Canaan side to shew you the path of life!

Let the home of your hearts be often open, as was the home of Lazarus,
to the visits of Jesus in the day of brightness; and _then_, when the
hour of sorrow and trial unexpectedly arises, you will know where to
find your Lord--where to send your prayer-message for Him to come to
your relief.

Yes! He _will_ come! It will be in His own way, but His joyous footfall
_will_ be heard! He is not like Baal, "slumbering and sleeping, or
taking a journey" when the voice of importunate prayer ascends from the
depths of yearning hearts! If, instead of at once hastening back to
Bethany, He "abides still for two days where He was"--if He linger among
the mountain-glens of distant Gilead, instead of, as we would expect,
hastening to the cry and succour of cherished friendship, and to ward
off the dart of the inexorable foe--be assured there must be a reason
for this strange procrastination--there must be an unrevealed cause
which the future will in due time disclose and unravel. All the
recollections of the past forbid one unrighteous surmise on His tried
faithfulness. "_Now, Jesus loved Lazarus_," is a soft pillow on which to
repose;--raising the sorrowing spirit above the unkind insinuation, "My
Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me."

If He linger, it is to try and test the faith of His people. If He let
loose the storm, and suffer it to sweep with a vengeance apparently
uncontrolled, it is that these living trees may strike their roots
firmer and deeper in Himself--the Rock of eternal ages. Trust Him where
you cannot trace Him. Not one promise of His can come to nought. The
channel may have continued long dry--the streams of Lebanon may have
failed--the cloud has been laden, but no shower descends--the barren
waste is unwatered--the windows of heaven seem hopelessly closed. Nay,
nay! Though "the vision tarry," yet if you "wait for it" the gracious
assurance will be fulfilled in your experience--"The Lord is good to
them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him." The fountain of
love pent up in His heart will in due time gush forth--the apparently
unacknowledged prayer will be crowned with a gracious answer. In His own
good time sweet tones of celestial music will be wafted to your ear--"It
is the voice of the Beloved!--lo, He cometh leaping upon the mountains,
skipping upon the hills!" If you are indeed the child of God, as Lazarus
was, remember this for your comfo