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MANIFESTED IN THE RAISING OF LAZARUS FROM

REV. H. F. KOHLBRUOGE, D.D.,

Late Pastor of the Reformed Church, Elberfleld.

RUKSUNIVERSITEIT

PRINTED FOR THE GIRLS" ORPHAN HOME, TOTTENHAM

Psalm cxlvi, v. 5�8.
Blest is he, who for his aid
Hath the God of Jacob taken ;
He shall never be afraid,
He can never be forsaken :
Since he trusts the Lord ahvay,
God shall be his strength and stay.

He who made heav'n, earth, and sea,
And the fulness of creation
Through His mighty " Let there be "
Out of nothingness did fashion :
God, the world's Almighty Lord,
Ever keeps His faithful word.

He the poor man's cause doth plead,

Stays the raging tyrant's madness,

To the hungry giveth bread,

Fills their hearts with joy and gladness,

And from sore captivity

Sets the humble bondman free.

Sight He giveth to the blind,
He the erring doth enlighten,
He the dark and troubled mind
With His mercy's ray doth brighten ;
Aye the Lord of Righteousness,
Righteous men doth love and bless.

What is a man to do, when his best resolutions are again and
again borne down by the overwhelming power of some secret
besetting sin, or rather, when, after a short struggle, he almost
voluntarily abandons himself to it, and falling into a life of sin,
raises the standard of rebellion against God, and ceases to care
either for Heaven or Hell ? He yearns to shake off his sin, and
yet he loves it. He hates and abhors it, and yet he cherishes it. He
lies prostrate, beaten down, crushed beneath the oppressiveweight
of his wicked desire; and though he heaves many a sigh to
heaven, he is unable to break free from the prison house, and
feels heavily chained down to his lustful appetite. To such a one
God seems to be God no longer. He is unable to pray. He has

nothing to lay before his God, not even an upright or a broken heart.
His tears never cease to flow ; he despairingly wrings his hands ;
but neither his tears nor his despair can avail him anything.
Divine grace seems to be powerless, or hopelessly beyond his
reach. The blood that cleanses from all sin seems not to have
been shed for him, and he can no longer believe in a quickening
Spirit. What is such a one to do ? I think he should take a calm
and quiet view of his case, and consider that he is allowing him-
self to be tricked and beguiled by the powers of darkness. He
should not be over much alarmed at the outward symptoms of his
disease, but should go to the root of the matter, and search for
the cause of all those things that trouble him, and sometimes
almost drive him to despair. Common-sense tells him that when
sores and ulcers break out upon his hands and feet, and other
parts of his body, there must be something radically wrong with
his vital juices, and that he needs some remedy that will cleanse
and purify his very life-blood. The same he will find holds good
in regard to his soul. After a careful examination of the diseased
symptoms of his soul, he will discover that all such outward
manifestations have their source and origin in his inmost self, and
that, therefore, his inmost self must undergo a renewal and a
change, before the outward symptoms can disappear.

Now this inmost self has one thing in common with the dark
powers of death : it never wearies of asserting and insisting upon,
its own strength and its own importance. For this reason it both
secretly, and publicly puts forth the doctrine, that the blood of Christ,
though it cleanses from sins, does not cleanse from all sins ; that there
are some sins of which one has to purge oneself first, before one can
obtain cleansing and justification through the blood of Christ.
The inmost self makes for itself a Christ out of its own conversion
and sanctification ; and, therefore, it cannot find any Christ when
it has accomplished this conversion and sanctification. The in-
most self proudly rejects the thought of a life in the midst of death,
of grace in the midst of corruption, of salvation in the midst of
condemnation ; but it asks back the wantonly forfeited birthright
of Esau, and the blessing of Esau. And it is for this reason that
our inmost self is so full of perplexity and despair, and sheds so
many tears, and makes so many painful efforts, as it would fain
persuade itself, to free itself from its evil passions, but in reality
to truckle to a more baneful passion than all. When the sweet
gospel voice invites such a man to be converted, and to wash

away his sins, he cannot get over this one besetting sin, because
he thinks that but for this one failing he is all that God can
possibly require. For the Gospel proclaims the righteousness of
God : God alone is righteous, and imparts his righteousness to all
who are in Christ by faith. Where the Gospel is preached, it
soon becomes plain to the human soul, that it is affected with a
great many other abominable sins, and a great many other per-
versenesses, besides those which cause us so much trouble. And
this revelation is made in order to encourage a man, in spite of all
this perverseness and of his special besetting sin, in the midst of
all his corruption, not to relax his hold on Christ, but to believe in
Him, and in that righteousness, holiness, and salvation, which we
can have through Him in God.

