine, as 
 our text tells us, that He speaks of a natural sleep, 
 and they cherish the hope of a speedy recovery. 
 
THE FEAR OP DEATH. 141 
 
 " Lord," say they, " if he sleep, he shall do well." 
 It now becomes necessary for Jesus to undeceive 
 them, and to communicate to them the melancholy 
 news ; but scarcely have the words, " Lazarus i$ 
 dead," escaped His lips, when He hastens to add, 
 with a soothing calmness, " I am glad, for your 
 sakes, that I was not there, to the intent ye may 
 believe ; nevertheless, let us go unto him." What 
 language ! What love ! What a kind Master ! 
 Lord, teach us to feel ; above all things, teach us 
 to love, tharwe may be able to comprehend the 
 ineffable consolation of the words which proceed 
 out of Thy mouth ! 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding this love of Jesus, not- 
 withstanding the tender care which He takes to 
 instruct and encourage His disciples, we find in 
 them nothing but ignorance and weakness ; so 
 true is it that " the natural man receiveth not the 
 things of the Spirit of God," so difficult is it for 
 him to rise above this earth ! The expression of 
 the disciples, " If he sleep, he shall do well," tes- 
 tifies the affectionate interest which they took in 
 Lazarus. Doubtless they gladly indulge in the 
 thought that he shall soon see the termination of 
 his sufferings, since, from the words of Jesus, 
 which indeed they misunderstood, they imagine 
 that he enjoys a restoring sleep. But also, in 
 what a hght do these words exhibit those men, 
 who so seldom were able to rise so as to compre- 
 hend their Master's thoughts, and who so fre- 
 quently interpreted, in a gross and carnal manner, 
 what He spoke with such dehcacy and love, that 
 
142 MEDITATION VL 
 
 He might not wound their hearts! It was, per- 
 haps, one of the greatest trials of the hfe of Jesus 
 — a trial which He experienced every day — that 
 He enjoyed no other society than that of men 
 whose gross and ignorant minds continually re- 
 verted to the earth (notwithstanding His efforts to 
 instruct them,) and who gave Him no compensa- 
 tion for His labours. But yet, He had chosen 
 them as " vessels of mercy," and He who con- 
 sented to stoop so low that He had not a place 
 where to lay His head, humbled Hirrrbelf also, so 
 that He had not a heart on which to repose His 
 heart. 
 
 What a lesson to us is this self-denial of Jesus, 
 this patience with men, who, though they had fol- 
 lowed Him, and heard His instructions, for more 
 than three years, yet found it difficult to seize His 
 simplest thoughts. What do we poor and miser- 
 able creatures feel, when those around us are in- 
 capable of understanding us ? What do we feel 
 when we imagine that we are not understood even 
 by our nearest relations, by members of our fam- 
 ilies, or by those whom we love ? Alas ! often 
 impatience, always grief, seldom sufficient love, to 
 endeavour, like Jesus, to make ourselves under- 
 stood in another manner, to bring ourselves down 
 to the comprehension of others, to make them feel 
 that we love them, and that their heart, at least, 
 can understand us, if their intellect does not. 
 What grievous he art- burnings, what bitter dissen- 
 sions, what animosity, perhaps, and hatred, would 
 be spared to the world, if we acted towards our 
 
THE FEAR OF DEATH. 143 
 
 relatives as Jesus did towards His disciples! 
 How different from what they are would they be, 
 who. by their calling or their influence, have the 
 charge of instructing others, did they conform to 
 the example of that Divine Teacher ! In what- 
 ever point of view we contemplate His character, 
 it is calculated to cover us with humiliation and 
 shame, " To us, O Lord, beiongeth confusion of 
 face." 
 
 But there is a still more important lesson to be 
 drawn from the words of the disciples. They had 
 lately opposed our Lord's intention of g"oing into 
 Judea, and that because they had already a vague 
 and painful presentiment of the sufferings and 
 death which there awaited Him, and to which, 
 perhaps, they themselves might be exposed, Je- 
 sus had previously given them intimation of these 
 things ; and this same thought, this same fear, 
 gleams through their last words: " If he sleep he 
 shall do well," and if he " do well," they seem to 
 say to Jesus, " Why go into Judea? Why go and 
 expose Thyself to the hatred of the Jews, who so 
 short a time ago sought to stone Thee ?" Thus 
 the serious lesson which Jesus gave them upon the 
 necessity of courageously employing the " twelve 
 hours of the day " without shrinking back from 
 sacrifices, pain, or even death, had no effect upon 
 their hearts, "slow" as they were '-to believe." 
 We find them again with the same fears and the 
 same weaknesses. They see before them sacrifi- 
 ces, pain, and perhaps death with aU its terrors. 
 This is sufficient to prostrate their courage, to 
 
144 MEDITATION VI. 
 
 weigh down their hearts, and to render them in- 
 capable of energy and devotedness. Ah ! how 
 clearly do we recognise the work of sin in that 
 death which inspires us with so much dread, be- 
 cause darkness, and pain, and destruction march 
 before it ! Yes, it is sin that has impressed upon 
 death that image of fearfulness and terror ; it is 
 sin that has engraven in such soriibre characters 
 upon his livid brow, " The wages of sin is death." 
 But how weak must faith have been in the 
 heart of the disciples, since they were the slaves 
 of such %. fear, though led on by the Prince of 
 Life, who has power over death and the grave ; 
 who is " the resurrection and the life !" What! 
 their thoughts could not rise above the earth, 
 above life and death, and yet He who guides, en- 
 courages, consoles them, is that Divine Saviour, 
 to whom " all power is given both in heaven and 
 in earth," and who hath deprived death of its 
 sting, the grave of its victory, eternity of its ter- 
 rors. Their terror-stricken soul is inaccessible to 
 His consolation, because their thoughts are no 
 longer concentrated in His instructions. From the 
 time that Jesus crossed the Jordan to return into 
 Judea, their heart is filled with fear, and perhaps 
 with deep regret, at seeing Him go forward in the 
 face of sufferings and death. Hitherto they had 
 hoped to see His mission upon earth terminate in 
 a triumphant manner in the eyes of men, and 
 they had calculated upon participating in His glo- 
 ry. They are ready again to cry like Peter, when 
 he heard his Master predict His sufferings and 
 
THE FEAR OF DEATH. 145 
 
 death, " Be it far from Thee, Lord : this shall not 
 be unto Thee !" Their dream of an earthly king- 
 dom, toj^e founded by Jesus, has vanished, and 
 with it tneir most brilliant hopes. Their fear of 
 suffering and death prevents them from entering 
 into the real meaning of the words of Jesus; they 
 are altogether engaged with other thoughts ; the 
 word of the Lord can only be understood in the 
 calm of meditation, of confidence, and of faith. 
 
 Alas ! here again we have no right to blame 
 the disciples ; They are but too faithful interpre- 
 ters of what passes within ourselves. Do we not 
 continually feel in our own hearts the weaknesses 
 and corruptions which Jesus had to combat in his 
 disciples ? How often has the anticipation of some 
 trial or suffering made our soul shudder so that 
 we have become deaf to the most powerful words 
 of the Lord, and inaccessible to his most ineffa- 
 ble consolations ? This is, perhaps, the most 
 dangerous quicksand which the Christian has to 
 fear in his temptations. Instead of bowing down 
 to the dust in adoration, under the hand of Him 
 that smites us, and inquiring, with the submission 
 of a dutiful child, " Lord, what wilt thou have me 
 to do ?" we weary and perplex ourselves beyond 
 measure ; our inflexible heart rebounds under the 
 strokes which are inflicted upon it ; and amid 
 those tumultuous emotions, how can we hear that 
 voice which addresses us as dear children, "My 
 son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, 
 nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him?" The 
 same causes, unbelief and distrust, which fill the 
 13 
 
146 MEDITATION VL 
 
 soul with trouble in trials, fill it with terror and 
 anguish at the approach of death. O my breth- 
 ren, were an angel of God to come (^wn this 
 moment into this assembly, and to announce to you, 
 on the part of the Most High, that this day should 
 be your last, that to-morrow your eyes should no 
 more open to behold the light, that your body 
 should be a lifeless corpse, that your soul should 
 have passed into eternity ; — I ask you, what would 
 you feel ? Would you not feel anguish and terror, 
 regret and fear, alternately agitating your breasts ? 
 Probably most of you, in the agony of your heart, 
 answer, Yes. what then mustj^you conclude? 
 Alas that your faith is still without power, your 
 love cold and lifeless ; that the Divine Saviour 
 whom you profess to love, and whom you come to 
 worship in His house, is not every thing to you ; 
 that the earth has attractions for you more power- 
 ful than His love ; That you have not yet " pas- 
 sed from death unto life," and that the Spirit of 
 adoption has not yet taught you to cry, " Abba, 
 Father." 
 
 Ah ! if you were disciples of Christ ; if you had 
 found in Jesus a Saviour for your soul ; if He had 
 revealed to your still fearful heart the awful mys- 
 tery of life and death ; if you felt that you were 
 redeemed by His blood from all your sins and 
 from the bondage of sin ; if you could see in that 
 eternity, the very name of which affrights you, an 
 eternity of happiness, because an eternity of love, 
 in the presence of Him who hath so loved you; 
 what would you have to fear ? Does the unhap- 
 
THE FEAR OF DEATH. 147 
 
 py exile, who has groaned for years in a land of 
 banishment, from whence he has often looked with 
 sighs towards his native shores, where the objects 
 of his tenderest affections dwell, fear to behold the 
 arrival of the moment when he shall be allowed 
 to pass over the distance which separates him from 
 all that is dear to him, and enter once more into 
 the house of a beloved parent, there to press to his 
 heart palpitating with joy, those whose absence 
 has made him shed so many tears? And would 
 you, " strangers and pilgrims" upon earth, fear to 
 cross the barrier which separates time from eter- 
 nity ? Would you fear to behold in a better country 
 that tender Heavenly Father, who so loved you, 
 — that merciful Saviour, so worthy of all your af- 
 fection, who redeemed you with the price ofHis 
 blood ; who was pleased to become your brother, 
 your friend, your sacrifice ? Would you fear to 
 enter into that place where all who had a heart 
 to love the same Divine Saviour shall meet to- 
 gether ; and where those who were partakers of 
 the like precious faith, and shared with you in 
 your combats, your hopes and fears, in this world, 
 shall taste with you the delights of the same love 
 throughout eternity? Would you fear to lay aside 
 the chains of corruption which you still painfully 
 drag after you, to be put in full possession of the 
 glorious liberty of the children of God, in that land 
 of everlasting rest, where there is no more pain, 
 nor sorrow, nor separation, nor death, because 
 there is no more sin ? No, no ! Christ, Christ is 
 my life, and death to me is gain. 
 
148 
 
 MEDITATION VI. 
 
 The disciples understood not Jesus: He must 
 therefore speak to them with still more patience, 
 still more plainness ; he must tell them why He 
 wishes to return into Judea, notwithstanding their 
 fears. " Therefore, said Jesus unto them plainly, 
 Lazarus is dead !" At these words the heart of 
 the disciples, already dejected, is overwhelmed 
 with sorrow. That word, death, which Jesus 
 pronounced unwillingly ; these gloomy ideas of 
 separation, the grave, and dissolution, present 
 themselves to their minds, and fill them with the 
 deepest affliction. Lazarus, whom they loved, 
 the friend of Jesus and their friend, is no more ! 
 They shall no more go to receive, under his hos- 
 pitable roof, the entertainment of his cordial 
 friendship! His house shall no longer be an 
 asylum for them and their Master ! They shall 
 no more retire with Jesus to Bethany, to avoid the 
 persecution of His enemies ! All these melan- 
 choly reflections rush at once upon the mind of 
 the disciples. And you, my friends, who, like the 
 disciples, have seen some beloved Lazarus, some 
 friend or relative, to whom your soul was closely 
 united, die and go down to the grave, — you know 
 with what grief such thoughts have filled your 
 hearts : you know what an immense void, what a 
 solitary desert, such a bereavement has left within 
 you : you know with what eagerness your soul 
 would have followed, into another world, the be- 
 loved being whom death had transported thither, 
 when you have felt that involuntary shudder 
 which has crept over you, at the thought of a 
 
THE FEAR OF DEATH. 149 
 
 separation without return upon earth. Well, then, 
 disciples of Jesus, you who weep over Lazarus, 
 hear your Master, hear the Prince of Life speak- 
 ing of death, and rejoice with Him, or, at least, 
 take courage : " I am glad," says Jesus, " for your 
 sakes, that I was not there, to the intent ye may 
 believe." What a way to give comfort, my breth- 
 ren! " I am glad!" and that in speaking of the 
 death of one whom He loved ! Will not those 
 who, in their trials, look for succour from the mis- 
 erable comforters of the world, regard such a 
 word of consolation as a bitter and cruel irony ? 
 But how often, when some poor mortal, ignorant 
 of God's dealings with him, is weeping and 
 mourning over the afflictive events of this life, 
 which he cannot understand, does Jesus, who 
 watches over His child, whom He desires to save, 
 say with love, " I am glad, for your sake :" while 
 the angels of God, with whom "there is joy" for 
 " one sinner " saved through the fire of trial, re- 
 peat, through the wide extent of heaven, the 
 words of Jesus, " I am glad." 
 
 " I am glad, for your sakes, that I was not 
 there, to the intent ye may believe." Jesus, in- 
 deed, might have been there ; He might imme- 
 diately have returned with His disciples to Be- 
 thany, surrounded with them the bed of suffer- 
 ing on which Lazarus lay, and restored him to 
 health, by pronouncing over him one word of His 
 power. But no ; this was not enough for the 
 faith of His disciples. Or again, having gone 
 there with them, He might have permitted Laza- 
 13* 
 
150 MEDITATION VI. 
 
 rus to become the prey of death before them; He 
 might have allowed them to witness that scene of 
 grief, and to have the sad consolation of accom- 
 panying their friend to the grave, from whence 
 He was going to recall him. But no : Jesus " was 
 glad that He was not there ;" He was glad that 
 He had spared those whom He loved these hours 
 of trial and sorrow, and that He had not brought 
 His disciples to the tomb of Lazarus, but to be 
 witnesses of the most striking manifestation of His 
 power and Godhead ; to see Lazarus burst, at His 
 command, the bands of the grave, to partake in 
 the triumph of their Master, in the joy and conso- 
 lation of Mary and Martha ; and, in a word, to 
 acquire a stronger faith than they ever had before, 
 in Him w^ho had come from the bosom of the 
 Father, God manifest in the flesh, whom '• angels 
 worship." 
 
 O happy disciples of so powerful and good a 
 Master, — you who have been the objects of so 
 much love, so much care, so much tenderness, lift 
 up your voice in all ages and in all climes! 
 Come and instruct us, stir up our souls, touch our 
 hearts, teach us also to love such a Saviour, to 
 believe in Him more than we have done hitherto, 
 and to live and die in His love ! 
 
 " Nevertheless, let us go unto him," adds 
 Jesus. He seems to fear lest, while with a sacred 
 joy He comforts His disciples, He should appear 
 insensible to the afflictions of the family of Be- 
 thany. And as He embraces all His people in 
 His loving heart, He urges on the tardy footsteps 
 
THE FEAR OF DEATH. 151 
 
 of His disciples, too slow for His zeal, saying unto 
 them, " Let us go to hirn." But how ! Lazarus 
 is dead ; he has been laid in the sepulchre ; why 
 should Jesus and His disciples go to him ? But 
 what does it matter ? Is there in heaven or in 
 earth, in life or in death, any thing that can 
 separate the believer from the love of Christ? 
 Shall the cold stone which covers the tomb of 
 Lazarus, and separates him from the world of the 
 living, be an obstacle to the burning love of Jesus? 
 No! " In all these things," saith St. Paul, " we 
 are more than conquerors, through Him that 
 loved us !" 
 
 Meanwhile, Thomas, one of the disciples, a 
 man of a gloomy and melancholy character, and 
 of a mind naturally incredulous, is unable to taste 
 of the consolation which Jesus offers him. It is 
 not without reason that the poet makes the guar- 
 dian angel of this disciple say of him, " His mind 
 unfolds thought upon thought, until they expand 
 before him, like a shoreless ocean, in which he 
 would have been overwhelmed had not the power- 
 ful miracles of the Messiah saved him. He has 
 ceased to wander amid the labyrinths of thought ; 
 he has come to Jesus, And yet," adds the angel, 
 "he would still be the object of my lively solici- 
 tude, had not God, with a meditative mind, given 
 him also an upright and a virtuous heart."* Laz- 
 arus (thought he) has gone down to the grave ; 
 our Master returns into Judea, where cruel suffer- 
 ings, reproach, and death, await Him ; after that, 
 
 • Klopst : Messiah : Can. iiu 
 
152 MEDITATION VI. 
 
 what is life to me 1 Why should I remain on 
 this earth ? What would I do without Lazarus ; 
 without my Master? This world would be a 
 desert to me, where I should meet with nothing 
 but the bitterness of separation and the fatigues 
 of warfare. " Let us also go," adds he, turning 
 to his fellow-disciples, " and die with him !" 
 
 Strange ! In the first part of this discourse I 
 have combated the fear of death, and now, at the 
 close of it I am called to combat the disgust of 
 life ! So true it is, that the most opposite evils 
 meet in that inconsistent creature — man. Alas! 
 there is something but too natural to man in these 
 words — this cry of the soul, wrung from it by des- 
 pondency. But it is the expression of a feeling 
 which God disapproves of, and against which we 
 ought to contend. What! poor mortal, because 
 God hath made thee pass through the furnace of 
 affliction, because He hath broken thy rebellious 
 will, because He hath presented to thy lips a 
 bitter cup, is life at thy disposal ? Thou wilt die 1 
 Because some being, too dear to thee, and of 
 whom, perhaps, thou hast made an idol, has been 
 taken away from thee, life is become a barren 
 desert to thee ! thou wilt die ! Because thou 
 hast been subjected to afflictions and privations, 
 because this hope which from day to day has sup- 
 ported thy faith and soothed thy grief, seems to 
 have vanished, despondency has filled thy soul ! 
 thou wilt die ! Because God appears no longer 
 to answer thy prayers and supplications, thou 
 
DISTASTE FOR LIFE. 153 
 
 thinkest that thou hast nothing now left thee but 
 despair ! thou wilt die ! 
 
 Ah, deceive not yourself! the feeling which in- 
 fluences you has nothing in common with that 
 holy impatience of St. Paul, to behold, face to face, 
 that Saviour for whom he had suffered the loss of 
 all things, which he felt when he cried, "I have 
 a desire to depart, and be with Christ." No: 
 what you feel, amid the evils to which the provi- 
 dence of God exposes you, is a guilty rebellion 
 against His supreme will. Your murmurs, your 
 despondency, proceed from a cowardly unfaithful- 
 ness towards Him who has promised that He will 
 not suffer you to be tried beyond what you are 
 able to bear. If you loved the Lord, if His will 
 was dear to you, if your heart submitted to Him 
 with adoration and love, no feeling of this nature 
 could find place in your breast, for you would 
 know by experience that *' aU things work to- 
 gether for good to them that love God." And if 
 you love Him not, if your soul has not found in 
 Him, as a Saviour, pardon, reconciHation with 
 God, and peace, what do you expect in another 
 life, whither you wish to go ? What do you ex- 
 pect in eternity? Why will you hasten, before 
 the time, to the awful scenes of the last day? 
 Why do you wish to appear at the bar of the eter- 
 nal Judge ? Why do you wish to die ? Are you 
 ready to appear before the holy God? Are you 
 prepared to give an awful account of all the ac- 
 tions, words, and thoughts of a life defiled by sin ? 
 
154 MEDITATION VL 
 
 Go to Christ as a Saviour, and live until He calls 
 you Himself, to appear before Him as your Judge. 
 And even if you have nothing to fear in eter- 
 nity, if you know by the testimony of the word of 
 God, and by that of the Holy Spirit in your heart, 
 that Jesus has saved you, that He died for your 
 sinsj that His blood has washed away your defile- 
 ment, that He has reconciled you to God, why 
 would you, by presumptuous wishes, hasten the 
 termination of your period of trial ? Why would 
 you lay aside, before your time, the burden of suf- 
 ferings which has been laid upon you? Why 
 would you anticipate the will of God? Why 
 would you wish to die ? Is there nothing more 
 for you to do in this world ? Are there about you 
 no more poor to relieve, no more miserable to com- 
 fort, no more ignorant to instruct ? No ; do you 
 say, my situation is such that I am useful to no 
 one, and this afflicts me even more than my own 
 sufferings. I can only groan under the weight of 
 my sin and my unprofitableness. Ah! my be- 
 loved brother, have you, then, forgotten that you 
 are in the school of the Spirit of God, who aims 
 at enlarging and purifying the faculties of your 
 soul, in order to render it capable, continually more 
 capable, of enjoying the delights of infinite love, 
 which shall constitute in another world the ele- 
 ment of our being ? Yes, in edifying those around 
 you, by your resignation, your patience in suffer- 
 ing, your submission to the will of the kindest of 
 fathers, you will enter into the views of God who 
 seeks to accomplish in you that prayer which St. 
 
