said to those aiound Him, when he came to the place of burial, " Take ye away the stone."
Now why did our Lord say this? It was doubtless as easy for Him to command the stone to roll away un- touched as to call a dead body from the tomb. But such was not His mode of proceeding. Here, as in other cases, He chose to give man something to do. Here, as elsewhere, He taught the great lesson that His almighty power was not meant to destroy man's respojisjbility. Even when He was ready and willing to raise the dead, He would not have man stand by altogether idle.
Let us treasure up this in our memories. It involves a point of great importance. In doing spiritual good to others, — in training up our children for heaven, — in follow- ing after holiness in our own daity walk, — in all these things it is undoubtedly true that we are weak and help- less. " Without Christ we can do nothing." But still we must remember that Christ expects us to do what we can. " Take ye away the stone " is the daily command which He gives us. Let us beware that we do not stand still in idleness, under the pretence of humility. Let us daily try to do what we can, and in the trying Christ will meet us and grant His blessing.
We should mark, secondly, the words which our Lord addressed to Martha, ivhen she objected to the stone being removed from the grave. The faith of this holy woman completely broke down, when the cave where her beloved brother lay was about to be thrown open. She could not believe that it was of any use. " Lord," she cries, " by this time he stinketh." And then comes in the solemn reproof of our Lord : " Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe thou shouldest see the glory of God ? "
That sentence is rich in meaning. It is far from un- likely that it contains a reference to the message which had been sent to Martha and Mary, when their brother