erances had soothed her
griefs, dried her tears, and elicited the confession that He was truly
the Son of God. But the sight of the tomb and its mournful
accompaniments obliterate for a moment the recollection of better
thoughts and a nobler avowal. She forgets that "things which are
impossible with men are possible with God." She is guilty of "limiting
the Holy One of Israel."

How often is it so with us! How easy is it for us, like Martha, to be
bold in our creed when there is nothing to cross our wishes, or dim and
darken our faith. But when the hour of trial comes, how often does
_sense_ threaten to displace and supplant the nobler antagonist
principle! How often do we lose sight of the Saviour at the very moment
when we most need to have Him continually in view! How often are our
convictions of the efficacy of prayer most dulled and deadened just
when the dark waves are cresting over our heads, and voices of unbelief
are uttering the upbraiding in our ears, "Where is now thy God?" But
will Jesus leave His people to their own guilty unbelieving doubts? Will
Martha, by her unworthy insinuations, put an arrest on her Lord's arm;
or will He, in righteous retribution for her faithlessness, leave the
stone sealed, and the dead unraised?

Nay! He loves His people too well to let their stupid unbelief and
hardness of heart interfere with His own gracious purposes! How tenderly
He rebukes the spirit of this doubter. "Why," as if He said, "Why
distrust me? Why stultify thyself with these unbelieving surmises. Hast
thou already forgotten my own gracious assurances, and thine own
unqualified acceptance of them. My hand is never shortened that it
cannot save; my ear is never heavy that it cannot hear. I can call the
things which are not, and make them as though they were. Said I not unto
thee, in that earnest conversation which I had a little ago outside the
village, in which Gospel faith was the great theme, if thou wouldst
believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God?"

This Bethany utterance has still a voice,--a voice of rebuke and of
comfort in our hours of trial. When, like aged Jacob, we are ready to
say, "All these things are against me;" when we are about to lose the
footsteps of a God of love, or _have_ perhaps lost them, there is a
voice ready to hush into silence every unbelieving doubt and surmise.
"Although thou sayest thou canst not see Him, yet judgment is before
Him, therefore trust thou in Him." God often th