DISTASTE FOR LITE. 155 
 
 Paul offered up for his Thessalonlan brethren — 
 " The veiy God of peace sanctify you wholly ; and 
 I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body 
 be preserved blameless unto the coming of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth 
 you, who also will do it." (1 Thess. v. 23.) 
 
 That day of Christ, that day appointed by the 
 wisdom and love of our God, shall soon come to 
 each of us, and then, whatever be our character, 
 whatever degree of sanctification and of love we 
 have attained, oh ! how shall we be ashamed of 
 our lukewarmness, our want of courage in suffer- 
 ing and in self-denial, our want of zeal in the ser- 
 vice of so good a Master, our want of love for so 
 gracious a Saviour. 
 
 O, our God, give us more faith, more confi- 
 dence, more love ! Give us grace to employ more 
 faithfully these short moments of trial ! May our 
 souls live to praise Thee ! to praise Thee in time ! 
 to praise Thee in eternity ! 
 
MEDITATION VII. 
 
 THE FOUR DAYS OF TRIAL.— THE FIRST 
 CONSOLATIONS. 
 
 John xi. 17—23. 
 
 " Then when Jesus came, lie found that he had lain in the grave 
 four days already. Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about 
 fifteen furlongs off: and many of the Jews came to Martha and 
 Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as 
 soon as she heard that Jesus was comincr, went and met Him : but 
 Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if 
 Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that 
 even now, whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it 
 Thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again." 
 
 In our preceding meditation, we left Jesus on 
 His way to Bethany with His disciples, to whom 
 He gives serious and sakitary instruction in refe- 
 rence to what He is going to do. The period of 
 trial is about to terminate to Martha and Mary, 
 who for a long time have been walking in a dark 
 path, amid affliction and grief, looking for consola- 
 tion in vain, and unable to comprehend the con- 
 duct of their Divine Friend. He comes to them 
 at length; He comes to speak to them of faith, 
 of consolation, of eternal life. Thus the Evan- 
 gelist brings us back again to the family of Be- 
 
THE FOUR DAYS OF TF..IAL. 157 
 
 thany, and he informs us of what had passed 
 there since his Master had received the message 
 from the sisters of Lazarus, " Lord, behold, he 
 whom Thou lovest is sick." Let us, then, hear 
 our historian ; let us follow Jesus to Bethany ; and 
 in considering the affliction of the sisters of Laza- 
 rus, the consolation which the Jews offer them, 
 and the comfort which Jesus gives them, may we 
 learn to seek peace and happiness where alone 
 they can be found. 
 
 When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus 
 had aUeady lain four days in the grave. We must 
 here suppose that Lazarus died the same day that 
 his sisters sent to Jesus: and as Jesus " abode two 
 days still" in the Perea, which was a day's jour- 
 ney from Bethany, He only arrived the fourth day 
 after the death of Lazarus, who, according to the 
 usage of the Jews in his time, had been commit- 
 ted to the tomb immediately after his death. 
 
 He fell asleep in the faith of his fathers. He 
 closed his eyes upon the .scenes of this life of sin, 
 in the firm expectation of opening them one day 
 to behold the glorious scenes of eternity. Like 
 Simeon, he could say, in leaving all that was dear 
 to him on earth, " Lord, now lettest thou thy ser- 
 vant depart in peace : for mine eyes have seen 
 I'hy salvation." He had entered the haven where 
 he had cast the anchor of his hope : but, alas ! his 
 sisters whom he loved remain after him, and 
 still have to buffet the waves and the storm. St. 
 John does not say any thing of their conflicts or 
 their grief, but our hearts sympathizing with them 
 14 
 
158 MEDITATION VII. 
 
 can tell us what tliey felt during those four days 
 of grief and suffering. Their brother, their friend, 
 the companion and support of their earthly exis- 
 tence, has ceased to live. All their affection for 
 him has not been able to snatch him from the cold 
 embrace of death. They have received his last 
 look, his last farewell, his last sigh. There re- 
 mains to them, of that beloved brother, nothing 
 but a remembrance, a regret, his vacant place in 
 their dwelling. Already his mortal remains have 
 been committed to the grave ; already he has be- 
 come the prey of corruption. Oh ! bitter fruits 
 of sin, which hath committed such ravages in the 
 garden of the Lord ! An immense void is felt in 
 the abode of Bethany, and in the heart of the two 
 afflicted sisters. The silence of death, interrupted 
 only by their sobs, prevails where lately the sweet 
 effusions of a pure affection were heard. All is 
 changed ; domestic happiness has forsaken them, 
 and left them nothing but tears. " A voice said, 
 Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh 
 is as grass, and the goodliness thereof as the flower 
 of the field. The grass witheretb, the flower 
 fadeth ; because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth 
 upon it!" 
 
 Brothers and sisters, parents and friends ! you 
 who have around you those that are dear to you ; 
 love them, but beware that you repose not upon 
 their frail head your hopes of happiness ! Love 
 them for heaven, not for earth! Love them 
 for God, not for yourselves! Hear the lesson 
 of this disciple of love, who has preserved to us 
 
THE FOUR DAYS OF TRIAL. 159 
 
 the history upon which we are meditating, and 
 who, after many years' experience of hfe, after 
 having grown old in the exercise of that love 
 which he recommends to ns in every page of his 
 writings, inscribes, with a hand enfeebled by years, 
 those solemn words, " Little children, keep your- 
 selves from idols !" 
 
 Meanwhile, these four long days have passed 
 away, and Jesus arrives not at Bethany. Jesus, 
 who alone could bring succour to the weeping sis- 
 ters ; Jesus, whose assistance they had besought; 
 Jesus, who never remained deaf to the complaints 
 of any suffering creature : Jesus comes not ! What 
 will become of the faith and confidence of the two 
 sisters? What can they expect now? A single 
 word of the Saviour might have put an end to 
 their affliction ; they are aware of this ; they know 
 His omnipotence. And yet He has given them 
 only an obscure answer which they are no longer 
 able to comprehend : " This sickness is not unto 
 death, but for the glory of God !" And their bro- 
 ther has now been four days in the grave, and his 
 body has already fallen to corruption. 
 
 O my beloved brethren, you who from a mind 
 naturally incredulous, and a heart easily discou- 
 raged, feel nothing but distrust, weakness, and 
 despondency, in such moments of trial, learn from 
 Martha and Mary to know the ways of the Lord, 
 which are often obscure. From Abraham, and 
 from all the children of God v/ho have obtained 
 the crown of victory only after scenes of conflict, 
 learn " to hope against hope !" Though your 
 
160 MEDITATION VII. 
 
 heart be destitute of confidence, and your soul like 
 a dry and barren wilderness ; though your faith 
 be not triumphant, and your hopes be no longer 
 able to reahze a better country ; though the word 
 of God no longer speak to your heart, and prayer 
 be no longer a source of living water to you, while 
 at the same time you know that there is no other 
 remedy for your evils; though all your remaining 
 strength be scarcely sufficient to make you to 
 feel your corruptions and mourn over them ; yea, 
 though your eye see nothing around you but a 
 dark abyss — oh ! tremble not at the sight of that 
 abyss ; — there, even there, shall there arise in your 
 heart a faith which shall not be moved ; there the 
 bonds of your communion with God shall become 
 so strong that nothing shall be able to break them. 
 Jesus is there ; He comes. It is His powerful 
 hand that has placed you in that abyss ; and when 
 you shall have learned there to renounce all trust 
 in yourselves, in your own strength, and in your 
 own merits, and to expect all from Him, all from 
 His faithfulness, all from His love, that same 
 powerful hand will draw you out and place you 
 upon the lofty heights of faith, from whence you 
 shall praise Him for your sufferings which have 
 taught you so many profitable lessons. The sis- 
 ters of Lazarus shall learn the language of praise 
 and thanksgiving, after they have been taught to 
 humble themselves under the hand of the Lord. 
 
 Meanwhile, Martha and Mary, during these 
 four days of severe trial, wanted not what the 
 world calls consolation. " Now Bethany was 
 
THE FOUR DAYS OF TRIAL. 161 
 
 nigli unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off" 
 that is, about two miles. " And many of the J ews 
 came to Martha and Mary to comfort them con- 
 cerning their brother." It was the custom among 
 the Jews, as soon as death had brought mourning 
 into any family, for the friends of the afflicted par- 
 ties to come in great numbers and weep with 
 those whom death had just deprived of a relative. 
 Tliis, indeed, would have been a beautiful custom 
 had it been practised in the spirit of Him who 
 "comforts them that mourn;" but, alas! with 
 man all things, even mourning and tears, degen- 
 erate into lifeless, I had almost said hypocritical 
 forms. The Jews, on such occasions, being as- 
 sembled at the house of the deceased, instead of 
 seeking, in meditation and prayer, that Spirit 
 which is called the Comforf.er, made the air re- 
 sound with mournful cries and deafening lam.en- 
 tations. And if the person whom they mourned 
 had been an object of peculiar affection to his 
 family, if his death was a painful bereavement to 
 them, their lamentations assumed a character of 
 frantic violence. They tore their hair, rent their 
 garments, covered themselves with sackcloth and 
 ashes, uttering at the same time, piercing cries, 
 which were redoubled in proportion as they saw 
 the relatives of the dead giving way to their grief. 
 In some cases, also, to increase the sadness of 
 these gloomy solemnities, women, whose trade it 
 was to weep and make lamentations over the 
 dead, were paid to offer this strange kind of conso- 
 lation to the relatives or connexions of the de- 
 14* 
 
162 MEDITATION VU. 
 
 parted ! And, moreover, these melancholy cere- 
 mionies were sometimes accompanied with the 
 sound of musical instruments, as we find it des- 
 cribed in St. Matthew's Gospel, where he relates the 
 restoration of Jairus's daughter to life. " When 
 Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the 
 minstrels and the people making a noise. He said 
 unto them, Give place." 
 
 This, indeed, is not the manner in which the 
 people of the world, in our day, comfort their af- 
 flicted friends. But, alas ! how many " miserable 
 comforters" are there to whom the Lord would 
 still say, with indignation or compassion, " Give 
 place." What do we hear in a house of mourn- 
 ing where the Lord is not known and invoked 1 
 The friends of the afflicted come to pay what is 
 called a visit of condolence. They enter into a 
 long detail of the virtues of him who is no more ; 
 they repeat to his blinded relatives that he is 
 happy, whatever may have been his principles, his 
 faith, his hopes ; that he deserved to go to hea- 
 ven ; or if it be admitted that he had some failings^ 
 they trust in a vague idea of the goodness of God, 
 behind which His holiness and justice disappear. 
 And further, as he brought no stain upon his fami- 
 ly, they have reason to be proud of his memory. 
 In fine, it is added, " We must submit to what we 
 cannot alter ; it is the law of nature ; we are aU 
 mortal ; there is a better world ; a future life." 
 Some other common-place remarks of the same 
 nature we may perhaps hear, accompanied with 
 
THE FOUR DAYS OF TRIAL. 163 
 
 a few tears ; and such, poor world, are thy com- 
 forters and thy consolations ! 
 
 Ah! " give place," " miserable comforters!" or 
 if your soul be really touched with my grief, speak 
 to me truly of the designs of God, in afflicting 
 me ; tell me to humble myself under the hand of 
 Him that smites me, to make me wise unto sal- 
 vation ; speak to me of my Saviour ; of Him who 
 died to destroy the empire of death and the cause 
 of death — -sin; speak to me of the sacrifice which 
 He offered up to obtain pardon and grace for me ; 
 speak to me of the invitations of His love, and of 
 the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness ; speak to me of faith, of hope, and 
 of love ; give me one single promise of Him who 
 has vanquished death and the grave ; and if I am 
 so happy as to be able to apply that promise to 
 myself, or to him whose departure I mourn, I 
 shall be comforted ; and if I still shed tears over 
 his tomb, it shall not be " as those who have no 
 hope." But if you cannot speak to me of these 
 things, there still remains one powerful means by 
 which you can give vent to the compassion with 
 which your soul is touched on my behalf; pray for 
 your friend ! Ask of God to sanctify to my im- 
 mortal soul the trial which He sends me ; ask of 
 Him that my head may bow in adoration, and 
 that my heart may bend in love, under those strokes 
 of His severity which are but the strokes of His 
 grace. Ask of God to apply to my heart, by the 
 power of His Spirit, the unspeakable consolation 
 of His word ; and if you remain thus in silent 
 
164 MEDITATION VH. 
 
 meditation with me, I shall feel that even your 
 «ilence speaks to my heart and comforts me. 
 The Christian alone, whatever be his degree of 
 knowledge and of moral culture in other respects, 
 finds in his principles and in his feelings this ten- 
 der delicacy which reaches the heart, this divine 
 art of consoling by a word, a look, even by silence. 
 Meanwhile, Jesus approaches Bethany; let us 
 follow Him, and see the powerful influence even 
 of His presence upon the afflicted sisters. " Then 
 jVlartha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was com- 
 ing, went and met Him ; but Mary sat still in the 
 house.'' Here again we see the two sisters acting 
 in conformity with their respective dispositions. 
 Both ardently desire the consolations of their 
 Heavenly Friend ; but while the active Martha 
 yields without delay to the first and lively impulse 
 of her heart, and flies to meet Jesus; Mary, 
 though feeling even more deeply the need of His 
 presence, appears to have been too much oppress- 
 ed by the grief of her affectionate soul. She 
 seems as if she wished rather to wait till Jesus 
 Himself should come, and remove, with His com- 
 passionate hand, the burden of grief, the heavy 
 cross which weighed down her heart. It requires 
 not a very extensive observation of mankind to 
 discover those shades of feeling and of conduct in 
 the religious character, even of those who partake 
 of the same faith, the same love, and the same 
 hopes. And every particular in these details, so 
 true, so minutely characteristic; so evidently given 
 by an eye-witness under the guidance of that 
 
THE FIRST CONSOLATIONS. 165 
 
 Spirit which searches the heart, would furnish, if 
 it were necessary, a very powerful proof of the 
 truth of the great historical fact upon which we 
 are meditating. 
 
 But while Mary awaits, in the silence of pro- 
 found grief, the consolations of her Saviour, let us 
 follow her sister, who already flies to meet Him, 
 as the hart, panting for the water-brook, rushes 
 toward the running stream. She is at His feet, 
 she prostrates herself before Him who alone can 
 pour into the wounds of her heart aheahng balm. 
 She waited for Him for four days ; but now she 
 sees Him; "Jesus is come!" No sooner have 
 these words reached her ears, no sooner is Jesus 
 present to her view, than her faith, almost extinct 
 before, is rekindled ; a sweet ray of hope pierces 
 the gloomy cloud which enveloped her heart. All 
 the Jews who had come from Jerusalem to com- 
 fort her after their own fashion, are nothing to her 
 any longer; she leaves them all, to go and throw 
 herself at the feet of Jesus, and there, yielding to 
 the first feeling of her heart, which is to lay down 
 before the feet of her Heavenly Comforter the 
 burden of her affliction, sure that He will sympa- 
 thize with her as the best of friends, she exclaims, 
 " Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had 
 not died." 
 
 There is doubtless much grief expressed in 
 these words ; there is even something of despon- 
 dency ; she can look only to the past, to the 
 tomb of a beloved brother; she seems to think 
 that Jesus has come too late to succour her ; that 
 
166 MEDITATION VU. 
 
 now there is'notliing left to her but tears. Yet 
 there remains in her a remnant of faith, which 
 seems to revive, to gather strength, and grow ia 
 the presence of Jesus. She still believes that, 
 had He been there, He could have recovered her 
 brother, put an end to his disease, and with one 
 word wrested from death its prey, and from the 
 grave its victory. And as the flower, beaten 
 down and bruised by the storm, insensibly rises 
 under the genial beams of the sun, this germ of 
 faith, which remains in the heart of Martha, de- 
 velops itself, and grows beneath the compassionate 
 and majestic glance of the Saviour. She has 
 before her that " High Priest who can be touched 
 with a feeling of our infirmities." Her faith 
 rises higher every moment, and with every look 
 of the Redeemer ; her soul opens again to hope ; 
 her heart is no longer shut up by grief; the dark- 
 ness of her mind disperses ; her soul, already 
 penetrated with an unspeakable consolation, rises 
 above the evils which lately overwhelmed her ; 
 she feels that Jesus, Avho has come to her aid, 
 will find, in His infinite love and boundless power 
 all the blessing which she implores. " But I 
 know," says she, with confidence " that even now, 
 whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give 
 it Thee." 
 
 O, triumph of faith ! O, the happiness of my 
 Saviour's presence ! consolation and peace are in- 
 deed near unto that afflicted soul which thus opens 
 to confidence ! From faith to peace and happi- 
 ness there is but one step, or rather, the peace of 
 
THE FIRST CONSOLATIONS. 167 
 
 God which "passeth all understanding," and 
 which is better than hfe, is the first and sweetest 
 fruit of iaith. 
 
 O, disciples of Jesus, you who know that the 
 Saviour is always near you, you who have never 
 had occasion to exclaim with grief, " Lord, if Thou 
 hadst been here," because you know that He is 
 always present, always ready to hear you, always 
 ready to bless you, M'hy is it that your faith so 
 often remains below that of Martha ? Why is it 
 that you cannot, like her, throw yourselves with 
 confidence upon the power and love of Jesus? 
 Why is it that you are so often cast down in your 
 trials? Why is it that your soul, overwhelmed 
 by your infirmities, languishes in the depths of de- 
 spondency and affliction ? Why is it that it can- 
 not soar into the regions of faith, hope, peace, and 
 joy ? Ah ! comes it not from this, that you be- 
 lieve not, that you have not a simple, childlike 
 faith? Distrust and doubt shut up your heart, 
 close your soul against the unspeakable consola- 
 tions of your God; and render you deaf to the 
 voice of His grace, the voice of His promises, and 
 the voice of His love. Instead of abandoning, like 
 Martha, your miserable comforters, to go to Jesus, 
 whose presence has ever been, and eternally shall 
 be, the "fulness of joy," you ask of men con.sola- 
 tions which they cannot give you. Instead of 
 drawing refreshment for your soul, which thirsteth 
 after peace, from the fountain of living waters, 
 you " hew out unto yourselves," in the wilderness, 
 " cisterns, broken cisterns," which you well know 
 
168 MEDITATION VII, 
 
 " hold no water," or else you look only to your- 
 selves, to your sufferings, and to your infirmities. 
 Instead of taking God at His word, presenting 
 His promises to Him as undeniable titles, and tell- 
 ing Him, with a full assurance of faith, as Martha 
 did to Jesus, " Even now," (yes, even now^ when 
 all seems lost to me, when all the objects of my 
 dearest hopes seem to have disappeared for ever,) 
 " even now, I know that whatsoever Thou wilt 
 ask of God, God will give it Thee." Instead of 
 acting thus, is it not true that you open your Bible 
 with distrust, and Avith a secret repugnance, as if 
 it were not the word of God ; as if the invitations 
 of that word were not addressed to you, yea, to 
 you, who read it with so much indifference ? And 
 if, afterwards, you fall down on your knees to pray, 
 under a sense of your infirmities, your grief, your 
 sins, and defilement, is it not true that you address 
 Jesus as if He were no longer " able to save unto 
 the uttermost all that come unto God by Him?" 
 as if He had not given you " an inheritance incor- 
 ruptible, undefiled, and unfading, reserved for you 
 in heaven?" as if " His arm were shortened, that 
 He could not save," or His love were not great 
 enough to do so ? O fools ! why are we " so slow 
 of heart to believe" all that the word of our God 
 declares ? Do we not know, do we not all know, 
 as well as Martha, better than Martha, that what- 
 soever our powerful Intercessor shall ask of God, 
 God will give it Him ? And can we not answer 
 that invitation of His love, '• Let him that is athirst 
 come ; whosoever will, let him come, and take of 
 
THE FIRST CONSOLATIONS. 169 
 
 the water of life freely !" O, it is faith that is 
 wanting upon earth. " Lord, I believe : help 
 Thou mine unbelief!" 
 
 Thus did the presence of Jesus raise up the sis- 
 ter of Lazarus out of the depths of grief and de- 
 spondency, and restore to her heart faith, confi- 
 dence, and peace. Thus Jesus hastens to answer 
 that faith, and that in such a way as to exercise 
 and to increase it at the same time that He at- 
 taches to it the most precious promise, exceeding 
 all that Martha could expect or hope for ; so true 
 is it that '• He is able to do for us exceeding abun- 
 dantly above all that we can ask or think." Mar- 
 tha does not wait for the answer of Jesus. She 
 has been deprived of a tenderly beloved brother ; 
 her suffering soul seems to demand nothing more 
 of the Lord than the strength and submission ne- 
 cessary to support so great a trial ; or rather, she 
 makes no demand of Him at all ; she casts her- 
 self, without reserve or condition, upon His com- 
 passion and love : " I know that whatsoever Thou 
 askest of God, God will give it Thee." And Je- 
 sus promises her a happiness to which she dared 
 not to aspire in this world, " Thy brother shall 
 rise again!" Ah! it is not, then, by words that 
 Jesus comforts the afflicted soul, and that He an- 
 swers faith ; no, it is by a promise which should 
 make faith rise above all its weakness ; for a pro- 
 mise of '• Him who cannot lie," is always equiva- 
 lent to a gift. " Thy brother shall rise again!" 
 When? how? by whom? are questions which the 
 faith of Martha had to answer. And it is thus 
 15 
 
170 MEDITATION VII, 
 
 that Jesus, in answering our faith, finds, as we 
 have already remarked, a means to exercise, ele- 
 vate, and strengthen it. What are times and sea- 
 sons to Jesus'? 
 