And so we have received the precious Gospel in order that it
might unveil to us the love of Christ, that love which passes all
understanding. Almost on every page of the Holy Book these
words are plainly written : " Here, thou son of man, is a mirror
for thee, in which thou mayest behold thyself, and thy whole con-
duct towards God, and also the great power of the love of God, and
the grace of Jesus Christ towards thyself." Know then the things
through which thou mayest unwaveringly hope to be justified,
sanctified, and saved, and healed not only of thy special besetting
sin, but of those other sins of thine which are perhaps even worse
than that special besetting sin. And that these things are pro-
claimed and promised in the Gospel, let me prove to you by read-
ing a portion of the very words of that blessed message :

1 Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the
town of Mary and her sister Martha.

2 (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and
wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)

3 Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he
whom thou lovest is sick.

4 Whan Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby.

5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

0 When be had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two
days still in the same place where he was.

7 Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judsea
again.

8 His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to
stone thee; and goest Thou thither again ?

9 Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day ? If any
man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of
this world.

10 But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is
no light in him.

11 These things said he : and after that he saith unto them, Our
friend Lazarus sleepeth ; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep.

12 Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.

13 Howbeit Jesus spake of his death : but they thought that ho
had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.

14 Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

15 And I am glad for your sakea that I was not there, to the intent
ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.

16 Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow-
disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.

17 Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave
four daj's already.

18 Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off.

19 And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort
them concerning their brother.

20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming,
went and met him : but Mary sat still in the house.

21 Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my
brother had not died.

22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God,
God will give it thee.

23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the
resurrection at the last day.

25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life : ho that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live :

26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Believest thou this ?

27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord : I believe that thou art the
Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

28 And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary
her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee,

29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto
him.

30 Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that
place where Martha met him.

31 The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted
her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out,
followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there.

32 Then when Mary was come where Jesus was. and saw him, she
fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here,
my brother had not died.

33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weep-
ing which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,

34 And said, Where have ye laid him ? They said unto him, Lord,
come and see.

36 Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him I

37 And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the
eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have
died?

38 Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave.
It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.

39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him
that was dead, saith unto him, Lord by this time he stinketh : for he
hath been dead four days.

40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest
believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God ?

41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead
was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank
thee that thou hast heard me.

42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the
people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast
sent me.

43 And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice,
Lazarus, come forth.

44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with
graveclothes : and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus
saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

Let us then, consider, with reference to ourselves :

(i) The Conduct of the Disciples.

(2) The Conduct of Martha and Mary.

(3) The Conduct of the Jews.

(4) The Conduct of our Lord.

(«'.) Would that we could continually keep that one little
word " Gospel," and the fulness of its meaning, before our eyes
and in our hearts. For does it not mean "joyful tidings " : a joy-
ful message delivered on behalf of God, proclaiming to us glad
tidings of great joy ? And the joyful message runs thus : " Thou
art a sinful man, but God has thoughts of peace concerning thee.
Thou wert lost, but here there is a Saviour for thee, who has taken
thee out of, and lifted thee far above, thy helpless state." In the por-
tion which has just been read, we once more look down into the
deepest depths of human helplessness, and once more behold the
matchless glory of the grace of Christ. The day was come that
was to witness the fulfilment of the words spoken by the Lord in
Paradise : " It shall bruise Thy head, and Thou shalt bruise his
heel." Our Lord was now to throw down the gauntlet to him
who had the power of death, that is the devil, was utterly to rout
and destroy the devil, and to set those free who were held in bond-
age all through their lives by the fear of death. But before
entering on the main struggle, He was once more, as He had done
on two former occasions, on a special issue to measure His
strength against him who had the power of death.

There was a certain man lying on a bed of sickness in the
village of Bethany, and his name was Lazarus. It was told unto
the Lord that His friend was sick. Lazarus was well-known to
the disciples, and one would have expected them to urge the Lord
immediately to set out for Bethany in order that He might there
give a proof of His power, and manifest His glory. But though
the Lord had again and again shewn forth to them His glory in all
the signs and wonders which he had done before their eyes, they
nevertheless did not understand, not even when Jesus said to

them : "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God,
that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." They do not
know that the glory of God is most truly set forth when the power
of His grace is perceived to be manifested in His having sent His
Son, in order that in His Son we might receive life out of death,
and salvation out of destruction. The disciples make it appear
that in themselves they have no love either for God or for their
neighbour; for they manifest neither zeal for the glory of God,
nor love for their sick friend Lazarus, and they do not seem to
have even the faintest perception of what was written concerning
their own lost state, the spiritual interpretation of the law, and the
necessity that Christ should die for the sins of the people. They
had turned a deaf ear to all He had said to them, on several
occasions, about His approaching sufferings for sin. Those very
men who had confessed that He had words of eternal life, clearly
shewed that they understood as little of God's plan of salvation as
new-born babes.

