nds of the sisters, of a desolate home, and of
themselves being the desolate survivors of a loved brother. The joyous
dream of restoration becomes fainter and fainter. Human remedies are
hopeless. There was _One_, and _only_ ONE, in the wide world who could
save from impending death. His word, they knew, could alone summon
lustre to that eye, and bloom to that wan and fading cheek. Fifty long
miles intervene between the great Physician and their cottage home. But
they cannot hesitate. Some kind and compassionate neighbour is soon
found ready to hasten along the Jericho road with the brief but urgent
message, "_Lord! behold he whom thou lovest is sick._" If it only reach
in time, they know that no more is needed. They even indulge the
expectation that their messenger may be anticipated by the Lord Himself
appearing. Others might doubt His omniscience, but they knew its
reality. They had the blessed conviction, that while they were seated in
burning tears by that couch of sickness, there was a sympathising Being
far away marking every heart-throb of His suffering friend. Even when
the stern human conviction of "no hope" was pressing upon them, "hoping
against hope," they must have felt confident that He would not suffer
His faithfulness now to fail. He had often proved Himself a Brother and
Friend in the hour of _joy_. _Could_ He fail--_can_ He fail to prove
Himself now a "Brother born for _adversity_?"

Although, however, thus convinced that the tale of their sorrows was
known to Jesus, _a messenger is sent_,--_the means are employed_! They
act as though He knew it _not_; as if that omniscient Saviour had been
all unconscious of these hours of prolonged and anxious agony!

What a lesson is there here for _us_! God is acquainted with our every
trouble; He knows (far better than we know ourselves) every pang we
heave, every tear we weep, every perplexing path we tread; but the knee
must be bent, the message must be taken, the prayer must ascend! It is
His own appointed method,--His own consecrated medium for obtaining
blessings. Jesus _may_ have gone, and probably _would_ have gone to
restore His friend, even though no such messenger had reached Him: We
dare not limit the grace and dealings of God: He is often (blessed be
His name for it!) "found of them that sought Him not." But He loves such
messages as this. He loves the confiding, childlike trust of His own
people, who delight in the hour of their extremity to cast the