 Cannot He, at whose voice the dead shall one 
 day break the bands of the grave, if He see fit, 
 bring Lazarus out of the tomb, and restore him to 
 his sisters? " Thy brother shall rise again!" Let 
 this be enough for thy faith ; trust in My power : 
 thou shalt no longer weep for being separated 
 from one so necessary to thy affection and thy 
 happiness. And, indeed, it was not merely for 
 the short moment of an earthly existence that 
 their souls were united. No; the bonds which 
 unite the friends of Jesus shall not be broken, 
 even by death itself That bond is eternal ; that 
 bond which had been their consolation, during 
 their earthly pilgrimage, shall still powerfully con- 
 tribute to their happiness in that heavenly country 
 where there is no more death, nor separation, nor 
 mourning, nor tears. But yet it is not to that day, 
 which shall fill up the measure of the purest feli- 
 city of which immortal creatures are capable, that 
 Jesus refers, in answer to the faith of Martha. 
 We shall soon see Him come forward as the 
 Prince of Life, to the tomb of Lazarus, and put 
 forth His almighty power, to fulfil more quickly 
 the promise which He had just made to Martha. 
 And though the faith of the sister of Lazarus does 
 not yet rise to the height of that promise, Jesus 
 says not to her, as He said on another occasion, 
 " According to thy faith be it unto thee !" but He 
 
THE FIRST CONSOLATIONS. 171 
 
 does for her Infinitely " more than she can ask or 
 think." 
 
 Oh! let, then, these promises of the Lord, 
 which are all yea and amen in Him, be our eter- 
 nal refuge from the shipwreck to which we are 
 continually exposed, from the ever-varying winds 
 of our unbelief, our weakness, our passions, and 
 our corruptions ! His promises, my beloved breth- 
 ren, my fellow-voyagers on the stormy sea of our 
 terrestrial life, His promises alone will discover to 
 our view that Rock of Ages, from whose summit 
 we shall be able to contemplate, without fear, the 
 billows and the temj)est. His promises alone will 
 be to us what the star which directs him to the 
 port is to the mariner wandering over the surface 
 of the deep. His promises alone will bring with- 
 in the reach of our observation, " that new earth, 
 wherein dwelleth righteousness." Having, then, 
 taken in our hands and in our hearts. His promi- 
 ses, let us go to Him, and let us present them be- 
 fore Him as our only plea ; let us, " in full assur- 
 ance of faith," ask of Him light, strength, and life 
 for our souls. Then, like the sisters of Lazarus, 
 we shall find the sweetest consolation, even at the 
 grave of those whom we have most fondly loved 
 upon earth. Then these mournful scenes of sepa- 
 ration and of grief shall lose their bitterness, and 
 disappear, so that we shall be able to discern 
 scenes of eternal bliss, which we already possess, 
 by a " hope that maketh not ashamed," because it 
 is based upon the promise of God. 
 
 Are there among those whom I address on the 
 
172 MEDITATION VII, 
 
 part of God, any who have suffered in their own 
 person, from sickness or pain, or have seen those 
 who were dear to them enduring hke afflictions ? 
 let them not hesitate ; let them approach with 
 confidence the throne of grace, and say, like the 
 sisters of Lazarus, " Lord, he whom Thou lovest 
 is sick !" But this is Thy promise ; " Thou woun- 
 dest and Thy hands make whole ; Thou killest 
 and Thou makest alive !" " I know that what- 
 soever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it 
 Thee." Are there among you any who are ex- 
 posed to privations, to poverty, to indigence, and 
 who have the pain of seeing your children, beings 
 whom you love, consumed by want which you are 
 unable to satisfy ? hasten to bring to Jesus the ti- 
 tles to His compassion which He has given you — 
 " He who feeds the fowls of the air, and clothes 
 the lilies of the field, will He not much more 
 clothe you, O ye of little faith ?" " I will never 
 leave thee nor forsake thee." And " even now I 
 know that whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God 
 will give it Thee." Is there among those whom 
 I address any one whose soul is troubled by a 
 sense of sin, or by painful doubts as to his salva- 
 tion ? let him hasten to present to the love of a 
 redeeming God, his request and his claim, " Thou 
 hast borne my sins in Thine own body on the 
 tree." " Thou hast come to seek and to save that 
 which was lost." I have heard Thy voice : " Come 
 unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, 
 and I will give you rest." " Him that cometh to 
 Me, I will in no wise cast out." " Though your 
 
THE FIRST CONSOLATIONS. 173 
 
 sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; 
 though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
 wool." " Hoj every one that thirsteth, come ye to 
 the waters." " Like as a father pitieth his chil- 
 dren, even so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
 Him," " When my father and my mother for- 
 sake me, the Lord will take me up." " And even 
 now I know that whatsoever Tiiou wilt ask of 
 God, God will give it Thee." 
 
 And if we be called to the sweet but difficult 
 task of offering consolation to our brethren, let us 
 beware of presenting to them the words of man, 
 and earthly considerations ; let us approach them 
 with a purely christian affection ; let us make 
 them feel that we suffer with them, that v/e share 
 their griefs, that we are disposed to listen to their 
 complaints, that we understand them ; and when 
 a deep and sweet sympathy shall have opened 
 their heart to us, oh ! let the word of God be the 
 healing balm which we pour into their wounds. 
 They will believe and feel that word which so 
 powerfully speaks to their hearts, and we shall 
 soon see their soul, like that of Martha, coming 
 out of the abyss into which it had been plunged, 
 and rising triumphantly above doubts, above sin, 
 above suffering, and all the miseries of life. And 
 we shall see renewed in them the experience of 
 the Psalmist, who approaches God with this cry 
 of anguish ; " Out of the depths have I cried unto 
 Thee, O Lord ;" and terminates it with this song 
 of triumph, " Let Israel hope in the Lord : for 
 with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is 
 15* 
 
174 MEDITATION VU. 
 
 plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem 
 Israel from all his iniquities." (Ps. cxxx. 1, 7, 8.) 
 
 O happy the man whose hope and consolation 
 is in Jesus ! Happy the man, who, in the midst 
 of all the miseries with which our life abounds, 
 can look by faith to his Saviour, and repeat, with 
 full and unreserved confidence, the triumphant 
 song of one of God's servants who preceded him 
 in his warfare : " The Lord is my light and my 
 salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the 
 strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? 
 Though an host should encamp against me, my 
 heart shall not fear ; though war should rise up 
 against me, in this will I be confident !" (Ps. 
 xxvii. 1, 3.) 
 
 My beloved brethren ! if in the time of trial you 
 find in the bottom of your heart neither this faith, 
 nor this confidence, nor this peace, remember that 
 they are the gift of God. " Ask, and ye shall 
 receive ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it 
 shall be opened unto you." 
 
MEDITATION VIII. 
 
 JESUS CHRIST IS THE RESURRECTION AND 
 THE LIFE. 
 
 JOHN XI. 24—28. 
 
 " Martha saith unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the res- 
 urrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrec- 
 tion and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, 
 yet sliall he live : and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall 
 never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto Him, Yea, Lord: 
 I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should 
 come into the world." 
 
 It is still the touching and instructive conver- 
 sation of Jesus and Martha, that is to engage our 
 attention. We have seen the faith of this sister 
 of Lazarus rise by degrees, until she is able to say, 
 with full and unreserved confidence, " I know that 
 whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give 
 it Thee." Nevertheless her confidence in the 
 goodness and power of Jesus does not, at this 
 moment, at least, rise so high as to enable her to 
 believe that He can, or that He will, work in her 
 favour the most stupendous of miracles, and re- 
 store her brother to life. When Jesus addresses 
 to Martha this promise, so calculated to inspire 
 
176 MEDITATION VUI. 
 
 her with the highest expectations, " Thy hrother 
 shall rise again," we find her answering Him ac- 
 cording to an article of faith in the Jewish reU- 
 gion, " I know that he shall rise again in the 
 resurrection at the last day." So true it is that a 
 strong confidence in the goodness of the Saviour, 
 and even a strong faith, may leave us below what 
 the Saviour is willing to do for us. When Jesus 
 spoke to her of the resurrection of her brother, 
 Martha thought only of the day, when " the sea 
 shall give up the dead that are in it, and death 
 and hell shall deliver up the dead which are in 
 them!" She believed in the resurrection of the 
 last day, before Jesus came to comfort her ; but 
 how little power has such a faith to raise her soul 
 above grief, despondency, and doubt ! An ortho- 
 dox belief will avail the soul nothing in the day 
 of trial, unless it be endued with a principle of 
 vitality by the presence of Jesus, and by His life- 
 giving Spirit. Alas ! how many there are who 
 can write upon the tomb of one whom they have 
 loved, that " He waiteth for the resurrection at 
 the last day," who, notwithstanding, " mourn as 
 those that have no hope !" 
 
 Jesus Himself, with His love and with His pro- 
 mise, must be the life and soul of our Religious 
 opinions, if we would have them really exert an 
 influence upon our heart. Jesus must say to our 
 soul, which, alas ! is continually seeking out of 
 Him that which is to be found in Him alone, 
 " I am the resurrection and the life." Not only 
 is it He who at the last day shall with His irresis- 
 
CHRIST THE RESURRECTION, &C. 177 
 
 tible voice call forth the dead from their graves; 
 but He is the Prince of Life ; He possesses life in 
 Himself, and He commimicates life to whom He 
 will. If, then, we have Jesus, we have life ; let 
 us not look for it as something future, nor hope to 
 obtain it from any other source. He not only 
 shows us the way ; teaches us the truth ; and pro- 
 mises life ; but, He says, " / am the way, the 
 truth, and the life." He not only enlightens them 
 that are in darkness, but He is the light of the 
 world. He not only justifies sinners that come to 
 Him, but He is the " Lord our righteousness." 
 So that if we be united to Him by faith, the 
 blessings of the Gospel are not merely promises 
 to us ; we possess them : " I am the resurrection 
 and the life : he that believeth in Me, though he 
 were dead, yet shall he live : and whosoever 
 liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." Let 
 us meditate for a moment on these words ; let us 
 approach, lik? Martha, into the presence of Jesus j 
 and may He shed abroad in our souls that Hfe 
 which is essentially in Him ! 
 
 " I am the resurrection and the life." What a 
 declaration! Who could pronounce it? Surely 
 not a mere mortal man, one who, so to speak, 
 treads continually on the verge of the grave : not 
 that miserable worm, whom a few days see come 
 into existence and die ; that being who, at his 
 birth, carries with him into the world the germ of 
 disease, which eventually brings him down into 
 the dust ; that being who resembles the perishing 
 grass, which in the morning flourishes, and in the 
 
178 MEDITATION VIII. 
 
 evening is cut down and cast into the oven. No ; 
 He who, on the verge of a tomb, proclaims 
 Himself the resurrection; He who, in the abode 
 of death, ascribes to Himself the principle of life ; 
 He is not merely a mortal man ; He is God ; 
 and if it were otherwise, every tomb, every coffin 
 would tell Him to His face, that His words were 
 nothing but presumption. Yes, when I hear such 
 words issue from the mouth of the Son of Mary, 
 the Son of the carpenter, I say to myself, either 
 He is God, or He is the most presumptuous of 
 men, and the most daring of impostors! But far 
 be from us this blasphemy ! Let us hear the tes- 
 timonies which the Word of Truth bears to Him 
 who speaks to the sisters of Lazarus. He it is 
 " by whom God made the worlds," who is " the 
 brightness of His glory and the express image of 
 His person." He it is that " upholdeth all things 
 by the word of His power," to whom the Father 
 " Hath given to have life in Himself, even as 
 the Father hath life in Himself" He is that 
 eternal Word, who " was in the beginning with 
 God, and who was God," by whom all things 
 were made, whom "angels worship," "over 
 all, God blessed for evermore." Such are, among 
 a thousand others, the testimonies of the word of 
 that God who cannot lie : such is the truth which 
 serves as the basis of the whole edifice of the 
 Gospel, — a truth often despised, often misunder- 
 stood, often rejected, but which through eighteen 
 centuries of impotent contradiction, has come 
 down even to us triumphant, as it was upon the 
 
CHRIST THE RESURRECTIONj &C. 179 
 
 tomb of Lazarus, and constitutes the consolation 
 and the joy of all the faithful ; a truth which 
 Jesus proposes to Martha as most calculated to 
 raise her soul above grief, above death and the 
 grave, above all the ravages of sin: " I am the 
 resurrection and the life." 
 
 Consoling words to him who loves the Lord ! 
 Words which promise to fallen man the restora- 
 tion of his primitive prerogatives ! Words which 
 enable him to descry the dawn of a day of hap- 
 piness, like that which illumined his state of inno- 
 cence before disobedience and sin had brought to 
 his ear the fatal word death^ and placed before 
 his eyes the heart-rending spectacle of all the 
 miseries which form its gloomy train! Ah! 
 since He, who came to repair the disorder of sin, 
 is the resurrection and the life, shall we not find 
 in Him all that our soul has need of in its misery?^ 
 
 Yes, the lift^ the enjoyment of life, the eternal 
 continuation of life. Such is the first, the most 
 pressing want of our soul, that want which is most 
 deeply engraven upon it, that want which no crea- 
 ture can satisfy. We love every thing that 
 breathes life, every thing that produces it, every 
 thing that supports it ; we shrink from every thing 
 that impedes, weakens or destroys it. Hence 
 that sweet emotion which fills our whole being at 
 the sight of those first fine days of spring which 
 are to mourning nature " the resurrection and the 
 life !" Hence that feeling of melancholy which 
 pervades us when we behold the life of creation 
 languishing at the approach of winter ; hence that 
 
180 MEDITATION VHI. 
 
 sweet joy which we experience when we contem- 
 plate the infant whose every movement breathes 
 animation and life ; hence the painful impression 
 that is made upon us by the view of decrepit and 
 infirm old age, in which the sources of life are ex- 
 hausted, and to which there remains but a last 
 feeble struggle against the stroke of death. But 
 these impressions of pleasure and pain which are 
 produced in us by the vicissitudes of life and death 
 in the physical world, are feeble in comparison of 
 those which we feel when we contemplate the 
 immortal soul, to which life and death, far from 
 implying the commencement and termination of a 
 limited existence, are but the characteristics of a 
 state of eternal happiness or of eternal misery. 
 
 Man in his state of innocence enjoyed the ful- 
 ness of life. To him life was happiness, because 
 it was a sweet communion, a holy intercourse with 
 his God. He drew life from the very bosom of 
 his Creator ; he inhaled life with the delicious at- 
 mosphere of Eden. Love was the element of. 
 that primitive life ; no other feeling had as yet 
 found place in the pure soul of man ; to him to 
 love was to live. But, alas ! when I look around 
 me and within me ; when I conterinplate what is 
 now called life, what a difference do I see between 
 man's primitive and his present state. What a 
 fall : — sin, rebellion, and pollution have broken the 
 sweet bond which united the creature to the Cre- 
 ator, and have called for the execution of that law 
 of eternal justice, " The day thou disobeyest thy 
 God thou shalt surely die." And from that time 
 
CHRIST THE RESURRECTION, &C. 181 
 
 the soul, separated from God, because nothing 
 that is defiled can dwell in His presence, has lost" 
 the happiness of living the life of heaven ; from 
 that time life has become corrupted and withered 
 in its very principle, like a young tree whose root 
 has been gnawed by a deadly worm ; from that 
 time the sensual and carnal part of man has ac- 
 quired the ascendancy over his whole nature ; to 
 him to live, is no longer to enjoy the presence of 
 God ; to live, in the new sense which is attached 
 to that word, is to vegetate for a few days, fulfill- 
 ing his own depraved will, and satisfying his own 
 desires and passions ; to live, is to drain, even to 
 the dregs, the ever bitter cup of his pleasures and 
 of his selfishness ; to live is to enjoy for a few mo- 
 ments the advantages of his fortune, of his hon- 
 ours, of his learning. From that time, according 
 to the melancholy but faithful description of St. 
 Paul, his understanding has been darkened ; he is 
 alienated from the life of God, because of the 
 " blindness of his heart;" "he has a name to live, 
 but is dead," " dead in trespasses and sins." From 
 that time, the poisonous root of sin, which has de- 
 filed his soul, has also become a source of pain, 
 infirmity, disease, and death to his body. Froni 
 that time, " alas ! every hour opens a grave and 
 makes a tear to flow."* From that time, a day 
 has not passed that some Martha, some Mary, has 
 not gone to weep over the grave of a brother, a 
 husband, a father, a friend. " By one man sin 
 entered into the world, and death by sin, and so 
 
 ' Chateaubriand. 
 
 16 
 
182 MEDITATION VIII. 
 
 death passed upon all men, for that all have sin- 
 ned." (Rom. V. 12.) 
 
 Oh ! unhappy beings ! who shall deliver us 
 from the body of this death? Who shall restore 
 to us that life of innocence which of ourselves we 
 cannot recover? Who, O my God, shall give 
 back to us that life of the soul, that life of Thy 
 love ? Hast Thou for ever cast us away from 
 Thy presence for our iniquities? Shall we, cap- 
 tives in this Babylon of misery, for ever hang our 
 silent harps upon the willows by the water side ? 
 Shall we never take them down again to sing the 
 songs of Zion, to celebrate Thy love, to chaunt 
 the anthem of the skies ? 
 
 O my beloved brethren! my companions in af- 
 fliction! listen! there is a remedy for your woes! 
 Listen to Jesus speaking from the verge of a tomb, 
 " I am the resurrection and the life !" And ima- 
 gine not that He would limit the meaning of these 
 divine words to this : " I have power, by a single 
 word, to give warmth and life to the cold limbs 
 of thy brother ; power to call him forth from this 
 gloomy abode, and to restore him to thine em* 
 brace." Ah ! it is not an existence prolonged for 
 a few moments in this world of misery that Jesus 
 calls life. No: what He calls by this name is 
 real life., the life of the soul, that heavenly life and 
 immortality which He has brought to light by the 
 Gospel ; the life of a new love to God ; life over 
 which death has no dominion ; life which begins 
 even here in a soul " born again," and, vanquish- 
 ing time and the grave, commences at the foot of 
 
CHRIST THE RESURRECTION, &C. 183 
 
 Jehovah's throne, the immeasurahle periods of 
 eternity, the Hfe which St. John calls " eternal 
 life," embracing in this word a whole universe of 
 happiness, of which a finite and sinful being can 
 scarce form the feeblest conception. Such is the 
 sense in which Jesus is life to those that love Him. 
 He is their life, for he has destroyed the cause of 
 death, vanquished •' him that had the power of 
 death," and " broken down the middle wall of 
 partition," which separated us for ever from God. 
 He has taken upon Him the sentence of death 
 pronounced in Eden and on Sinai ; and having 
 nailed to the cross that fatal warrant which would 
 have attained every soul of Adam's sinful race, 
 He publishes the glad tidings of a free deliver- 
 ance ; He proclaims pardon and life ; " he that 
 believeth in the Son hath everlasting life ;" " Veri- 
 ly, verily, I say unto you, whosoever heareth My 
 word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath 
 everlasting life ; he shall not come into condem- 
 nation, but is passed from death unto life." " And 
 I give unto them eternal life," saith He, speaking 
 of His sheep, " and they shall never perish." " I 
 am the way, the truth, and the life." 
 , But doubtless it will be asked, how shall we be- 
 come partakers of this new life ? By what means 
 does Jesus communicate to our souls, which, ac- 
 cording to His word, are " dead in trespasses and 
 sins?" Jesus answers in our text, "He that be- 
 lieveth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he 
 live : and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me 
 shall never die." Thus He tells us twice; we 
 
184 MEDITATION VIH. 
 
 must believe in Him ; believe tliat He is our Sa- 
 viour; believe with a full assurance of faith, 
 founded upon His eternal love and upon the sure 
 testimony of His word, that He has purchased life 
 for us, that He has paid our ransom, that He has 
 saved us, that He will receive us notwithstanding 
 all our sins ; believe that He has given us " power 
 to become the sons of God," that is, the right to 
 be reinstated in the possession of all the privileges 
 of which sin hath deprived us, and finally of being 
 presented before God His Father with the re- 
 deemed of every nation, language, and tribe, whom 
 He hath purchased by His blood. 
 