" Let us go into Judea again ; " this proposal of our Lord
called forth an answer from the disciples which showed that their
attachment to the Lord was purely carnal, and that they did not care
what became of the work of salvation, so long as they could keep
Him with them, and enjoy His presence. How much wiser they
thought themselves than the Lord ! They ought to have known
that nothing could happen but what was ordained of God. But,
instead of this, they look upon the Lord as one who is labouring
under a delusion, as one who has considerably less practical wis-
dom than themselves, and is bent on undertaking something
which He cannot accomplish. They never enquire whether
eternal salvation can be won for them by any other way than that
of suffering and death ; nor do they concern themselves about
their sick friend Lazarus, or care whether he dies or not, or bestow
even a passing thought on the trouble and anxiety of his sisters.
Their hearts are full of one object only, how they are to dissuade
the Lord from His purpose of going to Judaea. With a view to
this they say to Him: " Master, the Jews of late sought to stone
Thee; and goest Thou thither again ? " and pretend to understand
His words, " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth " of bodily sleep, and
answer accordingly that " If he sleep he shall do well." And
again, when the Lord told them plainly that Lazarus was dead,
and announced His intention of going to him, Thomas at length
broke forth into the words : " Let us also go that we may die with

Him "�as who should say : What is the death of Lazarus to us ?
Nevertheless, if our Master absolutely refuses to listen to reason,
if He insists on rushing into the open jaws of death, well then, we
will at least do our best to deliver Him, and if we perish in the
attempt, death is the worst thing that can happen to us. The
truth that ' from death proceeds life ' had not yet dawned upon
their minds.

My friends, why, do you think, has it pleased the Holy Spirit
to have these things noted down for us ? Was it that we might
extract from them all manner of spiritual triflings ? It is well
possible for a frivolous and trifling mind to explain and interpret
this chapter from beginning to end, and yet not to gain any know-
ledge of itself from the Gospel record. But if in perusing the
Gospels we constantly keep our attention fixed on the behaviour
of the Lord as well as on that of those men who come into contact
with Him, we shall be in a condition to fathom the deep meaning
of the Apostle's words : " I am am not ashamed of the Gospel of
Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth ; for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from
faith to faith; as it is written, the just shall live by faith." What
though we be possessed with this or that besetting sin, are we for
that reason to quit our hold upon the precious truth that we are
justified by faith, without the works of the law ? Should this or
that special sin not rather serve to open our eyes to our general
condition ? When we hear of the behaviour of the Lord's disciples
and of all flesh towards Him in the days of His flesh, let us not on
any account neglect to look into our own hearts, and to take heed
to ourselves : then we shall become aware how great is the num-
ber of the sins of which we have been guilty against the Lord.
We shall discover that whenever the Lord has taken us into His
school, and set us lessons by which we might learn faith and truly
become partakers of the righteousness of faith, we have shown our-
selves as intractable and as heavy of perception as the disciples of
old. For it is one thing to have fixed the entire catechism in one's
memory, and to yield a mere intellectual assent to it, and to all the
principal truths of Christianity�and quite another thing to have a
vital knowledge of those truths, and to put them into practice.
Now, I leave it for each one of you to decide whether on the
whole this " glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified "
and the love of his poor, suffering neighbour, are matters of the
deepest interest to him, or whether he is not rather more anxious

to obtain the good thing from the Lord for himself, without even
properly knowing in what the good gifts of the Lord really consist.
Let each one of you judge for himself, whether or not the love of
self, is stronger in him than any other feeling, and whether
he is really so fully aware of the whole extent of the depravity of
his nature as to have become willing " that his old man should
be crucified with Christ." (Rom. vi. 6.) Have we a real insight
into the meaning of Christ's suffering and death for our sins ? Do
we know the power of His resurrection ? Do we realize the truth
that He is ever ready to evolve life out of death ? Alas ! that we are
so blind and so full of self-love, to regard ourselves as better even
than the disciples of the Lord. Alas ! for our self-righteousness
which closes our ears to the lessons of God's precious Gospel.
Truly, we make much ado about our sins, and yet refuse to see
that in our inmost souls we are harbouring sins quite as abomin-
able as those which strike the eye. For this reason we should be
all the more willing to listen to the teaching of the Gospel, which
shows us that after all we understand nothing of the grace of God,
of the love of Christ, of the tenderness with which His heart yearns
after that which was lost, or of His wisdom in letting things come
to such a pass that nothing remains but death, in order that the
power of His life may become manifest. Then, and not till then,
shall we rightly know the depth of our sinfulness, and the propor-
tionate power of His grace.

