e depths of mysterious sorrow when
he poured forth these lamentations:--"I am the man that hath seen
affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me, and brought me
into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is he turned;
he turneth his hand against me all the day." "He hath set me in dark
places, as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about, that I
cannot get out; he hath made my chain heavy." "And thou hast removed
my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. And I said, My
strength and my hope is perished from the Lord: remembering mine
affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them
still in remembrance, and is humbled in me."

And did not our blessed Lord himself experience, as a man, the mystery
of sorrow when he cried in Gethsemane, "If it be possible, let this
cup pass from me;" and when, during that "hour and power of darkness"
on the cross, He exclaimed, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken
me?"

If, then, our Father visits us with any sorrow which is to us dark and
mysterious, let us "not think it strange concerning the fiery trial
which is to try us, as if some strange thing happened to us." Let us
rather gratefully remember, that ever since our Lord has ascended up
on high, and given us His Spirit to teach us and to abide with us for
ever, and for our profit has recorded in His holy Word not only His
acts, but also His _ways_ towards the children of men, we are enabled
to see much, light piercing our greatest darkness and sorrow, and so
to know God as to strengthen our faith in His wisdom and love.

I do not know any narrative in the whole Word of God which at once
reveals so much of this darkness and light--of the mystery of sorrow
for a time, and the solution of the mystery afterwards--as that of the
sickness, death, and resurrection of Lazarus.

That family in Bethany, we know, consisted of Lazarus and his sisters,
Martha and Mary. They were poor, and unknown to the great and busy
world; but their riches and rank in the sight of the ministering
angels were great indeed, for Jesus "loved them." This was the charter
of the grandest inheritance. But though loved by Jesus, that love did
not hinder them from being visited by a sudden affliction, and plunged
for a while into deepest gloom. We are able in spirit to cross their
lowly threshold, and to understand all that took place in that humble
home: for human hearts and human sorrows are the same in every