 This faith, — which is the gift of God, which 
 Jesus requires of us in every page of His word, 
 and which in our text He demands of all those to 
 whom He would become the resurrection and the 
 life, — far from remaining idle and inoperative in 
 the soul in which it dwells, becomes, on the con- 
 trary, the powerful and influential principle of a 
 new life. It is the sap which carries life into all . 
 the branches of the renewed tree, and causes it to 
 produce, to the joy of its possessor, leaves, and 
 blossoms, and fruit. Men of the world, moralists, 
 teachers, philosophers, economists, seek if you will 
 elsewhere, a principle of moral regeneration for 
 nations or individuals. The fruitlessness of your 
 efforts will compel you to return to Him who alone 
 is the resurrection and the life, and to the means 
 which He prescribes — the only effectual means — 
 faith; faith which, by the efiectual operation of 
 the Spirit, alone can make the soul rise to the life 
 
CHUIST THE RESURRECTION, &C. 185 
 
 of heaven, disengage it from the shackles of cor- 
 ruption, break the chains of its ignominious bon- 
 dage, and animate it with the spirit of adoption, 
 whereby soaring, hke the Apostle, with the glo- 
 rious liberty of the children of God, it can joyfully 
 repeat, " We have not received the spirit of bon- 
 dage again unto fear ; but the spirit of adoption, 
 whereby we cry, Abba, Father;" faith^ which, 
 showing us in the Redeemer a love that is higher 
 than heaven, deeper than hell, breaks the hard- 
 ness of our heart, removes its icy coldness, eradi- 
 cates its selfishness; faith, which alone renews 
 the heart, fills it with a love altogether new, an 
 energy and devotedness hitherto unknown, and 
 leads the soul to love above all things Him " who 
 first loved us ;" faith, which alone produces in an 
 immortal soul the germ of a new life that shall 
 never perish, but, victorious over time and death, 
 shall arrive in all the glory of its strength in the 
 element of eternal love, there to develop its 
 powers, without limits, in Him in whose presence 
 there is " fulness of joy." Such are the means 
 which Jesus proposes to us, and by which He 
 would become to us " the resurrection and the 
 life." 
 
 Having thus the express declaration of Jesus, 
 and the experience of His disciples in all ages, 
 how is it possible for those who know their own 
 hearts, and have found in the Saviour new life for 
 their souls, to be arrested for a moment in their 
 progress towards the new heavens and the new 
 earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, by the mis- 
 15* 
 
186 MEDITATION VIII. 
 
 erable objections which ignorance and self-right- 
 eousness advance against this great and only 
 means (in the hands of the Spirit) of regeneration, 
 holiness, and salvation ? The man who feels in 
 himself the sacred flame of a devotedness alto- 
 gether new, and of a love which he has only 
 known since he believed, may indeed be told that 
 this doctrine of faith weakens the motives to good 
 works; but he will answer. Will you tell me, 
 then, that the tree will remain barren, or that it 
 wdll produce nothing but bitter fruit, because it 
 has been grafted? That the spring will produce 
 foul water, because it has been purified 1 The 
 word faith signifies confidence^ and confidence, 
 we know, is the basis of affection and of friend- 
 ship. Oh ! which is most worthy of God — to 
 serve Him from the affection of a child, who loves 
 his father tenderlj', or from the mean and selfish 
 motive of the mercenary, who looks only to the re- 
 ward, or from the servile fear of the slave, who 
 has nothing in view but exemption frona punish- 
 ment? 
 
 Faith, uniting the soul to God, passes over the 
 space which separates the finite from the infinite, 
 the " things which are only temporal " from those 
 " which are eternal." It is " the substance of 
 things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen ;" 
 it seizes, beforehand, those things which "eye 
 hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the art of man 
 conceived ;" it enjoys heaven upon earth ; and 
 though still in time, it lives in eternity. Hence 
 what need we care for the changes which our mor- 
 
CHIIIST THE RESURRECTION, &C. 187 
 
 tal nature must undergo ? Death is our deliver- 
 ance, the tomb a passage to eternal life : " Who- 
 soever liveth and belie veth in Me shall never 
 die." I love to repeat it, that it was at a tomb 
 that Jesus pronounced these words ; it was to the 
 sister of Lazarus who had lain four days in the 
 grave that He gave this consolation. No ; they \ 
 are not dead who are gone before us into a better i 
 country. No ; they whom you have loved in the i 
 Lord in this world shall never die. The principle 
 of hfe which faith implants in their soul is as far 
 above all that is mortal as heaven is above earth. 
 Is it death to lay aside this frail earthly taberna- 
 cle ; the source of so many pains, so many suffer- 
 ings, so many sins ? Is it death to be dehvered 
 from evil, and from all the miseries which are the 
 fruits of sin ? No j that which lives in us by the 
 grace of God, through faith, shall never dir 
 No ; it is not death, for faith to be changed into 
 sight, for hope to be superseded by reality, and 
 for love fully to possess and to enjoy its ob- 
 ject. It is not death, to see in a copious flood of 
 light and truth which in this world we seek amid 
 so many errors, and so much ignorance and dark- 
 ness. It is not death, to be satisfied with that 
 lighteousness, that hohness which our soul thirst- 
 eth after here below in the midst of corruption. 
 It is not death, to be put in possession of that peace 
 which we seek here below in the midst of all our 
 disappointments, all our sorrows, all our tears. It 
 is not death, to see face to face that Divine Re- 
 deemer whom here we loved though we saw Him 
 
188 MEDITATION VIII. 
 
 not, and whom our soul often longed after as 
 the bride longs for the presence of him whom her 
 soul loveth. No ; it is not death, to possess eter- 
 nal life ! " Whosoever liveth and believeth in 
 Me shall never die." 
 
 This faith has produced at all times and in all 
 ages the same life and the same hopes. David 
 beholds a beloved child seized with a malady 
 which threatens to tear him from his affection ; 
 he puts on sackcloth and lies upon the earth in 
 sign of his deep affliction ; he refuses either to eat 
 or to drink. " And it came to pass," the sacred 
 historian goes on to tell us, that " on the seventh 
 day the child died." The servants of David fear 
 to tell him that the child is dead ; for say they, 
 " Behold, while the child was yet alive we spake 
 unto him, and he would not hearken unto our 
 voice ; how will he then vex himself if we tell him 
 that the child is dead?" " But when David saw 
 that his servants whispered, David perceived that 
 the child was dead. Then David rose from the 
 earth, and washed and anointed himself, and 
 changed his apparel, and came into the house of 
 the Lord and worshipped." His servants, as- 
 tonished at his conduct, say unto him, " What, 
 then, is tliis ; thou didst fast and weep for the 
 child while it was alive ; but when the child was 
 dead, thou didst rise and eat bread ? And David 
 answered, while the child was yet alive, I fasted 
 and wept, for I said, who can tell whether God 
 will be gracious unto me, that the child may live ? 
 But now that he is dead, wherefore should I fast? 
 
CHRIST THE RESURRECTION, &C. 189 
 
 / shall go to him, but he shall not return to meP 
 (2 Sam. xii. 18 — 23.) Touching resignation! 
 glorious hope ! sweet fruits of faith ! " Whoso- 
 ever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." 
 Ye sisters of Lazarus, of all times and all 
 places, who weep for the ravages which death has 
 made in your affections, or dread it for yourselves, 
 come to the fountain of living waters, come and 
 draw from the source of true consolation ; come 
 and quench that thirst for ^immortality, which con- 
 sumes you and makes you mourn over the fright- 
 ful instability of every thing human and mortal ; 
 come to Christ ; come and hear His divine voice ; 
 out of His mouth flow consolation, hope, and life. 
 What ! saith He unto you as He did unto David, 
 to Martha, and to Mary ; what ! thou weepest 
 for the death of some dear object of your affec- 
 tion ! But cease to call that death which is only 
 a birth unto a new life ; cease to mourn for the 
 happiness of him who is gone before thee ! " 1 
 am the resurrection and the life : he that believeth 
 in Me shall never die." " All that are in their 
 graves shall hear My voice." Those eyes which 
 you once saw closed to the light of heaven, shall 
 open again, full of glory, on the day of eternal 
 meeting ; those lips upon which you once saw the 
 smile of affection playing continually, but which 
 you have beheld blanched with the paleness of 
 death, shall be reanimated, to commence with 
 you, pure from all defilement, the new song of 
 eternal deliverance. That hand which, in press- 
 ing your hand for the last time, fell cold and life- 
 
190 MEDITATION VIII. 
 
 less, shall be lifted up to the throne of God, with 
 your's and with those of all the royal priesthood, 
 to adore Him for ever and ever. " They shall not 
 return to us, but we shall go to them." " Jesus is 
 the resurrection and the life !" " O death, where 
 is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 
 Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord !" 
 
 " Behevest thou this ?" saith Jesus to the sister 
 of Lazarus, with an accent of the tenderest love, 
 and desiring to draw forth from her a confession 
 which would evince that she had in her heart this 
 principle of eternal life. If thou believest this, 
 He seems to say, thou shalt soon find in that faith 
 a healing balm for thy deep affliction ; thy tears 
 shall be changed into thanksgivings ; the darkness 
 which envelops thy soul shall be dissipated by 
 that bright light ; the pain of separation, so ago- 
 nizing to the unbeliever, to him who has not a 
 living faith, shall be alleviated by the assured 
 hope of an eternal reunion. 
 
 I also, on the part of God, ask you, O immor- 
 tal beings who hear me ! believe ye this ? Is 
 Jesus to you the resurrection and the life ? Can 
 you joyfully apply to yourselves these words of 
 eternal truth, " Whosoever liveth and belie veth 
 in Me shall never die ?" When you contemplate 
 as at hand, the grave which shall soon open to 
 receive you, and into which all that is mortal in 
 you shall soon descend, can you with confidence 
 look beyond it, to that eternity which is the 
 
CHRIST THE RESURRECTION, &C. 191 
 
 oLject of the wishes and hopes of the redeemed 
 of Jesus ? 
 
 Oh! may you, may we all be enabled to 
 answer with the confidence of Martha, " Yea, 
 Lord, I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son 
 of the living God, which should come into the 
 world," — come from heaven to bring down the 
 truth and life to earth. Error proceeds from 
 earth ; falsehood comes from hell ; but Thou, 
 Lord, art come from the bosom of the Father, to 
 reveal Him to us ; Thy word is truth. I have 
 not seen God ; I have not, like Martha, seen 
 Jesus. I see man die and descend into the grave ; 
 none of the blessed, none of the reprobate have 
 ever come to me, to bear witness to the truth of 
 the word of my Saviour ; and nevertheless I be- 
 lieve ; " I believe that Thou art the Christ, the 
 Son of God, that should come into the world." 
 I see an unbelieving world counting my faith 
 folly, and my hope a mere delusion, which they 
 ridicule ; and yet, O my Saviour, " I believe that 
 Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, that should 
 come into the world." I see a world that Heth in 
 wickedness delivering themselves up to sin and 
 corruption, as if Thou hadst not died for sin, as if 
 there were neither death, nor judgment, nor 
 resurrection, nor Hfe ; but though the whole world 
 were to rise up against the word of truth, and 
 against the holiness of Thy law, and though they 
 were to " kill thy projDhets, and throw down Thine 
 altars," yet, O my Saviour, would I believe that 
 " Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, that should 
 
192 MEDITATION Vm. 
 
 come into the world," I would believe that Thou 
 art to my soul, " the resurrection and the life !" 
 
 O Redeemer, since this faith in Thy salvation 
 is a free gift of Thy grace, condescend to grant it 
 to us all, while there is yet time ! Make all 
 these immortal beings feel the folly of seeking 
 happiness in that which must become the prey of 
 death, instead of going to Thee, who art the re- 
 surrection and the life ! Above all. Lord, when 
 Thou smitest them with the rod of affliction, 
 when some painful event, some unexpected death, 
 some heart-rending separation takes place, and 
 brings trouble into their hearts, oh ! then, let 
 them hear Thy voice of love issuing from beneath 
 the ruins of that superstructure of false happi- 
 ness which they had erected far from Thee, and 
 crying unto them with power, " believest thou 
 this ?" Believest thou that I alone am the resur- 
 rection and the life ; believest thou that without 
 Me there is nothing but grief, doubt, vexation of 
 spirit, and eternal death ? O, Jesus, may every 
 thing in this life fade away and disappear before 
 the happiness of loving Thee ! To Thee this 
 heart belongs ; may it beat for Thee alone ! and 
 when it has but one last breath to breathe into 
 Thy bosom, may that breath bear to the foot of 
 Thine eternal throne this cry of hope, " Christ, 
 Christ is my life ; death is gain to me ! Amen, 
 Lord Jesus, Amen." 
 
MEDITATION IX. 
 
 JESUS WEPT. 
 John xi. 28—36. 
 
 " And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her 
 sister secretly, saying, the Master is come, and calletJi for thee. 
 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto Him. 
 Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place 
 where Martha met Him. The Jews then which were with her in 
 the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose 
 up hastily and went out, followed her, saying. She goeth unto the 
 grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come where Jesus 
 was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, 
 Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When 
 Jesus therefore saw her weeping, iind the Jews also weeping 
 which came with her. He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, 
 and said, where have ye laid him? They said unto Him, Lord> 
 come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how He 
 loved him !" 
 
 The nearer the history which we are consider- 
 ing approaches to its conclusion, the more Hvely 
 and touching is the interest which it excites. Eve- 
 ry step in this great transaction is so subhme, so 
 beautiful, so much above the ordinary course of 
 human affairs, that we cannot but anticipate a 
 conclusion in unison with so much grandeur. 
 And what may we not expect from an action of 
 which Jesus is the soul and the author. He is 
 17 
 
194 MEDITATION IX. 
 
 represented to us with a majesty altogether divine 
 in the foreground of that historical picture which 
 is exhibited to our view. He appears in the midst 
 of the surrounding company like a sun communi- 
 cating to the worlds around it that lustre with 
 which they shine to our eyes. Lazarus, Martha, 
 Mary, Thomas, and the other disciples, all look 
 upon Jesus, all direct to Jesus their thoughts, their 
 affections, their prayers, their tears ; all partake 
 of His light, His grace. His consolations. And if 
 some of His expressions, if some of His actions 
 have hitherto appeared to us obscure or mysteri- 
 ous, we cannot doubt but that a word of His power, 
 and of His love, will soon dissipate all those clouds, 
 throw torrents of light upon these obscure points 
 of His conduct, and command our a4oration and 
 surprise. 
 
 But before our historian proceeds to this part 
 of his narrative, he calls us once more to meditate 
 upon the tomb of Lazarus. Before he shows us 
 his Master displaying the power of God the Crea- 
 tor, by whom all things were made, he wishes us 
 once more to trace the emotions of His generous 
 and compassionate heart, until he comes to that 
 part of the conduct of Jesus which speaks more 
 than volumes, and which ought to draw from us 
 tears of tenderness and of gratitude : '• Jesus wept." 
 
 Martha, Mary, and Jesus are now going suc- 
 cessively to draw our attention. Martha had felt 
 her faith and her hopes revive in the presence of 
 Him who is called the " Resurrection and the 
 Life." " Yea, Lord," she had said, " I believe 
 
JESUS WEPT. 195 
 
 that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, that 
 should come into the world." I see in Thee the 
 Messiah promised to Israel, the Deliverer, the 
 Kxpectation of ages, the Desire of all nations ; 
 Him, whom all those who, like Simeon and Anna, 
 waited for the consolation and deliverance of Is- 
 rael, have longed after with the most ardent desire. 
 And as soon as Martha recognizes in Jesus her 
 Saviour, she also sees in Him her Almighty Com- 
 forter. Her tears cease to flow ; with faith come 
 back confidence and peace, and she experiences 
 the truth of that promise of Jesus which He has 
 connected with a gracious invitation, " Come unto 
 Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and 
 I will give you rest : and ye shall find rest unto 
 your souls." 
 
 But Martha cannot enjoy these sweet and pre- 
 cious consolations alone. She has not forgotten 
 that her sister who " sat stiU in the house" is 
 plunged in the deepest distress ; she leaves Jesus 
 for a moment and flies to Mary to acquaint her 
 with the good news — the arrival of their celestial 
 Friend. " She went her way, and called Mary 
 her sister secretly, saying. The Master is come, 
 and calleth for thee." Mary had shared in her 
 sister's grief; Martha now wishes to make her a 
 sharer in her joy ; the two sisters had wept togeth- 
 er, it is but natural that their affectionate hearts 
 should now rejoice together ; they had drunk to- 
 gether the cup of grief] it is right that they should 
 now taste together the sweets of divine consolation. 
 How beautiful, how noble, and delightful is that 
 
196 MEDITATION IX. 
 
 union of christian hearts, in which all is in com- 
 mon — joy and grief, pleasure and pain, hopes and 
 fears. How much superior to all the relations 
 of the world is that association of two beings who 
 would feel a dehcate scruple to enjoy any pleasures 
 without one another, and each of whom would 
 be nobly jealous of seeing the other suffer without 
 taking a part in his sufferings. It is only in the 
 love of God and in communion with Jesus, that 
 these relations, as holy as they are sweef, can sub- 
 sist ; these relations which are the only ones that 
 deserve the name of friendship. If these con- 
 nexions be unreservedly placed under the influence 
 of the Spirit of God, (for without that all is vanity, 
 idolatry, snare, and sin,) what blessings must they 
 not be the source of! Strangers and pilgrims 
 upon earth, what encouragement must it afford 
 us to have faithful fellow-travellers ! Combating 
 in an arena w^here we are called every day to con- 
 tend against sin, the world, and our own hearts, 
 what a source of happiness must it be to have 
 brethren in arms, who share our dangers, and who 
 by their words and by their example encourage 
 us to press on to victory ! Weak and sinful as we 
 are, what a privilege is it to have near us a frater- 
 nal hand which is ever stretched forth to point 
 out to us our dangers, to support and assist us ! 
 
 Martha returns to the house ; she sees her be- 
 loved sister still a prey to the deepest grief; she 
 calls her, takes her apart secretly^ as our text tells 
 us, to announce to her the happy tidings of the 
 arrival of Jesus. We ought indeed to be ready 
 
JESUS WEPT. 197 
 
 at all times " to give a reason of the hope that is 
 in us with meekness," yet there are many experi- 
 ences incident to the christian life which the dis- 
 ciple of Jesus alone can comprehend. Martha 
 knew this, and notwithstanding the ordinary quick- 
 ness of her impres'sions, she felt that there was no 
 other heart but that of Mary to which she could 
 open her's, or which was capable of entering into 
 her hopes and joys. The Jews with whom the 
 house was crowded would perhaps have seen, in 
 her love for Jesus, nothing but exaggeration, in 
 her faith nothing but enthusiasm, in her hopes 
 nothing but delusion. Perhaps, also, the solemn 
 declaration of Jesus, " I am the resurrection and 
 the life ; he that believe th in Me, though he were 
 dead, yet shall he live," and that significant ques- 
 tion by which it was followed, " Believest thou 
 this?" had awakened in the mind of Martha some 
 secret hope of seeing again upon this earth a 
 brother who had been so dear to her. And to 
 whom but to Mary could she open hfij^mind on 
 such a subject without being accu^Jfeof fanati- 
 cism and folly? There may exist in the heart of 
 the child of God a hope so aspiring, a feeling so 
 deep, that he would think it a profanation to ex- 
 pose it to the ridicule or sarcasm of the unbe- 
 liever. 
 
 " The Master is come," saith Martha, with the 
 lively feeling of happiness which one experiences 
 who announces to the afflicted soul the most 
 cheering intelligence. " The Ma.ster is come !" 
 This word alone, in Martha's estimation, should 
 17* 
 
198 MEDITATION IX. 
 
 be sufficient to draw Mary out of the depth of her 
 affliction. It is as if she had said, " True, we have 
 suffered long ; we have seen the sweet ties of do- 
 mestic affection snapped asunder ; we have seen 
 Lazarus, whom we so much loved, die and go 
 down to the grave ; we have long waited in vain 
 for Jesus our great Comforter ; we have long shed 
 tears of affliction far from Him ; but ' the Master 
 is come ;' already I have experienced in His pre- 
 sence unspeakable consolation; I have felt His 
 peace, which is better than life, return to my 
 heart. Nothing is impossible with Him ; He has 
 declared to me that He is ' the resurrection and 
 the life,' that ' whosoever belie veth in Him, though 
 he were dead, yet shall he live.^ He comes to 
 comfort us, our sorrow shall be changed into joy, 
 our grief into lively gratitude, ' The Master is 
 come, and calleth for thee.' " 
 
 " He calleth for thee !" What love is this of 
 Jesus ; what consolation for Mary in her grief! 
 Ah ! He whom she waited for so long, and with 
 such an ardent desire, has not forgotten her. Like 
 the Psalmist, she might have exclaimed, in her 
 anguish, " My soul waiteth for the Lord more 
 than they that watch for the morning." And 
 now the hour of deliverance is arrived ; Jesus 
 comes Himself to comfort her ; He comes to re- 
 move from her soul the burden which oppresses 
 it, the cross which He had laid upon her for a 
 time ; He comes to pour into the bleeding wounds 
 of her heart the balm of consolation. 
 