(ii.) The Gospe! narrative bears out by many a characteristic
touch Jeremiah's description of the heart of man as "deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked." It is illustrated more
especially on the present occasion by the behaviour of Martha and
Mary. They sent unto Him, saying: "Lord, behold he whom
Thou lovest is sick." What a message was that to send to the
Lord�as if He were a respecter of persons. How it must have
grieved Jesus to receive this message. Was He only to go to those
whom He loved ? Was He who had come to be a physician to all
that were sick, to throw aside all His other work only that He
might visit Lazarus in his illness ? Jesus did not love as the
world loves. This is evident from the fifth verse, where we should
probably have said: " Now Jesus loved Mary, and her sister, and
Lazarus," because Mary was spiritually the most advanced of the
three. But that is by no means the order in which the names
stand in the text, There we read : " Now Jesus loved Martha,
and her sister, and Lazarus." Here Mary is not even mentioned

by name. Does not the inspired writer, by the unexpected order
in which the names appear, seem to put the following words into
the mouth of Christ: " How, do you speak to me thus, Martha, and
Mary, because you think I love Lazarus more than all others ? nay,
I love thee, Martha, more than all the rest, (because thou hast
more need of My love) then Mary, and then Lazarus." How much
better it would have sounded, if they had sent word to Jesus, say-
ing : " Lord, behold our brother is sick."

And again, when our Lord had come to the place where
Lazarus lay dead, Mary remained behind, and " sat still in the
house." And what was Martha's motive in going to meet Jesus ?
Was it because she wanted to give Him a proof that she believed
that He was " the resurrection and the life " ? Ah ! no, she
appears even to intend a reproach to Him for having come too
late : " Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died."
What very foolish words these are ! As if the death of Lazarus
could have happened without the will of God. And then, again,
" I know that, even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God
will give it thee." According to Martha, God is a merciless God,
and has commanded death to slay her brother. If Jesus had been
there, God would not have suffered Lazarus to die. Jesus, on the
other hand, is to her a holy man, according to fleshly notions of
holiness. Still it is necessary that He should first pray to God.
God would refuse to grant what she asked to Martha, but God
could not deny anything to a man of such sanctity as that which
in her opinion belonged to Jesus. She imagined that she knew
Jesus, and yet it is easy to perceive that she knows nothing what-
ever of the power of faith, and that she does not in the least
understand how it is God's will that He should be glorified in the
Son, and we should, therefore, glorify the Father in the Son ; for
she does not think that Jesus can do anything without prayer.
Again, Christ's assurance that her brother shall rise again, elicits
an answer from her, which clearly shows that she does not attach
any weight to the many proofs Jesus has given her, that He has
received from the Father a commandment, which, in virtue of His
being one with the Father, gives Him absolute authority over life
and death. She says : " I know that he shall rise again, in the
resurrection at the last day." It is true she is for a moment
carried away by the mighty words of the Lord, and is roused to
the confession : " I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of
God, which should come into the world." But this belief that the

glory of God would shine forth brightly from the Lord Jesus,
utterly gives way as soon as it is put to the proof. For when
Jesus told them to take away the stone, she says: " Lord, by this
time he stinketh : for he hath been dead four days." Or in other
words : Is it still time for the glory of God to manifest itself forth?
Ah ! no, for my brother has already fallen a prey to putrefaction.
It is too late for that now. It is all over by this time. Let us
quietly leave the stone where it is. One must draw the limit
somewhere. To restore to life a dead body from which the vital
warmth has only just departed, such a thing might perhaps be pos-
sible ; but where the matter has been suffered to proceed as far as
this, it would be madness to cherish any further hope. We see
that she denied the power of the Lord three distinct times ; first
with the words : " If Thou hadst been here it would not have
happened, but now it is too late " ; then by saying : " Oh yes, he
shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day " : and again,
at the tomb, by exclaiming in the hearing of all the by-standers :
" Why should we put ourselves to the trouble of rolling away the
stone ? Why should'st Thou endure the pang of beholding Thy
friend in his present state, seeing that his fair flesh is already
marred by corruption ? " Thus Martha had a kind of faith in the
Lord, and yet did not believe in Him. She had some knowledge
of what He was, and yet in no way acknowledged Him as she
ought to have acknowledged Him ; she expected everything from
Him, and yet, when her hope was put to the test, she spoke of
Him as if she thought Him a human being like herself, and nothing
more.

