liever of this miracle, who seems to me the credulous man. The difficulties of disbelieving it are far greater than those of believing it.
(d) The raising of Lazarus is not mentioned by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This has stumbled many persons. Yet the omission of the story is not hard to explain. Some have said that Matthew, Mark, and Ltke purposely confine themselves to miracles done in Galilee. — Some have said that when they wrote their Gospels Lazarus was yet alive, and the mention of his name would have endangered his safety. — Some have said that it was thought better for the soul of Lazarus not to draw at- tention to him and surround him with an unhealthy celebrity till after he left the world. — In each and all of these reasons there is some weight. But the best and simplest explanation probably is, that each Evangelist was inspired to record what God saw to be best and most suitable. No one, I suppose, imagines that the Evangelists record a tenth part of our Lord's miracles, or that there were not other dead persons raised to life, of whom we know nothing at all. " The dead are raised up," was our Lord's own message, at an early period of His ministry, to John the Baptist. (Matt. xi. 5.) " If the works that Jesus did should be written every one," says John, " the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." (Johnxxi. 25.) Let it suffice us to believe that each Evangelist was inspired to re- cord exactly those events which were most likely to be profita- ble for the Church in studying his Gospel. Our Lord's ministry and say ings at Jerusalem were specially assigned to John. What wonder, then, that he was appointed to record the mighty mira- cle which took place within two miles of Jerusalem, and proved incontrovertibly the guilt of the Jerusalem Jews in not receiving Jesus as the Messiah?
Bucer remarks that there is a continually ascending greatness and splendour in those miracles which John was inspired to re- cord in his Gospel, and that the raising of Lazarus was the most illustrious of all. He also observes that our Lord specially chose the great feasts at Jerusalem as occasions of working miracles.
Chemnitius remarks : " There is not in the whole Evangelical narrative a more delightful history, and one more abundant both in doctrine and consolation, than this of the raising of Lazarus. It therefore ought to be studied most closely and minutely by all pious minds."
1. — [JVbio a certainman...sick...Lazarus.~\ These simple words are the key-note to the whole chapter. All turns on the bodily illness of an obscure disciple of Christ. How much in the history of our lives hinges on little events, and specially on illnesses I Sickness is a sacred thing, and one of God's great ordinances.
This illness took place between winter and Easter, during the time that our Lord was at Bethabara, beyond Jordan. The na- ture of the disease we are not told ; but irom its rapid course, it