the great mass of his hearers, and proved a source of con- tinual sorrow to his soul'.]
But in these words we have, also,
II. An instructive lesson —
Were we to trace this occurrence in all its bearings, we should scarcely know where to begin, or where to end. We shall content ourselves, therefore, with noticing only two or three things which naturally arise out of it.
We see then from it,
1. That there is no condition in this life, in which men are exempt from sorrow —
[Had there been any exception from the common lot of all men, we should have looked for it in such a family as that of Lazarus, where there was such ardent love between all the members of it, and so peculiar an interest in the favour of the Lord Jesus ; or, at all events, we should expect to find it in our incarnate God. But death invaded their peaceful man- sion ; and filled the surviving sisters with distress, in which also the Saviour himself participated. Who then, amongst us, can hope for freedom from the general lot? Truly, this is a " Bochimk," a vale of tears, to every child of man. However prosperous our condition may be, no one " knows what a day or an hour may bring forth." Either in our own persons, or in our families and connexions, it will be strange indeed if something do not frequently occur to damp our joys, and to remind us that " this is not our rest:" for " man is born to trouble," as naturally and as certainly, " as the sparks fly upward."]
2. What is of necessity the operation of divine grace in the soul —
[The sum and substance of all practical religion is love : and wherever love exists, there will be sympathy : for it is impossible but that the members of the same body should have a community of feeling with each other1. To "rejoice with them that rejoice, and to weep with them that weep," is the necessary fruit and consequence of grace in the soulm." The man that is devoid of these holy feelings is destitute of piety altogether". In truth, for our griefs and sorrows we have the
' Mark iii. 5. and John xiii. 21 , k Judg. ii. 5.
i 1 Cor. xii. 25.
m Rom. xii. 15. See instances Heb. x. 31. Phil. ii. 26 — 28.
n 1 Cor. xiii. 1—3.