Nor was Mary's conduct a whit better than that ot her sister.
She, who erewhile had listened so quietly and meekly to the
teaching of her Lord, now reproaches Him with His delay, and
ascribes to it the death of her brother. She did not in the least
apprehend that his death-bed had been surrounded with the pres-
ence of God ; and still less did she understand that from this very
death life should spring forth to the glory of God, and that by this
very death the Son of God should be glorified.

Should not these touches of character by which the sacred
narrative brings home to us the inner life of those two holy women,
Mary and Martha, serve to teach us, how full of wickedness we
are even down in the very depths of our hearts ? We are too
much and too exclusively concerned with those transgressions of
the law, and those evil passions which are most striking to the

outward eye, and are condemned even by heathen rules of morality;
about these we make a great stir, as if nothing else was amiss with
us, and when we have set our minds at rest about these grosser
sins, then we are fully satisfied, and congratulate ourselves on our
moral achievements. When we have managed to lull this or that
evil passion to sleep, we at once lay claim to the uppermost seat
in heaven, and imagine that we have built our house upon a rock
�but our abominable sins against the grace and long-suffering of
God, and the love of Christ, our folly and self-conceit, our unbelief,
and the blindness of our hearts, cause us but little concern or un-
easiness. Yet God points out to us on almost every page of His
precious and faithful Word, how little the human reason by itself
can either know or believe of that great fundamental truth of the
Christian faith : that God, who made both heaven and earth by
His word and with the breath of His mouth, still calls things
which be not as though they were ; that it is still His way, the
way of His salvation and redemption, to raise up from that which
is dead, things " which are as the stars of the sky in multitude,
and as the sand which is by the sea-shore innumerable " (Heb. xi.,

We are daily surrounded in all manner of ways by every
variety of death, and we are daily swallowed up, as it were, by
death in many a hideous shape. But every kind of death loses its
terror, when we think of the comforting words of our most faithful
Lord : " This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God,
that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." Do we realize
this ? Alas, like Martha, we are much taken up with the thought
of the manifold death which holds us ensnared, as it were, in in-
extricable toils : but as to the glorious " nevertheless " of the pre-
cious Gospel which tells us that our condition appears so utterly
hopeless and lost for the very purpose that the glory of God's
grace, love, power and unspeakable mercy may be revealed and
manifested unto us, and that we may behold the Christ of God in
all His glory�of all this we believe as little as Moses believed
that if he struck the flinty rock water would gush forth�as little
as Martha and Mary believed when their brother had lain in the
grave four days. When all manner of darkness and death encom-
passes us round about, do we really believe in our heart of hearts
that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of
the world ? When we are assailed by trials, do we really believe
with a faith that cannot be shaken what is said in the 8th chapter

of the Epistle to the Romans : " If God be for us who shall be
against us ? " " How shall He not with His Son also freely give
us all things ? " " He shall win praise, and raise us to honour."
" Nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus." Alas, how often do our lips give utterance to the
thought, that if the Lord had been present with us, this or that
mischance would not have befallen, but that now He has forsaken
us, and abandoned us to our fate. How often do we measure His
love by our standard of holiness, and regard that as a great wic-
kedness which is the only holiness possible to us�to cast ourselves
upon God, just as we are, with all our sins, wretchedness,
and deadness of soul. Day after day we remain drearily at
home and pine away in mournful wretchedness, instead
of raising our eyes to God and meeting His gaze of unspeakable
pity and love. What hard thoughts do we sometimes cherish
against God, as if He no longer cared for us, as if His hand rested
too heavily upon us, as if His anger towards us could never relent.
And what strange thoughts do we sometimes entertain concerning
Jesus, as if His feeling towards those who are pining in sadness
and corruption, and who lie low in the dust and in the power of
death, was different from that of God Himself. How often is a
perverse construction put upon the words "for Christ's sake," as
though Jesus was a Roman saint, and God made certain con-
cessions to Him in our favour, but on the whole had set His heart
upon shutting us up in the furnace of affliction, and never letting
us go, in spite of all our prayers and supplications. How much
rather do we look upon the matter from what we consider as a
common-sense point of view, and comfort ourselves with the
thought that all will come right " in the resurrection at the last
day," instead of turning to God for immediate aid and deliverance.
And how often do we complain that God does not answer prayer,
when it is our own want of faith that prevents Him, and we cannot
make bold to believe, because we think we have not sufficiently
prepared ourselves for it. Indeed, just where God looks for faith,
at the very moment, that is,when we are inclined to say: " Lord,
by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days,"�how
completely do we then renounce it and say: This is really too
much for human nature�now, at last, it is all over: what should
I hope for after this ?

