hears _her Lord has come_!

Happy for us if, while the world, like the condoling crowd of Jews, is
forming its own cold speculations on the amount of our grief and the
bitterness of our loss, we are found hastening to cast ourselves at our
Saviour's feet; if our afflictions prove to us like angel messengers
from the inner sanctuary--calling us from friends, home, comforts,
blessings, all we most prize on earth--telling us that ONE is nigh who
will more than compensate for the loss of all--"_The Master is come, and
calleth for thee!_"

It is the very end and design our gracious God has in all His dealings,
to lead _us_, as he led Mary, to the feet of Jesus.

Yes! thou poor weeping, disconsolate one, "The Master calleth for
_thee_." _Thee_ individually, as if thou stoodest the alone sufferer in
a vast world. He wishes to pour His oil and wine into thy wounded
heart--to give thee some overwhelming proof and pledge of the love he
bears thee in this thy sore trial. He has come to pour drops of comfort
in the bitter cup--to ease thee of thy heavy burden, and to point thee
to hopes full of immortality. Go and learn what a kind, and gentle, and
gracious Master He is! Go forth, Mary, and meet thy Lord. "Weeping may
endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning!"

We may imagine her hastening along the foot-road, with the spirit of the
Psalmist's words on her tongue--"As the hart panteth after the
water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth
for God--for the living God!"

XI.

SECOND CAUSES.

With a bounding heart, Mary was in a moment at her Master's feet. She
weeps! and is able only to articulate, in broken accents, "Lord, if thou
hadst been here, my brother had not died." It is the repetition of
Martha's same expression. Often at a season of sore bereavement some one
poignant thought or reflection takes possession of the mind, and, for
the time, overmasters every other. This echo of the other mourner's
utterance leads us to conclude that it had been a familiar and
oft-quoted phrase during these days of protracted agony. This
independent quotation, indeed, on the part of each, gives a truthful
beauty to the whole inspired narrative.

The twin sisters--musing on the terrible past, gazing through their
tears on the vacant seat at their home-hearth--had been every now and
then breaking the gloomy silence of the deserted chamber by exclaiming,
"If _He_ had been here, this never would