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him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole. And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden. And all wept and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called and said, Maid, arise. And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat. And her parents were astonished; but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done.- Luke viii. 41, 42. 49-56. See Matt. ix. 18-26; Mark v. 22-43.

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Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.-Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. 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, thou 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 knew that thou 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 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.-John xi. 1. 5. 38-44.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SACRED NARRATIVE.

Jesus went about healing every infirmity of the people; though he did not rest his claim to be a worker of miracles on his power of healing alone.

His history furnishes us with a variety of works performed by him, the performance of which was indisputably beyond the reach of any natural causes. For, can any power of natural causes convert water into wine? Can it be possible, in a natural way, to feed thousands with a few small loaves and fishes, and so as that the fragments left should greatly exceed the original quantity of food? Could it be owing to any natural cause that Jesus walked on the sea, and caused the tempest to cease at his command? In a word;—who can be so perverse as to affirm, that the dead could be raised from their graves, and the spiritual principle reunited to the lifeless corpse, but by the interposition of the same cause which at first breathed into the inanimate clay the breath of life? All these and many other such facts, recorded of Jesus, are in their own natures miraculous: but I see not why we should not insist upon all his cures as so many miracles: for I should look upon it as the height of absurd scepticism to doubt whether Jesus could cure the paralytic or the blind, when we see him raising Lazarus, the widow's son,-the ruler of the synagogue's daughter,— and, lastly, himself, from the dead!

Besides, that Jesus laid claim to miracles may be inferred from the character which we are as certain he assumed as we are certain he existed— I mean that of his being the Messiah expected by the Jews. For as the Messiah was marked in their prophecies as one who should perform miracles, the claim of Jesus to be this illustrious person necessarily supposes a claim to those extraordinary works which the Messiah was expected to perform. Add to this, that the great fundamental doctrine of Christianity,the redemption of mankind by Christ's dying for our sins, and rising again for our justification, supposes a miracle the most striking that can be imagined. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead must have been publicly asserted wherever Christianity was preached, for it is the very cornerstone of the religion. If Christ be not risen from the dead, both the preaching of the Apostle, and the faith of the convert, would have been in vain! BISHOP DOUGLAS.

God, under the Old Testament, raised one by Elijah, another by Elisha living, a third by Elisha dead. By the hand of the Mediator of the New Testament, he raised the son of the widow, the daughter of Jairus, Lazarus; and, in attendance of his own resurrection, he made a gaol-delivery of holy prisoners at Jerusalem. He raised the daughter of Jairus from her bed, the widow's son from his coffin, Lazarus from his grave, the dead saints at Jerusalem from their rottenness,—that it might appear no degree of death can hinder the efficacy of his overruling command.

Our Saviour's favours were, at the least, continuous. No sooner hath he raised the Centurion's servant from his bed, than he raises the widow's son from his bier. His providence hath so contrived his journey, that he meets with the sad pomp of a funeral. A woeful widow, attended with her weeping neighbours, is following her only son to the grave. When God would describe the most passionate expression of sorrow that can fall into the miserable, he can but say, "O daughter of my people, gird thee with

sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation !”—Jer. vi. 26. Such was the loss, such was the sorrow, of this disconsolate mother.

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Here was a conspiration of all parts to mercy: the heart had compassion; the mouth said, Weep not;" the feet went to the bier; the hand touched the coffin; the power of Deity raised the dead. I do not see our Saviour stretching himself upon the corpse, as Elijah and Elisha upon the sons of the Shunamite and Sareptan; nor kneeling down and praying by the bier, as Peter did to Dorcas: but I hear him so speaking to the dead, that by the word he makes him alive" I say unto thee, Arise!" How soon is that funeral banquet turned into a new birth-day feast! How gladly did every tongue celebrate both the work and the Author! "A great prophet is raised up amongst us, and God hath visited his people!" BISHOP HALL.

The sacred historian paints one of the deepest mourning pieces extant in all the productions of the pen, in all the simplicity of style, yet with all the strength of colouring. When "Jesus came nigh to the gate of the city, behold! there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow." What a gradation is here! How pathetically beautiful! Every fresh circumstance widens the wound, - aggravates the calamity, till the description is worked up into the most finished picture of exquisite and inconsolable distress.

He was a young man, cut off in the flower of life, amidst a thousand gay expectations and smiling hopes. A son, an only son, the afflicted mother's all,—so that none remained to preserve the name, or perpetuate the family. What rendered the case still more deplorable, she was a widow, left entirely desolate, abandoned to her woes, without any to share her sorrows or comfort her under the irreparable loss. Is not this a fine sketch of the impassioned and picturesque? Who can consider the narrative with any attention, and not feel his heart penetrated with a tender commiseration.-Luke vii. 11. REV. J. HERVEY.

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See how triumphant Christ's commands are, over even death itself. "He came and touched the bier" on which the dead body lay; hereby intimating that he had something to say to the dead young man. "Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom."-Job xxxiii. 24. They that bare him stood still;" and then with solemnity, as one to whom belong the issues from death, Jesus said, "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise!" The young man was dead, and could not arise by any power of his own; yet it was no absurdity for Christ to bid him arise, when a power went along with the word to put life into him. The gospel call to all people, to young people particularly, is, "Arise, arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light and life.'