(in.) It would be well if this were the worst; but there are
still lower depths of unreason and of wickedness in the human
heart. The Gospel reveals to our view these lowest depths of
human nature, in its account of the conduct of the Jews who wit-

nessed this proof which the Lord gave of His power by calling up
life out of death. We are told that "Jesus wept." And why did
Jesus weep ? Because, wherever He turned, He met with nothing
but unreason, unbelief, and blindness and hardness of heart. Alas,
He shed bitter tears, because He did not find a single heart that had
any regard for the glory of God. They were all blind to every-
thing except what they saw with their eyes. To find men firmly
persuaded that they had eternal life, without, however, having the
slightest understanding of the nature of that life�how deeply it
must have grieved Him, who had for three long years never
wearied of giving them proof after proof, that He alone was the
life, and had overcome every kind of death. Jesus wept because
He could not find a single heart to understand this. But what
did the Jews think was the cause of Christ's emotion ? They
said, " Behold, how He loved him," as if Jesus was mourning for
the death of Lazarus, and not rather on their account, and on that
of Martha and Mary, because they were all so deeply sunk in
fearful unbelief, and heeded only visible things, but entirely dis-
regarded the gift of God, and Him who was walking in their
midst. There were even some among them who showed how truly
the Lord had spoken when He said : " Out of the heart of man
proceedeth blasphemy." Some of them said : " Could not this
man which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even
this man should not have died ? " They had no opinion of the
Lord, if he did not fall in with their preconceived notions. They
seem to imply that too much noise has been made about His
opening the eyes of the man that had been born blind ; else why
did He now stand at the grave, and weep for the loss of His
friend ? What strange behaviour that was ! If He really had any
power, why had He not prevented the death of His friend ? Did
not that look like a betrayal of weakness ? At any rate, it did not
appear calculated to revive the drooping faith of His followers.
Some of you will think: What have we to do with those Jews ?
They were wicked people and always ready to put a false con-
struction on the actions of our Lord. But I say, that it is
wrong to speak thus lightly of them. Those Jews were God-fearing
Jews, and knew of God, of His grace, and of the Messiah. Jews
who came to visit Martha and Mary, who knew of Christ's re-
lation to the family, and who showed their kindness of heart by
coming to comfort the sisters�those Jews must have had grounds
of consolation that were taken from Scripture. Nevertheless

their judgment of Christ is altogether perverse and wrong. And
many Christians fall into the same error, and think that Christ
really wept for His friend. But let us look into our hearts and
carefully examine ourselves, and see whether, as we listen to the
truths which Jesus has taught, we think ol ourselves and remember
that those truths were meant for us, that they refer to our state,
and that it is our hardness of heart that fills with tears the eyes
of Him who is Truth itself. Alas, how constantly we mistake the
meaning of Christ's sorrow and love of truth, and think of our
neighbour, of our fellowman, as if his heart only was hard and
blind, as if he only was full of unbelief and folly, and as if we had
never done anything to make a Saviour weep.

And even this would not be so bad, if there did not proceed
out of our hearts all manner of blasphemy, blasphemy against the
Lord and against His truth, love, mercy, and faithfulness. The
bare question why he does not do as much for us now, as He did
on a former occasion, or why He does not give us something which
we ardently desire, or the doubt implied in the thought that He is
no longer as ready to help us as he was before�are really blas-
phemous imputations against the majesty of His love which is
strongest in our weakness, and mightiest in our helplessness.

For these reasons we should be willing to learn the lesson
which the Gospel has to teach us, that, whether we be like the
disciples, or Martha, or Mary, or the Jews, we in every respect
come short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His
grace, and not for any merit of our own. We should learn, when-
ever we are rendered uneasy by the violence of this or that ruling
passion, to use the light of the Gospel in tracing that evil passion
to its real inmost source. Now the source from which all our
corruption flows�though we may never suspect it�is our unwil-
lingness to recognise the glory of God as the end of our lives, and
our reluctance to glorify His Son by dying unto ourselves, which
self-annihilation " is not unto death, but that the Son of God may
be glorified thereby."

fiv.J It remains that we should briefly consider how the Son
was glorified by the sickness and death of Lazarus, and how we
are taught by this incident in the Gospel narrative that whatever
seems to encompass and threaten our lives, is not really unto
death, but for our good, that we may believe.

