life of these holy women. Their faith, their hope, their love to Christ, their discipleship, were things of which they were wholly ignorant. But they felt for them in their heavy bereavement, and kindly came to offer what comfort they could. B}r so doing they reaped a rich and unexpected reward. They beheld the greatest miracle that Jesus ever wrought. They were eye-witnesses when Lazarus came forth from the tomb. To many of them, we may well be- lieve, that day was a spiritual birth. The raising of Laza- rus led to a resurrection in their souls. How small some- times are the hinges on which eternal life appears to depend ! If these people had not sympathized they might never have been saved.
•We need not doubt that these things were written for our learning. To show sympathy and kindness to the sorrowful is good for our own souls, whether we know it or not. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, to weep with them that weep, to try to bear one another's burdens, and lighten one another's cares, — all this will make no atonement for sin, and will not take us to heaven. Yet it is healthy employment for our hearts, and emplo}rment which none ought to despise. Few perhaps are aware that one secret of being miserable is to live only for ourselves, and one secret of being happy is to try to make others happy, and to do a little good in the world. It is not for nothing that these words were written by Solomon, "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting." — "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." (Eccl. vii. 2, 4.) The saying of our Lord is too much overlooked : " Whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward." (Matt. x. 42.) The friends of Martha and Mary found that promise wonderfully verified. In au