Christ's dominion over death was evidenced by the immediate effect of his word: "He that was dead sat up" without any help. Christ put life into him, and made it appear by his sitting up. Have we grace from

Christ? Let us show it. Another evidence of life was, that "he began to speak:" so Christ, giving spiritual life, opens the lips in prayer and praise. He would not oblige this young man, to whom he had given a new life, to go along with him, either as his disciple to minister to him, much less as a trophy or show to get honour by him; but "delivered him to his mother," to attend her as a dutiful son: for Christ's miracles were miracles of mercy,—and a great act of mercy this was to this widow: now she was comforted, looking on her son as a particular favourite of heaven! REV. MATTHEW HENRY.

While Jesus was walking to the house of Jairus, thronged by the surrounding multitude, he wrought a miracle, in healing a woman who had been afflicted with an issue of blood for twelve years.—Luke viii. 43-49.

This transaction occasioned delay, and, no doubt, increased the anxiety of Jairus: but his trial was much greater when messengers came to inform him that his daughter was dead. Jesus heard this, but exhorted Jairus not to disquiet himself, " only to believe" that he was able to restore his daughter, and would certainly bring her again to life. He dismissed even all his disciples, except Peter, James, and John, that he might be attended by a competent number of witnesses. He found that the mourners and minstrels had already been called in, as was customary, some playing mournful tunes, and others uttering the most doleful lamentations. Jesus forbad them to weep; but they, knowing that she was really dead, treated his words with contempt; he therefore put them all out of the room, after he had drawn from them this attestation of her death; and, having none with him but the parents of the damsel and his three apostles, he took hold of her hand, and said aloud, as having power over death, and the spirits of the dead, “Damsel, arise!” and immediately she arose and walked, to the inexpressible astonishment of the spectators, and doubtless the exceeding joy and gratitude of her before afflicted parents. So much compassion and condescension did our Saviour show to the feelings of natural affection, that it is worthy of observation,—of the three persons whom Christ is particularly recorded to have raised from the dead, one was the only son of a widow, another the only daughter of Jairus, and the third, the beloved brother of Martha and Mary. REV. T. SCOTT.

How troublesome did the people's importunity seem to Jairus! That great man came to see Jesus for his dying daughter. There was hope in her sickness; in her extremity there was fear; in her death, despair, as they thought, of help. "Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master."

Infidelity is all for ease, and thinks every good work tedious. O Saviour, it was thy meat and drink to do thy Father's will: it cannot be thy trouble which is our happiness. The messenger could not so whisper his ill news but Jesus heard it. Jairus hears: but he, whose work it is to comfort the afflicted, rouseth the dejected heart of that pensive father. "Fear not; believe only, and she shall be made whole :" alive from her death -whole from her disease! Thou dost not, O Saviour, measure thy gifts

by our petitions, but by our wants and thine own mercies. Christ will go to the place, that he might be confessed the Author of so great a miracle. O Saviour, thou lovest to go to the house of mourning: thy chief pleasure is the comfort of the afflicted.

What a confusion there is in worldly sorrow! The minstrels howl and strike dreadfully. Soon doth our Saviour charm this noise, and turn these unseasonable mourners out of doors. "Give place; for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth." Before the people and domestics of Jairus held Jesus for a prophet; now they took him for a dreamer : "Not dead, but asleep !" "And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead." What did these scorners think and say, when they saw him putting the minstrels and people out of doors? Those that are shut out from the participation of God's counsels, think all his words and projects no better than foolishness. But art thou, O Saviour, ever the more discouraged by the derision and censure of these scornful unbelievers ? Because fools jeer thee, dost thou forbear thy work? "He took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise; and her spirit came again, and she arose straightway." Death cannot but obey him who is the Lord of life. The soul is ever equally in his hand who is the God of spirits. O Saviour, bid my soul to arise from the death of sin!

BISHOP HALL.

O Saviour, the raising of Lazarus was one of thy last, so of thy greatest miracles. Other miracles do not more transcend nature, than this transcends other miracles. This alone was a sufficient eviction of thy Godhead, O blessed Saviour! Jesus heard the first groan of Lazarus; yet this Lord of life lets his Lazarus sicken and die. "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." O Saviour, thy usual style is, the "Son of man willing thus to hide thy Godhead under the coarse weeds of our humanity: but here thou sayest, "That the Son of God might be glorified." To die was an act of the Son of man; to raise from death was an act of the Son of God.

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"Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep." What a sweet title is here, both of death and of Lazarus! Death is a sleep; Lazarus is our friend: what doth this import but, "Ye are my friends, and Lazarus is both my friend and yours?"—Our Friend!

Since our Saviour saw himself not rightly construed, he delivers himself plainly, "Lazarus is dead." Such is thy manner, O thou Eternal Word of thy Father! The absence of our Saviour from the death-bed of Lazarus was voluntary: "I am glad, for your sakes, that I was not there." Christ was glad of it, for the advantage of his disciples' faith.

Martha had been well catechized before. Even she also had sat at Jesus' feet, and can now give good account of her faith in the power and Godhead of Christ,—in the certainty of a future resurrection. Mary now falls at the feet of Jesus before all her neighbours of Jerusalem. It was no less than excommunication for anybody to confess him; yet good Mary, not fearing the information that might be given by these Jewish gossips,

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