Jesus, our gracious Saviour, quietly forgives the insult to His
all-embracing love, which is conveyed in the words : " Lord, be-

hold, he whom thou lovest, is sick." As He had said of the man
that was born blind (John ix, 3): " Neither hath this man sinned,
nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest
in Him,"�so He now once more gives expression to the same
thought: " This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of
God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." He has
maintained and proved this fundamental truth of the Gospel, that
where there is suffering, there shall also be the mercy, love and
grace of God, who out of unspeakable pity sent His Son to save
that which was lost�throughout the whole of His dealings in the
passage which lies before us, just as He still proves it throughout
the whole life history of each one of His elect. In the present in-
stance, the event seems at first to give the lie to this truth ; for
the sickness proves really unto death�Lazarus actually does die.
His truth and the power of His love conquer by the very means of
what at first seemed the victory of death and destruction. Our
Lord did not heed what short-sighted men might say. That
which proceeded from His gracious lips proved to be true in the
end. How terribly did not men provoke Him, by their carnal
thoughts, the hardness of their hearts, their self-conceit, their
folly, their cold indifference to the glory of God, and their spurious
love and apparent devotion to His person, to withdraw from the
work which the Father had sent Him to do. But Jesus rather
bears with His disciples in unspeakable patience and love, and in-
stead of rebuking them for presumptuously judging of things be-
longing to God, He merely teaches them, as a Father might teach
his children, that one must always obey the call of God without
anxiously enquiring whether there be a lion in the way, because
one can never be certain of success, except by unconditional sur-
render and obedience to the will of God, since everything depends
on the will of God, and we, of our own selves, can do nothing.
Jesus is not angry with His disciples for not perceiving how the
Son of God is to be glorified. He patiently waits till His hour
comes; and then, when He is about to show that after all the
sickness of Lazarus had not been unto death, He thus pours forth
the love of His heart to His foolish disciples: "I am glad for your
sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe." From
these words we see what was that glory of God which should be
manifested in the Son : it was to consist in a proof given to the
disciples, that He calls up life out of death, so that in the midst of
their deadness they might believe in the power of Jesus to do this,

and thus have perfect enjoyment of this His glory.�Quite as little
is the Lord influenced by Martha's unbelief and perverse notions
concerning His own person. Since she does not understand His
promise that her brother shall rise again, He opens the whole of
heaven to her view in the words: "lam the resurrection and the
life : he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he
live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me, shall never die."
And then He applies this truth to her personally by the question :
" Believest thou this ?"�and thus shows her what she ought to
believe of Him.

Alas, had He not also good reason to be angry with Mary,
who in her sadness was unable to rise beyond visible things, who
saw no more in the Lord than appeared to the outward eye, and
with the Jews who, like her, saw nothing but what was outwardly
visible, and who therefore wept for Lazarus, and not only could
not understand the Lord's loving purpose, but even blasphemed
His holy name ; had He not good reason to abandon them to their
foolish devices, and to depart from them, or with a word to give
them over to destruction ? So terribly did they provoke Him
with their perverseness of heart that He once and again groaned
in the spirit, and was so troubled at their unbelief that His eyes
were filled with tears. But in the midst of His righteous indig-
nation He still remains the same gracious, loving Saviour that He
has always been. To the very last human unbelief places all
manner of obstructions in His path; and to the very last He
preaches faith, and inspires them with faith. He Himself remains
unshaken and unmoved and never wavers in His love. He gives
thanks to God fir having granted His prayer,�but not for His
own sake. He asks nothing for Himself but the souls of those
who press round Him and who are sunk in death, in unbelief, and
in blindness of heart. And that they may at least have done
some little thing, He lets them roll away the stone from the grave,
and that, in the midst of their deadness of soul, they may believe,
He cries with a loud voice so that all can hear, His battle-cry
against the power of the devil, to the decaying body of Lazarus,
as if he still had ears to hear, and a heart to understand : " Laz-
arus, come forth." Then should we, who receive a full account of
these things in the blessed Gospel, still doubt the power of the
grace of Jesus Christ, or of the love of God, because this or that
description of death, this or that wretchedness, this or that evil
passion, hold us in their toils ? Should we let them keep our

trembling hearts from flying for refuge to faitb^pr think that God
has forsaken us ? Should we "sit still in the house" covering
our faces with our hands, and mourning in sackcloth and ashes ?
Should we still try to do anything for ourselves by our own
strength, or to mend what we have done amiss, or should we not
rather accept in their fullest sense the words of the Lord : " This
sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son
of God might be glorified thereby."

Hateful and abominable every transgression of the ten good
words of the Law of our God certainly must remain. Grim and
terrible this or that trial, this or that sorrow, this or that death
certainly will appear�and we shall be fiercely assailed and set
upon by many a kind of death. But [if we are anxiously longing
for deliverance, for help, for salvation, for life�then we should be
troubled not so much because of our many and heavy trans-
gressions, as because of our unbelief, and we should utterly re-
nounce and abandon all hope of ever helping ourselves. On the
other hand, let us firmly believe in Him, who, though he some-
times delays in coming, so that in spite of His promise it seems
ofttimes as if the devil were going to keep his prey for ever�yet
even when we have lain in the grave four days, can be hindered by
no power on earth or in hell, from calling to His dead : " Lazarus,
come forth "�so that we can behold the power and the fulfilment
of His word : " And he that was dead came forth." And then the
Lord looses us, and gives us all manner of freedom to go in and
out (v. 44.) Amen.

