2 TIMOTHY I. lo 173
^ Jesus has two ways of teaching. There is His ethical teaching which every man and every woman can take and test for themselves and see if it is true. He has also His speculative teaching, the great beliefs that He has left us and to which He has pledged His word, and He practically says to us : " You can prove that part of My teaching and find it true. Very well, now you have to believe the part that you cannot prove to be true : you have to take a certain part upon My word." ^
(2) By His deeds. — He gave proof that He held the " keys of death " by unlocking its portals and summoning back to human fellowship those who had passed beyond the reach of the voices of kindred. When He touched the bier at the gate of Nain and said, " Young man, I say unto thee, Arise," and the dead man " sat up and began to speak " ; or when to the man that had been dead four days He " cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth," and " he that was dead came forth," Jesus demonstrated that " those other living, whom we call the dead," have not really ceased to live.
^ There is no one who can afford to look at the scene [the raising of Lazarus] with indifference. We have all to die, to sink in utter weakness past all strength of our own, past all friendly help of those around us. It must always remain a trying thing to die. In the time of our health we may say —
Since Nature's works be good, and Death doth serve As Nature's work, why should we fear to die ?
but no argument should make us indifferent to the question whether at death we are to be extinguished or to live on in happier, fuller life. If a man dies in thoughtlessness, with no fore- casting or foreboding of what is to follow, he can give no stronger proof of thoughtlessness. If a man faces death cheerfully through natural courage, he can furnish no stronger evidence of courage ; if he dies calmly and hopefully through faith, this is faith's highest expression. And if it is really true that Jesus did raise Lazarus, then a world of depression and fear and grief is lifted off the heart of man. That very assurance is given to us which we most of all need. And, so far as I can see, it is our own imbecility of mind that prevents us from accepting this assurance and living in the joy and strength it brings. If Christ raised Lazarus He has a power to which we can safely trust ; and life is a thing of permanence and joy. And if a man cannot determine for himself whether this did actually happen or not, he must, I think, feel that the fault is his, and that he is defrauding himself
* O. Silvester Home.
174 LIFE AND IMMORTALITY
of one of the clearest guiding lights and most powerful determin- ing influences we have.^
(3) By His death. — Christ Himself died ; He too suffered as all the sons of men must suffer, the dark and sore abasement of death. And the sacred writers, not content with the simple statement of the fact, set it forth under a great variety of phrase, as if to impress upon us that in this, as in all things else, Christ was made like unto His brethren. He not only died. He " tasted death," He became " obedient unto death," death had " dominion over him." For a time " death reigned " even over Him ; the Lord of life bowed down before the lord of death. So, on the one hand, is it written. On the other hand we find language of quite another sort. Christ died, but "death no more hath dominion over him " ; He died, but it was that " through death he might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." " The last enemy that shall be abolished is death " ; but he shall be abolished, for Christ must reign " till he hath put all his enemies under his feet." Nay, says the Apostle, death is abolished ; already death has surrendered to Christ the keys of Hades and joined the procession of His triumph.
There underlay His death and posture in death a threefold conviction. In the first place He was quite certain that death could not touch His personal existence. "Thou shalt be with me in Paradise." " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." It was absolutely clear to His human spirit that in that moment when He bowed His head, and His spirit passed from His body, and His body lay a lifeless thing upon the cross, He would be living on. And the same conviction is borne in upon His disciples. " Whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord : whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's."
The second thought that comes to us is this, His absolute conviction that not only did it not touch His personality, but it could not touch His union with God. Whatever is involved in the changed conditions of life, one change there is not : as I live in my Father's hands here, I shall live in my Father's hands there. God will be to me then, only in a fuller sense than He is now, a supreme reality. " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."