 O my beloved brethren, acknowledge, adore the 
 
JESUS "W'EPT. 199 
 
 love and the faithfulness of the Saviour. He is 
 always the same. When you are called to the 
 sweet task of bringing consolation to some suffer- 
 ing soul, some soul weeping over the tomb of a 
 beloved object ; some soul groaning under a sense 
 of its corruption, its sins, its unworthiness before 
 God ; some soul plunged in the depths of doubt 
 and of distrust : oh ! then, do as Martha did to 
 Mary ; comfort that soul with these words : " The 
 Master is come, and calleth for thee." He is 
 come, suffering soul, afflicted soul, sinful soul ; that 
 good Master, that loving Saviour, that divine 
 Friend whom thou thinkest to be far from thee is 
 at hand ; He is come ; He has not forsaken thee ; 
 He watcheth over thee ; He is come, ready to 
 receive thy first sigh of repentance, thy first cry 
 of distress ; He is come, ready to pardon, to bless 
 thee ; '' He is come, and calleth thee !" He call- 
 eth thee, by this very affliction, this very sickness, 
 as well as in every page of His word ; He calleth 
 thee, to make thee fully enjoy the consolations of 
 His grace ; He calleth thee, to speak to thy soul 
 of pardon, reconciliation, peace, and love ; He 
 calleth thee, to gather thee into His sheepfold ; 
 He calleth thee, that coming out of this affliction, 
 this despondency, these doubts, this unbelief, thou 
 mayest be enabled to range thyself among the 
 number of the redeemed — His beloved children. 
 
 « He calleth thee !" Take heed that thou be 
 not deaf nor insensible to this call. Beware of an 
 offensive distrust, an injurious doubting ; beware 
 of imitating those infatuated persons who were 
 
200 MEDITATION IX. 
 
 invited to the marriage supper, and who all began 
 with one consent to make excuse ; beware of say- 
 ing that thou art unworthy of Him, that thou art 
 too miserable, too sinful. Ah ! it is just because 
 thou art a sinner that it behoved Him to become 
 a Saviour } it is because thou art poor, blind, na- 
 ked and miserable, that thou must come to Him, 
 " who though He was rich, for our sakes became 
 poor, that w^e through His poverty might be rich." 
 " He calls not the righteous, but sinners to repen- 
 tance." His invitations are free ; He does not 
 sell His favours, He gives them. And canst thou 
 suppose that He calls thee, intending to reject 
 thee ; canst thou suppose that He thus trifles with 
 thy misery and thine affliction ? Far be from us 
 this blasphemy of unbelief O Jesus, my Saviour! 
 I hear Thy call ; I will go ; I will hasten like 
 Mary ; I will go to Thee that I may have life. 
 Ah ! to whom else shall I go ? Thou hast the 
 words of eternal life ! 
 
 Mary hath not yet attained to the faith and 
 lively hopes of Martha ; grief is too deep in her 
 feeling heart. Meanwhile she hastens to obey 
 the call of Jesus. Even the soul which is encom- 
 passed with afflictions and harassed with doubts, 
 when it is acquainted with the Saviour's faithful- 
 ness and love, makes efforts to rise up to Him, 
 and, as it were, " feels after God." But who can 
 restrain one who has clearly heard the call of 
 Jesus? one to whom it has been said, " The Mas- 
 ter calleth thee?" Ah! such a one feels the ap- 
 proach of deliverance, and as the flower turns its 
 
JESUS WEPT. 201 
 
 head towards the sun, and opens to receive its en- 
 lightening beams ; as the stag, panting from the 
 heat of the desert, plunges into the running stream; 
 as the child runs with tears into the embrace of 
 its mother, whom it had lost, thus the soul, thirst- 
 ing for consolation, peace, and rest, opens to the 
 sweet influence of the presence of its redeeming 
 God, quenches its thirst at that well of living 
 water which springeth up unto everlasting life, 
 and flies with confidence into the arms of that 
 Heavenly Father who has a remedy for all its evils, 
 and in whom " there is plenteous redemption." 
 " As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, 
 and came unto Him." 
 
 But we have already said, according to the 
 declaration of St. Paul, that " the natural man re- 
 ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ;" and 
 the Jews who were with Mary on this occasion 
 afford a confirmation of this sad truth. St. John, 
 before he shows us Mary at the feet of Jesus, 
 speaks of these Jews, and tells us what they 
 thought, and what they said, as if to give a shad- 
 ing to the picture. " The Jews, then, which were 
 with her in the house, and comforted her, when 
 they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily, and went 
 out, followed her, saying. She goeth unto the grave, 
 to weep there." It was a custom in the East, 
 which continues to the present time, to go frequently, 
 during the first days of mourning, to the tomb of 
 the departed, and " weep there." He who has 
 not yet heard the call of Jesus, or has shut his 
 heart against it ; he who is ignorant of the irresis- 
 
202 MEDITATION IX. 
 
 tible attraction which leads the afflicted soul to 
 throw itself at the feet of the Saviour; he who 
 has never drawn supplies from the source of true 
 consolation, by private prayer in the closet, — such 
 a one cannot comprehend the conduct and the 
 joys of the child of God. He cannot conceive 
 that a soul in deep affliction can have any other 
 remedy for its grief, than the melancholy privilege 
 of going and weeping over the tomb, which has 
 just swallowed up the object of itstenderest affec- 
 tions and of its dearest hopes. He follows, with 
 an inconsolable regret, these poor rnortal remains. 
 The Jews wept and lamented over the graves of 
 their friends for seven days consecutively. We 
 in our days erect a monument to perpetuate our 
 sorrow, to hide, if possible, the vanity of every 
 thing human, and banish from our minds the 
 humbling truth that " all flesh is as grass, and 
 all the glory of man as the flower of the field." 
 We attach ourselves also with a grief that knows 
 no remedy, and with wounded aflections, to that 
 which is already reduced to dust. " We weep as 
 those that have no ho]pe." To give a colour to 
 this sadly idolatrous worship, we call it " the re- 
 ligion of the tomb." Alas ! we might M'ith more 
 propriety designate it the religion of despair, or, to 
 use a milder expression, the poetiy of grief. 
 
 No, Mary is not gone to the grave ; she knows 
 that Jesus is come ; she goes to lay at His feet 
 the burden of her grief, to open her heart to Him, 
 as Martha had done. She throws herself at His 
 feet, weeping abundantly ; "Lord," says she, "if 
 
JESUS WEPT. 203 
 
 Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died !" 
 This is all that her grief and her sobs allow her to 
 utter. She has sufficient faith, sufficient confi- 
 dence, to throw herself at the feet of Jesus, forget- 
 ting, in His presence, the crowd that surrounds 
 her — forgetting the whole universe besides. But 
 this is the utmost that her deep affliction permits 
 her to do. She had not sufficient strength, and 
 perhaps not sufficient faith, to add to her com- 
 plaint like Martha, " But even now I know that 
 whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give 
 it Thee." Her silent grief does not let us see 
 what passes in her afflicted heart. Has a dark 
 veil of sadness enveloped her, and hid from her 
 view the objects of her faith and hope ? Do her 
 words mean, that since "her brother is dead," 
 every thing has become indifferent to her ? Does 
 she see no remedy for her afflictions? Does she 
 think that Jesus is come too late to repair her 
 loss? "If Thou hadst been here?" Does she 
 imagine that the grave can put bounds to the 
 power of her Divine Friend ? Is it despondency 
 and distrust that extort from her these expressions 
 of so deep a melancholy, " My brother would not 
 have died ?" Or is it that, full of confidence, she 
 deems it enough to show to her Saviour, in a sin- 
 gle sentence, her whole grief, to open to Him her 
 heart, to prostrate herself at His feet, to feel her- 
 self near Him in her affliction, as she was for- 
 merly, when she sat at His feet and heard His 
 word? Does she in her trial feel the reality of 
 His promises and of His word, which she had so 
 
204 MEDITATION IX. 
 
 often heard ? Is her faith a light shining in dark- 
 ness ? Are her hopes a heaUng balm to the 
 wound of her heart ? We love to think so ; we 
 love to see in her silence the confidence and peace 
 of her soul, expecting every thing from Jesus, and 
 throwing itself upon His tender compassion. We 
 love to see in it that patient waiting which has 
 never been disappointed, since Mary experienced 
 the faithfulness and love of the Saviour far beyond 
 what she could have expected, 
 
 O, my beloved brethren ! distdples of Jesus ! 
 how sweet is it for us to know that in all our trials 
 even should we, in the despondency of our souls, 
 have only strength enough, like Mary, to cast our- 
 selves at the feet of that great High Priest, who 
 can be " touched with a feeling of our infirmities," 
 yet this will be sufficient to move His generous 
 heart in our favour, sufficient to attract towards us 
 a look of His tender compassion and infinite good- 
 ness. Never has the cry of an afflicted soul found 
 the heart of Jesus insensible ; never has a single 
 sigh of a broken and contrite heart ascended in 
 vain to the throne of grace. " This poor man 
 cried, and the Lord heard him, and delivered him 
 out of all his troubles. O taste and see that the 
 Lord is good : blessed is the man that trusteth in 
 Him." (Ps. xxxiv. 6, 8.) 
 
 This silence of Mary, at the feet of Jesus, is in 
 perfect harmony with her whole character. More 
 feeling than Martha, her grief is also more pro- 
 found. All her lively and deep impressions are 
 concentrated to one point in her soul. She is not 
 
♦ JESUS WEPT. 205 
 
 able to express herself in words, to address a 
 prayer to her Saviour, or to declare her confidence 
 in Him. She lies in silent prostration at His feet. 
 She cannot join in that song of triumph, with one 
 who was animated by an all powerful faith, 
 " We glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribu- 
 lation worketh patience, and patience experience, 
 and experience hope, and hope maketh not 
 ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad 
 in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given 
 unto us." The experience of every day evinces 
 that persons of a deeply susceptible nature — those 
 who, like Mary, make all their theology, all their 
 religion, consist in feeling, as a counterpoise to the 
 lively enjoyments which they derive from the sub- 
 lime truths of the Gospel — are called to endure 
 far more painful conflicts than those who live a 
 life of simple faith. The path which they pursue 
 is more difficult and dangerous, because every ob- 
 ject makes a deeper impression upon them, every 
 untovv'ard event which they meet in life shakes to 
 its foundation this power of feeling, and lays siege 
 to their faith, their religion, the very life of their 
 soul. Oh ! how necessary, then, was it that the 
 word of God should erect the structure of our eter- 
 nal salvation upon the immoveable rock of God's 
 faithfulness, against which the waves and the 
 storms may exercise their fury, but they are broken 
 and expire at its base. 
 
 If by faith we be established upon the Rock of 
 Ages, sombre clouds may gather around us, dark- 
 ness may become more dense, it may spread over 
 18' 
 
20b MEDITATION IX. ^ 
 
 the heavens a gloomy veil, and shut out from us 
 every ray of celestial light, yet shall we wait upon 
 the Lord ; and our expectation shall not be disap- 
 pointed. Let not then the continual variations of 
 religious feeling which we may experience, be 
 ever the measure of our assurance of salvation ; 
 otherwise we shall continually see our peace, our 
 hopes, our eternity, exposed to the mercy of all 
 those infirmities which in this life may take away 
 from us the sensible enjoyment of God's presence, 
 of His pardon, of His grace, and of His adoption. 
 It is not written " the just shall live by feeling," 
 but " the just shall live by faith." God forbid that 
 Ave should be understood to mean by this faith a 
 mere barren adherence to the truths of the Gospel, 
 producing no influence upon the heart, or a pre- 
 sumptuous assurance founded upon mere notions 
 of the mind. The faith which does not " work by 
 love" is not a true faith, and " he that loveth not 
 hath not known God, for God is love." Such are 
 the two rocks between which we have to steer, 
 and upon which many souls have made shipwreck. 
 Happy that soul who, to avoid the one and the 
 other, sits like Mary at the feet of Jesus, to hear 
 Him in the time of prosperity, and whom the day 
 of trial still finds, like her, at the feet of Jesus, 
 waiting for assistance from Him. 
 
 But let us hasten to turn our eyes towards Je- 
 sus. We love to contemplate Him in the midst 
 of this scene of grief Ah! He does not remain 
 insensible to it. He beholds Mary at His feet, 
 overwhelmed with her .affliction, and unable to 
 
JESUS WEPT. 207 
 
 do any thing but weep. He sees the Jews, some 
 of whom, we hope, really sympathize with her ; 
 while the greatej: part but imitate her grief, and 
 make lamentation according to the usage of their 
 country on such occasions. At this sight Jesus, 
 who was no stranger to any of those emotions 
 which thrill through the depths of the human 
 heart, " groaned in spirit and was troubled." 
 What was it that passed in His great soul? What 
 mortal can fathom His emotions, His trouble of 
 mind, and tell us what he felt ? If we take the 
 original word in its literal signification, we shall 
 see in Jesus, besides the feeling of tender sympa- 
 thy which the scene before Him excited in His 
 breast, a feeling of that holy impatience which 
 He frequently experienced at the view of the 
 weakness, corruption, and unbelief of those from 
 v/hom he had a right to expect the greatest con- 
 fidence. " O, unbelieving generation ! how long 
 shall I be with you ? how long shall I suffer you ? 
 What ! are those Jews to whom I have exhibited 
 my works, who have heard my instructions since 
 the commencement of my ministry, still unable to 
 offer to the afflicted any thing but worthless con- 
 solations? What! is Mary herself, who has been 
 so highly favored, able only to utter words of de- 
 spondency, I had almost said, of reproach? 'If 
 thou hadst been here, my brother had not died ! 
 ' O ye of little faith, how great is your weakness ! 
 how easily does distrust insinuate itself into your 
 hearts ! A few days of trial, a few days of waiting, 
 and you have no more faith ! How ignorant are 
 
208 MEDITATION DC. 
 
 the most enlightened ! how weak the strongest! 
 how ungrateful the most affectionate !' " 
 
 Or are we to regard the trouhle and emotion 
 of Jesus as expressive of a feeling of grief at the 
 sight of human misery, of which He had before 
 His eyes so melancholy a picture 1 Is He moved 
 with indignation ; has He put on " vengeance as 
 a cloak," against him " who hath the power of 
 death," against him by whom " sin entered into 
 the world, and death by sin," and with whom He 
 is going to engage in a contest, which shall show 
 to all future generations, that the powers of hell 
 are in subjection to the eternal Son of God, and 
 that Satan shall shortly be bruised under the feet 
 of God's children? or was it only a deep compas- 
 sion for the afflicted sisters that Jesus felt? This 
 the expressions in the original scarcely allow us 
 to believe. But whatever it was, we shall see 
 Jesus moved even to tears by this tender compas- 
 sion. And whatever was at first the real cause 
 of His trouble. He turns from the scene which 
 He has before His eyes ; He hastens to go for- 
 ward to the accomplishment of His work ; He 
 demands where the mortal remains of Lazarus 
 are laid ; He turns toward the sepulchre, where 
 He is going to show unto the world, that to Him 
 nothing is impossible. 
 
 "And He said. Where have ye laid him? 
 They say unto Him, Lord, come and see." Jesus 
 had stopped to suggest consolation to Martha, to 
 give her encouraging promises, to reason with 
 her. But He who searcheth the heart, He who 
 
JESUS WEPT. 209 
 
 well knows what Jcind of consolation is suited to 
 each of His people, touched with compassion for 
 this deep affliction of Mary, mourns Math her, 
 weeps with her, and asks for the tomb of her bro- 
 ther, in order to show her, by His power, His love 
 and faithfulness. He alone is really capable of 
 comforting the afflicted, who loves them, suffers 
 with them, and shares their grief Even the 
 people of the world feel to a certain degree what 
 a real comforter ought to be. They say, '• We 
 condole with one for whom we care but little ; we 
 weep with a friend." Oh ! let us endeavour to 
 feel, that the more we are animated by that true 
 charity, that ardent love which glowed in the 
 heart of Jesus, the more we shall be capable of 
 comforting our afflicted brethren in their trials ; 
 and the more we shall be disposed to comfort 
 them by actions, by devotedness, and if it be ne- 
 cessary, by sacrifices. " Where have ye laid 
 him ?" asks Jesus. And while they conduct Him 
 to that abode of death, His thoughts rest upon 
 Lazarus, the object of so much affection, but at 
 the same time of so much grief and of so many 
 tears. His heart, moved, by what He sees 
 around Him, cannot contain all the feelings 
 which crowd upon it, and He who was God, and 
 who yet has been called with truth the most 
 humane of mankind, restrains not His tears : 
 " Jesus wept." 
 
 " Jesus wept !" divine words ! words which 
 penetrate into the depths of the most unfeeling 
 heart, to search if there be a last chord which 
 18* 
 
210 MEDITATION IX. 
 
 they can make vibrate there ! words upon which 
 we may meditate but not discourse, because in 
 hearing them a multitude of thoughts and feel- 
 ings press forward, and fill our whole soul. The 
 pen even of St. John declined to make a single 
 reflection upon them. These words escaped, as 
 it were, from His affectionate heart, and he 
 thought, doubtless, " Here is a subject of medita- 
 tion for ages." Some of the Jews who were pre- 
 sent exclaimed, "Behold, how He loved him!" 
 But how far were they, as we ourselves are, from 
 comprehending the tears of Jesus. 
 
 Doubtless we can say with them, " Behold, 
 how He loved him!" for already St. John hath 
 told us, "Jesus loved Martha, and Mary, and 
 Lazarus ;" and He who was never found insensible 
 to any of our miseries ; He who was touched with 
 compassion for the multitude which pressed around 
 Him, " because they were as sheep having no 
 shepherd ;" He who shed tears of pity over the 
 guilty and hardened inhabitants of Jerusalem, who 
 were going to put Him to death ; He who with 
 His dying voice prayed with the tenderest charity 
 for His murderers. He doubtless must have been 
 deeply affected by the afflictions of those for whom 
 He cherished a particular affection. It is then per- 
 mitted to us also to weep on account of our own 
 trials and those of our friends. If but the dispen- 
 sations of our God find our heart, and our will, 
 submissive to His absolute sovereignty over us, 
 this expression of our grief has nothing inconsis- 
 tent with the christian character. The Gospel 
 
JESUS WEPT. 211 
 
 has nothing in common with stoicism. Abraham 
 wept ov^er the tomb of Sarah ; Jacob over the 
 tomb of Rachel ; David over that of Absalom ; 
 Jesus over that of Lazarus. So long as our trials 
 have not the effect of weakening our faith, render- 
 ing our submission less sincere, our hopes less lively, 
 our love less real, we may allow our hearts to 
 grieve, our tears to flow. The worldly man rnay 
 accuse us of weakness ; some Cliristians even may 
 suspect the reality of our faith, and the sincerity 
 of our submission, but Jesus, who searcheth the 
 heart, will not condemn us ; He will remember 
 His own tears ; He will have pity upon ours. 
 "Jesus wept!" 
 
 Jesus has before Him a striking example of the 
 instability of all human joys. A short time ago 
 the abode of Bethany, now a house of mourning, 
 was the dwelling of peace and happiness. Laza- 
 rus was the joy and hope of his two sisters ; Mary, 
 sitting at the feet of Jesus, heard with delight the 
 words of eternal life which flowed from His lips ; 
 Martha testified her affection to her Saviour, by 
 her eagerness to serve Him ; all was peace, rest, 
 and joy, in that habitation where Jesus and His 
 disciples used to come and find an agreeable re- 
 treat. And now a few days have passed, and 
 Lazarus is in the grave, mouldering in corruption ; 
 Mary bathed in tears, and clothed in a garment 
 of mourning, is prostrated at the feet of Jesus ; 
 and the Jews, who surround them, made this 
 abode of peace resound with their lamentations. 
 " Jesus wept!" 
 
212 MEDITATION IX. 
 
 Oh ! how difficult it is to engrave upon our 
 hearts the sad truth, that all we possess upon 
 earth is only lent to us for a time, and for a very 
 short time ; that to-morrow, perhaps, the object of 
 our dearest affections may be a corpse ; that all 
 that our soul has made a support of, a source of 
 joy and of happiness, shall be confounded with the 
 dust of the earth ! Disciples of Jesus ! when will 
 you cease to make idols of those objects which the 
 Lord hath entrusted to you, that you might con- 
 secrate them to His service ? When will you 
 learn that this is neither the place nor the time of 
 your rest ? When will you learn to think, to love, 
 and to act, as strangers and pilgrims, for whom 
 there isbut one thing needful — to reach your native 
 country ? And you, ye men of the world, when 
 will you cease to hew out unto yourselves in the 
 wilderness, " broken cisterns which can hold no 
 water ?" When will you cease to '' sow the 
 wind, and reap the whirlwind ?" When will you 
 cease to seek your happiness, your peace, your life, 
 in that which shall disappear to-morrow, like the 
 stubble which the wind scattereth ? Ah ! if Jesus 
 shed tears of compassion over the guilty Jerusa- 
 lem, tears of tenderness over the tomb of a friend, 
 what bitter tears would He have shed over your 
 deplorable folly ! Let His tears be a powerful les- 
 son of instruction to you ! " Jesus wept !" 
 
