is your hour, and the power of darkness," to His enemies. Then He was taken, and His disciples fled.
11.— [These things... our friend Lazarus. ..sleepeth.~\ In this verse our Lord breaks the fact, that Lazarus is dead, to His disciples. He does it in words of matchless beauty and tenderness. After saying "these things" about the twelve hours of the day, which we have considered in the last verse, He seems to make a slight pause. Then, "after that," comes the announcement, which would be more literally rendered, " Lazarus, the friend of us, has been laid asleep."
The word "sleepeth" means, "is dead." It is a gentle and pathetic way of expressing the most painful of events that can befall man, and a most suitable one, when we remember that after death comes resurrection. In dying we are not annihilated. Like sleepers, we lie down, to rise again. Estius well remarks, "Sleeping, in the sense of dying, is only applied to men, because of the hope of the resurrection. We read no such thing of brutes."
The use of the figure is so common in Scripture, that it Is almost needless to give references. (See Deut. xxxi. 16; Dan- iel xii. 2; Matt, xxvii. 52; Acts vii. 60; xiii. 36; 1 Cor. vii. 39; xi. 30 ; xv. 6—18 ; 1 Thess. iv. 13, H.) But it is a striking fact that the figure is frequently used by great heathen writers, show- ing clearly that the tradition of a life after death existed even among the heathen. Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, Catullus, supply instances. However, the Christian believer is the only one who can truly regard death as sleep, — that is, as a healthy, refreshing thing, which can do hiui no harm. Many among ourselves, per- haps, are not aware that the figure of speech exists among us in full force in the word " cemetery," applied to burial-ground. That word is drawn from the very Greek verb which our Lord uses here. It is literally a " sleeping-place."
The word "friend," applied to Lazarus, gives a beautiful idea of the relation between the Lord Jesus and all His believing peo pie. Each one is His " friend," — not servant, or subject only, but " friend." A poor believer has no cause to be ashamed. He has a Friend greater than kings and nobles, who will show Him- self friendly to all eternity. A dead saint lying in the grave is not cut off from Christ's love : even in his grave, he is still the friend of Christ.
The expression " our," attached to friend, teaches the beauti- ful lesson that every friend of Christ is or should be the friend of all Christians. Believers are all one family of brothers and sisters, and members of one body. Lazarus was not " my " friend, but "our" friend. If any one is a friend of Christ, every other believer should be ready and willing to hold out his hand to him, a'ud say, " You are my friend."
When our Lord says, " I go that I may awaken him out of