Ps. xxvii 13�14.
I do believe that in the land of life
I shall behold the goodness of the Lord.
He never trusts in vain, who trusts His word,
Else had I fainted in this mortal strife.
Wait on the Lord, my soul: He will impart
Strength to thy life, and courage to thine heart,
Look up, for thy salvation draweth nigh,
Be of good cheer, and on the Lord rely.



		9 nothing to lay before his God, not even an upright or a broken heart. His tears never cease to flow ; he despairingly wrings his hands ; but neither his tears nor his despair can avail him anything. Divine grace seems to be powerless, or hopelessly beyond his reach. The blood that cleanses from all sin seems not to have been shed for him, and he can no longer believe in a quickening Spirit. What is such a one to do ? I think he should take a calm and quiet view of his case, and consider that he is allowing him- self to be tricked and beguiled by the powers of darkness. He should not be over much alarmed at the outward symptoms of his disease, but should go to the root of the matter, and search for the cause of all those things that trouble him, and sometimes almost drive him to despair. Common-sense tells him that when sores and ulcers break out upon his hands and feet, and other parts of his body, there must be something radically wrong with his vital juices, and that he needs some remedy that will cleanse and purify his very life-blood. The same he will find holds good in regard to his soul. After a careful examination of the diseased symptoms of his soul, he will discover that all such outward manifestations have their source and origin in his inmost self, and that, therefore, his inmost self must undergo a renewal and a change, before the outward symptoms can disappear. Now this inmost self has one thing in common with the dark powers of death : it never wearies of asserting and insisting upon, its own strength and its own importance. For this reason it both secretly, and publicly puts forth the doctrine, that the blood of Christ, though it cleanses from sins, does not cleanse from all sins ; that there are some sins of which one has to purge oneself first, before one can obtain cleansing and justification through the blood of Christ. The inmost self makes for itself a Christ out of its own conversion and sanctification ; and, therefore, it cannot find any Christ when it has accomplished this conversion and sanctification. The in- most self proudly rejects the thought of a life in the midst of death, of grace in the midst of corruption, of salvation in the midst of condemnation ; but it asks back the wantonly forfeited birthright of Esau, and the blessing of Esau. And it is for this reason that our inmost self is so full of perplexity and despair, and sheds so many tears, and makes so many painful efforts, as it would fain persuade itself, to free itself from its evil passions, but in reality to truckle to a more baneful passion than all. When the sweet gospel voice invites such a man to be converted, and to wash





		17 and thus have perfect enjoyment of this His glory.�Quite as little is the Lord influenced by Martha's unbelief and perverse notions concerning His own person. Since she does not understand His promise that her brother shall rise again, He opens the whole of heaven to her view in the words: "lam the resurrection and the life : he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me, shall never die." And then He applies this truth to her personally by the question : " Believest thou this ?"�and thus shows her what she ought to believe of Him. Alas, had He not also good reason to be angry with Mary, who in her sadness was unable to rise beyond visible things, who saw no more in the Lord than appeared to the outward eye, and with the Jews who, like her, saw nothing but what was outwardly visible, and who therefore wept for Lazarus, and not only could not understand the Lord's loving purpose, but even blasphemed His holy name ; had He not good reason to abandon them to their foolish devices, and to depart from them, or with a word to give them over to destruction ? So terribly did they provoke Him with their perverseness of heart that He once and again groaned in the spirit, and was so troubled at their unbelief that His eyes were filled with tears. But in the midst of His righteous indig- nation He still remains the same gracious, loving Saviour that He has always been. To the very last human unbelief places all manner of obstructions in His path; and to the very last He preaches faith, and inspires them with faith. He Himself remains unshaken and unmoved and never wavers in His love. He gives thanks to God fir having granted His prayer,�but not for His own sake. He asks nothing for Himself but the souls of those who press round Him and who are sunk in death, in unbelief, and in blindness of heart. And that they may at least have done some little thing, He lets them roll away the stone from the grave, and that, in the midst of their deadness of soul, they may believe, He cries with a loud voice so that all can hear, His battle-cry against the power of the devil, to the decaying body of Lazarus, as if he still had ears to hear, and a heart to understand : " Laz- arus, come forth." Then should we, who receive a full account of these things in the blessed Gospel, still doubt the power of the grace of Jesus Christ, or of the love of God, because this or that description of death, this or that wretchedness, this or that evil passion, hold us in their toils ? Should we let them keep our