 But the great soul of Jesus does not confine all 
 its melancholy thoughts to that scene of insta- 
 bility and grief If the view of a tomb, open and 
 ready to receive its prey, makes the heart of every 
 
JESUS WEPT. 213 
 
 reflecting person beat, what must that sight have 
 been to Him who had created man in His own 
 image, and assigned him, as his dweUing, not the 
 dark tomb, but the dehghtful bowers of Eden ? 
 What a comparison must Jesus have drawn be- 
 tween that scene of death which was before Him,, 
 and that in which He first saw man when he camel 
 forth from His hand, pure, perfect, and happy, 
 enjoying the dehghts of an existence of feUcity 
 and love which his Creator had just conferred 
 upon him. Could He recognize His own work? 
 Must He not have beheld, with bitter feehngs, 
 the ravages of sin, which had defiled and ruined 
 the creature, and hewn out his tomb ? If every 
 equipage of death that passe.s through our streets 
 tells the Christian that man is guilty, what must 
 the tomb of Lazarus have told Jesus, the Holy 
 One and the Just, and what the thought of those 
 millions of His creatures, that expire from gene- 
 ration to generation, amid agonies and pains, 
 (notwithstanding the tears of those who love them,) 
 and are engulphed in the abyss which sin has 
 dug out, crying to those that have ears to hear, 
 " Man is fallen!" If even the common observer 
 cannot contemplate, without emotion, the ruins of 
 a majestic edifice which the tempest has over- 
 thrown, what must the architect feel whose sub- 
 lime genius has conceived the design of the build- 
 ing, and who has watched it with solicitude as it 
 rose to its completion ? If we mortal beings, be- 
 ings of a day, who are born amid sufierings, and 
 grow up among " briers and thorns," which cover 
 
214 MEDITATION DC 
 
 an accursed earth by reason of sin, if we groan at 
 the sight of a scene of death and destruction, 
 which attests our fall and degradation, what must 
 have been felt at such a sight by Him who came 
 down from the Father, from the abode of peace, 
 of holiness, of happiness ! " Jesus wept !" 
 
 But O, my beloved brethren ! my companions 
 in exile and misery ! let the tears of Jesus, instead 
 of saddening us, be to us a source of the most 
 precious consolation. Ah ! if He could shed a 
 tear over our miseries, it was because He came to 
 earth to deliver us from these miseries; if our 
 woes touch His compassionate heart. He has come 
 to supply a remedy for them ; if He weeps over a 
 tomb, and over the instability of every^thing 
 human. He is going to destroy him that hath the 
 power of death ; if He mourns over the ravages 
 of sin. He is going to die, and by His death to 
 take away sin and all our defilements. O gene- 
 rous grief ! compassionate tears of my Saviour ! 
 flow, flow upon our miseries. You sweeten their 
 bitterness ; you are a healing balm for our wounds. 
 Now we know, we have seen, that " we have not 
 a High Priest that cannot be touched with a feel- 
 ing of our infirmities." Let us. then, take courage, 
 feeble beings, sinful beings ; let us go to this mer- 
 ciful Saviour ; let us not fear lest He should cast 
 us out ; His tears sufficiently proclaim His love. 
 And if the Jews said, " See how He loved him!" 
 let us also say, " See how he loves us !" He is 
 always the same. Though He is no longer upon 
 earth to shed tears, He is with God, His Father. 
 
JESUS WEPT. 215 
 
 pleading our cause, interceding for us, demanding 
 pardon for our unfaithfulness and for our corrup- 
 tions. He knows all our sorrows, all our tempta- 
 tions, all our weaknesses; Bethany has not 
 escaped from His memory, nor the unhappy from 
 His heart. " Let us come with boldness to the 
 throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and 
 find grace to help in time of need." Let us love 
 this Saviour who has so loved us ; let us conse- 
 crate to Him our hearts which belong to Him by 
 so many titles. O Jesus ! O my Saviour ! Thou 
 seest that I wish to love Thee ! Yes, I would 
 that I could say with one of Thy servants, " I 
 have but one passion ; it is for Thee, Thee alone." 
 
MEDITATION X. 
 
 "LAZARUS, COME FORTH." 
 
 John xi. 37 — 44. 
 
 " And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the 
 eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have 
 died? Jesus therefore again groaning in Himstlf cometh to the 
 grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said. Take 
 ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith 
 unto Him, Lord, by this time he stinketh : for he hath been dead 
 four days. Jesus saith unto her. Said I not unto thee, that, if thou 
 wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God 1 Then they 
 took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. 
 And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, Father, I thank Thee that 
 Thou hast heard Me. And I knew that Thou hearest Me always: 
 but because of the people which stand by I said it, that tliey may 
 believe that Thou hast sent Me. And when He thus had spoken, 
 He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was 
 dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes : and his 
 face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, 
 Loose him, and let him go." 
 
 The part which man performs in the drama of 
 iife, ends with his existence here below. All that 
 is purely terrestrial in the history of the greatest 
 and most powerful among men, dies with them, 
 save perhaps their name, which passes from age 
 to age, like the slight trace which the majestic 
 vessel leaves after it upon the surface of the wa- 
 ters, 0nd which is communicated, for a while, 
 
LAZARUS, COME FORTH. 217 
 
 from wave to wave, until it is lost in the immen- 
 sity of the ocean. Beyond that fatal term, man 
 is impotent. He gives back to the eartli what he 
 had received from it, and all the interests of this 
 world, as far, at least, as he is concerned, are at 
 an end. Those Avho write his history, relate his 
 actions up to the period of his death ; they pass a 
 judgment upon his character, upon the good or 
 bad influence which he exerted over his age, and 
 their task is ended. Such is equally the lot of the 
 hero celebrated for liis achievements, and of the 
 unhappy being who is distinguished among his 
 fellow-men only for his misfortunes. 
 
 How is it, then, that the history which for some 
 time has been affording matter for our medita- 
 tions, just assumes the deepest, the most lively, 
 and the sublimest interest, at the tomb of him who 
 forms the subject of it ? How is it that instead 
 of laying down his pen at the grave of Lazarus, 
 and resting satisfied with merely dropping a tear 
 to his memory, our historian here especially awa- 
 kens our attention, and seems to claim our admi- 
 ration for what he has yet to commit to future 
 generations 1 Ah ! it is because that here he has 
 to do with more than mere mortals. It is that we 
 have here the Prince of Life, who by the exercise 
 of His omnipotence compels the gloomy empire 
 of death, and the limits of human power to re- 
 cede before Him, Jesus, the Lord of glory, is 
 going to act : what obstacle can the grave put in 
 the way of His operation ? Let us summon up 
 our attention in His presence ; let us humble our- 
 19 
 
218 MEDITATION X. 
 
 selves with adoration before His power; let us 
 hear our Evangelist. 
 
 Jesus had demanded where they had laid the 
 mortal remains of Lazarus. He advances towards 
 the abode of death, shedding tears of compassion 
 and grief Alas ! the dispositions of those around 
 Him were little calculated to offer Him consola- 
 tion. He sees Mary in tears ; He sees the Jews, 
 who already had often been witnesses of His 
 mighty works, deriving from these very works an 
 argument in support of their unbelief, and asking, 
 perhaps, with interest, but also with distrust, 
 " Could not this man, which opened the eyes of 
 the blind, have caused that even this man should 
 not have died f What reasoning ! One would 
 have expected to hear them draw a directly op- 
 posite conclusion, and say, " This man which 
 opened the eyes of one born blind, and thus dis- 
 played a power altogetner divine, not only could 
 (if He had seen fit) have caused that even this 
 man should not have died, but also, without any 
 doubt, hath power to recall him from the grave." 
 But no ; the carnal man does not reason thus ; he 
 does not ascend from one of God's perfections to 
 the others ; from His power to His love ; from His 
 love to His infinite goodness. You must deduce 
 from him, one by one, all the consequences of 
 those manifestations of grace which his God con- 
 descends to vouchsafe to him ; and if at any time 
 he understands not the dispensations of eternal 
 wisdom towards him, he draws from thence an 
 ungrateful conclusion against the very benefits 
 
LAZARUS, COME FORTH, 219 
 
 which he had received the day before. " There 
 is nothing new under the sun." We find this 
 same injurious reasoning of unbehef in our own 
 hearts, if not upon our Hps, when after receiving 
 innumerable favours and benefits from the Lordj 
 we fall back into distrust, and forget His gifts and 
 promises if He leaves us in our trial for a day. It 
 was thus that the disciples reasoned on their way 
 to Emmaus : " Jesus of Nazareth was a Prophet 
 mighty in deed and word before God and all the 
 people. But we trusted that it had been He 
 which should have redeemed Israel ; and besides 
 all this, to-day is the third day since these things 
 were done." " O fools," saith the Saviour to them ; 
 " O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that 
 the prophets have spoken!" (Luke xxiv. 19, 21, 
 25.) 
 
 Meanwhile, Jesus waits not to reason with un- 
 belief; " He groaned again in Himself" on see- 
 ing and hearing those around Him ; but " He 
 goes to the sepulchre ;" He goes to confound un- 
 belief and distrust; He goes to comfort those 
 whom He loves by granting to them more than 
 they can ask or think. Alas ! are the most tran- 
 scendent favours of our God the only argument 
 which can convince us of His love ? And yet He 
 consents to grant us those favours. O, disciples 
 of Jesus! ye who, like Mary and Martha, weep 
 for bereavements which ye have sustained, your 
 powerful Saviour can and will go with you to the 
 tomb of those beloved beings whom you follow 
 there with tears. From that tomb itself He will 
 
220 MEDITATION X, 
 
 find means to draw consolation for you, if not by 
 restoring to you again on earth those whom you 
 regret, at least by enabhng you to reahze, by a 
 living faith, that glorious day when they shall be 
 given back to you for ever, pure, holy, and happy. 
 That cold clay, which covers from your view those 
 mortal remains, and preserves the hallowed germ 
 of their glorious resurrection, can no more separate 
 them from God and from you, than the stone 
 which stopped the mouth of the cave where Laza- 
 rus lay, could place a barrier between him and 
 the power of Jesus. The Saviour's love is Hke 
 His power ; it knows no obstacle ; " He cometh to 
 the grave," 
 
 " It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it," or as 
 it may be rendered, " there lay a stone at the en- 
 trance of the cave," which, according to custom, 
 was hewn out of a rock, and into which they de- 
 scended by a few narrow steps, " What," (must 
 the unbelieving Jews have said within themselves, 
 and perhaps the two sisters of Lazarus also,) 
 " what is He going to do at the grave ? Is it to 
 weep there ? Does He wish to have the melan- 
 choly pleasure of seeing at least the place where 
 His friend reposes ? Does He wish to bid those 
 cold remains a last farewell, and thus to testify to 
 the afflicted sisters the sympathy and affection 
 which He had for their brother?" The curiosity 
 which gives rise to those questions is rendered still 
 more lively by that grave and solemn command of 
 Jesus, " Take away the stone !" What anxiety ! 
 What feelings must the two sisters have expe- 
 
LA2ARUS, COME FORTH. 221 
 
 rienced ! Are they going to behold the cold re- 
 mains of their brother whom they so much loved ? 
 What does Jesus mean? Martha, who, while 
 they are taking away the stone, is struck with that 
 dreadful savour of death and corruption which ex- 
 hales from a body that has fallen into dissolution, 
 groans within herself Alas ! it is her brother ! 
 She is unable to support the violence of her feel- 
 ings; her secret hope flies from her breast; she 
 seems to wish to entreat the Lord to allow the 
 lifeless body to rest in peace. " Lord," cries she 
 with a trembling voice, '^ by this time he stinketh, 
 for he hath been dead four days." Four days ! 
 It is then but four days since she could still press 
 to her heart that brother whom she loved ; four 
 days since Lazarus still responded to her affection; 
 but four days since she received his last look, and 
 his last adieu ; and already .... a mass of corrup- 
 tion. Oh ! the vanity of all that is human ! Aw- 
 ful curse of sin ! dust thou art, and unto dust shalt 
 thou return ! Men of the world ! worldly women ! 
 is it then to this perishable body, this handful of 
 clay, that you will consectate your time, your 
 cares, your talents, your fortune, your life ? Ah, 
 fools ! you have an immortal soul ; how long will 
 you neglect it ? how long will you sacrifice it to 
 that which in four days shall turn to corruption 
 and become the food of worms ? 
 
 These words of Martha afford us another lesson. 
 
 Physicians have decided, that the only infaUible 
 
 mark of death is corruption. Well, then ! for 
 
 you, unbelievers ; for you who fooHshly require a 
 
 19* 
 
222 MEDITATION X. 
 
 mathematical certainty in religious truths, this last 
 feature was necessary to our narrative. It was 
 necessary, in order that there might not remain 
 any pretext for not believing in the reality of the 
 miracle which was going to be wrought, and in 
 Him who was about to perform it. It was neces- 
 sary, in order that if you reject the divinity of His 
 mission, the responsibility of your unbelief may 
 rest entirely upon your own guilty heads ; it was 
 necessary, in order that God might have done 
 every thing to convince you and save you ; and 
 that He might be found just when He condemns. 
 One of your masters, Spinoza, has told the world, 
 that if he could have believed the resurrection of 
 Lazarus, he would have dashed in pieces his 
 whole system, and embraced without repugnance 
 the christian faith.* But believe him not ; his 
 reason could not doubt, it was his heart that would 
 not believe. " Ye will not come to Me that ye 
 might have life !" 
 
 Jesus, who would not reason with Mary, be- 
 cause she was too exclusively under the influence 
 of grief; Jesus, who thought it enough to weep 
 with her, because He knows the consolation which 
 is suited to each individual, condescends in His 
 infinite compasssion to stop a moment to strength- 
 en the wavering faith of Martha. " Said I not 
 unto thee," saith He, " that if thou wouldest be- 
 lieve, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" Oh ! 
 how often might this merciful Saviour have ad- 
 dressed to us, with justice, this reproach, " Said I 
 
 * Baile's Dictionary, Art. Spinoza. 
 
LAZARUS, COME FORTH. 223 
 
 not unto thee ?" When, in the hour of trial, our 
 soul no longer ventures to look to Jesus to obtain 
 from Him deliverance or a submissive will ; when 
 our heart, shut up by grief, withered by doubt, 
 allows its faith to fail, its hopes to disappear ; 
 when, in the darkness which surrounds us, we are 
 unable to raise our eyes and to behold above us a 
 starry sky ; when, yielding to doubt, we are ready 
 to exclaim with Martha, " Lord, by this time he 
 stinketh, for he hath been dead four days," all is 
 lost, there is no more hope in this life ; where are 
 now the promises of our God 1 why do these pro- 
 mises no longer speak to our souls? might not 
 Jesus approach us with this reproof of His tender 
 compassion : " ' Said I not unto thee, that, if thou 
 wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of 
 God V In the despondency of thy heart, being 
 unable to comprehend this severe dispensation of 
 My wisdom, feeling only thy grief, thou art ready 
 to be cast down and discouraged ; but said I not 
 unto thee that all things shall work together for 
 good to them that love God? In the feeling of 
 thy weakness and of thy misery thou canst only 
 mourn because thou makest no progress in the 
 knowledge of My ways ; thou doubtest whether I 
 am thy Saviour ; finding in thyself so little love, 
 thou doubtest whether thou belongest to Me, 
 whether I have redeemed thee, whether thou art 
 a child of God. But said I not unto thee, that 
 * he that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting 
 life V Said I not unto thee, that thou art ' snved 
 freely by grace V that ' the gift of God is eternal 
 
224 MEDITATION X. 
 
 life V Said I not unto thee, that ' I break not the 
 bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax V that 
 ' like as a father pitieth his children, even so the 
 Lord pitieth them that fear Him V " 
 
 " Beheve," and thou shalt see the glory of God ! 
 Such should be the sole end of thy life ; such the 
 object which thou shouldest seek, even in the 
 midst of thy sufferings, instead of sighing only 
 after the happiness and interest of the moment. 
 Oh ! when the old man, with all its strength, 
 which is but weakness ; with all its wisdom, which 
 is but folly ; when the old man, with all its doubts 
 and agonies, with all its fears and anxieties, holds 
 its peace and retires into the silence of its own 
 nothingness ; when in the calm of the soul faith 
 pierces the clouds and contemplates the heavens; 
 when hope spreads out its wings, shakes off the 
 dust of earth, takes its flight above all that is mor- 
 tal ; when the heart expands to feel and to love, 
 and soars toward its Redeemer, toM^ards Him 
 whom it loves though it sees Him not ; when our 
 lips are open to give utterance to the cry of Mary, 
 " Rabboni" Master, or to the exclamation of Thom- 
 as, " My Lord and my God !" when a deep feehng 
 of veneration lays us prostrate before God, and 
 fills us with an idea of His eternal majesty — then 
 the Spirit of the Most High — that Spirit which 
 conducted Ezekiel into the valley of vision, to 
 show him the glory of God " in the dry bones," 
 works in our soul ; we " believe," and we " see 
 the glory of God," — the glory of God "in the 
 
LAZARUS, COME FORTH. 225 
 
 midst of trials," — the glory of God even in the 
 presence of the tomb ! 
 
 Meanwhile the stone is taken away, the body 
 of Lazarus, laid in its cold abode, bound around 
 with grave-clothes, appears to the eyes of all. 
 What a sight ! what a feeling of fear, of astonish- 
 ment, of horror, of anxious expectation, of secret 
 hope, must have taken possession of all the spec- 
 tators, according to the dispositions of faith or 
 unbelief with which they were influenced. A 
 mournful silence reigns around the grave : all 
 who are present appear like so many shades in 
 this abode of death, whose chilling influence seems 
 to have frozen the life in their hearts. Scarcely 
 do they venture to raise their eyes from the corpse 
 to try and read with anxiety in the looks of Jesus 
 what is His intention. The Prince of Life alone 
 is filled with that spirit whereby "He calls the 
 things which are not as though they were ;" He 
 advances majestically to the mouth of the sepul- 
 chre — He stops — lifts His eyes to heaven. Ah ! 
 He wishes not that the eyes and thoughts of those 
 around Him should rest upon and grovel among 
 the direful ruins of death and destruction. " Jesus 
 lifted up His eyes to heaven," signifying with suf- 
 ficient plainness, that on earth there is neither 
 succor nor consolation to be found ; that we must 
 " hft up our eyes unto the hills from whence com- 
 eth our help ;" that we must not " seek the living 
 among the dead ;" that our soul must take its 
 flight, rise upon the wings of faith, above death, 
 the grave, aflliction, tears ; above the world and 
 
226 MEDITATION X. 
 
 ourselves. O why, in our trials, do we grievously 
 fall back upon ourselves with all the weight of our 
 sufferings ; why does our soul envelop itself in its 
 grief as in a sombre cloud ? Why, when we see 
 some beloved being descend into the grave, do we 
 follow his cold remains with all our thoughts and 
 all our bleeding affections into the dust of the 
 earth, from whence we can draw nothing but grief 
 and regret 1 Alas ! it is that we are carnal ; we 
 cannot, like Jesus, lift up our eyes to heaven, from 
 whence we would derive faith, hope, and consola- 
 tion ; it is that our dull and unbelieving heart falls 
 back to the earth with all its weight, and cannot 
 rise above death, and quench with Him, who is 
 the living and the eternal One, that thirst for im- 
 mortality which devours it, O my Saviour, teach 
 us thus to raise our eyes and our thoughts, our af- 
 fections and our prayers, to heaven ! 
 
 Jesus would also, in directing the thoughts of 
 all to heaven, point to that eternal power by 
 which he was going to work a stupendous mira- 
 cle. He does not wish that any of those around 
 Him should remain in doubt in this respect; He 
 wishes to give a sacredness to the action which 
 He is going to perform ; He wishes that it should 
 be ascribed to none but God alone. He had pre- 
 dicted that the sickness of Lazarus should sub- 
 serve "the glory of God." He proceeds to give, 
 by a most striking act, a commentary on His own 
 words ; but that no one may divert from God the 
 glory which is due to Him, He shows beforehand 
 
LAZARUS, COME FORTH. 227 
 
 that it is His powerful arm which is going to 
 work. 
 
 " Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard 
 Me!" What! "That Thou/' He saith, "hast 
 heard Me !" and yet He has not yet seen His 
 prayer answered. Lazarus is still in the tomb, 
 the prey of death and corruption. " Thou hast 
 heard Me !" and yet not a spark of life has enter- 
 ed the bosom of Lazams. " Thou hast heard 
 Me ?" and yet those who surround Him have be- 
 fore their eyes only a mouldering corpse. 
 
 O, my beloved brethren I here is faith ; here 
 is prayer; here is confidence in the promises 
 of God, who cannot lie. To real faith a promise 
 of God is a gift; a prayer sent up to the throne 
 of the Most High, in the spirit of supplication, is 
 a prayer heard. 
 
