the same place after the message had been sent, instead of
hastening direct to Bethany, all was well and wisely ordered. And
although Martha's upbraidings were now received in forbearing silence,
her Saviour afterwards, in a calmer moment, read the rebuke--"Said I not
unto thee, if thou wouldst _believe_, thou shouldst see the glory of
God?"

It is indeed a comforting assurance in all trials, that God has some
holy and wise end to subserve. He never stirs a ripple on the waters,
but for His own glory, or the good of others. The delay on the present
occasion, though protracting for a time the sorrows of the bereaved, was
intended for the benefit of the Church in every age, and for the more
immediate benefit of the disciples.

_They_ were destined in a few brief weeks also to be desolate
survivors--to mourn a Brother dearer still! He who had been to them
Friend--Father--Brother, all in one, was to be, like Lazarus, laid
silent in a Jerusalem sepulchre. The Lord of Life was to be the victim
of Death! His body was to be transfixed to a malefactor's cross, and
consigned to a lonely grave! He knew the shock that awaited their faith.
He knew, as this terrible hour drew on, how needful some overpowering
visible demonstration would be of His mastery over the tomb.

_Now_ a befitting opportunity occurred in the case of their friend
Lazarus to read the needed lesson. "I was glad for your sakes, ... to
the intent ye might believe."

Would that we could feel as believers more than we do--that the dealings
of our God are for the strengthening of our faith, and the enlivening
and invigorating of our spiritual graces. Let us seek to accept more
simply in dark dealings the Saviour's explanation, "It is for _your_
sake!" He gives us a blank for our every trial, indorsing it with His
own gracious word, "This, _this_ is for the glory of God, that the Son
of God may be glorified thereby."

The words of Martha, then, surely teach as their great lesson, never to
be hasty in our surmises and conclusions regarding God's ways.

"Lord! IF Thou _hadst_ been here?" Could she question for a moment that
that loving eye of Omniscience had all the while been scanning that
sick-chamber--marking every throb in that fevered brow--and every tear
that fell unbidden from the eyes that watched his pillow?

"Lord! _if_ Thou hadst been here?" Could she question His ability, had
He so willed it, to prevent the bereavement altogether--to put an arrest
on