multitude, knowing they were scattered, because they had no shepherd"-who, with his dying breath, prayed for his murderers, must certainly have felt deeply grieved at the woes of those favored by his peculiar love. We are then permitted to weep at our own sorrows and those of our near relations. Provided that God's dispensations find our heart and will, subject to his dominion, an expression of grief, is not opposed to the character of the Christian. The Gospel is not founded on the doctrine of the Stoicks. Abraham wept at the tomb of Sarah, Jacob at the tomb of Rachel, David over Absalom, Jesus over Lazarus, so should our trials not weaken our faith, disturb our submission or dim our hopes, or diminish our love. We may allow our tears to flow, and our hearts to mourn. Men of the world may accuse us of weakness, and even some Christians may doubt the sincerity of our faith, but Jesus, who knows the heart, will not condemn us-in remembering his own tears he will feel for ours. ،، Jesus wept.”

What a striking example of the instability of all earthly joys was now before Jesus! A few days before this house of mourning had been a mansion of peace and joy. Lazarus was the delight of his sisters. Mary, seated at the feet of Jesus, was eagerly listening to the words of eternal life which flowed from his lips: Martha was proving her love and veneration by the earnestness with which she served him; all was content and repose; and there Jesus and his Disciples

Ezekiel xxxiv. 5.

sought a peaceful retreat. A few days after Lazarus is laid in his tomb, Mary, bathed in tears and clad in mourning, is prostrate at the feet of Jesus, and the Jews filled that once silent abode with cries and lamentations.

How difficult it is to engrave on our minds the sad truth, that all that we possess here is only lent to us, and that for a short time: to-morrow the object of our dearest affections may be a lifeless corpse, and all to whom we look for support or happiness, may be mixed with the dust of the earth. Disciples of Jesus, why will you make idols of those whom God confided to you as instruments of his glory? When will you learn that this is not a place of rest? When will you think, feel, and act as pilgrims and strangers, for whom there is but one thing needful, the attainment of a heavenly kingdom. And you men of the world, why will you 66 *hew out broken cisterns that can hold no water?" Why do ye" + sow the wind that ye may reap the whirlwind?" Why do you rest your happiness in that which may be scattered in a day as the chaff driven before the wind? If Jesus shed tears of pity over guilty Jerusalem, and tears of love at his friend's grave, what bitter tears may he not shed at your deplorable folly. Oh! may his tears be a powerful admonition to you! But the sublime thoughts of Jesus were not confined to these scenes of instability and grief. If the sight of a tomb prepared for its victim produces a shudder in the hearts of reflecting men, what must it not be to him who had created

Jer. ii. 13. Hosea viii. 7.

M

man in his own image and assigned him for his dwelling, not a dark cold grave, but the delicious garden of Eden-what a contrast must Jesus see between this scene of death and that when he saw Man first spring from his creating hand pure, happy, and living a life of bliss and love? Could he recognise his own work? With what regret must he view the ravages of sin which polluted and even consigned to death the creature he had formed. If every funeral that passes through our streets, says to the awakened christian, "Man is guilty," what must the just and holy Jesus have felt at the tomb of Lazarus? What millions of creatures, from generation to generation, (notwithstanding the tears of their friends) expire amidst cries of agony, and are swallowed up in the pit which sin has dug for them, while they say to those who have ears to hear" Man is fallen."

If an indiffererent person cannot see, without regret, the ruins of a majestic building just blown down by a storm, what then must the artist feel, whose genius had planned and whose care had constructed it? If we, creatures of a day, born in sorrow, reared among "*briars and thorns," inhabiting a world cursed by sin, tremble at the sight of death, what must he have endured who came down from the Father from heaven, the seat of peace, sanctity and joy-"Jesus wept.". But, oh! my dear brethren, my companions in exile and sorrow, let the tears of Jesus, far from grieving us, be the source of the most precious con

* Isaiah v. 6.

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solations he wept for our misery, and came to deliver us from it. Our woes moved his pity, and he came to remove their sting. If he wept at the instability of all that is human, he destroyed him "that had the power of death." If he wept at the ravages of sin, did he not die that he might wipe away its stain? Oh! may these compassionate tears of our Saviour flow for our trials, sweeten their bitterness, and heal our wounds-we have seen that we have not a High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." Miserable sinners as we are, let us take courage, let us go to our merciful Saviour-we need not fear to be rejected, his tears are proofs of love. The Jews exclaimed "behold how he loved him,"-let us say, behold how he loves us: he is ever the same, though no longer present to our sight, yet he is at the right hand of his father, pleading our cause, interceding for us, and obtaining the remission of our sins-he knows what are our temptations and our frailties-Bethany still lives in his memory, and the unfortunate in his heart; let us therefore" * come boldly to the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in

time of need,"-let us love the Saviour who first loved us; let us consecrate our hearts to him who has many claims on them. Oh Jesus! thou seest that I wish to love thee-woud that I could say with one of thy servants"+there is none upon earth I desire besides thee."

Heb. iv. 16. † Psalm lxxii. 25.

LECTURE X.

LARARUS COME FORTH.

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 himself 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 thon shouldest see the glory of God? 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 know that hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he eried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth. And he that was dead come 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.

St. John, xi. 37, 44.

The part which man plays in the Drama of life finishes with his existence: all that history can record even of the greatest and most powerful is merely earthly, and dies with him, his name alone excepted. That endures for a certain time, like the light track of a vessel which may be traced from wave to wave, and is then lost in vastness. Man's power lasts but with his life; at his death he restores to earth what he had received from it, and all is finished. Those who write his history record his actions, decide on his character, and on the influence (bad or good) he had used in his time: their task is then done-and this is equally the fate of the hero celebrated for his achievements as of the poor sufferer remarkable only for his sorrows. Why then does the narrative before us assume a character of greater sublimity, and interest, at the sepulchre of Lazarus, who was the principal hero of the story? Why instead of laying down his pen at the grave and dropping a tear to his memory,