 Jesus, on approaching the tomb of Lazarus, 
 had prayed in the secret recesses of His heart, 
 and in His view that prayer is already heard — 
 Lazarus is restored to life, his sisters are com- 
 forted, the faith of His disciples is strengthened, 
 God is glorified, the Son of Man is glorified. 
 Oh ! how different would our prayers be if we 
 could thus receive the promises of our God as 
 already accomplished ! It is by this spirit, this 
 faith, that the Apostle Paul sees for himself, and 
 for those believers to whom he is writing, all 
 difficulties surmounted, all temptations overcome, 
 all tlieir combats victoriously terminated, all their 
 souls purified from sin, and that he cries out 
 triumphantly, " We are more than conquerors 
 
228 MEDITATION X. 
 
 through Him who loved us." Passing over time 
 and life, death and the grave, he cries again, 
 " He hath raised us up together, and made us sit 
 together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." 
 Embracing by this same faith all the gifts of God, 
 still in the promise, he thus speaks to the Corin- 
 thians : " Whether the world, or life, or death, or 
 things present, or things to come, all things are 
 yours and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." 
 (1 Cor. iii.) " I thank Thee," saith Jesus in an- 
 ticipation ; but with what difficulty do we (even 
 when we have seen our prayers answered) lift our 
 cold hearts to heaven and say, " I thank Thee." 
 O ye of little faith, little gratitude, little love ! 
 
 " I know that Thou hearest Me always, but be- 
 cause of the people which stand by I said it that 
 they may believe that Thou hast sent Me." Who 
 does not recognize in this familiar language of 
 confidence Him who is one with the Father ; Him 
 who from all eternity has taken part in Flis coun- 
 sels ; Him who " was in the beginning with God, 
 and was God?" "I know that Thou hearest 
 Me always!" and how could it be otherwise with 
 Him whom the Father hath proclaimed to earth 
 in these words, " This is My beloyed Son, in 
 whom I am well pleased !" Who does not re- 
 cognize in this tender solicitude for the flock which 
 surrounds Him, the good Shepherd who giveth 
 His life for the sheep; who anxiously traverses 
 the mountains and the valleys, to seek that which 
 was lost ? O, my brethren, if hitherto we have 
 placed so little confidence in our prayers, let us 
 
LAZARUS, COME FORTH. 229 
 
 take courage ! Jesus is always the same. Even 
 now, as in the days of His flesh ; before the throne 
 of God, as before the grave of Lazarus, He says 
 to His Father, with the same confidence, when 
 He prays for us, " I know that Thou hearest Me, 
 always!" As our High Priest He offers to God 
 His Father our feeble prayers, purified from all 
 defilement, and kindled by the fire of His love. 
 And, O delightful thought, consoling assurance, 
 '' God heareth Him always." 
 
 The prayer of Jesus had awakened a holy con- 
 fidence in the minds of those who surrounded 
 Him, instead of that terror with which the view 
 of the corpse had penetrated them. All is thus 
 made ready, both in the minds of those who are 
 about to witness this astonishing miracle, and in 
 the tomb \yhich was opened to their view. No- 
 thing more is wanting than a word of Almighty 
 power; the Incarnate God is going to utter it. 
 " And when He had thus spoken. He cried with a 
 loud voice, Lazarus come.forth !" O amazement ! 
 O terror ! this single word, which penetrated the 
 souls of all who were present, made life enter into 
 the bosom of the dead ; the bonds af the tomb are 
 broken ; death delivering up its prey, confesses 
 itself vanquished by the voice of Jesus ; the eyes 
 of all see the cold limbs of Lazarus begin to 
 move ; he rises ; he comes forth still bound with 
 grave-clothes. What a sight ! What a specta- 
 cle ! " Then he that was dead came forth, bound 
 hand and foot with" grave-clothes, and his face 
 was bound about with a napkin !" Astonishment, 
 20 
 
230 MEDITATION X. 
 
 terror, seize the minds of all; all remain, mute 
 with surprise and fear. Martha and Mary dare 
 not embrace their brother again ; they cannot be- 
 lieve their senses ; doubt and fear impose silence 
 upon their affection ; it would appear as if death 
 had seized upon the hearts of all to avenge itself 
 for the defeat which it had just suffered, Jesus 
 alone breaks the silence. He says with majestic 
 calmness, " Loose him, and let him go." 
 
 O power ! O divinity of my Saviour ! I bow be- 
 fore Thee, and adore Thee in the silence of ad- 
 miration. Oh ! how clearly do I recognize here 
 that mighty voice which in the beginning said, 
 Let there be light, and there was light!" Yes, I 
 recognize it, it is the voice which calleth things 
 that are not as though they were, and which rais- 
 eth the dead. Let my knees bend before the di- 
 vine Saviour. " God over all blessed for ever- 
 more !" who is hke unto Thee in heaven or in 
 earth? Thou spakest, and it was done; Thou 
 commandedst and it stood fast ! At Thy voice 
 the grave delivers up its dead ; the corruption of 
 the tomb fleeth before Thy face ! Who is there 
 in heaven or in earth that can resist Thy power? 
 how happy are we to know that in Thy hand is 
 our destiny for eternity ! If Thou lovest us ; if 
 we are Thy redeemed ; if Thou art for us, who 
 can be against us? What shall we have to fear? 
 Death? In Thy presence it has no more power. 
 The grave ? At Thy voice it becomes the thea- 
 tre of a glorious resurrection, and life flourishes in 
 the very field of de ath. Our soul waiteth upon Thee, 
 
LAZAEUS, COME FORTH, 231 
 
 whether in hfe or in death. Even from the dust we 
 shall lisp forth Thy praises ; we shall mingle our 
 feeble voice with the voices of celestial intelU- 
 gences, to celebrate Thy glorious name. O our 
 divine Saviour, our Redeemer, and our King ! we 
 shall ascribe to Thee throughout eternity, glory, 
 and strength, and praise. Thou art God over all ; 
 Thy dominion hath no hmits. All the angels of 
 God worship Thee. Oh ! may the redeemed of 
 every tongue, and people and nation, thus cele- 
 brate Thy praises, for ever and ever ! 
 
 What more shall I say to you, my beloved 
 brethren ? Shall I describe to you the transports 
 of joy and gratitude of the sisters of Lazarus ? 
 Shall I show them to you, now pressing to their 
 hearts with tears of happiness a beloved brother, 
 who is about again to partake of their combats, 
 their hopes, their fears upon earth, now prostrat- 
 ing themselves at the feet of Jesus, filled with a 
 lively and never-ceasing gratitude ? Shall I des- 
 cribe to you the family of Bethany recovering 
 their domestic joys, and consecrating themselves, 
 more entirely than ever, to the Author of their 
 happiness? Shall I tell you all the lessons which 
 the sisters of Lazarus drew from the issue of their 
 trial — lessons of faith, of gratitude, of loVe to 
 Jesus, a thousand times more precious still than the 
 happiness of possessing a beloved brother? Shall 
 I show you this happy family again possessing 
 Jesus among them six days before the passover, 
 that is, six days before His death (John xii. 1 — 8,) 
 and Mary, eagerly seizing the first opportunity 
 
232 MEDITATION X. 
 
 which presented itself, pubHcly to testify to her 
 Saviour her gratitude and love, by pubKcly ren- 
 dering to Him the honour due to her Lord and 
 her King, whose Majesty she had witnessed at 
 the tomb of her brother? Shall I show you 
 Martha joyfully waiting upon Him as in the days 
 of their former prosperity, and Lazarus sitting at 
 table with his Divine Saviour, who had raised 
 him from the dead — a living witness of His 
 power and godhead ? What a picture ! what a 
 termination to so many trials where Jesus appears 
 as a comforter ! In fine, shall I speak to you of 
 what must have passed in the minds of the dis- 
 ciples, for whose sake Jesus was pleased to give 
 this striking manifestation of His omnipotence, 
 and to whom He had said " I am glad for your 
 sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may 
 believe ?" No, we will not stop to meditate on 
 these subjects, however interesting ; we will leave 
 them to your own reflections, and rather direct 
 our thoughts to ourselves, for the resurrection 
 of Lazarus concerns us also ; and if he came 
 forth from the tomb at the command of Jesus, it 
 was to convey to us, even to us also, strong con- 
 solation, powerful encouragement, salutary in- 
 structions. Yet a httle while, and that voice 
 of power which was heard at Bethany, shall be 
 heard again with the sound of the last trumpet, 
 through the wide expanse of heaven ; and we all, 
 whatever be our condition, shall rise like Lazarus, 
 and with us, all the generations of mankind 
 which have appeared in succession upon the 
 
LAZARUS, COME FORTH. 233 
 
 earth. What a moment ! what a scene ! Oh ! 
 how happy, then, shall be the friends of Jesus ; 
 the Lazaruses, the Marthas, the Marys, who shall 
 behold again, with transports of happiness, those 
 whom they loved in the Lord upon earth, those 
 whose departure cost them so many tears, those 
 with whom they shall be united for ever in that 
 place where there shall be no more misery nor 
 pain, nor separation, nor death, nor mourning, nor 
 tears, because there shall be no more sin ! The 
 happiness of the family of Bethany is but a feeble 
 image of that blessedness, since, alas ! that family 
 was still upon earth, exposed to trials, conflicts, 
 and anxieties ; and its members, after having en- 
 joyed their happiness for a short time, were 
 doomed again to bid each other a final adieu, as 
 far as this world is concerned ! If we belong to 
 Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life, let His 
 power, which is equalled only 1^ His love, be our 
 consolation, our support, our secret refuge ! Let 
 nothing affright us, nothing cast us down ! Let 
 us, by that hope which maketh not ashamed, pass 
 over time and the grave ! Let us realize, by an 
 unshaken faith, the glorious promises of our 
 Divine Saviour, and the happiness of seeing, as 
 He is. Him who hath so loved us, who hath wept 
 over our trials and our afflictions. Him who willeth 
 that " where He is, there we may be with Him 
 also." Let us appropriate to ourselves the tender 
 compassion which He manifested towards the 
 family of Bethany ! 
 
 Let the tears which He shed over the tomb of 
 20* 
 
234 MEDITATION X. 
 
 a friend*, flow into the wounds which death in- 
 flicts upon our hearts. And while we hear His 
 irresistible voice calling forth Lazarus from the 
 tomb, let us remember that He has " overcome 
 for us the world, the devil, death, and the grave ; 
 and that now in all things we are more than con- 
 querors through Him that loved us !" It was my 
 intention to have terminated my meditation here ; 
 but, shall I say it ? — amid those sweet thoughts 
 upon which we have been dwelhng, an involun- 
 tary feeling of fear has crept into my heart. Yes, 
 I must tell it to you ; were we to indulge it, it 
 would make us shudder with horror. I picture to 
 my mind that solemn moment when, " at .the 
 voice of Him who raiseth the dead," we shall all 
 come forth from the grave ; when all we who are 
 here present in this house of worship, shall see 
 and recognize one another, like Lazarus and his 
 two sisters, whe* with transports of joy, they 
 rushed into one another's embraces, in the pre- 
 sence of the Redeemer. And if, at that moment, 
 when we are about to see our eternal destiny de- 
 cided, it shall be found that any of you whom I 
 now behold seated on those benches, listening to 
 my meditations, if it shall be found that even one 
 of you belongs not to Jesus, that he has not re- 
 ceived from Him pardon unto life, that he is yet 
 in his sins, and under the weight of that condem- 
 nation which he has deserved ; deceived by vain 
 delusions, by an appearance of religion ; in a word, 
 without God, without a Saviour, without hope, 
 having neither part nor lot in this matter ! Oh, 
 
LAZARUS, COME FORTH. 235 
 
 terror ! oh, despair ! I cannot for a moment en- 
 dure this agonizing thought; it overwhelms my 
 heart ; it rushes upon my soul, like the rocks and 
 mountains, which the reprobate shall call upon 
 and supplicate in vain to fall upon them, and cover 
 them from the wrath of Him that sitteth upon the 
 throne. O immortal, accountable beings ! I be- 
 seech you by the mercies of God, avert, avert this 
 dreadful anticipation, by hastening this day, this 
 hour, to Golgotha, and seeking there a refuge at 
 the foot of the cross of Christ. And you who have 
 among your friends, or perhaps in your families, 
 some Lazarus, some being dear to your hearts by 
 the bonds of nature or of friendship, who is still 
 ignorant of the Saviour, and has not called upon 
 the only Name by which we must be saved ; oh ! 
 pray, supplicate the Divine Redeemer to touch 
 the heart of that beloved being, to snatch him from 
 inevitable ruin, as a brand plucked out of the 
 burning ; to save him in spite of himself, while 
 pardon, salvation, and reconciliation are possible. 
 My God ! my God ! is there among those who 
 hear Thy word, who see Thy love and Thy com- 
 passion ; is there among those whom I know, 
 whom I love upon earth, any one who in the 
 great day shall become a monument of Thine 
 eternal justice, instead of being a monument of 
 Thy grace and of Thine eternal love ! Divine 
 Saviour ! if Thou hast ever heard a prayer, if 
 Thou hast ever allowed Thyself to be moved by 
 an earnest suppHcation, or by the cry of a soul in 
 distress, take away, take away from my heart the 
 
236 MEDITATION X. 
 
 overwhelming weight of this agonizing fear ! Oh, 
 I must hope, I must hope, or — ah ! pardon. Lord ! 
 Thou wiliest not the death of a sinner; Thou 
 wiliest rather that he should be converted and 
 live ; and with Thee all things are possible. 
 
MEDITATION XL 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 John xi. 45 — 52. 
 
 " Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the 
 things which Jesus did, believed on Him. But some of them went 
 their ways to the Pharisees, and told ihem what things Jesus had 
 done. Then gathered the Chief Priests and the Pharisees a council, 
 and said, what do we 7 for thi.s Man doeth many miracles. If we 
 let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him : and the Romans 
 shall come and take away both our place and nation. And one of 
 them, named Caiaphas, being the High Priest that same year, said 
 unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedi- 
 ent for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the 
 whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself: but 
 being High Priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die 
 for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also He 
 should gather together in one the children of God that were scat- 
 tered abroad" 
 
 If there be a prophecy, to the truth of which 
 all ages, from the time of Jesus Christ to the pre- 
 sent day, have borne a striking and irresistible 
 witness, it is that which Simeon pronounced in the 
 temple of Jerusalem, when, embracing in his arms, 
 now enfeebled by age, the infant in whom he saw 
 the hope and salvation of Israel — the desire of all 
 nations, he said, " Behold this child is set for the 
 fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a 
 
238 MEDITATION XI. 
 
 sign which shall be spoken against." This pro- 
 phecy was indeed fulfilled during the whole course 
 of the Saviour's ministry ; it was fulfilled at the 
 tomb of Lazarus, when some believed, and others 
 went their way to stir up the hatred of the Phari- 
 sees ; it was fulfilled at the period of His death, 
 when some cried, " Crucify Him, crucify Him ! 
 His blood be on us and on our children," while 
 future ages were to see in the cross, and in the 
 blood of the New-Testament, the sign of their 
 eternal salvation ; it was fulfilled in the first 
 preaching of the Apostles, who were beaten with 
 rods by some, while thousands of others were con- 
 verted that they might have life ; it has been ful- 
 filling during eighteen hundred years, in all places 
 where the Gospel of Christ has b^en preached ; 
 that Gospel which has been to some " a savour 
 of death unto death," but unto others a " savour 
 of Hfe unto life," and '• the power of God unto 
 salvation to them that believe." It is still fulfill- 
 ing in our own day, when the doctrine of Christ 
 crucified continues to excite hatred and persecu- 
 tion, while it constitutes the consolation, the joy, 
 and the life of all those who believe. 
 
 Let the enemies of the Gospel then know that 
 with all their enmity and rancour they are work- 
 ing a deceitful work. Let them know that they 
 are living witnesses of the truth of those very doc- 
 trines which they oppose ; that they powerfully 
 confirm our faith in Christ crucified; that they 
 are accomplishing a most important prophecy; 
 that they are building up that which they would 
 
CONCLUSION. 239 
 
 pull down, even to its foundations ; that they have 
 the misery of being blind and unwilling instru- 
 ments in the hands of the Almighty for the estab- 
 lishment of a kingdom of which they shall not be 
 citizens ; that they are like those hireling work- 
 men of the Israelites, who prepared with great la- 
 bour the materials of a magnificent temple into 
 which they were never to be allowed to enter. 
 
 The end of the miracle of Christ was attained 
 as it regarded the family of Bethany, who were 
 comforted, and came out of their trial full of joy, 
 confidence, and love ; it was attained with regard 
 to the disciples, who saw in it the glory of God ; 
 it was attained with regard to many of the Jews, 
 who, ''ha\dng seen the things which Jesus did, 
 believed on Him." Was it attained with regard 
 to the other witnesses? Was it attained with re- 
 gard to the body of the Pharisees, High Priests, 
 and Scribes ? Alas ! it was ; but in the sense of 
 the fatal prophecy of Simeon. Let us hear our 
 historian for the last time, and "he that hath ears 
 to hear, let him hear." 
 
 " Many of the Jews which came to Mary," 
 (being persons of a sincere and upright heart, a 
 heart prepared by the grace of God,) " and had 
 seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him." 
 It was natural for men of an honest and upright 
 disposition to infer from the greatness of the mira- 
 cle, the greatness of Him who had wrought it by 
 a single word of Flis omnipotence. They saw 
 that manifestation of the divine power with their 
 own eyes ; they had the happiness to believe that 
 
240 . MEDITATION XL 
 
 it could be none other than the Christ, the Mes» 
 siah, promised to Israel, to whom such a power 
 had been given ; they saw with their eyes, and 
 they believed with their heart. And although we 
 cannot suppose that their faith was as yet enlight- 
 ened by the Avhole truth which Jesus had come to 
 communicate to the world, yet from the time that 
 they believed in His divinity, their heart was open, 
 and ready to receive with submission and full 
 confidence every word that proceeded out of His 
 mouth. What more was wanting? the end of 
 Jesus was attained. "Because of the people 
 which stand by I said it, that they may believe 
 that Thou hast sent Me." 
 
 Miracles alone do not convert ; but they dispose 
 the heart, through faith, to give heed to the word 
 of eternal life, which is the instrument of conver- 
 sion. Nicodemus believes the miracles of Jesus ; 
 he sees in them a proof of His Divinity: " Rab- 
 bi," saith he, " We know that Thou art a teacher 
 come from God, for no man can do these miracles 
 which Thou doest, except God be with him." 
 Yet Nicodemus, notwithstanding that degree of 
 faith, and although a Master in Israel; is ignorant 
 of the first elements of the doctrine of regenera- 
 tion ; but constrained by that faith, he comes to 
 Jesus, and earnestly asks to be instructed in the 
 knowledge of salvation, which he is thus disposed 
 to receive. Such was the faith produced in the 
 hearts of the Jews, by the miracle of Jesus. It id 
 a first step, but a step which most frequently leads 
 farther. Such also was the end for which St. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 241 
 
 John left us this admirable account of the resur- 
 rection of Lazarug, with all its minute details. 
 To every one who reads it with attention, it has a 
 force of evidence as strong as it had to those who, 
 like St. John, were eye-witnesses of the fact. "Is 
 this, then," (must he exclaim who sincerely seeks 
 the trutli,) " is this the Saviour whom the Gospel 
 proclaims to me ? Oh ! I will open my whole 
 soul to such a Master, such a Saviour ; I know 
 that in following Him I cannot walk in darkness. 
 I will study, line by line, the word of eternal truth, 
 which He has brought down from heaven ; I 
 know that that word cannot cause either my mind 
 or my heart to err ; I will meditate upon it with 
 full confidence ; I will hail the Author of it as my 
 Guide, my King, my Redeemer!" The soul thus 
 disposed will not be long in finding that the doc- 
 trine and word of Christ crucified is sweeter to his 
 heart than honey to his mouth ; and from faith in 
 a miracle, he will rise to the faith of experience ; 
 he will see, he will feel more divinity in a line of 
 the eternal word, than the Jews saw at the tomb 
 of Lazarus, Such is the place, beautiful and use- 
 ful, which miracles should occupy in the divine 
 economy. Hence we are fully persuaded that 
 those who expect the revival of miraculous pow- 
 ers in the Church ere it arrive at its promised 
 glory, reverse the order of things. They would 
 descend to the lowest step, instead of ascending, 
 like the angels on the ladder of Jacob, and con- 
 templating the heavens above. They would 
 themselves return and bring back others to the 
 21 
 
242 MEDITATION XI. 
 
 faith of Nlcodemus, the faith of miracles — a faith 
 which may exist without a knowledge of the love 
 of God, and of the new life, and which at the 
 most can do no more than lead to it ; instead of 
 rising by the faith of the heart, the faith of love, 
 the faith of confidence, to the loftiest heights of spi- 
 rituality and of the christian life. They desire the 
 " milk of children, instead of the strong meat of 
 old men ," " God is love, and he that loveth abid- 
 eth in God." Now what has he who abideth in 
 God by love, to do with the visible material man- 
 ifestation of the power and love of his God? 
 Whether is St. John, reclining with confidence 
 upon the bosom of his Master, or the multitude 
 that follow him, loudly demanding miracles, near- 
 er to Jesus? Jesus Himself hath answered the 
 question. " An evil and adulterous generation 
 seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be 
 given unto it, but the sign of th& prophet Jonas. 
 And He left them, and departed." (Matt. xvi. 4.) 
 Yet Jesus, in his infinite condescension, has of- 
 ten made use of miracles, to draw to Himself the 
 giddy minds of " an evil and adulterous genera- 
 tion." And we are far from concluding, from 
 what we have just said, with some systematizing 
 Christians, that because miracles have for a time 
 ceased, they shall never again be revived in 
 the Church. We shall not, however, stop to ex- 
 amine this unprofitable question. We shall ra- 
 ther proceed to consider, for our instruction, how 
 the Jews of Bethany profited by the greatest mi- 
 racle that was ever performed before the eyes of 
 
CONCLUSION. 243 
 
 raen. Ah ! what would the disciples, what would 
 the sisters of Lazarus have said, if amid their 
 joys, amid their happiness, and amid the over- 
 flowings of their lively affection, they had been 
 told that the work of might and of love, that pow- 
 erful appeal which was to he re-echoed through all 
 Judea, and throughout all ages, that the resurrec- 
 tion of Lazarus was to become the second cause 
 of the sufferings and death of the Holy One and 
 the Just ? Could they have believed it ? And 
 yet, oh mystery of depravity ! such was the case ; 
 this is what the disciple whom Jesus loved now 
 proceeds to relate. How did not his pen, after 
 having described, in so touching a manner, the 
 love and compassion of Jesus, shrink from disclos- 
 ing to us those depths of' iniquity ? Ah ! it was 
 because we needed to know well, that " whoso- 
 ever loveth is born of God," and that " the whole 
 world lieth in wickedness." 
 
