first fell sick. It may be meant to remind Martha that her Master had sent her word, " This sickness is not unto death, but for the gloiy of God." But it is perhaps more likely that our Lord desired to recall to Martha's mind the old lesson He had taught her all through His ministry, the duty of always believing. It is as though He said, " Mar- tha, Martha, thou art forgetting the great doctrine of faith, which I have ever taught thee. Believe, and all will be well. Fear not : only believe."
The lesson is one which we can never know too well. How apt our faith is to break down in time of trial ! How easy it is to talk of faith in the days of health and pros- perity, and how hard to practise it in the days of dark- ness, when neither sun, moon, nor stars appear ! Let us lay to heart what our Lord says in this place. Let us pray for such stores of inward faith, that when our turn comes to suffer, we may suffer patiently and believe all is well. The Christian who has ceased to sa}', " I must see, and then I will believe," and has learned to say, " I believe, and by and by I shall see," has reached a high degree in the school of Christ.
We should mark, thirdly, the words which our Lord addressed to God the Father, when the stone was taken from the grave. We read that He said, " Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. And I knew that Thou nearest Me always : but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me."
This wonderful language is totally unlike anything said by Prophets or Apostles, when they worked miracles. In fact, it is not prayer, but praise. It evidently implies a constant mysterious communion going on between Jesus and His Father in heaven, which it is past the power of man either to explain or conceive. We need not doubt that here, as elsewhere in St. John, our Lord meant to teach the Jews the entire and complete unity there waa