pression is a verb, — " though he has died," and not an adjec- tive,— " is a dead person." The sense I believe to be this : " He that believes in Me, even if he has died, and been laid in the grave, like thy brother, shall yet live, and be raised again through my power. Faith in Me unites such an one to the Fountain of all life, and death can only hold him for a short time. As sure- ly as I, the Head, have life, and cannot be kept a prisoner by the grave, so surely all my members, believing in Me, shall live also."
26. — [And whosoever liveth...believeth... never die.'] In this verse our Lord seems to me to speak of living believers, as in the last verse He had spoken of dead ones. Here, then, He makes the sweeping declaration, that " every one who believes in Him shall never die :" that is, he "shall not die eternally," as the Burial Service of the Church of England has it. The second death shall have no power over him. The sting of bodily death shall be taken away. He partakes of a life that never ends, from the moment that he believes in Christ. His body may be laid in the grave for a little season, but only to be raised after a while to glory; and his soul lives on uninterruptedly for ever- more, and, like the great risen Head, dieth no more.
That there are great depths in this and the preceding sen- tence, every reverent believer will always admit. We feel that we do not see the bottom. The difficulty probably arises from the utter inability of our gross, carnal natures to comprehend the mysteries of life, death, and resurrection of any kind. One thing is abundantly clear, and that is the importance of faith in Christ. " He that believeth" is the man who though dead shall live, and shall never die. Let us take care that we believe, and then all shall one day be plain. The simple questions, " What is life, and what is death?" contain enough to silence the wisest philosopher.
[Believest thou this?] This searching question is the applica- tion to Martha of the great doctrines just laid down. " Thou believest that the dead will rise. It is well. But dost thou be- lieve that I am the Author of resurrection, and the source of life? Dost thou realize that I, thy Teacher and Friend, am very God, and have the keys of death and the grave in my hands? Hast thou yet got hold of this? If thou hast not, and only knowest me as a prophet sent to teach good and comfortable things, thou hast only received half the truth."
Home questions like these are very useful. How little we most of us know what we really believe, and what we do not; what we have grasped and made our own, and what we hold loosely ! Above all, how little we know what we really believe about Christ !
Melancthon points out how immensely important it is to know whether we really have faith, and believe what wre hold.
27. — [She saith...Tea, Lord; I believe] Poor Martha, pressed