 " But some of them went their way to the Phari- 
 sees, and told them what things Jesus had done." 
 What! they had come to Bethany, to comfort 
 Martha and Mary ; they had seen their grief, they 
 had seen their Heavenly Friend approach the 
 tomb of Lazarus, weeping ; they had seen Him 
 raise His majestic eyes to heaven; they had 
 heard His prayer ; they had heard His irresistible 
 voice, "Lazarus come forth!" They had seen 
 him that was dead come forth from the tomb; 
 they had seen the transports of joy, and happi- 
 ness, and gratitude, which took possession of all 
 hearts present ; and instead of " seeing the glory 
 
244 MEDITATION XI. 
 
 of God," and falling down at the feet of Jesus, 
 they go to tell these things to those M'ho were 
 known to be His most inveterate enemies. Such 
 is man, or such is what he will become the mo- 
 ment he is given up to his own hardness of heart, 
 and enmity against God ! And yet you say that 
 he is naturally good ; that he loves truth, that he 
 yields to evidence. Sooner would I believe you, 
 were you to tell me that the rock which stands 
 upon the sea-shore yields to the billows which for 
 ages have dashed against it without effect, and 
 driven back, expired at its base. If the overpow- 
 ering evidence which issued from the tomb of 
 Lazarus was not sufficient to convince man ; if 
 the love which Jesus there displayed could not 
 touch his heart, or conciliate his enmity, then seek 
 in your systems of religion and morality some 
 more powerful means of producing these effects, 
 and prove the goodness and natural tenderness of 
 the heart of man. But we forewarn you that we 
 require facts ; that we will not be satisfied with 
 words, or phrases, or mere assertions. Ah ! rather 
 acknowledge that the power of grace alone is ca- 
 pable of persuading, of touching, and of changing 
 man's heart. Say not that if revelation were 
 accompanied with more evidence, or if there were 
 in the Gospel fewer things above reason, man 
 would more easily believe. No; the Jews who, 
 at the tomb of Lazarus, continued unbelievers, and 
 enemies to Christ, exhibit an undeniable evidence 
 against your reasonings, and supply us with a 
 commentary oi facts upon these remarkable words 
 
CONCLUSION. 245 
 
 of Jesus: " If they hear not Moses and the proph- 
 ets, neither will they be persuaded, though one 
 rose from the dead." (Luke xvi, 31.) Do ye re- 
 quire another proof? Let us hear the chief priests 
 and Pharisees. " Then the chief priests and 
 Pharisees," having heard the account which was 
 given them by eye-witnesses of the resurrection 
 of Lazarus, gathered a special council to delibe- 
 rate on that important affair. The chief priests ! 
 The ministers of religion, the men to whom God 
 had committed the charge of labouring for His 
 glory and for the advancement of His kingdom ; 
 those whose duty it was to exert all their power 
 and influence for the spread of His truth, as soon 
 as they became acquainted with it, and whatever 
 it might cost them ! Now how do they comply 
 with these obligations? " What do we ?" say they 
 among themselves. Independently of the know- 
 ledge which they have of their duty as ministers 
 of religion, in this case it is impossible that they can 
 be in error, or even in doubt ; they are convinced 
 of the reality of the miracles of Christ; this they 
 acknowledge themselves, " This man doeth many 
 miracles ;" and this knowledge, this persuasion, 
 is a precious talent confided to their trust, of 
 which, whatever be their opinion, they must give 
 an awful account hereafter. 
 
 Now with so much knowledge, so much light, 
 such convictions, does there rise up among thera 
 some Gamaliel, to make the voice of truth and 
 justice be heard with power? Is there in the 
 ecclesiastical body some Israehte without guile, 
 21* 
 
246 MEDITATION XI. 
 
 who says, "This Man doeth many miracles!" 
 then he is from God ; then we ought to hear him, 
 an^ humbly to range om'selves among his follow- 
 ers. No ! on the contrary, in their council, aiys 
 passion, selfishness, and pride. Idolaters of them- 
 selves, of their pride, of their vanity, of their influ* 
 ence, of their money, they have no fear of God 
 before their eyes, and hence what can we expect 
 from them? No more than we can expect from 
 any man whose heart has not been changed and 
 sanctified. Here it cannot be said that we have 
 taken an example of the human heart from the 
 most depraved class of society. On the contrary, 
 these were men of the greatest enlightenment ; 
 men in whom education might have been expec- 
 ted to have developed most fully the moral feel- 
 ing ; in a word, they were ministers of religion. 
 Well, then, let us hear them ; let us seek in them 
 those principles of justice, uprightness, and virtue, 
 which are said to exist in the human heart. 
 Hear their reasoning ; hear how they answer this 
 natural question ; " What shall we do ?" 
 
 " If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe 
 on Him, and the Romans shall come and take 
 away both our place and nation." " If we let 
 Him thus alone !" Thus from the outset their in- 
 quiry is not whether He is of God, whether he 
 declares the truth, whether He is the Messiah 
 promised to Israel ! The question of truth and 
 justice is from the very commencement trampled 
 under foot ! they do not give it a moment's de- 
 liberation ; they do not even take it into consider- 
 
CONCLUSION. 247 
 
 ation. One thing alone enters into their counsels 
 — not to let Him alone, to oppose Him by force, 
 to condemn Him. Oh ! depth of iniquity ! fright- 
 ful degradation of the human heart! inconceiv- 
 able contempt of the most obvious and the most 
 sacred principles of justice and virtue ! This 
 single sentence discovers to us the whole of that 
 deep corruption which fills the soul of those 
 judges of Israel, those false prophets, who having 
 the key of knowledge, not only refuse to enter in 
 themselves, but hinder them that were entering 
 in. " If we let Him alone !" Fools ! feeble worms 
 of the earth ! ye deliberate in your miserable 
 pride, if you will let Him alone who has just com- 
 manded with authority death and the grave ; Him 
 who has just displayed to us a power altogether 
 divine ; Him who made the worlds ; Him who by 
 a single word could command you back into that 
 original nothing out of which He had brought 
 you ! Thus it is that a deplorable blindness in- 
 variably accompanies passion and enmity against 
 God. Thus it is that in our own days, as well as in 
 the days of Christ, we see the great ones of the 
 earth, the Pharisees, and chief priests, " imagining 
 vain things, and taking counsel against the Lord 
 and His anointed," against the eternal truth of 
 God, to which the whole universe is promised as 
 a conquest. There is, then, " nothing new under 
 the sun;" and since Christ Himself, since His dis- 
 ciples after Him, and His servants in every age 
 have found inveterate enemies in those very per- 
 sons who, from their calUng, ought to have se- 
 
248 MEDITATiaN 33. 
 
 conded with their utmost efforts the faithful wit- 
 nesses of the " truth as it is in Jesus," shall we be 
 astonished if in our day we meet with the same 
 enmity, the same obstacles, and the same perse- 
 cutions in the cause of religion? We may be 
 grieved by it, but we must not be astonished j we 
 may suffer from it, but we must not cease to call 
 upon Him who is all-powerful to " open the eyes 
 of the blind." 
 
 But let us go on, let us hear the arguments of 
 the chief priests, for they must have arguments, 
 or at least pretexts, from Avhatever quarter they 
 may be drawn ; and they are as follows : — 
 
 " If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe 
 on Him, and the Romans shall come and take 
 away both our place and nation." Here are t^o 
 powerful reasons ; two most conclusive conside- 
 rations. All men will believe on Him, and the 
 Romans shall come ; but not a word about what 
 Jesus had done worthy of condemnation ; not a 
 word about principle ; the whole argument rests 
 upon imaginary consequences ; and yet He must 
 be condemned. " All men will believe on Him." 
 What a testimony to the power of the truth which 
 Jesus preached! Ah! if He be God; if He has 
 done many miracles ; if He be the Messiah, the 
 Deliverer promised to Israel, then rejoice in the 
 faith which is reposed in Him ; be the first to hold 
 Him up to the people as a teacher whom they ought 
 to follow, a Saviour whom they ought to love, and 
 in whom they ought to place their confidence. 
 You ought to know the prophecies which proclaim 
 
CONCLUSION. 249 
 
 Him to the world ; you have been appointed as 
 watchmen in Israel ; you ought to be acquainted 
 with the times and seasons for the restoration of 
 the spiritual kingdom of David. Why are you 
 not at your post ? why do you not proclaim Him 
 from Moses' seat as the King Messiah, the Saviour? 
 But if " all believe on Him," what will become of 
 our influence over the people, our honours, our 
 reputation, our stations ? This is the point ; this 
 is the real argument ; this is what you fear much 
 more than the Romans ; this is your idol — pride. 
 Before that idol all must bow the knee, even the 
 King of Glory Himself, who had just raised Laza- 
 rus from the dead, and whom the prophecies of 
 four thousand years had predicted to the world ; 
 " The Romans shall come !" And what of that? 
 Ye children of Abraham, who glory in your liberty; 
 who, though vanquished by the conqueror of the 
 world, boast that you have never bowed the neck 
 beneath the humiliating yoke of Ca3sar, to whom 
 you obstinately refuse the title of Master ; behold ! 
 you tremble when the question at issue is eternal 
 truth, the glory of your nation, the eternal salva- 
 tion of the immortal souls which God has com- 
 mitted to your care. Where is your courage ? 
 But no ; this is but a vain pretext ; for the chief 
 priests well knew that the Romans, out of policy, 
 tolerated all the religions of the nations which 
 they conquered, and that the Jewish people would 
 no more be destroyed for believing in Jesus than 
 for believing in Moses. And yet what a power- 
 ful argument, could the speaker but inspire his 
 
250 MEDITATION XI. 
 
 colleagues with this fear of seeing themselves, the 
 temple, and the nation exterminated. No more 
 temple, no more honours, no more posts of profit^ 
 no more revenues; — thus we have arrived at our 
 first conclusion — He must he condemned ! 
 
 Yet, oh ! the blindness of the man who exalts 
 himself against God. It has been ever true, that 
 "the wicked worketh a deceitful work." The 
 priests condemn Jesus, lest " all men should be- 
 lieve in Him," and it is precisely the death of the 
 Holy One, and the Just, that shall awaken in the 
 hearts of the men of all generations faith in Jesus; 
 it is just that death that, at the first preaching of 
 Peter who charg'ed the nation with it, touched 
 with compunction and converted to the faith of 
 Jesus five thousand souls. The priests condemn 
 Jesus lest the Romans should " come and take 
 away their place and nation ;" and it is just by 
 that act, that filling up the measure of their sins, 
 they bring down upon themselves the final judg- 
 ment of a holy and righteous God ; and, in fact, 
 the Romans did come and destroy the priests, and 
 the temple, and the nation. Oh f were there 
 among the enemies of God in all ages and in all 
 places, any remains of wisdom ; were the veil 
 which covers their eyes less thick, they would 
 tremble at the thought of being found " fighting 
 against God." 
 
 Such were the arguments which were under 
 discussion in the assembly, when Caiaphas, who- 
 in virtue of his dignity as high-priest, presided over 
 that iniquitous council, impatient of a deliberation 
 
CONCLUSION. 251 
 
 which he found already too long, rises and ex- 
 claims with a tone of anger, " Ye know nothing 
 at all, nor consider that it is expedient that one 
 man should die for the people, and that the whole 
 nation perish not." It is expedient. Such is the 
 motive before which all others must disappear ; — 
 such is the shameful consideration which must im- 
 pose silence upon justice. Our interest is con- 
 cerned — we must then condemn Him. How well 
 do these words discover the real thoughts of these 
 judges! What a lesson do they teach all future 
 generations ! It is probable that the other judges 
 would not have dared thus to expose to the light 
 of day the turpitude of their thoughts (for in the 
 absence of virtue men wish at least to have the 
 appearance of it;) but God permits the high- 
 priest, the successor of Aaron, to tell the world, 
 what is the real motive of the actions of the man 
 who proclaims war against eternal truth. Expe- 
 diency ; vile self-interestj avowed, or concealed 
 under the mantle of hypocrisy : this is the god of 
 this world ; the prince of this world ; the impure 
 idol to which every thing must be sacrificed. 
 And to preserve the temple of tliis god of the un- 
 converted man, it is not enough to oppose the 
 truth, as the other members of the Sanhedrim sug- 
 gested ; it is necessary to stifle it and not to com- 
 bat it ; it is necessary not only to prove that Jesus 
 is wrong, but to put Him to death : " It is expe- 
 dient for us that one man should die for the peo- 
 ple." And who can be surprised? Who does 
 not know that impiety gives a loose rein to that 
 
252 MEDITATION XI. 
 
 enmity which is at the bottom of the unregenerate 
 man's heart, and that " he that hateth his brother 
 is a murderer," whether in fact or in intention 
 matters Httle in the eyes of God. 
 
 But, it will be said, Caiaphas had in view the 
 interest of the nation. It would appear, then, that 
 the principle which sanctions the sacrifice of an 
 innocent individual for the general interest, the 
 principle in accordance with which men have 
 commanded an assassination in the name of jus- 
 tice, is not " new under the sun ;" the mind of 
 Caiaphas was imbued with it ; it was with him 
 a political axiom ; this is that reason of state which 
 might with more propriety be called a reason of 
 hell and the policy of devils. The thousands of 
 victims sacrificed to this principle cry from earth 
 to heaven, and proclaim the moral degradation of 
 the human species more loudly than any thing we 
 can say upon the subject. But no; we have al- 
 ready shown that the preservation of the nation, 
 as far as the Romans- were concerned, was by no 
 means involved in the people's believing in Jesus. 
 Here all is blind passion, all is self-interest. 
 Melancholy discovery ! humbling truth ! Yes, O 
 Jesus ! die, die for the people ; die, die to raise 
 them from this deep degradation ; die to produce 
 in us a new life. 
 
 Astonishing ! it is this depth of deliverance and 
 of salvation that Caiaphas prophecies. Like 
 Balaam, he would utter a malediction, and he 
 pronounces a blessing ; he commands a murder, 
 and he brings about the propitiatory sacrifice 
 
CONCLUSION, 253 
 
 which shall be the redemption of the world. Let 
 us hear the commentary of St. John, " And this 
 spake he not of himsell" but being high-priest that 
 year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that 
 nation." 
 
 Caiaphas was the high-priest, the president of 
 the supreme ecclesiastical court ; his involuntary 
 prophecy must come from one high in authority, 
 to receive from this circumstance the greater im- 
 portance, to sound solemnly in the ears of those 
 around him, and to be handed down to future 
 ages. " This spake he not of himself" Alas ! 
 his impious thought, his iniquitous proposition, is 
 really from himself^ or rather from the devil ; — 
 but oh the depth of the wisdom and power of 
 God ! Caiaphas imagines that he only obeys his 
 own passions; he thinks to serve the interest of 
 the kingdom of darkness, and God makes of him, 
 unknown to himself, a prophet of the truth, a 
 preacher of the glad tidings of salvation ! God 
 might have sent upon this enemy of Christ one 
 of those signal judgments, by which He often 
 punishes the wicked before the eyes of all; He 
 might have smitten him, hke Herod, and made 
 him die a miserable death, being " eaten of 
 worms." But no ; even the enemy of God must 
 subserve the glory of the Eternal ; the blind in- 
 strument of Satan must proclaim the mercy of 
 God towards a fallen world ; the very words 
 which flow from a heart full of hatred and wrath 
 must become a song of praise and thanksgiving 
 for future a^es. Who henceforward will dare to 
 22 
 
254 MEDITATION XI. 
 
 oppose the designs of our God? The enemies of 
 Christ assembled together, and it is from the midst 
 of that council that God draws the accomplish- 
 ment of His promises concerning the glorious 
 kingdom of His Son, and it is the leader of that 
 council that must proclaim to the world the event 
 by which all the powers of darkness are to be 
 trampled under foot ; if God does not annihilato 
 His enemies, He can employ them as instruments 
 of His will ; He can draw praises out of hell ; He can 
 constrain the powers of darkness to exclaim, like the 
 angels of heaven, Glory ! glory to God on high ! 
 
 Condemn then, put to death the Prince of Life f 
 and if His death become the signal of your eter- 
 nal ruin, around His cross (to use the language of 
 the Evangelist) shall be '-'' gathered together not 
 only that nation, but also the children of God 
 which were scattered abroad." It was not only 
 for the people of Israel, whose interests the priests 
 affected to have at heart, that it behoved Jesus to- 
 die, but for the children of God ; for the redeemed 
 of all people, nations, languages, and tribes which 
 belonged to Him by the election of grace. 
 
 Ye children of God — ye who are still scattered 
 abroad amid trials and conflicts, consider then the 
 will of Him who died for you ; He wishes to ga- 
 ther you together ; He wishes first to lead captive- 
 to the foot of the cross all your thoughts and all 
 your affections ; He wishes to separate you from- 
 the world, and to gather you into His fold : and' 
 what have you to fear? Hear His prayer which 
 ascends to heaven on your behalf: " Father, I wilt 
 
CONCLUSION. 255 
 
 tliat they whom Thou hast given Me be with Me 
 where 1 am." And this prayer has been heard. 
 Nor is there one of your enemies that shall not 
 eventually contribute to your eternal salvation, 
 and give glory to Him who has saved you. To 
 be gathered together from your dispersion to dwell 
 in the eternal a.ssembly of the children of God. 
 Such is your glorious portion, such is the will of 
 your heavenly Father ; and who shall oppose it ? 
 Who shall pluck you out of His hand ? •' I am 
 persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, 
 nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, 
 nor things to come, nor height, nor deptli, nor any 
 other creature, shall be able to separate us from 
 the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
 Lord." (Rom. viii. 38, 39.) 
 
 Oh ! if my feeble voice, which in the course of 
 these meditations has been able to do no more 
 than address a few afflicted souls whom Jesus 
 invites to taste of the consolations of the word of 
 God ; if my feeble voice could reach those who 
 still in any way oppose the designs of God's 
 mercy towards them ; how would I entreat them 
 with tears to have pity on themselves ; to come, 
 while there is yet time, to the only source of life 
 — Jesus, the Saviour of sinners. A few days 
 more, O immortal souls, and ye shall see with 
 your eyes the Lord of Glory, who shall come, no 
 longer to shed tears of compassion over the tomb 
 of a friend or to mourn over the folly of those 
 who reject Him, but to exerci.se justice and judg- 
 ment, and " to punish with everlasting destruction 
 
256 MEDITATION XI. 
 
 them that know not God, and obey not the Gos- 
 pel of the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 Oh ! love Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, that 
 ye may love Him also when He comes on the 
 throne of His glory. 
 
 But Thou only, oh my Saviour, art mighty 
 to call us forth, like Lazarus, from the tomb of 
 our corruption, to restore life to these dry bones, 
 to give us a new heart capable of loving Thee — 
 a new life, that we may devote ourselves to Thy 
 service. Oh ! let thy powerful word be brought 
 liome to us. Let not our spiritual death, let not 
 our corruptions put any obstacle in the way of 
 that word by which Thou " callest things that are 
 not as though they were !" Let thine infinite 
 love inflame our cold hearts ; eradicate their self- 
 ishness, banish their enmity! To love Thee, 
 O gracious Redeemer ; to love thee with all our 
 heart, and mind, and soul, is the object of our 
 being, the destination for which Thou hast given 
 us existence, for which thou hast redeemed us at 
 so great a price. Make us attain this end before 
 it be too late ! Rescue us from perdition — save 
 us, as it were in spite of ourselves ! But no, 
 Jjord ; we wish to love Thee as a willing people ; 
 we wish to consecrate to Thee our heart, our af- 
 fections, our life, our last breath ! Art not Thou 
 the Being supremely wise, supremely good \ 
 Ah! "to whom shall we go? Thou hast the 
 words of eternal Hfe 1"